Business or Pleasure? - A Road Trip

Business or pleasure? I didn’t know what to declare as I stared at the US customs booth. This was a business trip but we weren't going to be stuck indoors at a tradeshow, we came for fun.

A trip from Toronto to Las Vegas is pretty trivial: Bachelor parties, gamblers, aging-singers/extreme-acrobat aficionados do it all the time. For us to travel this far, $6.99 prime rib and penny slots were not in the cards.

The real purpose of the trip was Interbike 2016, so technically business. Starting a fledgling bike company is no easy task and it's made more difficult when your suppliers are a continent away, or an ocean apart, and face time comes at a premium. Cornering them all in one lavish - in the only style, Vegas knows – hotel is a golden opportunity. After a long year of getting Staran Cycles off the ground and neglecting actual biking, a healthy dose of singletrack was in order. Not just local trails but a full on RV road-trip to the mecca of mountain biking: Moab, Utah.

Moab is a fantastic way to put some hurt on your gear, as were the airlines getting there. Pack well my friends.

No gaudy gold rugs and purple curtains for us, just a good ol' recreational vehicle and full squish bikes.

The first day we hit up the Interbike Outdoor Demo at Bootleg Canyon, NV to check out the competition and see what's new in the world of biking. Many big names were absent (see Vernon Felton's article on the absent vendors here) but a couple brands showed, some of them even having real mountain bikes. Unfortunate for us the leading edge of electric motor assisted biking technology was primarily what we found; so we grabbed our FSM-140 bikes and made good use of the free shuttle.

Mount up!

Bootleg Canyon trails were pretty fun. Next time you're in Vegas clear out the cobwebs with some local riding.

A big steel full-squish bike, the hallmark of Bootleg Canyon.

After a day of riding it was time to see Las Vegas in all of its excess. Staring contest with a stone ram, sure why not? Go!

After a day of schmoozing at Interbike we headed off to Moab. About an hour outside of town mother nature went all biblical on us

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On route to Moab, you could barely tell that there was half a foot of snow on the road as we crossed the 7180ft summit on the I-70 in the pitch black. That might have been a good thing... Rolling into Moab about 10 hours into our 6.5-hour drive we got some shut eye with dreams of the Whole Enchilada in dry, sunny Moab.

Waking before dawn to make sure the bikes were ready for a full day epic, we got the call from our shuttle driver: there was rain overnight and she needed to get a look at the mountains before heading out. After a couple hour holding pattern, we headed to meet Kristi from Coyote Shuttles. She gave us the bad news, we could only go as high as UPS. While we didn’t anticipate a Half Enchilada, no one is going to feel bad for anyone riding in Moab so we sucked it up and headed out with smiles on our faces.

Cruisin' in the purple V-dub. Shotgun, called it!

A short climb up to the start of UPS with the snow in the La Sals taunting us the whole time.

Dominic, owner of Adventure-Bike, a mountain bike tour company all the way over in Switzerland, joined in for the ride. This dude can rip.

You want to make sure your speed is in check in a couple sections near the rim.

The weather alternated between overcast and sunny. There was even a light dusting of snow to remind us of home, how thoughtful.

The sun finally broke through as we rolled into Porcupine Rim for some scenic, exposed singletrack greatness.

Tough to complain with rock gardens like this.

After a quick ride back to the RV, a few cold ones were in order after our mini-epic. But not too many as the next day we had an 8:30am shuttle to ride another infamous Moab trail system, Mag 7.

Welcome to Mag 7 - a marathon length trail with a few thousand feet more of descending than climbing. Sounds like a good Saturday.


The top half of Mag 7 had a lot of flow. What was all this climbing they were talking about?


As we rode Mag 7 we kept seeing signs about the upcoming trails markers telling us how to back out. There was also the ominous sign that warned "Expert Riders with Endurance Only"... We had found the climbing portion of today's program. The climb took us up to the edge of the rim and it was totally worth it.

Totally worth the climb.

Just follow the painted lines and hope they weren't put there by a disgruntled Road Runner.

Have to keep pics like this on the down-low from significant others.

A rough ride down Portal to wrap up a perfect day.

There was no time for an epic ride on our final day so we checked out a new classic: Captain Ahab.

A relatively short climb left someone with enough energy to show off.

You almost get sick of these vistas, almost.


The captain makes it happen.

Wrapping up the Captain Ahab signaled an end to our trip. A half-day trek back to Vegas, pack the bikes, and head back to the real world, but not before an unnecessary selfie.

We might have declared business on the way down but we couldn't lie on the way back.

Check out the trails that we rode on Trailforks:

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MENTIONS: @StaranCycles / @trailforks

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