By Joe Kurmaskie — Let’s face it, no matter how much you love your commute by bike, there’s always that morning, the one that comes to early, too wet, too hot or just too something to get you to carry the bike off the porch and into the bike lane. When you feel uninspired, take heart, […]

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By Joe “Metal Cowboy” Kurmaskie — I’m often asked “What’s the hardest part of a bike tour?” Whether we are talking about towing the family around Oregon for a week, planning a cross country summer adventure or an international odyssey, the answer is always the same… and it’s not weight, equipment, training, mapping, packing, money, lodging, […]

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By Joe Kurmaskie — If you’re anything like me, then a good bike ride not only clears your head and moves your blood around, but it can put you into the best of trances. The bike acts like a perpetual meditation machine. I tend to go quiet; a very unnatural state of existence for me, but […]

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By Joe Kurmaskie (Excerpt from A Guide To Falling Down In Public) — “Somewhere in Africa the elephants have a secret grave where they go to lie down, unburden their wrinkled gray bodies, and soar away, light spirits at the end.” —Robert McCammon, Boy’s Life The elephants seemed more bemused than riled up by our presence […]

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By Joe Kurmaskie aka the Metal Cowboy — Let’s talk about slipping into something a little more uncomfortable; a no holds barred bike ride. Don’t look at the forecast or your schedule, just roll that rig out the door and go. I’ll make the case for ending more of your days tired, sweaty, hungry, wet, grease […]

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By Joe Kurmaskie and Shannon Johnson — Nine-year-old Dylan knew he loved riding bikes so much that he talked his mom into signing him up for one of the weeklong bike camps in the Portland, Oregon area organized by WashCo Bikes. Dana didn’t have enough disposable income to cover all the camp fees AND get her […]

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By Joe Kurmaskie — Like many good mysteries, this one began with a photograph. Lightning In A Saddle: the long, untamed life of Evelyn Hamilton, came out in book form in 2019 and has been optioned by a Hollywood production team from a screenplay I completed last summer. The photo that started it all caught […]

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By Joe Kurmaskie — In the same vein as cycling legend Major Taylor, Evelyn Hamilton, British racing phenom, equality pioneer turned war heroine, was overlooked then nearly lost to history. It wasn’t until, as a journalist working on another unrelated bicycling article, I stumbled upon her photo and a global literary treasure hunt was set in […]

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By Joe Kurmaskie — We were never far from nowhere, you could see it from just outside the backdoor. And when the magic of the adventure threatened to overwhelm, we didn’t crack because we knew the way with best laid plans, the myth of merciful Gods and America. Better to get lost in the mysteries of […]

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By Joe “Metal Cowboy” Kurmaskie — On a cloudless Tuesday in July, a week or so after the National Park Service opened Crater Lake’s rim roads to traffic, I found myself laboring up and down the forested circumference on my Surly touring bicycle. The color of the most pristine and pure lake in the world […]

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By Joe Kurmaskie —  I’ve always liked criterium races, though I’ve only been in one, which I won, but we’ll get to that in a bit. I do a crit a couple times a week in my neighborhood. I’m the only one in the race and it’s not a square as much as a very […]

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By Joe Kurmaskie — It was the middle of the night by the time we pulled our bicycles out of the bushes. I guess some people locked up their rides in 1979, but not my crew. We tossed them under palmetto bushes and tied a bandana or jammed a beer can atop of the palm […]

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“That’s your job in this hard world, to keep your love alive and see that you get on, no matter what.” ― Stephen King, The Shining  Pacific North Westerners did not invent clever names for athletic events, but it was wordsmith worship that attracted me to my first Summit To Surf diabetes charity bike ride. […]

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By Joe Kurmaskie — There’s nothing like a bike ride, and the longer the better. But what happens when illness or injury gets between you and your true love? I went decades not having to find out. Sure I took spills that kept me off the bike for a few days but nothing more than a […]

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By Joe Kurmaskie — With 200,000 miles of bicycle travel and counting permeating my legs and soaked into my soul, (on road, off road, no road) the question I get asked more than any other is this; how much should I plan for MY adventure? First off, if you want a true adventure in the […]

The post To Bicycle Tour Or Not To Bicycle Tour: Questions Shouldn’t Stop Your Momentum appeared first on Cycling West - Cycling Utah.

By Joe “Metal Cowboy” Kurmaskie – My Papa Wheelies Dad bicycle gang based out of Portland, Oregon met up along the Springwater Corridor near the Sellwood neighborhood. We were gearing up for an afternoon of wholesome fun. The plan: pedal our troop of eight cargo bikes, bakfiets and trail-a-bikes, totaling about 16-18 adults and children along […]

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By Joe Kurmaskie – The genesis of my entire life was experiencing the complete control, abandon and ecstasy of that first afternoon on a bicycle.  Even the streetlight’s flicker couldn’t bring me in. It opened me wide for everything after; love and reaching for things real and beautiful, trying even after the passage of hope, the […]

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By Joe Kurmaskie – As I grow older, I grow younger… let me explain. The ice cream truck rolled by the pool as I swam with my kids – you gotta hand it to that industry, they know and locate their consumer base and exploit the heck out of them – it’s the first line in […]

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By Joe Kurmaskie — Alejandro Alverez had a way of moving a bicycle through space so effortlessly that, even though I stood half a foot taller than him, he dwarfed me with his skills. My friend from Monterrey, Mexico rode like it was the first AND last time he might own a pair of legs. I […]

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By Joe “Metal Cowboy” Kurmaskie —  I’m just another traveller On another winding road I’m trying to walk some kind of line I’m trying to pull some kind of load. -Marc Cohn All explorers are convinced that there is something wonderful still to be found on this earth. I discovered that when the canyon is […]

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