Phil Attends the "Meet Your Maker" Tour Through Oakland

Last weekend I rode the latest edition of the “Meet Your Maker" tour, a pedaling expedition to the workshops of some of the Bay Area's finest frambuilders and component manufacturers. This regular series of rides was started last year by a tight-knit group of framebuilders who rode together regularly but wanted to show their customers and friends the sense of passion, collaboration, and camaraderie that defines their local scene. The rides are kept at a “party pace,” bike business and engineer talk is kept to a minimum, and the idea is simply to show people a good time. Based on the smiles on peoples’ faces on Saturday, the Meet Your Maker tour has definitely stayed true to that original idea.

Nearly 100 riders had gathered in Paragon's parking lot by 9 a.m.

Guest Post: Fruita and Grand Junction Trip, By Xan Marshland

This October I joined a few other members of the Colorado College Cycling Club on a trip to Fruita and Grand Junction, on the western side of the Rocky Mountains. Our plan was to ride some of the area’s renowned cross country and all-mountain trails for four days, camping by one of the trailheads and spending all day riding until we were exhausted. This area had been on my list of places to ride for years, so I was incredibly excited to finally get out there.

I started riding cross-country in my freshman year of high school, but my riding style has progressed greatly since then to favor more adrenaline-inducing trails. Due in no small part to the influence of my team coach and Chief Monkey Neil's aggressive (or insane, depending on your perspective) riding style, I quickly began to prioritize descending steep, technical terrain over fitness-based riding. By my senior year I had fully embraced the “all-mountain” attitude of earning as many vertical feet of descending as I could under my own power.