Bikes or Death

On Thursday Lael Wilcox set a new FKT (Fastest Known Time) on the famous Arizona Trail Route. Now the AZT boast 827 miles thanks to new sections that race director John Schilling added. Lael completed her ITT of the route in 9 days, 8 hours, and 23 minutes, besting the previous FKT set by Nate Ginzton who came in at 9d, 10h, 23m. But almost immediately after drama insued online. Read the full story at www.bikesordeath.com EPISODE SPONSORS Mulberry Gap ~ Looking for something to do this summer? Mulberry Gap has you covered, check out their events page on their website for a full list! Use code "BOD10" at checkout for 10% off!

Wren Sports ~ Has a sale going on for some of their forks, check them out here and use "BOD10" for 10% off your purchase!

🎉 New Patrons 🎉 Stevan Beer Zach Allen Caleb Eichelberger Matt Dixon Benjamin Wainhouse Matt Seehusen

Join them won't you? Gas prices are high, inflation and cost of living is high, and we are feeling the pinch. Please pitch in if you can!

Recently, I was scrolling instagram and came across a post by Cheech, co-owner of Crust Bikes, that really struck a cord for me. I immediately reached out to see if she'd be down to chat!

Visit www.BikesorDeath.com for a full writeup on todays episode!

EPISODE SPONSORS

Athletic Greens ~ Visit www.athleticgreens.com/bikesordeath to get a FREE 1 year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase.

Kuat Racks ~ Kuat has a wide range of bike racks to suit every need and budget. The Transfer v2 is their price point rack, but as light as the price can be, it's heavy on features.

🎉 New Patrons 🎉 Daniel Searson Corey Eichelberger Broken Spoke, Santa Fe

Join them won't you? Gas prices are high, inflation and cost of living is high, and we are feeling the pinch. Please pitch in if you can!

When Indy showed up at the East Texas Showdown he told me that he's doing a Yo-Yo and if he doesn't complete it to DNF him. Fortunately, I didn't have to because after 760 miles he became the first person to attempt and complete the Showdown Yo-Yo with an offical time of 3d 12h 20m!

Check out BikesorDeath.com for a full writeup with pictures and links to the first 2 episodes I did with Indy.

Episode Sponsors

Atheletic Greens ~ Visit www.athleticgreens.com/bikesordeath to get a FREE 1 year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase.

Ruby Coffee ~ Use code "BIKESORDEATH" at checkout to get 15% of any coffee purchase or 20% off your first shipment of any subscription."

🎉 New Patrons 🎉 Larry Wagner

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Almost two years ago to the day Emma Flukes came on the podcast for the first time. You may remember that we were at the very beginning of a global pandemic that you change our lives more than we could have imagined at the time. She is a Tasmanian native and the founder of Tassie's Gift. When she's not pedaling her bikes or petting wombats she's busy monitoring the decline of our habitable world as a Marine Scientist. I took this opportunity to ask her "How fucked are we?". After detailing the decline of our species we cheerfully switch gears to bikes, bikepacking, murder shanties, and wombats.

Visit www.bikesordeath.com for a gallery of images from Emma's rides in Tasmania!

Episode Sponsors

Kuat – On today's episode Patrick shares why you should always use the integrated cable lock included in your Kuat rack!

Mulberry Gap – Not only a great Adventure Base Camp, they can also host your Wedding, Birthday, Reunion, Corporate Retreat, or just about any gathering! Learn more at MulberryGap.com 👰

🎉 New Patrons 🎉 Eric Weninger Justin Keene Korey Deese

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This week's episode tackles the important topic of mental health and the outdoors told by this years Adventure Media Course. Long time listeners will be very familiar with Adventure Media by now, but for the uninitiated it is a course at Texas Tech University. Each year as part of their class project the professors scheme up a bikepacking trip and a media objective for the students to complete. This year the students did the Billy the Kid and Smokey Bear Route and their assignment was to vlog about their personal experience, with a focus on mental health and the outdoors.

Read the full article and check out a gallery of images from the trip at www.BikesorDeath.com

Episode Sponsors

Kuat – We all know that Kuat makes bomb-ass bike racks, but they've got a lot more options for other sports like snow, ski, and water! Check out their whole lineup of awesome adventure products at www.kuat.com

Ruby Coffee - Now offering certified Organic coffee with 4 options to choose from! Use code BIKESORDEATH during checkout for 15% off any one time purchase or 20% off the first shipment of any subscription.

🎉 New Patrons 🎉 Kurt Pitts Eddie O'Dea Martin Saur David Lieble

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For our birthdays the past couple of years Connor Thomas and I have gone to Big Bend to celebrate the only way we know how. This year Connor put together a bikerafting trip that would be the inverse to the Big Bend ~ Rio Revival that we did the year before. Last year we did a bikepacking trip that included a 6 mile hike up to the top of Mariscal Canyon with views of the Rio Grande 1800' below. This year we brought our new packrafts and floated through Mariscal Canyon with our bikes in tow.

