Advocate Cycles

Ambassador Profile - Dejay Birtch

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Best known for his accomplishments on a singlespeed, Dejay Birtch is a mountain biker and ambassador to the mountain biking community involved with the sport both on and off the bike whose illustrious career spans 20 years. He currently lives and rides in Tucson, Arizona, although his roots are found in Port Jervis, New York—a place where he says that he cultivated his creative capacity for finding new and interesting approaches to the world.

When he transplanted himself to Tucson, Arizona, he took along his outdoor experience, added a bike, and began sharing his adventurous mindset with everyone else. Among many other things, he is an urban escapist, tour guide, shop rat and world dirt sampler. Sometimes referred to as a cyclist that races, Dejay tries to deal with that pressure by being the first to the top of many hills.

He’s been an endurance national and world champion and has crisscrossed the continental United States both west to east and north to south on his bike. He has designed trail systems and created cycling events. Recently he has created and promoted fat bike events in Arizona and New York and organized the 2014 singlespeed World Championships in Anchorage, Alaska. He helped start SSUSA (Singlespeed USA) and has been a part of Singlespeed Arizona for over a decade.

For his most recent project, Dejay has followed his roots back home to New York to take on a trail building project in his hometown. Like many east coast towns, Port Jervis was brought up on industry, which has all gone away at this point, leaving the area as somewhat of an economic ghost town. But the town does have an amazing natural resource that has been virtually untouched and completely off limits for 100+ years.

This particular resource is a large, city-owned, 2,000+ acre piece of land in town that is part of the watershed and houses three reservoirs, along with many rolling ridgelines and ideal terrain for a trail system. For a while now, Dejay has seen the potential in this piece of land for outdoor recreation.

With other nearby outdoor attractions like the Delaware River that runs through town, the nearby Appalachian trail, the Poconos and Catskill Mountains within a short drive—and the possibility to ride the commuter train all the way from NYC—the area stands to be the next best playground in the region for cycling, hiking, and other sports year-round.

And so he went to work convincing the town that this would be an ideal place to build some trails and start to draw people back to the town. Finally last August, he got the go-ahead to start building and went to work putting together the beginnings of a trail system.

To say that he helped to make a miracle happen could be truth. Currently, they are in the infant stages of building singletrack with at least 30 miles laid out and about 15 miles of doubletrack already existing. On March 19, Dejay held a fatbike event on the trails as a grand opening, which turned out to be a hit, and now has plans for a MTB event to be held on October 29th.

Dejay tells us that, “all of this is to spread the love of the outdoors of course, but it holds a special place to me, to help my small home town come back from the economical ashes of what was a booming industrial town.”

If there’s a bike involved, Dejay will always be there. Just stay tight on his wheel and follow him into his next adventure.

Dealer Spotlight – Velorution

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Velorution Cycles and Bedrock Bags call Durango, Colorado, home. They are ideally situated in a solar-powered warehouse at one of the largest trailheads in town, with singletrack right out the front door. Velorution has been in business for a little over four years and just a couple months after Joey Ernst opened the shop, the maker of Bedrock Bags, Andrew Wracher, brought some of his first personal bikepacking bags into the shop having heard that Joey was into bikepacking. After a conversation about bikepacking, gear, and business, Bedrock became a reality.

Over the next four years Andrew and Joey worked closely with their separate businesses. Going into autumn of 2015, they decided to just up and combine everything—now they’re co-owners of what is, to their knowledge, the world’s first bikepacking-centric shop that actually makes gear on site.

Joey has been in the bike industry since he began working at a small-town Midwestern Schwinn shop in 1997—after spending years working in shops and on the World Cup MTB circuit as a mechanic, it was time to settle down. He didn’t know what else to do with himself besides stay with bicycles and so the bike shop was born.

