Hello from the GTA, hanging out in Pickering right now, trying to get some serious ‘rest on’ so I’m ready for a show at one of the biggest shops in Ontario, Bay Cycle, tomorrow. (Noon sharp for anyone that is local)

Crashed during the last school show today, slipped out on the back wheel and landed on my now bruised sit bones. First proper bail of the tour, but I’m fine, finished the show, and might do some yoga to limber up…maybe I’ll play my didgeridoo partly to vibrate some healing blood flow to my low back and sit bones, but mainly to acknowledge my jealousy that Caryn is going to see Xavier Rudd play in Vancouver later on tonight!!!!

What a great week though! Yesterday, one of the police officers on the Pedal-For-Hope team came up with a skit for an elementary school. I pretended to be a photographer during their presentation, then he pretended to set up to jump over a couple staff members, making it sound legit, finally, the bike was taken away from him out of fear and they asked the audience if anyone else might be able to do it instead, I jumped in, pretended to be just a novice, and then leaped over them. We scared everyone because no one new I was going to be at that school! Good times!!

I watched at least 50 kids get their head shaved this week, many of them were girls! Lots of full locks to be made in to wigs.

I also put one of the cops on the spot and made him sing “listen to your heart” by Roxette in front of a thousand high schoolers because earlier he was joking around with me about one of my quotes in my presentation. He stepped up and busted out in song, it was great!

Nine schools in total this week, plus an awesome mountain bike ride with the Shimano crew in Peterborough. Gotta rest up!!

I feel so grateful to everyone I have met while on this tour, it has been epic in every way so far!

Ryan

Yesterday marked the kick off of a week of riding in Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon Territory in Canada. With the anticipation of sunny skies and 30 + degree weather, the excitement is high.

Day one went quickly, it was only half a day, but it was full. We were greeted at the airport by local owner of Boreale Mountain biking, Marsha Cameron (the other owner Sylvain Turcotte was on a ride) and met Josh from The Ride Guide TV show and raced off to drop our gear at Yurtville, the base camp of their riding operation (more about the glory of modern yurts later). I had to build my trials bike quickly and get to the local Canada Games centre to set up for a trials show.

Arranging random riding obstacles in a trialsy way is always fun and challenging. I spend about 2 hours doing so until the local rippers and bike enthusiasts starting showing up for an evening of mountain biking. Local ripper, Kate White, member of Contagious bike club, rallied the troops and got them pumped about a helmet campaign called Bike your Brains Out, and then handed it over to me. I did a thirty minute show and after, while they watched some segments from Crux, the obstacles were re-arranged for an open riding session/pizza party/helmet give-away. Helmets are perfect for signing, and since they gave away 60+ helmets, I was kept busy and didn’t get to do too much extra riding, but it was so great just getting to meet all the locals, the best part of my job. 

For photos, check out Dustan’s offering on Norco’s Flickr site.

So much momentum in the mountain bike world in the Yukon. I’ll share more soon! I gotta get my Fluid LT built up so we can go film. 

Happy Days,

Ryan

The Sea Otter Classic attracts some seriously enthusiastic cyclists. Whether they are racing or just soaking in all the action, the energy is positive—I”m doing my best to contribute to that vibe through my trials shows in the expo village.

Yesterday I had three shows. Had a fairly early start to the day to set up my demo area and get it looking good, had a couple breakfasts, one at the house, and one at the venue to get some extra calories for the day, and was performing by 10:30 under bluebird skies and perfect temperatures. 

Toward the end of the day, I was cleaning up my demo area; I was inside my trailer at one point and the doors blew closed, so I walked over to open them again, but before I got there I heard it being latched closed and it then went pitch black inside. I called out “hey I’m in hear, can you open it up!!”…..nothing….then called out “I bet that’s Ben Boyko out there, come up, funny joke, but open up!”…still nothing, nothing, nothing….I flipped my phone open to find the light switch, and got it on. Probably more than a minute passed and I decided someone had thought they’d be nice and close my trailer door to keep things safe. I was just calling one of the Norco guys on my cell to come let me out when, sure enough, Boyko let me out. When he plays a practical joke, he’s thorough!!

I thought I’d pedal my bike (my Fluid LT) back to the house we’re staying at so I could make a late afternoon cup of tea, do some yoga, and maybe read a book until the rest of the crew arrived. I got to the house, but the key was missing from the hiding spot; someone had taken it to the event by accident. No worries though, a little yoga in the backyard on the patio carpet, and a little reading on the deck chair to a setting sun was nothing to complain about…I did miss my tea though!

I’m quite tired today as I type this, not sleep tired but muscel tired. Another three shows today, and then perhaps a cross country ride with the Marzocchi guys will finish me off quite nicely. Good things it’s sunny out, because just like my wife, I’m solar powered.

Have a great weekend folks!

