Ament100 Updates.

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Ament100 Updates.

With the ever increasing interest in the epic ride formerly know as ILLmanzo, now Ament100, we've decided to team up with our pals over at Axletree to help with some of the legal issues that may arise.  With that PLEASE PRINT AND SIGN this Waiver.  We will have a few in the Apple Fort parking lot.  We also ask that you ride like respectful citizens.  Not riding 10 wide in a pack, obey street signs, and give at least a smile to those you pass along the route. 

Again, this 100% self supported.  YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN.  There won't be some magical Rapha truck with coffee and snacks waiting for you at the top of a hill.  After mile 38, there is NOTHING.  Cell phones don't really work out there, so ride SAFE & SMART.  These is ZERO sag. If you are hurting, tough shit, figure it out! So here is the Ride with GPS link and a couple of notes:

  • You can cut a gnarly decent and 5 miles out at mile 22 (recommended if new to this area)
  • The only food stop is in Hanover, mile 28
  • You SHOULD top off your water at the campsite around mile 38.7 (Blanding Landing)
  • There are killer climbs right after both of those stops, so maybe hold off eating until you get to the top.
  • The course is probably 50/50 gravel to pavement.  DO NOT RIDE A ROAD BIKE.  I have seen people break collar bones on the gravel out there riding skinnies.  
  • There are no bathrooms at the start.   So go before you get to town.
  • That town is a SPEED TRAP!  Dial it back when you get close.

We will start in the town of Elizabeth Il.  It's super small, so parking is limited.  Please look at the parking map below and CARPOOL as much as possible.

102 N Main St, Elizabeth, IL 61028 if you need an address to get you there.  Stay Rad will be taking waivers in the parking lot kitty corner.  Once we get your wavier, feel free to roll out. 

Pink are the open spaces.  

Finally, I'll leave with some words my father left me with,  

"The only person you can count on, is yourself."

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Kristina's Kelly

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Kristina's Kelly

So some of you have seen this bike pop up on our Instagram here and there and have reached out about it.  This is Kristina's adventure machine.  Kelly Knobby X.  Campy drive train and Ritchey components.  This is her go to for longer mixed road/gravel rides, though it has seen a cyclocross race or two. 

I won't go too into this, your bicycle people, I'll let you take a look at the pictures.  

She will be crushing this year's Midwest Rapha Prestige on this bike.

 

-STAY RAD!

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New stuff!

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New stuff!

Caps are available now!  We have a real limited quantity, so don't mess around.

Also, we have a couple of t-shirts from our pals over at The Yetee.  The pink drippy one was designed by Friendprices.   Our in house guy did the other one.

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Adventures in exile

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Adventures in exile

After a stressful busy season at work, I set out to try an end 2015 on a solid note.

The first stop was in Joshua Tree for a quick overnight stay. I wasn’t too sure what to expect, and I was camping with someone who hadn’t really camped before. We immediately set out for a quick hike before the sun went down, and the setting was surreal! It was almost like a movie set. I would like to spend a few more days exploring the trails this year.

The sun quickly set and we had a few hours of calm to take in the night sky. It was the clearest I’ve ever seen it. The milky way was fully visible! Then out of nowhere the wind picked up and the temperature plummeted. The tent cover un-staked at like, 2am. I could barely keep my eyes open because of the dust being pushed through the camp site. Long story short, we pretty much held onto each other for dear life until the sun rose and woke covered in dust anyway. Still. ZERO complaints.

 

If you ever go, bring extra layers. ha

STOP 2: The Sequoia National Forest

So to start, I had no idea what to expect coming into this trip. It was really poorly planned, but damn. It will forever bee one of my favorite destinations now. Fuck Disneyworld... This was magical. I digress. My brother and I pulled into the park around noon and started to drive up the mountain. As you got higher in elevation you went through each of the seasons. It was sunny and 60 at the base.

We eventually entered into “winter”, and it was incredibly foggy. At this point we were pretty much looking for somewhere to ditch the car so we could start hiking. The first trailhead we spotted was framed up by two of the biggest trees I’ve ever seen, so we parked and started down the first trail to Moro Rock. The fog was so thick, you could only see a few rows deep. We were both sort of waiting for a bear to come through the fog. ha. We ended up turning around because the fog would have ruined the look-out point.

From there we headed up to General Sherman (BIG SHERM). The largest tree in the world, mass wise. The entire trail was lined with trees that looked equally big. Sherm was legit though! After that we wandered down Congress Trail until the sun set. The fog ended up breaking up as we got further down the trail.

The next day we started back down the Morro Rock trail because the fog had lifted. It had snowed the night before, so the trails all had a solid foot of powder on them. We were both hiking in nike trail shoes with our socks in plastic bags, ha. When we finally got to Morro Rock, the signage for the staircase said “If icy or wet, stay off of the trail”, so we started the climb up. The entire path was this giant mess of ice and areas with and without hand rails. If you went over the edge, you could probably get through the ABCs before you hit the ground. At the top I read something written on the handrail that summed up the experience.

This is my new favorite place.