His shop has also had quite an impact on the local cycling community. Before the mainstream cycling world had ever heard of bikepacking they had built up quite a little community of bikepacking adventurers in Durango. When they began, people would walk in the door, see the wall of bikepacking gear and say, “what is that strange stuff?” It’s very different now—people come in saying, “I’ve heard you’re the people to talk to about bikepacking.” Joey admits that for someone that’s rarely on the cutting edge of anything, “it’s pretty cool to be an originator in a movement that’s seeing a lot of traction.”

The shop is also involved in a handful of local and regional cycling events. Every other year Velorution hosts the start of the CTR (Colorado Trail Race), a race Joey has finished twice and absolutely loved every time. They are also heavily involved in the Colorado Endurance Series, a statewide, underground collection of no entry fee endurance events. They host about 4-6 of the races on the 17-event calendar every year and even created two of them—the Velorution Valkyrie backcountry fatbike race in January and the Velorution Venture multi-day bikepacking race in September.

Velorution really believes in the CES events because they take riders to amazing places—they don’t require participants to ride multiple laps on a boring course, they capture the essence of backcountry and self-supported riding, and they are free. Outside of the CES, Velorution puts on bikepacking and fatbiking clinics every year, and when they have time they run a weekly group ride. In short, they do their best to get involved and continue to build the adventure cycling crowd in the Four Corners.

When it comes to advocacy, one group that excites the crew at Velorution most is the Sustainable Trails Coalition, a nation-wide group advocating for sensible changes to federal Wilderness Area laws that keep things like bicycles and strollers out of Wilderness areas, while allowing horses and skis. Instead of just perpetuating the status quo, they believe this group is challenging nonsensical ideas and bringing realistic solutions to the table. Surrounded as they are in Durango, by hundreds of thousands of acres of federal wilderness, changes to the types of travel allowed in those wildernesses would very much change the local cycling community.

As a staff, Velorution is currently a three-person shop of avid riders that are great at getting people into the same things that they are into—gear that they use and personally believe in. Velorution stands apart from the crowd because they look for staff that is truly experienced in bike shops and the bicycle lifestyle, with a genuine enthusiasm for helping other people have fun on two wheels.

Living in a place like Durango, there is no shortage of trails in the area but when forced to pick favorites there are a few. It’s not exactly local the entire way—at 500 miles long that would be difficult to claim—but the Colorado Trail in its entirety is a personal favorite of Joey’s. Of riding the Colorado Trail he says, “Something about having nothing to do but ride, eat and sleep is mentally calming.” More locally, they like to ride on any of the awesome high country trails in the San Juans, which are always a favorite. Andrew is also a huge fan of the desert riding in southeast Utah and of course it doesn’t hurt that the shop is also located at a trailhead. A two-hour ride from the front door at Horse Gulch and 1:59 of it will be on trails—not bad at all.

Dealer Spotlight - SloHi Bike Co.

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Located in Denver, Colorado, SloHi Bike Co. has been in business for about three years now. This Mile-High City shop is the kind that believes every bike is as individual as its owner—why not get something that fits you perfectly.

Adam Williams, one of the owners of SloHi, has worked in the cycling industry for about 20 years—working as sales rep and sales director at a few different bike brands. After doing that for a while, he decided his heart was in the shop itself—and back to the shop he went.

Adam tells us, “It is an interesting time to go back into the independent bicycle retailer business. The retail channels are very open and competitive right now.”

He cites the local cycling community as the main reason for re-entering the retail space. “Everyone at his shop simply loves helping all types of cyclists,” he says. “Hell, we even have a kick bike in the shop right now.”

Adam also sees the benefit of having the neighborhood grow around the shop. “We’ve had the privilege to meet people through the coffee shop, see them start families and help them replace their cars with cargo bikes. Being a part of that is so rewarding.”

SloHi itself is a very small shop. Adam Quinney (Q) and the rest of the part time staff are very involved. Q is an active road racer and commuter—the kind of avid commuter that does not own a car and also looks great in a race kit. He prefers the exfoliating benefits of pavement over dirt. Adam Williams (Adam), who loves mountain biking in addition to his commute, has always been very involved in advocacy, having served on COMBA for five years in the past. In regards to advocacy, Adam tells us “I view it as a necessity to continue our sport and our way of life.”

