Embrace the Heat

Every great ride starts with a vision – this can be a feeling from within, or a response to the outside world. Rarely does the vision come to life as you’d imagined it. Once set in motion, the ride has a life of its own, it’s fluid. If you could already see the complete shape of a journey, it wouldn’t be an adventure. It’s a lesson we love to learn again and again – the greatest rides happen when you let go and allow things to reveal themselves.

It began with a mission to put our hottest weather riding apparel to the ultimate test — crossing the Mojave Desert in a day. A barren, windswept, and sand-blasted desert that sits between LA and Las Vegas. Yet when you enter this desert you feel closest to nowhere.

The question was, who was down for such a mission?

This ‘desert vision’ required two riders who love riding in the heat. A duo who would drink up the chance to speed across one of America’s hottest, most desolate landscapes. 

Suddenly, Andrew Jackson of Los Angeles appeared in this vision. Andrew has a unique style and approach to riding and has the personality that lifts those around him — a quality that’s crucial for a hard day out, especially one in the desert. 

We sent out a signal.

“Let’s do it” came his reply.

We needed another rider. We scoured the network and quickly realised not everyone shared our vision. ‘Crossing the Mojave in a day’ wasn’t the average rider’s cup of cappuccino.

Months passed. We remained with one empty hand. Misaligned schedules, life plans, race calendars. It began to look like the vision was fading.

Then Andrew got a call to fly to the Philippines for a photoshoot. When he arrived he was met with a vibrant community of cyclists, overbearing heat and 100% humidity. Then he met Muzcali. Muzcali lives in Bangkok, and embodies the concept of effort and style on a bike. She has an infectious personality and passion for riding and loves to find her limit. The crosshairs aligned in Andrew’s own vision. He asked her the question. 

“Let’s do it”, she replied.

At this point, we had less than three weeks to make this ride happen. So we got to work. Phone calls, travel booking, film crews, a last minute visa. It began to take shape, it began to come to life.

We were in love with the route — it would take the riders over lonesome blacktop and rugged jeep roads across the Mojave National Preserve. A scenic and engaging route for our riders. The perfect vision of testing limits.

One thing we hadn’t envisioned, however, was turtle mating season in the Mojave Preserve. The park rangers would never let us disturb this important part of the year. Shell-shocked that our route was suddenly defunct, we had to quickly redraw our map. In this barren part of America there are very few roads for crossing. Our options seemed worthless — high-speed highways with a lack of features to engage the rider’s mind.

We called friends who know the area well. We spoke to the founder of the Speed Project, a running relay race between Los Angeles and Las Vegas that crosses this very desert, to get some beta on the infamous ‘Powerline Road’. An endless stretch of dirt road that undulates over foothills beneath towering power lines carrying electricity between Vegas and Barstow, CA. “It goes”, they said. That’s all we needed to know. A dirt alternative to the long, endless highway.

And so it goes. We had our mission. The turtles could mate in peace. 

A 160 mile route rolling over scenic tarmac and adventurous dirt roads from one side of the desert to the other. A route and a vision for our riders to put themselves and our hot weather apparel to the ultimate test and find the edges of their limits. It's never just a ride, and we love it. 

Find out how Andrew and Muzcali stood up to the challenge in our newest film ‘Cracked’, launching Tuesday, June 25.