February 2024 Stoked Spoke Adventure Series - Swift Industries

February 6, 2024

Back for its eighth installment, it’s time for another Stoked Spoke Series!! Stoked Spoke is a series of bicycling adventure presentations hosted in-person by members of the community. In observance of these dark, wet, cold winter days, this series is intended to bring our community together and inspire your next adventure.

Each evening highlights four to six self-supported bike camping routes complete with maps, slideshow and planning tips. We are dedicating February to adventure tales by Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC). This year Stoked Spoke is being hosted in Seattle, WA and in Denver, CO by our friends at Treehouse Cyclery. We’ll be publishing a summary of each Stoked Spoke event on our blog, including route summaries and digital maps.

Seattle Weds Feb 28th

Rhino Room (+21)

Doors open at 6:30pm

Presentations 7pm-9pm

Tickets: $5 a person. Sold at the door!

We’ll be accepting donations of gear on behalf of Facing Homelessness. For a list of supplies and gear that we’ll be accepting look here.

This evening will be emceed by special guest host Jess Kim. Presenters include:

Kae-lin Wang

Finding Roots

WA Coast to Montana/Canada border: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/45538292

GDMBR minus Canada: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/45553018

From the Bikepacking.com Journal 07: “A deeply personal and thought-provoking piece of writing, Kae-Lin Wang’s Finding Roots tells her story of rediscovering and reevaluating her Asian-American identity in the lead-up to and while riding the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route.”

Shawna Williams

Great Rift Dirt Tour

Route: https://ridewithgps.com/ambassador_routes/2245-great-rift-dirt-tour-craters-of-the-moon

The three of us drove down from Seattle and Spokane to join the inaugural riding of the Great Rift Dirt Tour with Aaron Couch (it’s creator). It was a journey along the dirt roads and doubletrack of southern Idaho’s Craters of the Moon and the Great Rift, the largest, deepest, and most recent volcanic rift system in the continental United States. Although we were unable to finish the entire route due to flooding, we found alternate options for fun exploration on the final day – in the end you have to be flexible!

Beija Flor

Rapha Yomp Rally

Route: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/41459590

Last May I had the honor and brutal challenge of participating in and finishing Rapha’s Yomp Rally. We climbed ~42,000 feet over the course of ~380 miles starting in Santa Barbara winding through the Los Padres mountains and wilderness, and ending in Santa Monica. I bled from my butt cheeks and cried a lot and I would absolutely do it again.

Frances Tung

Taiwan No. 1

Route: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/45224564?fbclid=IwAR1iWIyi1GB6G5FLOKk0obdinc4PodjSvY6hQJuKYOpI_fSEg-snnLa_xFU

Taiwan Cycling Route No.1 is an incredible touring route that goes all the way around the island nation. The route starts in Taipei and winds its way through dense urban jungles, stunning pristine coastlines, peaceful countryside farms, and everything in between. In the winter of 2023 I did the entire route counter-clockwise with several friends from Ampersand Bikes Club. It was the first bike tour I organized and completed, and wow it was such an adventure! We biked through extreme sun, wind, and rain. We had more than 3 dessert stops in one day. We made last-minute changes to our route. Overall, I highly recommend and can’t wait to go back to Taiwan!

Denver to Taos

Route: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/40641837

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/40641857

I biked from Denver to Taos, NM, traversing diverse landscapes. Starting in Denver, I moved from urban to high plains pretty quickly, with mountains and forests along the way. I went west towards Leadville eventually, riding through the San Luis Valley and small towns like Alamosa, I reached the New Mexico border, where the scenery shifted to red mesas and deserts. Finally, I ended the ride in Taos, NM.