As for community events, SloHi is very involved in the Bailey 100 mountain bike race. It is a huge fundraiser for the Colorado Mountain Bike Association (COMBA) and Take a Kid Mountain Biking. Last year they helped to run the aid stations and plan to double down their efforts going forward. COMBA is the local IMBA chapter that makes huge efforts to build trails and keep trails open in the area so it is a great fit the event to support that organization each year.

SloHi is continually working to stay active within the local community. They donate a bike to the Tennyson Center for Abused Youth every quarter and they also support the Colorado State University Cycling Team with a raffle every year—Adam is an alumnus there, he sees it as a great way to give back without having to buy a new wing for the Psychology department.

As well, Denver in itself is making huge strides in bicycle infrastructure. The mayor recently allocated $100 million to make Colorado a better cycling state—it seems that everything is up for grabs at the moment. COMBA has been steadily working to make Buffalo Creek a world class trail system and is already an IMBA Epic. They are also working to build more bike parks after the successful Golden Bike Park in Golden, Colorado.

Locally, SloHi has been working with the planning department on making their own street a bike lane. The plan is for 29th Avenue to get a “green” cycling lane that will run all the way into the heart of the city next month. For SloHi, the staff, and the cycling community of Denver—things are definitely looking good.

Rider Profile - Lael Wilcox

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If you haven’t heard of Lael Wilcox, allow us to introduce you. Lael has spent the better part of the last decade touring around the world on her bike. It all started about 8 years ago when Lael and Nicholas Carman decided to take off on a two-month paved tour in the United States—in some ways, the ride has yet to end. Since that tour, they have been splitting their years between working to save up money and traveling by bike.

They have spent time touring throughout North America, two summers chasing dirt routes across Europe and a substantial amount of time in both South Africa and the Middle East. Recently Lael has also taken to ultra-endurance racing with great success, setting the female record for the Tour Divide in the summer of 2015, although for the both of them, travel is most important and will probably always remain the focus.

Currently, Lael is down in Baja, Mexico aboard an Advocate Cycles Hayduke where she and Nick are working on mapping and planning a roughly 2,000 mile bikepacking route through the area. In the end, they hope to be able to publish the route for others to use as a springboard for their own rides. You can check out their project online at www.bajadivide.com. We caught up with Lael during her tour and asked her a few questions about what it’s like living this lifestyle.

RK: For starters, when you aren’t riding, where do you call home?

LW: I grew up in Anchorage, Alaska. That’s where my family lives so that’s where I’d call home. I don’t spend too much time in Anchorage. I don’t have a house or a car, but I’ll always go back there. When we’re not traveling we may work in different places. We’ve lived in Tacoma, Denali, Key West, Annapolis, Albuquerque, and France, but for the last eight years, we’ve spent the majority of our time riding.

RK: What do you do for work in between these long rides? Do you keep a similar schedule or does it change year to year?

LW: I usually work in restaurants as a server or a bartender. I’ve been working in restaurants since I was sixteen. The first year I cleaned a bar in the mornings and washed dishes in a cafe for the afternoons. Since, I’ve worked in at least twenty restaurants. It’s usually an easy job to find and an easy job to quit, and I enjoy the work. I’ll work hard for four to six months in a stretch, often two jobs at once. I save money so I can travel on the bike again.

I’ve done other jobs as well. I taught English in France and yoga in Anchorage and once worked the door for a bar on New Year’s. I’ll take any job I don’t dread. Although, serving is fast-paced and fast cash and I prefer it.

I don’t have a set pattern of work and bike travel. Mostly, I travel until I run out of money and pick up a job to save for the next trip and leave town when I can. It’s nice to mix it up. I’ll often live and work in different places. It’s fun and exciting to learn a new place and make new friends along the way, but I’m always ready to leave after a few months. There’s a lot to do and see.

