Bikes or Death (2025)

09/12/2025

Wow, completely honored 🥹

The West Texas Showdown was one of the winners for ’s New Event of the Year Award!

This award is for everyone who put in so much work in the years, months, and days leading up to the event. The volunteers and staff who spent 3 sleepless nights in the desert pouring love into the cyclists. And all the riders who carried their weight (literally and figuratively) through the desert with resounding positivity and resilience.

The first year of WTS was special, it was good, and there will never be another like it. Thanks y’all for playing bikes with us in a desert and helping put on such a rad event. Let’s do it again next year!

Speaking of next year, the party starts again in March at East Texas Showdown (reg open now). Come out and see what makes these events so special!

Lastly, thank you to Bikepacking.com for supporting and bringing awareness to grassroots events all over the world. Y’all have been championing this niche sport for longer than I even know and your efforts, quality of work, and consistency should not only be acknowledged - but awarded. Next year can you give yourself an award??Haha, but seriously.

Also, I couldn’t pick a fav image, so I’m sharing all three. Feel free to reshare the one you like best!

📷

05/12/2025

New episode y’all! Haven’t typed that in a while 🙃

I’m excited to share a conversation with Kyle Gilbert () & Hannah Simon () who just went 1 & 2 at the inugural West Texas Showdown - a 395 mile battle in the Big Bend desert.

They both started their ultra-cycling journey when I started my race director journey, at the 2021 East Texas Showdown.

Since then they have gone on to accomplish much bigger things in our sport, which has been a thrill to watch them mature as athletes and humans.

That maturity and growth was on display at the inaugural West Texas showdown and I could not be more stoked for them to earn the top two podium spots. We couldn’t script a better movie and agrees, which is why we’re currently negotiating film rights. All that’s left to determine is who’s going to play Kyle and Hannah in the movie, drop your ideas in the comments

(this is not true and was only written as a mechanism to grab your attention, please dont sue me Netflix, but you can dm me if you wanna make it happen)

For a full write-up on today’s episode, and a lot of pretty pictures, please visit bikesordeath.com

📷 1 -
📷 2 - .johnston8 - Kyle & Hannah ETS ‘21

The party starts again in March 2026 with the 6th edition of East Texas Showdown. Registration is live, link in the bio.

🫡 BIG SHOUT OUT TO OUR NEWEST PATRONS 🫡
Dustin Mareth
Indiana Shulz
Manuel Busse
Dave Milam
Borja G

29/11/2025

LOViT “absolutely, love it”

It’s official, after attending 4 out of the 5 years in a media capacity, I’m finally going to ride my damn bike!

I’m signed up for the 205 mile High Watch and really stoked, maybe even…dare I say….”hyped” to get back out there. This is the area of Arkansas I’ve ridden the most and have a lot of great memories from over the years. Time to start training to make new memories and new friends in the Ouachitas 🤙🏻

Video from a 2024 trip after I interviewed for the pod.

28/11/2025

I have a lot to be thankful for this year. After five years of blood, sweat, and stress, the is finally complete with the addition of West Texas Showdown.

Getting here didn’t happen alone, and it sure as hell wasn’t easy. There were times it almost broke me—more times than I’d like to admit. This year in particular tested me more than ever. It felt like around every corner another challenge or obstacle was waiting for me, some of them looking downright impossible.

But the thing that kept me going—day after day—was West Texas. A dream I didn’t even realize I’d been carrying, but it was there all along. I didn’t know that decades spent in Big Bend were pointing me here, but they were.

No place has captured my heart and soul like the Big Bend landscape. Getting to introduce, re-introduce, and host an ultra-cycling event in a place I care about that deeply… that was the highlight of my life. Driving home after WTS, I didn’t make it more than five miles out of town before it all hit me—the gratitude, the sacrifices, the hard work—and I ugly cried. My cup was so full there was nowhere else for the tears to go.

My heart is full. My course is set.

Thank you to every single person who has poured into this community in big and small ways. I was tempted to list names, but there are too many, and I’d inevitably miss someone. I hope you know who you are, and I hope you know how much I love you and appreciate what you’ve given. The success of the Texas Showdown Series isn’t mine alone. This is for all of us—and for anyone who wants a little taste of Texas on their bike.

The Showdown Series is complete.
Next year, we make it better.
Who’s in?

P.S. East Texas Showdown registration opens at high noon tomorrow. Who’s gonna do all three and earn a buckle?

