Today meet Ally Johnson, executive director for Bikepacking Roots. Bikepacking has continued to become a very popular type of bicycle activity and Bikepacking Roots was started in 2017 by Kurt Refsnider and Kaitlyn Boyle, both professional bikepacker/bikepack racers, who are still an important part of the staff. This is a one stop shop type of website that provides bikepackers with resources like interactive maps, well thought out routes and current conditions like fires or weather issues. They ...
Jan 14, 2023•29 min
Ride the Rockies has opened registration for the 2023 tour, and next week the route will be announced! Last year I was in Colorado as part of the Ride the Rockies crew. Ride the Rockies is a 6 day Colorado bicycle tour that started way back in the mid eighties. Last year riders tackled 8 mountain passes on their bicycles, almost 30,000 feet of elevation gain and not one, but two days of over 100 miles of pedaling. I caught up with Jason Carolan from Flexential to get a recap on his week of bikin...
Jan 06, 2023•25 min
Time for some more listener mail!! Topics include biking in Minnesota, group riding, and my take on tubeless vs tube tires. Enjoy! Episode 81: Exploring the Paul Bunyan Trail: https://soundcloud.com/murphology-podcast/episode-81-exploring-the-paul-bunyan-trail www.murphologypodcast.com linktr.ee/Murphology www.Patreon.com/Murphology A few great deals to send your way: www.hammerhead.io Use code Murphology to get a free heart rate monitor with your Karoo 2. www.lilytrotters.com Use code MURPHOLOG...
Dec 23, 2022•17 min
On this episode meet Jerry Kopack. Author. Speaker. Recovering Cubicle Dweller. He just released his new book titled The World Spins By, which is about both harrowing and comical adventures of touring on the bike. Jerry is on to talk about the book along with how he got out of the corporate world and into bike touring. While owning and running a hospice business with his mom, Jerry got a first hand look at how much of a gift time really is, and he keeps this in the back of his mind as he chooses...
Dec 16, 2022•47 min
On this episode meet Sam Bennett. He is the new face behind the popular website BicycleTouringPro.com. This website is truly a one stop shop for anyone into bicycle touring or dreaming of bicycle touring. It is a great how-to resource, with blog articles, YouTube videos, books, you name it, for those who might be interested in learning what it takes to travel by bicycle, and it is also full of information for those who already enjoy the bike touring life. Sam has a strong background in biking, i...
Dec 09, 2022•39 min
This week meet the guys from ReadyRiders.bike. Mike and Steve recently packed up their bikes and rode the entire Great American Rail Trail. It took them 90 days to pedal over 4,000 miles of mixed terrain surfaces, passing through 14 states as they made their way from Washington DC to Washington state. They are on to tell us about their experiences biking across the country with everything they needed packed on their bikes. Speaking of Rails to Trails, I interviewed Kevin Belanger, a trail planne...
Nov 26, 2022•46 min
This week meet Scott who is a lifelong bike tourist. He named his bike Mustang Sally and they just completed an 18,000 mile self contained journey with a mission to raise money for national parks. He called it Parks Pilgrimage and he was able to visit 33 national parks in one continuous bicycle tour! Scott is on to tell us about this great adventure and is going to provide us with some good tips on bike travel, gear, and passion for bicycle travel. You can find his travel blog at https://bikemul...
Nov 18, 2022•55 min
This week meet Julie and Matt. Julie is the founder of a nonprofit organization called World Ride that works with women who are interested in learning how to mountain bike but might not have the resources to do so. World Ride works with local partners in various locations across the world. These partners help to recruit more women into the mountain biking community, assist in training guides and also employ certified guides. One of these partners is Matt, the founder of Old Town Outfitters, a to...
Nov 11, 2022•31 min
This week meet Eria Sabiiti. He stumbled upon gravel by chance when he and his wife-to-be saw a poster for a bike race in their community. That race turned into quite the adventure, and both of them were hooked! He started a local club called the Iowa Gravel Gang and rides weekly on Iowa gravel roads. He also participates in some pretty epic races across the US like Rebecca’s Private Idaho and GravelWorlds in Nebraska. Eria explains why he loves gravel…it’s just you, the bicycle, and the road, w...
Nov 05, 2022•43 min
This week meet Jay Indovino. Back in 2009 Jay started a bicycle event called Pedal the Cause in St. Louis. His goal was to raise money for cancer research, and to date, Pedal the Cause has raised millions and millions of dollars. Jay was executive director until 2020 and is on to tell us what it was like to run a top notch, first class event, where 100% of rider donations go directly to cancer research. 100%! Jay now consults others on how to run a success event at i5 Enterprises. He also bikes,...