RK: Tell us about your first extended bike tour and what effect that tour had on your cycling and the course of your life.

LW: I met Nick when I was twenty years old while in college in Tacoma, Washington. He gave me a bike so I could commute to work four miles away—otherwise I got around on foot. The bike opened up my world. I love walking, but the problem is walking takes a lot of time. The bike really speeds things up. We started biking all around town together.

At the time, one of my sisters lived in Seattle. The other sister flew in for a weekend visit. I wanted to go see them both. Normally, I would’ve taken the bus—its only $3 even with a bike. However, we didn’t have enough cash to pay the fare. So I said, hell let’s just ride there instead.

At the time, Nick and I were riding fixed gear bikes and it was definitely the longest ride of my life—45 miles. We pedaled and talked the whole way on bike paths, through industrial zones, outskirts and in town. Along the way, I turned to Nick and said, “If we can bike to Seattle, we could bike across the country!” I’d never known anyone to do it, but I could imagine the lifestyle of pedaling all day and camping somewhere different every night. We figured, I’d graduate in the spring and we’d leave from Tacoma and ride to the east coast.

I graduated, but we didn’t have any money—none. So we worked all summer, saved what we could and left in the fall. We flew into Boston to visit Nick’s sister, rode north to Montreal and south to Key West, Florida. We chased fall colors all the way to South Carolina and then rode the coast. Sometimes it was cold and hard, but we learned a lot: how to camp, eat, ride, and spend all day with each other and feel safe and free.

We ended up in Key West in November. It was the end of the road and we were out of money—it seemed like a great place to spend the winter and work. We both got jobs as pedicab drivers and I worked in a restaurant. We shared a small house on a tropical lane with a French guy who assumed the name Jack. We dove off the pier for lobsters and I spent many afternoons at the outdoor laundromat down the street because we only had two white work-shirts. Besides, Felix the coffee man made good Cuban coffee and sassed me cause I was from Alaska. He called me Palin.

We saved enough money in three months to ride out of town and we haven’t stopped since. That was eight years ago.

RK: What do you look forward to most on these adventures? Is it the riding itself, travel to new places, seeing new cultures and landscapes? Tell us what it is that makes you want to live this lifestyle.

LW: This is my life. How does anyone look forward to their life? Do they appreciate what they have? Do they daydream about what could be different? Do they daydream about other places or other people’s lives? Does traveling on the bike allow me to do all of these things? Yes.

I see and experience and feel new things everyday with my best friend in the whole world. We do this together. And then we talk about it. And then we sleep next to each other on the ground and then we wake up and do it again and pedal somewhere else. What else could I want?

It’s not always easy and sometimes it rains and sometimes we fight, but that’s life. Life is not always easy, but it can be damn good.

I look forward to mixing it up. And along the way, I look forward to sunny weather and climbing mountains and sleeping hard and smiling until the wrinkles at the ends of my eyes hurt.

What I look forward to most is going somewhere new every day.

Everywhere I’ve been, Ukraine, South Africa, Israel, I’ve been invited in and I feel like a special guest. People see us on the bikes—they’re curious about us and we’re curious about them. To be invited into someone’s home, you learn so much about how they live and what they care about. If we share a language, then we talk. If we don’t, then we do our best. It’s real and it matters.

In the end, I guess we find a home away from home. We learn new places. We ride our bikes and we’re happy.

NicholasCarman_Baja-5676

RK: Why did you decide on Baja? What was it about the area that made you want to ride and travel there?

LW: Baja is just south of California and, snowbiking aside, it’s one of the last mountainous places we could ride in North America in winter. We rode here five years ago, mostly on narrow, paved Highway 1. This time we came back with bigger tires and less luggage to ride a mostly dirt route. To do this, Nick invested a lot of time and money into printed and digital maps. We’ve decided to commit more time to this project to ultimately publish a high quality route for other riders to enjoy in the future. This means we’ll probably ride the peninsula again this spring to explore alternative routing. I’ve come to learn that the Hayduke is the perfect bike for Baja. The 27.5+ wheels eat up loose rock, sand and washboard.