Ryan

Just at the hotel room resting after the first day of the Toronto Bike Show. I rode to and from the event with an extra long seatpost in my bike, it’s only takes about 20 minutes in a granny geared fat tired bike, so it’s pretty close. For some reason it makes me happy to be able to ride the same bike to the show as I perform on. 

The performing went quite well. I am always a little nervous that after at least ten years of performing at this show that my riding isn’t go to keep up with expectations. But I have to remind myself that I can only do my best and that will have to be good enough—today it seemed like it was. Perhaps having a challenge in my demo set up beyond the routine moves and obstacles makes it more interesting to me and hence the audience. There is an old pick-up truck that I’m riding on, and my challenge is to ride from the roof to the edge of the bed and balance down it. I got on it today, but not off the end. I’ll have to work on that through the weekend. Fun.

I also had a seminar today on the Mind Game of Riding. Quite a few curious folks listened to my 30 minute speech on a topic that is both deep but simple at the same time. It went well from my point of view, but will need some fine tuning to make my points as clear as they are in my mind.

A few days I visited a school in Mississauga as one of the winners of my Trials of Life contest. Here’s a little article from that.

Here are a couple photos from the school I visited in Burlington. The first is Matthew’s family-the other winner of my Trials of Life contest. The second is him and I being interviewed before my presentation by Matt Hayes, a popular host of the local news.

The friendly crew at Bike Magazine shipped me a special bike last week, it’s called the sh*tbike. Have you heard of it? Do you remember those softride bikes from years ago, that’s what it is, and they send it to a variety of riders and to a variety of pros to do their thing on. For me, I had to do trials. Sketchy.

I met up with senior photographer at Bike Magazine, Dan Barham, to do a photoshoot on the thing. That’s Dan and the bike in the picture below. I now have to write down ten things I learned by riding the sh*tbike.

You can see in the image there is a yellow strap on the softride beam and the toptube. I tightened that up to give myself an extra little bit of saddle clearance for bunnyhopping over a little stream. –RL

A few months ago, I went to Galiano Island, BC for a little relaxing trials riding retreat. Here is a little video summery of the trip. Alex did an awesome job editing this together!

My friend Gregor just posted an article about our trip to Galiano Island a couple months ago. Some nice pictures and a good story about our visit to one of the most beautiful Gulf Islands.

Check out the story here…

Peace…

My body is sore. It’s mostly a good feeling. It’s sore from a combination of over exerted muscles and a few bruises from a crash. All part of the game I guess, they always say that if you’re not crashing you’re not trying hard enough – I don’t really subscribe to that motto, but there is a little bit of truth to it.

Linked some lines together today on the sculpted sandstone and drift log beaches that left me with a happy grin and an certain kind of artistic satisfaction.

It’s the evening now and we’re nice and warm with full bellies in the little cabin; just finished an interview by the fire for the video project which should go online through Norco’s podcast site in a month or so.

We’ll be heading home in the morning as it sounds like the rain will start overnight. That’s all good. It’s been a great little riding retreat, and I felt that spark and love for riding trials that I needed after about a month off from riding. Getting my riding imagination going on natural terrain is some good therapy after a season of about 150 shows.

The sun is setting, the cabin fire is burning, the tea is hot, and the view is gorgeous. I’m on Galiano Island for a few days filming a podcast with my buddy Alex Lavigne, and the first day was great!

Our friends Greggor and Jenny showed us a fairly secret spot on the Island called Rock World, it’s basically like a mini Stonehenge or a standing stone zone much like you’d find in the UK. So it turned out to be a very unique area for some trials lines. Most of the rocks were too tall and they were spaced such that you couldn’t jump from one to another; but the individual rocks I did make it on were a great challenge.

I have to be honest though; I haven’t ridden my trials bike for about a month, whew! My arms and shoulders are already sore. My back is even sore because I had a couple high bails and a couple large’ish drops. It’s funny how my trials mind is sharp and has the vision, but my body was saying take it easy boy!

We have another day or two of riding, then back to the mainland. I’m hoping to hit a few rock and log lines at the beach tomorrow. Galiano has the most amazing sculpted sandstone shapes at the beach, but the tide schedule isn’t so favorable for us, so we’ll do our best. Nice to be back on the trials bike, and good timing too as I have a couple school shows coming up.

Just had this heads up from Kris Holm about the first unicycle front flip; he said that this kid had been practicing with a gymnastics couch in private for three months to pull it off. Looks pretty bizarre, and impressive no doubt. 

 

I guess perhaps on the same note, I’ll add one of my favorite juggling sequences, it’s simple (not in the moves and tricks, but the fact that it’s only three balls), elegant, and stylish. It’s set to music, so be sure you have the volume up. Enjoy!!! (Thanks Joan Jones for showing this video to me years ago while in Moab).