Nothing like the feeling of coming home to BC after a trip. A new Xavier Rudd song is titled Home, it’s a beautiful peice of music which I’m sure to listen to a few times on the flight home, have a listen!

Home - Xavier Rudd

My short visit to England was quite productive and enjoyable. I was travelling with Chris Hennessey, the International Sales Coordinator for Norco Bikes, and he is opening up an account with a new distributor, Fisher, in St. Albans. The Fisher crew is a great bunch, I think they will do a fantastic job spreading the Norco brand through the country. Chris gave a great product knowledge presentation to some of the key shops and sales reps, and the reception was positive. If you haven’t had a chance to check out Norco’s new website, the bikes are certainly worth a browse.

So during the three days in the UK I snuck in an impromptu demo at the Fisher warehouse, drank a pint at the oldest pub in England, Ye ‘Ol Fighting Cock (over 1000 years old), had curry twice, had a great photoshoot with Steve Behr in front of the St. Albans Cathedral, and got to hang out with my old trials riding buddy Martin Hawyes.

Now I’m at the Heathrow airport in London, waiting to fly home. Again, glad to have found the time to do some yoga this morning, always feels good before sitting for 10 hours straight, whew!!

Ride ON!

Just hanging out at the airport lounge at YVR, my friend Chris, from Norco is an Elite member, so he got me in for free snacks and wireless, nice! We’re about to fly to Germany for the EuroBike trade show.

Sitting on a plane for 9 hours is always a bit hard on the body, so the day of a flight I always try to sneak in a yoga session, which I found time for this morning. It seems to get the blood and energy flowing through the body and limber it up just enough to make it through a long flight.

While I’m trying to snooze on the stuffy flight, Caryn will be in Seattle soaking up Xavier Rudd’s sweet sound from the Bumbershoot festival. Gotta admit, I’m a little jealous. Germany will be beautiful though, we’re staying in a town called Friedrichshafen which is at the extreme south end of Germany beside Lake Constance, with the Swiss Alps in view. 

Well, gotta go board now…I’ll be back soon with updates on the latest bike news from the trade show.

Just arrived home from a camping trip, and the only music I have in my head is Polywog in a Bog, and 78(ate)9, the latest kids songs from Barenaked Ladies…I guess that’s what happens when you travel with your nephews who are two and five years old.

03-pollywog-in-a-bog

Luckily Xavier Rudd just released a new album, Darker Shades of Blue, which Caryn and I quickly downloaded from iTunes upon our arrival home. We were a little concerned that Xavier’s wholesome, organic sound would be contaminated because of the influence of the albums mixer, Joe Barresi, who has worked closely with the band Tool, and other heavy metal style artists. They were venturing to capture the vibe of his live show, so I’m not sure why many of the songs synthesize his voice, much like in Tool’s music. Whether this new style will grow on us is yet to be determined, I usually have to hear a song a few times before I either fall in love with it and play it over and over, or put it aside for good.

Fortunately, he has a few songs on Darker Shade of Blue that sooth the soul, such as Home.

Home

And personally, I have to say, it’s good to be home. I’m only here for a few days though, I’ll be off to the EuroBike trade show in Germany on Monday.

Caryn and I quickly overcame jetlag, and have settled in to our home for the next five nights in Kirchberg, Austria. By the way, the trick for dealing with jetlag is as follows: Lets say you arrive at 10am in the morning, in Munich, after traveling for about 16 hours, and dealing with an 8 hour time change. The trick is to keep your eyes open during the remaining first day and refrain from taking a nap (which surely would last a number of hours). Once it’s evening time, say 9pm, then go to sleep, and you’ll sleep beautifully for at least 8 or 9 hours and be good to go the next day….on with the story….

So we spent our first two nights in downtown Munich, exploring the city, drinking tea, eating ice-cream (the temperature was about 26 Celsius), and randomly meandered the walking only streets in the city center (much like Whistler Village only way bigger).

The first thing that struck me about Munich (much like many European cities) was the huge number of cyclists. It’s an official stat that 25% of the residents of Munich commute to work by bicycle, incredible!! My question is whether the positive effects of riding so much counter-balance the negative effects of all the heavy drinking and smoking going on?! I was psyched that there is no smoking allowed inside restaurants anymore, and that goes for all public indoor spaces, including Backstage Werk, the venue for the Xavier Rudd concert we went to last night; it was AWESOME! Perhaps this uber talented Australian is not as famous in Germany as back home in BC (where his wife is from) judging by the size of venue, but the fans attending sure were genuine and psyched. The real beauty this intimate venue was to see up close details and facial expressions during the performance. I love Xavier, what can I say.

I’ll be setting up for my first show tomorrow in Kitzbuhel for the KitzAlp Bike Festival, and look forward to riding with Thomas Ohler again. We explored this adorable mountain village today, and are excited to spend the next four days in the area.  Hopefully the weather holds strong, it was over 30 degrees Celsius today, and the heat was beat by swimming in a lake surrounded by views of the Alps, NICE!!

The dinnertime show was a thunderstorm where the rumble didn’t stop for over ten minutes, not even a breather, much like Xaviers didgeridoo skills; perhaps the amphitheater of mountains surrounding us was the reason.

Here’s an amusing photo that Caryn took today in Kitzbhuel, no disrespect, just a bit of a language thing I guess! (look to the writing on the wheelbarrow)

Hope you’re all well, peace…

 

Ryan Leech