Oct 28, 2022•49 min
Time for some listener mail!! Thanks to all the listeners who take the time to reach out. I love it! Topics on this episode include cold weather bikepacking, biking with strangers, and Murph’s drink of choice. Enjoy! My Alzheimer's Ride donation page: http://act.alz.org/goto/Murphology Episode 87 about the GAP and C&O: https://soundcloud.com/murphology-podcast/episode-87-exploring-the-great-allegheny-passage Episode 93 about eh Elroy-Sparta Trail in Wisconsin: https://soundcloud.com/murpholo...
Oct 21, 2022•16 min
On the show today it is just me and I am going to give you a recap of my recent trip to Missouri where I rode the entire Katy Trail, west to east. I would highly recommend checking out this trail if you haven’t yet. The Katy Trail is in the Rail Trail Hall of Fame and you can learn more about it at bikekatytrail.com. It spans about 240 miles across most of Missouri. About half the trail follows the Lewis and Clark path along the Missouri River. It is a rustic limestone trail, formerly the MKT ra...
Oct 07, 2022•29 min
On the show this week is Scott Sumpter. Scott is an avid cyclist who takes adventure to a whole new level. He has raced in all kinds of crazy long distance events where the roads turn to mud and the weather is anything but pleasant. He rides year round on a variety of types of bikes and when he is not biking he is in his adventure van heading to the next biking event. And in his free time he runs a very cool website called BikeIowa.com. He is on today to tell you more about BikeIowa as well as h...
Sep 23, 2022•54 min
Are you ready for a murder mystery that involves bicycles? This week I partnered with my co-host, Andrea Parrott, over at the Just Go Bike Podcast to take you back to 1919, where we discuss a famous unsolved mystery. The Green Bicycle Case was a British murder investigation and subsequent trial pertaining to the fatal shooting of Bella Wright near the village of Little Stretton, Leicestershire on July 5, 1919. Wright was killed by a single bullet wound to the face. The case takes its name from t...
Sep 16, 2022•42 min
On this episode meet Erin Trautmann. This summer, Erin, a teacher, biked the entire East Coast Greenway in just 47 days! The East Coast Greenway connects 15 states, 450 cities and towns, and has over 3,000 miles of people-powered trails plus low traffic roads. The East Coast Greenway spans from the Canadian border of Maine all the way to Key West, Florida — and it is considered the country’s longest biking and walking route. Erin is going to tell us about her experience as a solo traveler riding...
Sep 09, 2022•32 min
On the show meet Maggie. Maggie is a long distance endurance cyclist who recently placed first in the single speed women’s category in the Gravel Worlds Long Voyage, which is a 300 mile gravel race. Maggie completed this event in just under 26 hours and placed third female overall in this distance! Earlier this year she decided she wanted to try out long distance endurance events on a single speed, so she researched and put together her perfect bike thanks to Knolly Bikes and has enjoyed it so m...
Sep 03, 2022•44 min
On this episode meet Kim who recently completed an epic solo bikepacking adventure by completing the Katy Trail on her bike after being inspired by a female colleague who did the same adventure while back. At nearly 240 miles long, the crushed limestone Katy Trail spans nearly the full width of Missouri and is the country’s longest continuous rail-trail, intersecting with rural farmland, scenic small towns, and centers of commerce and government on its route paralleling the Missouri River. And i...
Aug 26, 2022•32 min
On the show today meet Sherry Ott from ottsworld.com. She is on today to tell us about a cool quest to finish what her father started, to visit every capitol building in the US, and she is doing it via bicycle! She describes herself as a corporate cube dweller turned nomad traveler. A travel expert who has traveled all over the world, her website is FULL of tips, tricks and beautiful photography. When the pandemic shut down travel she took up cycling, and got hooked! Email me at murphologypodcas...
Aug 19, 2022•51 min
On this episode meet 1984 Silver Medalist in the Summer Olympics, Nelson Vails. AKA Nelly and the Cheetah. Nelly is the 1st African American to medal in cycling. He has also been 2005 inducted into the Lehigh Valley Velodrome Cycling Hall of Fame as well as the US Bicycle Hall of Fame. He was back in Iowa for another RAGBRAI and I was lucky to get to spend some time with Nelly throughout the week. He agreed to come on the podcast to talk about his life…past, present and future, and also to provi...
Aug 12, 2022•37 min
RAGBRAI 2022 is history, and what a ride it was! This was like my 25th or 26th RAGBRAI and I may have to call this year my favorite. The weather was beautiful and not only did I get to ride my bike all week, I was also lucky enough to be part of the RAGBRAI social media crew. It gave me a new and fun perspective on the ride that I thoroughly enjoyed. And the highlight of the week was meeting a famous YouTuber that I have been following for a long time. And omg he agreed to come on the podcast! S...