📷 /

07/11/2025

This past weekend I got to spend the night under the stars in my favorite place - Big Bend. As a bonus it was Halloween and my first solo bikepacking trip I’ve been on since attempting AZT last year.

It was so hard, but oh so good.

I got to revisit parts of I haven’t seen in years. I was reminded of its beauty, but also of its wild untainted desert landscape that wants to keep you there. This desert pulls no punches - you’ve got to be on guard and have an unrelenting spirit to endure its deadly grip.

I was out there to scout the final sections for West Texas Showdown - you can get an update on that . Before I left I got an email from “give yourself time to simply enjoy being out there”. Luckily, on this trip, I was able to mix business with pleasure and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Big Bend is a truly wild, lightly maintained, desert environment that is unique in our manicured landscape of trail networks. It is rare to have the opportunity to see land so raw and untouched. When riding through it I can’t help but reflect on the people who came and lived here before - and the lives they must have lived.

It’s not hard to forget them. Remnants of past inhabitants litter the landscape. From old thunderbirds turned upside down (complete with bullet holes), to hold dwellings, and pictographs, you’ll find signs that people have lived in this harsh environment for a long time. There is solace in that. It’s the feeling that - if they could, so can I. I take some comfort in that.

But they were a tougher bread and more acclimatized to such things. For myself, I sought only to survive long enough to find my way back to Terlingua where they were celebrating Dia de Los Mu***os. Started my trip on Halloween, ended it on Day of the Death. If that’s not Bikes or Death, I don’t know what is.

What I love about Big Bend is that it requires your full toolkit of experience and skill to ride. In that environment everything you do matters. What you eat, how much you eat, hydration, sleep, self care, navigation - it all matters. And if you don’t get it all right, then it can get bad quick.

Thanks for reading ✌🏻

05/11/2025

After 5 years and 8 events with I can honestly say we’re building something really cool - and we’re gettin” purdy okay at it, but that’s has a lot to do with the amazing people who have been by my side building this from nothing. There are way too many staff, volunteers, and sponsors who have been with me/us for years to thank.

This year’s CTS was one I’m really proud of from an event director perspective. The crew, volunteers, and riders all handled their business - each facing different challenges in the face of literal storms, and all systems operated flawlessly. All weekend I was overwhelmed with gratitude and admirations for this incredible group of humans who have coalesced around our little bikepacking race (& ride) - everyone of you make these events exactly what they are and exactly as they should be.

The media team also delivered big time this year (.johnston8, , , ). The level of talent on display was totally top notch both in work ethic and quality of work. They made it very hard on me to select these photos.

Check out the full gallery (and support their work) in my bio.

06/10/2025

First ride back home from scouting/planning for WTS in Big Bend was cut short.

It was starting to get dark and I was just about to stop and put on my helmet light and WHAM. I never saw it, but a limb was hanging in the trail (angled against the direction I was going) and caught me right in the helmet - luckily it didn’t go into the ventilation hole 😳. My head and neck were harshly, abruptly, and with force - whipped backwards. It caught me by complete surprise.

Slide 4 has a little video breakdown with more details.

But long story short, I made the call to end my ride early. I remembered what said when we recorded episode 199 and decided do play it safe. It sucked. I had planned to go on a nice trail ride and then I was going to do a trail run, the weather was perfect, I’d been cooped up all day working on the computer and was looking forward to going outside. 1.5 miles into my ride - this happened.

The last thing I wanted to do was go home and I almost convinced myself it would be fine to just ride the gravel levee (how do you spell that word? Is that right? Maybe I do have a concussion 🤪), but decided to play it super safe.

I sustained a pretty bad concussion a few years ago and I don’t wanna f**k around with my brain, but in that moment I felt fine. A little sore, and shaken, but mostly fine.

Sitting at home now I know that I’m not fine. My neck is very sore, my head hurts, and my brain feels likes it’s been jostled. I’m no doctor, so I won’t offer any type of guesses, but my body is telling me I made the right call to end my ride early.

Stay safe out there friends.

At least I got to take some pretty photos and get outside for a bit :)

28/08/2025

We’re 60 days out from the 3rd annual Central Texas Showdown grand depart, so let’s talk about it!

To talk about CTS I brought in a couple experts. Andrea Roelofs has participated in the Central Texas Lowdown the first 2 years. And Javian Quinones has participated in the East Texas Slowdown and came in 5th place this last year at the Central Texas Showdown.

