TBC!!

Welcome to the first issue of The Town Bicycle Club – the pulse on East Bay cycling and mountain biking.

In this week’s issue we’re talking: 

• May’s best cycling event is happening in Socal

• The best cycling kit you’ve never heard of

• Big Jim is the godfather of MTB

But before we get too far into things, do me a solid – if you haven’t already, drop us a reply to let us know what you’re riding.

This helps us: 1.) Get to know you and 2.) Make sure this sweet ‘sletter lands in your hot-inbox.

-Kolby

1 Event, 1 Follow, 1 Buy

It’s the 3 best things we found this week you didn’t know you needed.

The Event - The 8th Annual Los Angeles Invitational is May 31st. The ride is 50/50 road/dirt with “3 scoops” and up to 7,600 ft of raw vertical. If that’s too sweaty for you come for the car show, which if the hype video gives any clues, it’s well worth it.

Follow - @stridsland_journal. The IG home from Matias Stridsland, the mastermind behind Stridsland bikes. He’s been cooking up some of the cleanest rigid steel frames and accessories since 2019.

Buy - 4-pack Cherry Cables from Forager Cycles. When your usual usual cable crimps feel SAD and single-use, get these. It’s a detail like an anodized re-useable cable crimp that say, “f**k-you-bike-money.”

Shhhh Honey…. Team Dream is Cooking

I remember my first bibs. They were plain, black spandex. No soul, no energy. Just that generic Pearl Izumi flare your eco-conscious uncle who bikes “rain or shine” has. No bueno.

Cycling gear is not something that typically gets props for being “cool”.

It’s tight, expensive, and too often associated with leg-mashing performance. And I for one, fall into that category of just wanting to ride for fun — not time.

The parent duo, Sean Talkington and Carla Alcibar, at Team Dream see it the same way. Cycling should be fun and so should the apparel — and they nail it.

Dream Team was founded sometime in 2012 after Sean ditched a desk job to film a documentary in the Italian Alps — a wild premise to start a cycling apparel company, but mad respect to kick the computer work to the curb and ride with the homies.

Fast forward to last summer, Dream Team wrapped up a pop-up shop in Tirano, Italy near the same roads that inspired the company to begin with.

Today, the crew resides in LA with their main offices in The Cub House - America’s #1 Plant and Bike shop.

The pieces are on pint. Prints that are fun but still have a little edge and throwback flair. I mean it’s spandex, so you gotta give it a little bite.

Plus, I’m a total sucker for an skeleton graphics — event cat bones.

You can trek down to LA and see their pieces in person, but if you’re like me living in the East Bay, it’s fast and free to drool at their online shop.

Meet Big Jim, The Boozy Godfather of MTB

A BBC throwback to 1976, when day-drinking and riding your bike offroad was worthy of a news coverage. We all owe Big Jim a lot of respect for paving the way and bringing together two great activities.*

*Obviously, don’t drink and ride. We can’t all be Big Jim.

That’s it this week folks.

I’ll be back again next week, but before you go I need a favor. Let me know what you thought of this first issue with a reply.

See you out there,

-Kolby