Toby is an alchemist of bike love, a wizard of cycling culture and a prophet of adventuring by bicycle. We’re so stoked to have him plying his trade managing our bike shop, building up new bicycles, servicing old ones and fine tuning our showroom in anticipation of the return of cool weather and a functional Toole street in front of our building.
Toby has been living the bike shop life since 2004, getting started at the Sports Basement in San Fransisco before relocating to Ventura. In 2010, Toby co-founded the Ventura Bike Hub an amazing community bike shop. Toby helped build this organization into a thriving and integral part of Ventura’s cycling community and it was a tough and sad parting of ways for him and his partner Benicia to move on to Tucson. But it is also a testament of what they built that they can move along and pass their leadership on to the next generation of HUB leaders.
Beyond bicycle wrenching and riding, Toby’s interests include surfing, restoring old cars and traveling with his family.
Grail bikes. – December. 9, 2024
Last Saturday Evening while attending the annual Bicas Art Auction (a fantastic fundraiser and event help by our awesome local community bike shop) I came across one of my grail bikes in their racks. It’s an Albert Eisentraut rainbow trout in immaculate condition.
My Grail is a limited by Albert, but I would definitely settle for a rainbow traut. I worked at a shop in the late aughts that had a race team sponsored by Albert and they all had custom Eisentrauts with a pink and blue argyle pattern painted on them. Albert is from Oakland, CA and began building in 1959. Many consider him the person that really brought back post war American frame building and craftsmanship. His frames are always beautiful and full of amazing details.
Saying goodbye to Lonesome George – December. 2, 2024
Most of you probably don’t know this, but I pride myself on being an everyday bike commuter for the last 22 years. During my adult life my family have been a 1 car or no car household. But I do have a dirty little secret. I really love vintage cars. I’ve owned and build cars ranging from the late 20’s to the early 70’s. I don’t usually keep them long, I usually buy them for $500 and get then mechanically sound and cruise them a bit here and there and get over having a car since I never drive it and some bill or large expense comes up and I sell the car.
But this one was different. Lonesome George (named after the last gallapegos turtle) is a 1969 Dodge A-108 pop top camper van. We surfed, camped and traveled all over the California coast and desert with this van and I owned it for 12 years (probably 5 times longer than I’ve had any other car). It took a long time to get this van safe enough and it was a reliable pleasurable slow cruise that provided us wonderful nights of sleeping next to the sound of the surf breaking. Lonesome George is off to its next adventure in Pennsylvania and camping in the Poconos. You will be missed!!
New Mural! – November. 25, 2024
One of the rad things about Tucson is that there are sooooo many murals around town. Murals and street art keep a city or a town vibrant and fun. As they pop up, you get something new to look at or as you meander around town you find new ones constantly or you are paying attention.
The best murals tell a story of the community or culture of the area you are in and help instill a pride in tradition and culture. Here’s a new one going on down the street. It’s done by an amazing local muralist Ignacio Garcia. Check out his work at https://www.ignaciotheartist.com/. This mural celebrates the tradition of the Tucson Rodeo that is celebrating 100 years and is the country’s longest non-motorized parade! Here’s this giant mural in progress. Keep in mind this is a 6 story building!!!
Civic engagement: It’s important. – November. 18, 2024
To make bikes really equitable, safer and better utilized it’s important to build better infrastructure as well as community engagement neighborhood by neighborhood to make sure people have what they need and is wanted. I want to give a shout out to the folks and organizations that are organizing in the neighborhoods and working with the city to advocate for these things and work on connecting people physically and metaphorically through community events and rides!
This is a shout out to FUGA for making these rad events happen and for their tireless work here in Tucson. The picture today is of an event that just happened. We also have LSA (Living Streets Alliance) doing amazing work in the city as well with their advocacy and previously mentioned open streets event Ciclovia! Fill out those surveys, write those letters and show up to events; It makes a difference! Become a YIMBY!!!
Kamoot Rally and Fiore’s wood bike – November. 11, 2024
Last week at the shop was a super busy week here after a few events in the shop as well as rides and events the week before. One of the big highlights was meeting a bunch of the rad folks that traveled into town for the Kamoot Rally that was hosted by Lael Wilcox. The Rally is a cool format that is community oriented aventure riding. The ride is limited to 75 women who came from all over the states as well as around the world.
They will be riding 394 miles with 24,500 feet of climbing. Last year was the first one in Arizona and we meet so many rad women who came into the shop. One of the highlights this year was meeting Fiore from Italy and her really cool gravel bike made from Frassino wood (European ash tree). Feast your eyes on this Georgeous bike! And cheers to everyone on the Kamoot Rally!!!