A lot more information is available at www.BikesorDeath.com. You'll find this years bikerafting route, last years bikepacking route, tons of pictures, and a historical companion that Connor produced to compliment these trips.

Episode Sponsors

Rockgeist – This week Greg Hardy joins me to talk about my new favorite piece of gear, the Mr. Fusion seat pack. *Patrons of this podcast get free shipping and a free patch with their order!

Quad Lock ~ Bikepacking and exploring on your bike isn't new, but smartphones are and it's important to protect these expensive devices. The Quad Lock Bike Kit is the best way to secure your phone and keep it safe on your rides!

🎉 New Patrons 🎉 David Valle Andrew Pledger Alfred Lau Harrison Shotzbarger

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This week we are talking all things East Texas Showdown & Slowdown. We asked this years participants to send in their questions and we brought in 5 previous racers to answer them!

Even if you aren't doing the race this year, this episode is chalk full of bikepack racing goodness!

Our panelist are:

Alex Maldonado Katya Morzhueva Davis Sims Lisa Cervantes Dave Easley

Thanks to support from our race sponsors:

Wren Sports Ruby Coffee Kuat Quad Lock Bullet Grill Rockgeist

Recently the Bikes or Death instagram account hit 10k followers. I figured that's as good of a reason as any to do my first AMA (Ask Me Anything). We put out the call to listeners, instagram followers, and Patrons to submit your questions and we got a Bunch!

Today's episode is hosted by Bronco Tryhard (previously known as Matt Mason). He did a great job hosting the episode, asking your questions, and throwing in a few of his own. This episode is a nice mix of serious and silly, which we hope is a nice balance.

Episode Sponsors

Ruby Coffee – We know Ruby makes great coffee, but what makes Ruby a great company? Jesse comes on to share his thoughts. Use Code BIKESORDEATH during checkout for 15% off any one time purchase or 20% off the first shipment of any subscription.

Kuat ~ There is a lot of hype around the new Piston Pro X, with good reason, but Kuat makes a bunch of great bike racks and Tom comes on to tells about some of them.

🎉 New Patrons 🎉 Harry Mahler

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Ben Playter and Ezra Ward-Packard are currently on their bikes riding across American. Today is actually the final day of their trip which ends in Florida. I caught up with them in Austin thanks to Stephanie Hall who turned me onto them and gave us a spot to record. So today's episode is kind of a two for one.

First I chat with Ben and Ezra about their trip which was highly entertaining. These two friends have much different approaches and it resulted in an interesting dynamic they had to work through. Hint, one of them is touring and the other is training for a run at Tour Divide this year.

Then Stephanie joins Ezra to discuss riding with Type 1 Diabetes. Both of them have accomplished some cool things on the bike and learning to manage their diabetes is a critical part. They share some of their experiences and tips to help other people with diabetes get out on their damn bikes. Ezra was actually on Team Nova Nordisk, a professional road cycling team made up entirely of racers with Type 1 diabetes. How cool is that?

Episode Sponsors

Mulberry Gap – This week we chat about the Cohutta Cat bikepacking route that is right out the front door of Mulberry Gap!

Wren Sports ~ Cameron shares about a new pilot program they are rolling out to help support women owned bike shops, email [email protected] to start a conversation!

🎉 New Patrons 🎉

Bradley Cordaro Nick Marzano Gavin Bailey Nemo Sandoval

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A couple weeks ago Nickel Potter and a 100 or so other cyclists were participating in the Rule of Three in NW Arkansas. They had just turned onto a remote gravel road in the Ozarks when a lady in a Dodge Ram came up behind them and when the cyclist got over to the side of the road she gunned it around them, losing control, and ultimately rolling her truck. After checking to make sure she was okay Nickel did the next logical thing which was to take a picture and post it on instagram.

When I saw the image originally I laughed and shared it to my stories and spent the next couple of days seeing it re-shared within the cycling community. Then I was on Reddit and his image was posted on several different subs with thousands of likes and comments and there were link to news articles as well. Thats when I realized the true impact of this picture. It broke out of the cycling community and found itself floating all over the internet which stirred up a long of conversations, most that I read were mostly positive towards the cyclist which was a nice surprise.

So today, we talk to the guy who took that iconic picture, hear his side, and chat about our rolls as cyclist when we are out on the roads and representing the community as a whole.

Visit www.bikesordeath.com for a full writeup and links to Reddit and News articles related to this event.

Episode Sponsors

Rockgiest – This week Greg Hardy comes on to tell me all about their new 52Hz Welded Waterproof Framebags available now! Remember Patrons of this show get a code for Free Shipping and a Patch with your order.

Quad Lock ~ Everyone knows that Quad Lock make the best bike mount + phone case system, but did you know they make all kinds of mounts? Patrick shares some of his experiences with Quad Lock over his 10 years of use.

🎉 New Patrons 🎉

Tobias Wessendorf Daniel Young

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