I would think that the thought of renting a 30 foot RV to a group of early 20-something's must be somewhat terrifying to a rental company, but as long as we didn't travel to Burning Man we were fine to do whatever we wanted with it. Luckily, Burning Man doesn't start until late August, so we had no choice but to head to California and escape the BC spring. On board the RV were Wink Grant, Jarrett Moore, Paul Genovese, Aaron Boss, Rupert Walker, and Ross Measures. Driving in our support vehicle were Luke Fulton, Eric Lawrenuk and Brendan Howey. We had no professional photographers on the trip, so the photos you see below are a mix of old SLR film, point and shoot film and disposable and digital SLR cameras, shot by the riders on the trip.
Walking on an abandoned train bridge 350 feet in the air is mostly terrifying, but once you are comfortable with the large gaps and missing ties, you're able to appreciate the astounding view and setting. There wasn't really any riding at the bridge, but we needed bikes to ride in along the abandoned train route. The tracks had long since pulled up, allowing for an easy journey to a pretty amazing adventure to start our trip off with.
The full pipe adventure started the night before with us debating raft strategy in the sporting goods aisle at Walmart. Thoughts of 'what if?' crossed our mind. What if the raft gets a puncture? What if we don't notice until we want to come back? What if we're too large for the $28 raft? Maturely, somebody made the call to get the 4 person raft AND a back up 2 person raft. The full pipe we travelled to has been a staple of Northern Californian skate culture since the late 70's but these days, the concrete is pretty rough and there is a steady stream of slime at the bottom. If you're planning on skating there now, it would take a lot to get it skateable.
At 30 feet tall, the transitions felt endless. None of us had ever been to such a thing, but we were quickly carving up and down the sides, attempting to pump the large radius pipe. While most felt the need to just reach the vert, Paul felt the need to flair the damn thing. Most of us watched in a mix of awe, terror and jealousy as Paul slid out in the wet conditions a few times before riding out cleanly.
All but two of us had been through Aptos before, so it wasn't the biggest shock for what we were in for. In the words of Shooter McGavin, "
every time I come here it gets harder to leave, I think you guys put something in the water." Unfortunately with word that this truly will be the last year of the Post Office trails, it was probably the last chance for a lot of us to get to ride there, so we were really happy to be able to spend four solid evenings at the trails. A big shout out to the locals for always being the best hosts.
San Francisco is only an hour away so on our way out we unnecessarily drove the RV up some ridiculously steep hills, and then bombed back down on our bikes. The streets are littered with the most natural lips and landings of anywhere--it's amazing.
The tour was everything we had hoped. It was our classic road trip, 4500 km of adventure, friends and rad times. We'll be back in the future with another Rad Times Tour, destination TBD, but in the meantime, check out the Instagram gallery for more pictures by searching the hashtag
#radtimestour.
The video was created by
Rupert Walker and
Ross Measures, with support from
Chromag and
Bicycle Rockers.
Member since Nov 21, 2011
love chro mag edits, want some parts for my new build but, stock seems to have dried up in the U.K