Speaker Series – November. 04, 2024
For our 6th(!!!) speaker series event collaboration with the fine folks at Roadrunner Bikes (Elliot specifically) we were fortunately enough to have storytelling from Elisha Bishop(Rez Gravel) and Claudia Jackson (SiiHasin Bike Rides) travel over and bless us with storytelling.
Claudia came all the way from Indian Wells and Elisha came all the way from Gila River Community (near Casa Grande). It was really inspiring to hear these two amazing voices community and ride leaders talk about how they got started and the process through developing their own style of rides, steeped in community, support of each other and creating a special space where people could feel vulnerable.
Please take a moment to check out these incredible programs and consider supporting them with a donation for supplies and ongoing support:
- Watch the short film “Two Wheels, One Nation” about SiiHasin [here].
- Donate to SiiHasin [here].
- Read about Rez Gravel [here], and Donate to support their efforts [here].
Thank you! And if this speaks to you, please donate and share!
Tucson Alleybat – October. 28, 2024
I was fortunate enough to help out at the annual Tucson Alleybat. What’s an Alleybat you ask? It’s like an Alleycat messenger style race, which is basically a scavenger hunt and you have to find efficient ways to get to different checkpoints. The Alleybat is less competitive and more mischievous with checkpoint focusing on fun and mischief as well as costumed! It’s such a good show of Tucson community and this year was a fundraiser for Tucson Food Share and Community Care Tucson. The organizers did an incredible job of setting it up and organizing the fundraisers and raffle, the folks that designed all the check points had amazing activities and people did an amazing job of bringing the fun and mischief!!! Huge shoutout to Burger, Blix, Aliz, and Hannah as well as everyone who helped for making such a wonderful fulfilling night! Special thanks to Slow Body Brewing and the medieval wedding next to us for putting up with us and all the teams who were so fun to watch!
Spaces closed to cars – October. 21, 2024
I really love the way that spaces get activated when areas get closed to cars. Whether it be outside seating or entire blocks that are permanently or temporarily closed. The first one I experienced was weekly closures at Golden Gate Park than ciclovia in San Francisco. It really brought joy to see all kinds of members of the the community come together and spend time outside. It gets way more people moving slower into business areas. During Covid my home area of Ventura and Santa Barbara closed the Main st (and State street) to cars and have continued it. I’ve never seen so many people walking around in downtown Ventura year round. It really brought some life into a slow afternoon only, kinda Saturday and closed Sunday community to a busy all day every day area. Sorry my picture is of a side street on a foggy early morning 
. But in the meantime- go check out LSA’s Ciclovia Tucson this weekend to get a taste of what open streets is all about! People! We’ll be there fixing bikes at the south side of the route all day on Sunday! Come say hi!
Old Pueblo trolley transit museum – October. 14, 2024
I’m a big fan of public transportation (even though I mostly ride my bike, I do enjoy hopping on a streetcar or using a train or bus to get around) Recently I was lucky enough to ride by the Old Pueblo Trolley Museum also called the Southern Arizona Transit Museum. It’s an amazing collection of unrestored and restored public transportation vehicles ranging from mule pulled trolley, streetcars and busses. It’s all ran by volunteers. A couple of them have been friends since they meet on a bus 1958. They started as an organization to revive the streetcar in Tucson (it had been dead since 1930). They built tracks on 4th Ave and operated vintage streetcars until recently when our transit service took over the line and purchased new streetcars. They have collected the history or local transit and have been acquiring streetcars and busses that were used through the region as well as streetcars from around the world. Their collection is amazing and it’s awesome to talk the folks and hear stories about these old vehiclesl. Their goal is to run streetcars through sour Tucson that would hear out from the museum. It would be so cool! Go check them out at oldpueblotrolley.com
Car space < Living space – October. 7, 2024
Recently we had Parking Day here in Tucson. One of the best parts of this event is demonstrating how much liveable space we lose to cars. Whether it be road space or parking space. There are estimated 2.5-7 spaces per every registered car. That is a huge waste of space! One of my favorite waste of space is the El Con mall here with an always mostly empty parking lot of almost 6000 spaces. Imagine what we could do with those spaces; open space for nature, housing for the houseless and mobile businesses, but, instead we have this huge, ugly, hot heat island that just reflects heat and puts an ugly scar in the city.
