We Keep Going » Jo

Bryan

Jo — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 15:53:55 +0000

So Bryan went back home.

We met last june in NY. During the 42ride we didn’t really hang out much, but by the time we got to LA we had decided to keep going together, even though we hardly knew each other.

7 months and a lot of miles later we had shared beds, rooms, food, spare tubes, water, laughs, beer, sweat, ants, tears, hills, smells, fear, memories, houses, sunburns, clams, loneliness, cigarettes, hospitality, dreams, peanut butter, dust, sadness, friendship, films, happiness, donas, hate, tacos, grease, tortas, joy, cookies, saddle sore, heat, empty roads, hot chocolate, love, popcorns, feelings, coffee, camp fires, the horizon, and an endless summer.

I miss you brother.

We keep staying (to keep going)

Jo — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 18:20:48 +0000

We needed to find a place to stay for a while. Somewhere nice to spend a few months so we would arrive to South America after the winter. Some place where we could find jobs to save money to keep going, eventually.
We´ve been in San Cristobal for over a month now and this is it. I still don´t know what it is, but there´s definitely something about this town. I love it here.
I found a job teaching english to Mexican kids in a school and now I´m also going to be running a hostel with my friend Zabiani.
…
to be continued

San Cristobal

Jo — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 17:37:06 +0000

San Cristobal de Las Casas was founded in 1528 by the Spanish conquistador Diego de Mazariegos with the name of Chiapa Real de los Españoles. The city adopted its current name in honour to its Patron San Cristobal and to the Spanish friar Bartolome de Las Casas who defended the native indigenous people from the conquistadores.
San Cristobal was the capital of the province of Chiapas until 1821, when it belonged to Guatemala, and it was the capital of the state of Chiapas in the Independant Mexican Republic until 1892.
The city is located in the highlands of Chiapas, where the indigenous communities descendents of the ancient Mayas, the Tzotzil and Tzeltal, survive preserving their traditions and culture.
On January 1994 the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) came into effect, and on the same day the Ejercito Zapatista de Liberacion Nacional (EZLN) emerged from the mountains to occupy San Cristobal and other towns in Chiapas, to fight for the rights of the indigenous people.
Since then the Mexican goverment has tried to wipe out all the native people in Chiapas, but failed due to most of the territory being in high mountains and a fierce defence by the EZLN. In more recent years, the Mexican people joined forces with the EZLN and the natives in marches and demonstrations in the city.
The Mexican goverment finally agreed to talk and try to resolve the situation peacefully. However the agreements made have not been respected by the goverment and the situation has remained the same.

There’s something about this place. I’m not sure what it is yet, but we like it here.
We’re staying for Christmas.

Views of the City

Jo — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 01:40:27 +0000

Oaxaca, OAX. , Mexico, DEC. 09.

Pedal Power Oaxaca

Jo — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 14:48:40 +0000

Yesterday we went exploring Oaxaca for bicycle shops and any more information we could gather about those “old school” singlespeed bikes we came across on the road from Juquila.
We saw lots of the usual “cargo bikes” the locals use for selling ice-cream, tamales, etc.

Mexican Cargo Bike with steam oven

Mexican Cargo Bike selling Tamales

Mexican Cargo Bike selling Elotes

We also saw one fully kitted cyclist on a carbon Look, and we discovered some people using their bicycles as their main mode of transportation, and not just people who can’t afford a car, but those who choose to ride a bike in the city.
We visited a few bike shops in the West end of the city:
Bicirama in Calle Aldama, Bicimundo across the street (where they had a knockoff of a Trek with a faux full carbon finish and “Discovery Channel” wheels, just weird), and Taller de Bicicletas Cruz Jr at the back of Hotel Rivera del Angel, in Mina street.

Bicirama

Bicimundo

Fake Trek

We found out that the single speed bikes are hand made in factories in Mexico city and Puebla. They don’t have a brand or a name. They’re popular because for about 2000 Pesos (150 US Dollars/100 Euros approx.) you can have a basic and reliable vehicle.
The frames are made of thick chromoly tubing, lugged, with wishbone seatstays and usually a double top tube. It has eyelets for racks on the rear horizontal dropouts and also on the fork. The geometry is super relaxed, with a long wheelbase and tire clearance up to 28×1.95.
The wheels look like they just came out of a trendy fixed gear bike shop I know in Paris, with large flange hubs, fancy twisted spokes (laced in radial or 2 cross pattern), and deep section profiled rims, all in crazy color schemes.
The drivetrain is normally a no-name chainset with platform pedals, thick BMX chain and a freewheel. The bars look like a copy of the Nitto Moustache with a short 1″ quill stem.

Singlespeed bike at Bicirama

Twisted spokes laced in a 2 cross pattern to a large flange singlespeed hub

Singlespeed at Taller Cruz Jr

This is utilitarian, practical cycling at its best: affordable basic quality human powered vehicles for the people.
(Pedal) Power to the people!

Banesto singlespeed

Singlespeed with rear rack

Singlespeed Cargo

La Virgen de Juquila

Jo — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 02:54:06 +0000

I was still in the sea, watching the sunset, thinking: I could just stay here forever. But we left Puerto Escondido the following day. We decided to make a side trip to Oaxaca city, so we took a bus up the hills to the valley.

On our way there we met these guys

They’re part of a group making their annual pilgrimage to the Sanctuary of the Virgin of Juquila: several days riding from all over Mexico up the hills and many switchbacks to the town of Juquila.

Most of them were riding old school singlespeeds.

This is faith. This is Mexico.