Aug 05, 2022•40 min
On the show today is Larry Walsh. Larry is the author of Suit to Saddle and Forty to Finish. Both of these books highlight Larry’s epic adventures of cycling across the United States at age 56, and then racing across the US a few years later. In this interview he tells us about his journey of self discovery, and how these adventures came to be. Check out his website at larry-walsh.com. Welcome to our newest sponsor Hammerhead! Use code MURPHOLOGY at Hammerhead.io to get a free heart rate monitor...
Jul 08, 2022•47 min
On the show today you will meet Ben Gibbs. He is a musician and podcaster who I met while biking the Katy Trail. That was basically Ben’s first crack at bikepacking and he was hooked! He upgraded his gear and bike and went on an epic 6 week bicycle tour, exploring the C&O Towpath, the GAP trail, and the Empire State Trail. He traveled over 1,100 miles by bike and describes his experience along with the genuine kindness of strangers. Welcome to our newest sponsor Hammerhead! Use code MURPHOLO...
Jul 01, 2022•48 min
A few weeks ago I was in Colorado as part of the Ride the Rockies crew. Ride the Rockies is a 6 day Colorado bicycle tour that started way back in the mid eighties. This year riders tackled 8 mountain passes on their bicycles, almost 30,000 feet of elevation gain and not one but two days of over 100 miles of pedaling. I caught up with Jason Carolan from Flexential to get a recap on his week of biking in Colorado. Flexential has been supporting the ride for 8 years, and Jason is on to tell us abo...
Jun 24, 2022•25 min
Well listeners, I did it! I rode my bicycle all the way across the United States! I biked with Team Biking to Remember. We started March 12 in San Diego, California and we made our way across 8 states using the Adventure Cycling Southern Tier maps. It took us 64 days and 3,080 miles to pedal from coast to coast and we reached the Atlantic Ocean on May 14th. Along the way we met up with Alzheimer’s Association chapters, held events and with the support of family, friends, and complete strangers w...
May 20, 2022•35 min
I sat down with Jenny Lorenz to talk about our adventure in progress, biking across the United States. Jenny had a vision many years ago to bike across America after she retired. She also wanted to somehow give back and so she married her passion for biking with her interest in raising money for the Alzheimer’s Association. Jenny’s mom has been suffering with Alzheimer’s for over a decade. She recruited friends, including me, to join her on this epic adventure and we started back in mid March. W...
May 06, 2022•32 min
On the show this week I take some time to talk to the new interim ride director for Ride the Rockies. Bill Plock is a Colorado native and long time cyclist who is pretty pumped to take Ride the Rockies to the next level. Ride the Rockies is a multi day challenging event in Colorado that has been going on for 25 years! With 5 Continental Divide crossings and over 26,000 feet of climb, this year the ride takes you and your bike through some epic mountain passes that may make your legs burn from al...
Apr 29, 2022•26 min
Rebroadcast of a great episode. This week meet Henry Gold. Henry tells the frightening story of how he came face to face with an angry elephant while cycling, and lived to tell about it. He is also Founder and Director at TDA Global Cycling, an adventure cycling tour company with some epic bucket list expeditions available. Many years ago Henry had a crazy vision to create Tour d’Afrique. A test of mind, body, and bicycle, it was to be a bicycle race in Africa that takes cyclists north to south,...
Apr 22, 2022•56 min
As of today I am taking a much needed rest day in Austin, Tx enjoying the luxury of a real bed while I stay with my brother and his family. Tomorrow we will be back at it, starting day 35 of 63 days. We are using the Adventure Cycling Southern Tier route and going west to east. We started in San Diego and have pedaled across California, Arizona, New Mexico and now we are about halfway through Texas. We have had great luck with weather and courteous drivers on the road, and I am happy to report m...
Apr 15, 2022•42 min
Well you could say I am currently on the adventure of a lifetime, riding my bike across the United States. As of today I am getting ready to start day 21 of 63 days. We are using the Adventure Cycling Southern Tier route and going west to east. We started in San Diego and have pedaled across California, Arizona and New Mexico. Just yesterday we crossed into Texas and we will be riding across this huge state for a couple of weeks. We have had great luck with weather and courteous drivers on the r...
Apr 01, 2022•34 min
If you didn't listen to this the first time, it's great info on an amazing place to ride. On the show today we have the Trail Manager for the Mickelson Trail, located in South Dakota, which has been a bucket list trail for me for quite a while. This Rails to Trail crushed limestone trail spans over 100 miles through the heart of the Black Hills. With 4 rock tunnels and over 100 bridges, this trail is open year round to bikers, hikers, and horseback riders. Dana Garry-Reiprich is the Trail Manage...
Mar 25, 2022•37 min