During parking day my friends Logan and Gustavo made a demonstration parking space structure called “the shed” to show how the space could be a tiny home so someone can have secure housing, it could be an office, a guest house, office, storage or whatever you can imagine. From their website: The “ The shed’s walls are constructed from locally fabricated Insulated Concrete Form Blocks. Each block weighs approximately 3 pounds, making them easy to lift and assemble. The entire wall system can be pre-assembled into 15 manageable panels and loaded onto a single trailer. Although these panels are lightweight and easy to handle, we recommend that two people work together to place each panel due to their size— the largest panels weigh around 50 pounds and measure 3 feet tall by 10 feet long. the whole shed can be built very nicely for under $10,000. I really love Logan and Gustavo’s vision for creative use of small spaces and infill. Learn more at https://silvaandhavens.com/
Reminiscing about northern Arizona. – October. 03, 2024
As we hit another heatwave of 100 for a whole nother week it’s hard to believe it’s already October. As I sweat sitting here I’m dreaming of cooler fall weather, some clouds and trees to provide shade and cold steams to filter some water from and perhaps take a little dip. Doing the lobo Lupe’s upper lollipop loop really let me know I was about done with the long summer and ready to ease into fall. I am usually a summer person, but it’s been constantly over 100 and stayint there even at night (I think our neighbors in Phoenix hit a new record of 100 days over 100) and without the usual breaks even though we had some amazing monsoons it just didn’t cool off enough. Here’s too some upcoming cooler weather and riding season here in Tucson!
Bigfoot is real ?!?!? – September. 30, 2024
I searched far and wide and looked my hardest. It was to no avail until….
This Bigfoot was real, really fake. Here I am posed with an exact scale replica of the mysterious Bigfoot! Feast your eyes on that creature!
Bigfoot is waiting – September. 23, 2024
I’m not sure if I have divulged before how much I love cryptids. Wether it be the elusive Yucca man in the desert, or a chupacabra running by just out of the corner of your eye. As we set foot (and wheels) into the forests of the white mountains for the lobo Lupe’s upper lollipop loop, I kept a keen watch for the seldom seen Bigfoot. I kept my neck on a swivel, I kept my ears sharp, and I looked for signs; we saw some, but did we find Bigfoot? Find out next time…
Make it yours – September. 16, 2024
Check out this make it mine from today! I love when people take advantage of our make it mine system and do some fun colors, make it reliable with a tubeless setup and add a dropper to give the bike a little more pizzaz in the scary stuff!
Bikers Beware! – September. 9, 2024
Check out this sign someone posted outside the UofA. Don’t worry it’s a low traffic stop sign at the edge of campus, so usually most people roll it to keep momentum as they travel through to their destination. I’m actually also a big fan of the Idaho stop (when no cars are present a stop sign is a yield and a stop light is a stop sign) it creates aware riders that pay attention to their surroundings and make safe choices to move forward. Statistically you are much more likely to be hit while you have the right of way of a green light (the old left hook or someone turning right through you. So get to your destination safely and aware- however that may be.
Gas can flipper do-dad – September. 2, 2024
Throughout the year after trips I always end up with some iso-butane gas containers from my cooking setup that have like maybe a boil left in them. I don’t really want to carry an extra can with me so I end up piling up the empties on my shelf with my camping gear. I finally got around to ordering one of the gas can flipper refilled thingy mabobbers. I haven’t used it yet- but look forward to trying it. I guess the secret is to heat one can and cool the other and keep a scale on hand to mark weights and figure out when one is full? Anyone have any tips? I haven’t used mine yet.
Traipsing through the wilderness – August. 26, 2024
It’s about that time as the weather slowly changes and works its way towards third summer then slowly coming towards fall. You can feel it in the breeze, in the evenings that are slowly cooling off and we start to ride our bikes more again. As that time approaches I slowly stretch out of my summer slumber and am ready to do a trip. I’m super excited for our fall trip to do a small piece of Forrest Radarian’s route El Lobo Lupes. Here’s a shot of our last forestry trip to the Lincoln national forest when we did the Rollin and Tumblin route.
Night Moves – August. 19, 2024
Lately I’ve been enjoying some fun night rides, whether it’s by myself, with a friend (or friends) and my family. Here’s a shot from a recent ride this last week, it’s from a long exposure at 10pm at the historic San Pedro Chapel in the El Fuerte community. I leave you with these words from Bob Seger: “ Workin’ on our night moves. Tryna make some front page drive-in news. Workin’ on our night moves In the summertime …Mm-mm…. In the sweet summertime.”