Carrizalillo

Jo — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 15:58:05 +0000

December on the beach, surf, swimming, watching the sunset in the sea, palapas, ceviche de pescado, coco natural o preparado, victorias, waves, the hammock in hostal Shalom, Rachel, swimming in the pool, palm trees, birds, our nice and quiet campsite for 50 pesos, caguamas with Daniel, Kevin and Elizabeth, crazy John, christmas lights, the loud and cheesy and (most of the time) horrible music, oaxaca cheese, mole, la punta, zicatela, still surfing with the locals after the sunset, the salt on my skin, thinking of my corazon (roto); playa carrizalillo, puerto escondido, oaxaca, mexico, december 2009.

Turismo

Jo — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 02:13:24 +0000

On our way to Manzanillo we stopped to have a break hiding from the hot sun when this guy approached us. He was spraying for weeds on the side of the road. He asked us where we were coming from and where we’re going, and told us he had been living in LA for four years until a cop caught him without documents and was sent back to Mexico. He wanted to know about New York; he’d always wanted to go there. He was sad.
And then he told us about La Boquita.

We followed the signs to Club Santiago, the road turned into cobble stones, we waved to the security guard and we were inside a luxurious residential area with brand new condos everywhere, big houses and fancy hotels. I wasn’t too sure about this place.
But then the cobble stones turned into sand, and we arrived to a small beautiful beach. A local fisherman riding his bicycle told us we could camp for free anywhere along the beach. So we rode around to check out the lagoon on the other side of the beach, and all the ramadas (beach bars) until in one of them a very nice mexican woman said buenas tardes and offered us an ice cold beer. We had a couple of Estrellas and then she brought us a carnita. She was preparing her friend’s birthday, so we left to set up our campsite.
We spent the afternoon swimming in the sea, writing, drawing, watching the pelicans fly, looking at the horizon… it was hot, mexican kids played in the shore, people came by selling fresh fruit, bread, chips; 3 guys were picking up pebble stones.
I could see the big houses on the opposite side of the bay, cruise ships arriving to the port of Manzanillo, foreign cars drove by behind us every now and then, old couples walked their silly looking dogs, …

We could hear the birthday party getting louder, and then Antonio, a friend of the birthday girl, came to ask us if we wanted tacos. He is from Miramar, he likes riding his mountain bike around and La Boquita is his local beach. He told us about the coral reef, the lagoon, and the people who make a living fishing. He was sad.

This precious little corner of the world is about to disappear. They’re expanding the residential area and building a marina for yatchs.
This is tourism.

NEW XPRESS

Jo — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 15:18:09 +0000

John (Bryan’s brother) got us some tubes and Slime tire liners (thank you dude, you guys are awesome!). As a courier I’ve used Slime liners for years on my work bike and except for the inevitable pinch flat, I can’t remember last time I had a puncture, so I’m very glad we now have them on our SOMA New Xpress tires.
Before I put the liners, I’d only had 4 flats since we left L.A. in October, not a lot, considering the amount of cacti, rocks, nails, glass, goat heads, and pieces of thin sharp wire we’ve found on the roads of Mexico.

The New Xpress are made in Japan by Panaracer for Soma Fabrications. They feature a puncture resistant hypertex casing and a high carbon compound. They have enough tread to work fine on loose gravel roads and even on sandy trails, but you don’t feel much rolling resistance as with other knobbier tires. We haven’t had much rain (yet) but we’ve ridden on wet slippery roads and the tires always handled very well.

We carry a lot of stuff on our Soma Sagas and they feel so nice to ride because they’re very well built and made to ride perfectly when fully loaded, but that nice ride feeling is also due to high quality touring tires: inflated to the recommended 95 psi they’re super smooth and there’s no lateral flexion in spite of the weight we carry.

Sometimes I wish we’d chosen the 35’s instead of our 700×32c just to have a bit more extra cushion, but now, after over one thousand kilometers on our Soma New Xpress tires, i am very happy with our choice. They keep us going nicely.
For more info on Soma’s tires, visit:
somafabrications.com

Buena Gente

Jo — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 19:58:10 +0000

Gracias a la guapa y super simpatica Señorita Carla y al muy amable Señor Milchis, we’re crossing the sea of Cortes from La Paz to Mazatlan in a comfortable cabin onboard the Chihuahua Star of Baja Ferries (we’re working on getting a special discount-and bicycles travel free-for cyclists, stay tuned).
Chris is with us again, we met last night in La Paz for a few Pacificos and tacos (and some delicious ice cream watching the absurd “parade” of big loud cars cruising along the Malecon).
We stayed in Pension California: 250 Pesos for a room with 2 big comfy beds with a nice warm (not hot) shower, free wifi, cooking facilities. A very cosy small hotel very well located near the waterfront (and next door to the Hermanos Gonzalez Fish Tacos stand) and very interestingly (and weirdly) decorated.
There we met some cool people, like Ricky, the local poet who helps out in the Pension, or the french guy who played online poker all night long, the Spanish couple traveling around Mexico, or the swiss guys traveling also down south.
And we’re meeting lots of specially nice people along the way:
Therese and Kyler from Salt Lake City (thanks for the awesome breakfast), Olivia and Mark who own the lovely restaurant in Playa Buenventura (gracias por todo), Los Señores Luis y Beni de Tijuana (mucho gusto de conocerles y gracias por “el paseo”), Martin, Pete and Gary also riding their fully loaded bikes south (nice to meet you guys, tailwinds!), … and now I’m looking forward to arriving to Puerto Vallarta as soon as possible where we’ll meet up with Bryan’s brother John and his fiancee Jessica, buena gente.