After hiking about 3-4 miles, we had to get up a 1/4 mile of icy sketchy stairs. The end result was absolutely incredible. **I do not own this music, and this video is only for personal use.** Bonobo // Transmission 94 (pt.1 & 2)

After Morro, we drove further up the mountain and started down the trail to the Tokopah Falls. Everything was covered in about a foot and a half of snow and the trail felt like we were just wandering off into the woods. ha. The trail paralleled a river and made it a little less sketchy for navigation. About three miles down the trail it started lightly snowing and quickly turned into a full on    blizzard.. Shit got real when we started hearing thunder.

The falls were completely dry because of the drought, so we decided it would be safer to start heading back. Long story short, we had to hike back following the river because the snow had covered our old tracks already. When we got back to the car, we actually thought about how quickly that could have turned into a bad situation. But still.. No complaints.

NEXT STOP: Mammoth Mountain

This one is short because I was crashing too much to take photos.

We went out to Mammoth to spend Christmas in this dodgy cabin with a few other people. I suck at winter sports, so I spent the entire first day pretty much crashing down the mountain. It was dumping snow and extremely windy, so the conditions were almost white out.

The next two days were spent starting from about the middle of the mountain. The powder was surreal, and again, no complaints. We even ran into Walt Jr. from Breaking Bad. Ha! He was staying a few cabins over from us! Super down to earth and friendly dude.

NEXT STOP: Avondale / Sedone w/ GLENN10 (Mr. Jockey)

To end the year I made the drive out to Avondale to stay with my friend Glenn. Some of you know him from Pedal & Spoke back in the day! The drive out was pretty chill aside from almost running out of gas because of crazy spaced apart gas stations.

Smile Glenn

But I got there. The first day was spent riding local trails. We rode a system called FINS which was a bunch of super rocky technical ups and downs with the occasional mega techy uphill grinder. It was like SWK with longer climbs. It gave me the warm fuzzies and made me really miss those short rocky loops. 2015 ended with the biggest climb in that system. I forget the name, but damn... It felt like trials riding getting to the top. We packed a couple beers and some food before hand, so we chilled and enjoyed the view before heading home.

The next day we set off to Sedona. When we got there, we immediately hit the trails. I’ve never ridden anything with so many natural trail features. Everything seemed almost shaped. It’s like 40% slick rock, with the rest being assorted rocks and red dirt. It was also peppered with random drops that ranged from 1-2ft, to 4-5.. So you’d be pedaling along and have to just randomly huck to flat. It was too much fun. The first day was pretty brief, but again...no complaints.

Day two in Sedona started on Hiline Trail. The entire trail was pretty much a cliff drop if you fell the wrong way. That paired with super technical terrain had me walking certain sections. I never really understood the whole full face thing until I saw a few of the sections. Incredible steep rocky drops into hard turns that sent you down two more of the same thing. Either full commitment or a hospital visit. 80% of the trail was still manageable and some of the funnest riding I’ve done to date. I HIGHLY recommend making it out there at some point. (Bring a full suspension)

After we got through Hiline, we drove over to another trail head and rode a trail called Hogwash (linked with others) This was a lot of the same stuff that Hiline had offered. It seemed like there was way more slick rock on this trail though. If I had to choose between the two, I would go with Hogwash because pretty much every turn pointed you to another incredible view. I wish I could describe the trails better, but I recommend just pulling a youtube video up. It was surreal.

That night we ate at an iHop and both got pretty epic food poisoning. The next day was spent puking at pretty much every other exit from his house in Arizona, to my house near the coast in Costa Mesa, CA. An accident caused traffic to stop right over the California border and I was even forced to swing the door open and puke out of my car a few times.

But still...no complaints.

I hope 2016 has more epic trails and less food poisoning.

 

That would be rad.

Thanks for reading! Come visit and ride!

-MATT

 

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HAPPY NEW YEAR

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HAPPY NEW YEAR

2015 has just come to a close.  It was an amazing year for us.  We saw the addition of more riders, women riders, and traveled to new places for new adventures.  We made new friends and got to know old ones better.  We got new bikes and broke old ones.

This website was started in the begging of 2015.

Schratz completed Dirty Kanza 200 a week after a head on collusion that landed him in the ER. 

The team was invited to "compete" in the Rapha Midwest Prestige.

Joel took some newbies to complete Ride 10,000.

Kelly and Chuks have never done anything of this scale.  THEY KILLED IT.

Sean was kicking everyone's ass in Cyclocross this fall, and we saw the return of Kristina to the Chi Cross Cup!

We took a rag tag bunch out to ride the Driftless region of Illinois. 

THANK YOU.  Thank you everyone in the Chicago scene for cheering us on, riding with us, and letting us crash at your tents at events.  Thank you everyone over seas for the support!!  Do you guys even know what Illinois is?  Thank you to all of our other friends and families here and around the country; Lindsay, Frank, Matt, Brad, Ben, Eric(s), and the rest!!

THANK YOU Cycling Republic and 2Bici for helping us out with bikes and gear.  

2016 looks to have a lot in store for us.  A new Kit design is in the works.  Bottles? T-shirts (come on Mike)? USAC Team licence? BMX?  New Rides/races?  Nothing is set in stone, but we have a good feeling about this year.

Thank you to all the Stay Rad riders!  We're incredibly thankful for all of you riding bikes and getting rad with us.  Thanks for sticking around and trusting that sometimes we know what we are doing!  HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Word is bond.

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