The peninsula is a desert, the least populous region in Mexico, with open water on either side. On Christmas Eve, we arrived at the dead end of a dirt road. A family was slaughtering a cow and they invited us to stay for dinner and singing and breakfast.

In the month we’ve been here, we’ve ridden along both coastlines, spent a lot of time in the mountains, and encountered lots of fresh water and the camping has been awesome, with mostly clear skies.

Throughout this ride, we have been working on connecting dirt roads and rough jeep tracks as much as possible. We hope to share our route with others and encourage them to ride here too.

RK: What’s next? Any plans after your time in Baja?

LW: We plan to be here for another month or two. We’ll be riding with friends and working on the route and then we’ll see. I’ll need to work sometime in the next few months. We might go back to Alaska to ride fatbikes in the snow. I’d love to ride parts of the Iditarod Trail and in the White Mountains near Fairbanks.

RK: Thanks so much, we wish you all the best in the rest of your Baja tour and will be excited to see where you end up next.

NicholasCarman_Baja-5675

All photos courtesy Nicholas Carman

Dealer Spotlight - Topanga Creek Outpost

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Topanga Creek Outpost, located in Topanga, California did not start out with the intention of selling bicycles. It began as a touring business taking tourists around LA to popular destinations and celebrity homes. During those touring years, Chris noticed the need for a bike shop in Hollywood and opened Hollywood Pro Bicycles right on the walk of fame on Hollywood Blvd. The shop was around for 8 years before moving to Topanga for a better quality of life. The shop in Topanga has been open for seven years now.

The move to Topanga was intended to allow a better quality of life for the owners—to move away from the chaos of Hollywood—and of course to be in closer proximity to the great mountain bike trails in Topanga State Park. The area boasts world-renowned road riding and amazing mountain bike riding while still in LA County.

Topanga Creek is proud to be a part of the small community and staying active within it is a big part of the shop mentality. In 2015, Topanga Creek received an honor of being the best small business in their senatorial district for being active within the community and they were humbled to have Senator Pavley show up to present the award.

At the shop, there is a secret door in the gate filled with spare tubes and anything road riders might need if they are pedaling by. They have an honor system in place so that they can help out riders if they need anything. Aside from sales, they also rent mountain bikes—people from around the world visit Topanga just to mountain bike in their backyard and Topanga Creek Outpost is there to help make that happen. Rentals can be applied to the purchase of a new bike and also give people a chance to explore their wonderful area. Everyone that rents a bike and completes their ten-mile loop receives a certificate of achievement after they finish. The loop has about 1700’ of climbing in ten miles.

When the shop first moved to Topanga, they were involved in a lot of racing events—it was a fun way to get new people interested in the sport. But they also noticed that the mindset had changed from having fun to going fast. While they still love racing and helping to get people active in that way, they have shifted their focus a bit to be more inclusive and inviting for all riders.

In the past two years the shop has shifted towards what they call their “UnPredict Your Wednesday” adventures. They take off every Tuesday night to go camping and hiking/riding into Wednesday morning. Everyone is invited to join, and while the adventure is “UnPredicted” there is usually a tentative schedule of where they are planning to be and what is going to happen that week. They see a lot of benefits of the sub 24-hour adventures—especially in the middle of the week—and are trying to spread the word. Trips have been as simple as camping a mile away from the shop or as complex as bikepacking out to a primitive campsite at the top of a 9,000’ summit to spend the night. In addition to these adventures, they also do weekly shop rides every Saturday morning pending weather. They bake 6 loaves of banana bread fresh before the ride and come back after to relax with coffee and fresh baked bread. The staff ride as much as they can with their free time—in addition to the weekly camping adventures, they also get involved with plenty of bikepacking and endurance cycling events.