Popsicles for all! – August. 12, 2024
Our friend, amazing artist, and bike whisperer extraordinaire Sean T Randolph has been bringing us popsicles whenever he pops in to help us battle the heat with Tucson Summers. They have been amazing and a tasty variety of refreshing fruit to cool you down on a hot day. To make it even better we’ve been sharing them with friends and delivery drivers who have been braving the heat and to deliver us bikes and parts to keep the shop running smoothly. Check out our amazing FedEx Driver Carlos enjoying a tasty treat!
Clickstand – August. 5, 2024
Recently I was gifted a Clickstand by one of our rad customers Justin who we’ve done some really cool bike builds for. These have been on my radar (as someone who has forever been never kickstand (I have no idea why, maybe I’m just super stubborn) and have peaked my interest for the possibility of multi use. 1: it props your bike up (even when loaded) so it is easy to unpack, grab gear or just protect your bike. 2: it could replace a hiking pole or tent pole for a tarp/emergency shelter kit. Generally on camping trips I sleep sans tent (cowboy camping in colloquial terms), unless a storm is known to be coming and I’ll bring a tent. As effective as they are, I don’t love sleeping in tents- I sleep hot and prefer fresh air running through. In steps the Clickstand, I have a bike holder and a tarp holder! The cool thing about tarp shelters is they can be ultralight and pack very small, meaning I wouldn’t think twice of bringing it on a trip as a just in case! Because the thing is, on a few trips I risked it and paid the price by having to improvise and jump in with someone else, thanks to Henley Phillips, Nate Garcia and Josh Lipton for putting up with me!
Wheel Building – July. 26, 2024
Wheel building for some people can be either an extremely frustrating experience or this beautifully meditative process. Here at campfire we all fortunately love wheel building because we get to build quite a few. We are extremely lucky to have super wheel builder Ellie here at the shop who also spent years teaching the art of wheel building. Pictured here is Jake and Ellie in a build off to build a couple epic wheels for some customers. The other cool thing about wheels is they can be really simple and classic or really wild, with different colored spokes, nipples or even weird lacing patterns.
Bxbxbx is back! – July. 19, 2024
Breakfast by bike has been a fun evolution and a cool community event that we do here at the shop. Bxbxbx is a hosted offshoot of the fantastic #coffeeoutside movement sweeping the world. Breakfast by bike started off with a donut ride, than evolved into making pancakes for folks, than coffee than basic pancake art and has now evolved into multi color pancake art, sometimes our buddy Dan from lowball bikes comes out and makes eggs and salsa as well! It also has the hot month evolution (may,June, August and sometimes September) of making cold brew and picking up some donuts! I’m stoked to announce I just finished putting together our calendar for breakfast by bike for the rest of the year. Come out and hang!
Wolf Tooth Flat-Mount to Post-Mount Adaptor – July. 12, 2024
The other day I got the joy of installing a new Sram Apex 12 speed eagle groupset for a customers drop bar mountain build. I’m super stoked on this new gruppo because it can run a 10-52 cassette without modification. Don’t get me wrong I like the ratio kit, but the brakes are soooooo much better on the 12 speed apex kit. That leads to the next isssue- the kit is designed for a gravel bike so it comes with flat mount brakes. On a mountain bike it comes with post or is mount brakes- the calipers can be swapped for a cleaner setup (at a cost $$$) or in steps Wolf Tooth with these awesome adaptors: problem solved, money saved and the setup works flawlessly!
Recovering Tim’s Stolen Bike – July. 5, 2024
I had a pretty exciting start of the week this week. Woke up in the morning on Monday and saw that a friends bike was stolen the night before on fourth avenue near the shop. On Monday mornings we start a little later because we close late and i usually do my favorite thing, a meandering ramble around town with no destination or agenda except to get back to work in time.
So I meandered and cruised around keeping an eye peeled for Tim’s bike- I looked in all the usual spots to no avail, but made a double back to look at some cool architecture near downtown. I came back through our historic courthouse (where Dillinger was held in court) and lo and behold, someone was riding Tim’s bike! I rolled up on them and stopped and talked for a bit and let them know they were riding a stolen bike. They were chill so we talked for a bit and got them reimbursed.
Now Tim has his beloved, special, custom built, sentimental ride. The key takeaway is not to judge, it sucks and is violating when a bike gets stolen, buts it’s really just a symptom of sad times. And I’m stoked the individual(who was houseless) has some cash back in his pocket to get a new ride (we sent him to Bicas to get an affordable refurbished bike)