I’m stoked to have both of them in the studio to share their experiences and expertise. It was great to get both perspectives from the competitive and non-competitive fields as both are an important component to the CTS experience.

Listen to today’s episode. Get stoked. And join us in 60 days for the 3rd Central Texas Showdown in the Texas Hill Country.

“The Hills are Calling”

Slide 1 📸 .johnston8
Slide 2 📸

⚡️EPISODE LINKS⚡️

TxORA: https://www.txora.org/

TxORA Hill Country Relief Fund: https://www.txora.org/floodresponse

RYDB Fest: https://www.ozarkgravelcyclists.com/rydb-fest

Central Texas Showdown: https://texasshowdownseries.com/central-texas-showdown/

🫶🏻NEW PATRONS🫶🏻
Chuck Willox

Join them won’t you? www.patreon.com/bikesordeath

18/08/2025

After came on the podcasts and spilled all his drone photography secrets I’ve been eager to try it for myself.

Here’s my first attempt using “The Intern Method”.

Happy Monday y’all 🫶🏻

13/08/2025

Today on the Bikes or Death podcast it’s all about the ladies! For the first time ever I turned the microphone, and podcast, over to the talented who guest hosted today’s episode!

Her guests for today’s podcast are .ridefierce, , and , who among other things, participated in this year’s Rockstar Challenge.
A 270ish mile, singletrack focused, backcountry bikepacking race in Virginia that boasts about 40k feet of elevation.

Each of these Rockstar Women put on an impressive performance, all beating the previous Fastest Known Time. Abi took the overall Grand Depart win and set a new FKT. Leila was 3rd overall and 2nd place female.
And, Jenny, who had to scratch from the Grand Depart came back just 2 weeks later and set a new FKT, besting Abi’s time by 2 hours.

Another story from today’s episode that caught my ear was when Leila got a stick lodge into her leg on a descent. I’ll let Leila tell that story, but trust me, you’re gonna wanna hear it (or maybe not 😬).

I want to send a special shout out to Kayla for doing such a fantastic job facilitating a fun and engaging conversation! She emailed me this idea a couple of months ago and it seemed like the perfect opportunity to turn the platform over to the ladies for this conversation. And she killed it! Kayla is lining up for the in a couple of days, so make sure to send her some good vibes

EPISODE SPONSORS
RYDB Fest: Sept. 19th - 21st in Fayetteville, AR. All the deets in the bio.

Central Texas Showdown: Oct. 23rd - 26th in Castell, TX. Routes from 88-500 miles, competitive and non-competitive options, info/reg in bio.

New Patrons🫡
Matthew Trinneer
Paul Mendricks

13/08/2025

Today on the Bikes or Death podcast it’s all about the ladies! For the first time ever I turned the microphone, and podcast, over to the talented who guest hosted today’s episode!

Her guests for today’s podcast are .ridefierce, , and , who among other things, participated in this year’s Rockstar Challenge. A 270ish mile, singletrack focused, backcountry bikepacking race in Virginia that boasts about 40k feet of elevation.

Each of these Rockstar Women put on an impressive performance, all beating the previous Fastest Known Time. Abi took the overall Grand Depart win and set a new FKT. Leila was 3rd overall and 2nd place female. And, Jenny, who had to scratch from the Grand Depart came back just 2 weeks later and set a new FKT, besting Abi’s time by 2 hours.

Another story from today’s episode that caught my ear was when Leila got a stick lodge into her leg on a descent. I’ll let Leila tell that story, but trust me, you’re gonna wanna hear it (or maybe not 😬).

I want to send a special shout out to Kayla for doing such a fantastic job facilitating a fun and engaging conversation! She emailed me this idea a couple of months ago and it seemed like the perfect opportunity to turn the platform over to the ladies for this conversation. And she killed it! Kayla is lining up for the in a couple of days, so make sure to send her some good vibes

EPISODE SPONSORS

RYDB Fest: Sept. 19th - 21st in Fayetteville, AR. All the deets in the bio.

Central Texas Showdown: Oct. 23rd - 26th in Castell, TX. Routes from 88-500 miles, competitive and non-competitive options, info/reg in bio.

New Patrons 🫡
Matthew Trinneer
Paul Mendricks

28/07/2025

Sunset Service was good today.

Nothing like singletrack on a fully ridged singlespeed, it cuts through all the bs 🤘🏻

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