No doubt, a big focus for Topanga Creek is to get people outside. Whether is be on bikes or by foot, they want people to explore the area that they live in. They work with the local IMBA chapter CORBA as new trails are proposed, planned and built and as a shop they hold work days for the local trails in Topanga. Since it doesn’t rain a lot in SoCal, when it does the trails get pretty torn up and the staff and community are around to help out when that happens. As a whole, they are always looking for ways to be more active with advocacy groups and efforts in the area.

The Topanga Creek staff has a wealth of experience in the cycling industry but come from varied backgrounds. Chris, the owner, has been in the industry for 20+ years—he likes to think outside the box and has created a unique retail experience in Topanga. Jay, another shop employee, came from a background of gravel racing in the Midwest and still continues to pursue and train for endurance events. And there is Jeo, he lives in LA and commutes to work by bike when he can and always joins in for Saturday shop rides—he is one of the best web guys around and also happens to be one of the nicest. The staff at Topanga knows their products in and out and have all worked together to build their own unique brand as well as to pursue creative endeavors through the retail environment. Just stop by the shop and see for yourself.

Dealer Spotlight - World of Bikes

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WorldofBikes_Profile-

Founded in 1974 and then purchased by Ryan Baker in 2006, World of Bikes in Iowa City has been a staple of the Iowa City bicycle community for over 40 years. Often touted as a “family” bike store, World of Bikes has been in the forefront of many current trends that set them apart as a destination store for niche products.

One of the largest supporters of both the fat bike and gravel movement, we asked Ryan how he stays ahead of the curve with the products the shop carries and he admits, “I have always relied on my staff to look into their crystal ball for the next great thing.” Baker recognizes the need to offer more than just mainstream products. He also told us that, “While we support all types of cyclists, we have found success in niche markets as they are developing.” World of Bikes was one of the first to really embrace fat bikes; stocking multiple brands of bikes, carrying accessories for winter riding, and building one of the first fat demo fleets that we know of.

Community involvement is also big for World of Bikes. From bike rodeos and health fairs to races like the Jingle Cross and the Sugar Bottom Scramble, World of Bikes and Baker look at these events as “a way to support the people who support World of Bikes.” He also believes that being able to support a wide variety of events will help to keep a shop from being “pigeon holed” as one specific kind of shop. Supporting these events also helps get them in contact with customers who may never have visited the shop otherwise.

Within the cycling advocacy community, World of Bikes is also one of the largest donors to the Iowa Bicycle Coalition, an advocate of cycling that lobbies for bike lanes, provides education, and works for safer bike laws in Iowa. In line with Advocate’s mission, World of Bikes is a member of IMBA, Bikes Belong, League of American Bicyclist, and Adventure Cycling Association. When he first became aware of our brand through the Indieogogo campaign, Baker said he felt that the Advocate Cycles mission was a “brilliant way to bring a new company to market and it was in alignment with what we do as a shop.”

Ryan really credits his staff as something that sets them apart. Being in the “blinky light district” of Iowa City, which is home to four shops in a four-block radius, there is a need to create your own identity. “Our shop has some of the best people in the industry and we aren’t your conventional group of cyclists. We spread the spectrum of cycling and egos get left at the door. We have racers, commuters, mountain bikers, fat bikers, roadies, and kid trailer pullers.”

The current staff aside, Baker is proud of the alumni that have worked at World of Bikes and gone on to work at places like Enve, Boo Bicycles, Trek, and yours truly (Adam) at Advocate. “To me this shows that our staff cares about the industry. It’s not just a part time job to get a discount on parts, it’s a lifestyle for our people.” We can personally attest that this is true not only of past employees but of current ones as well.

Look for World of Bikes employees at local and regional races as well as out on the trails of Sugar Bottom Recreation area in their free time. Also, check them out as they provide support all over Midwestern Iowa at varying events. Baker reminds potential customers, “We CAN BE your bike shop. We love to help all sorts of people and we have the staff both in the front and back of the store to help you get what you need. No club jersey needed to walk in our door.”