Ben and Bikes

A conversation with Thomas Prehn, a founding member of professional USA Cycling and inventor of the best bike lights money can by. Visit www.arsenalcycling.com and enter discount code BEN for a 20% discount.

A conversation with Jeremy McGhee, adaptive bike ride, surfer and skier extraordinaire. Since a car hit Jeremy on his motorbike and took away the use of his legs, 16 years ago, he has made it his life's mission to get off the pavement. Nothing gets this guy down. “If it’s money, figure it out. If it’s time, figure it out. You get less of it every day, so do it now”

Back in June, 2017, I interviewed April Paige from the Check-In foundation about the work she is doing to raise awareness for the appalling numbers of people who commit suicide each year. Since that time I have had personal connections to 4 people who have commited suicide. 3 of them High School Students, 1 of them middle aged. All of them male, all of them white, all of them tragic. White male suicide is a national epidemic.Today I talk to the team from www.go4graham.org.7njvygbr

Back in April I interviewed Sophie George and Chris Haag just before they set off for Alaska to begin their 20,000 mile, 2 year bicycle adventure starting in Homer Alaska and ending in Uswaya Argentina. The episode was called the Places I Pee. If you want to know about why I named the episode this way, or why their web site theplacesipee.com is so called, I suggest you listen to the episode.Here we are, about 6 months later and they have made it all the way from Homer to the Mexican border, via a brief layover at their home base in St George, Utah.Full disclosure listeners. I interviewed Sophie and Chris during that layover, but a few days later disaster struck. When I went to download the interview from my recording device, the file had become corrupted. I’ve tried every tool out there, to no avail.Sophie and Chris have been very understanding and have agreed to talk with me again, this time from close to the US/Mexican border in Arizona.As ever you can track their progress by going to their web site theplacesIpee.com

As ever I love it when a listener reaches out to me to be on the ben and bikes podcast If you’d like to be on the show please email me on ben@benandbikes.com or go to benandbikes.com and click on the contact button on the nav bar.Today’s guest, who sent me an email, is joining me via Skype all the way from Spain. His real name is Axel Blumenberg, but he also goes by the Bike Ninja. From what I understand Axel was one of those people suffering a soul destroying, life wasting and exhausting commute, in his case about 4 hours every day.Coming to his rescue was a bicycle and, from what I understand this has not only completely changed his life, but also allows him to view things from the perspective of a martial arts expert.

Nike was founded by Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight, both keen runners (and waffle fans), Trek was founded by Richard Burke a keen cyclist and GoPro was founded by Nick Woodman so he could take rad movies while he was surfing.My guest today is Josh Sprague, a competitive endurance athlete, who is the founder of Orange Mud, a manufacturer of some very unique running, biking and lifestyle brands.From a garage built prototype through to global distribution using his web site orangemud.com and countless retailers the company now has hundreds of happy customers. Sounds like a dream come true, but I suspect this journey has been like an endurance race for Josh, his family and his team, as many ups as there are downs, with nothing but guts, grit and determination to get him there. (note by Leadville 100/Ken Chlouber reference)

Receiving feedback from listeners is one of the most rewarding things about producing the Ben and Bikes Podcast. It’s a double bonus when those people want to share their bike story with me on the show. Back in June of 2017 I spoke with Robert Raymond about his experiences commuting to work in Florida - You can find this episode on my web site - benandbikes.comToday I’m joined by Sam Campbell, from Illinois.

Domestic Violence Awareness. Comedian Mara Marek rides her bike across the country to raise awareness for Domestic Violence Awareness. She and her dog Frank join me to talk about her experiences.

Some of you may remember that my Podcast used to be called Bikes And...where I’d fill in the next part with the subject of the show. Bikes And...Beer, Bikes and Community, etc. This episode goes all the way back to Episode 15, Bikes and Making the best of it, where I was honoured to talk to Jamie Osbourne. A man who suffered a catastrophic spinal injury when his road bike’s frame collapsed travelling at more than 40 miles per hour. His approach to recovery is one of tenacity, character and perseverance. If you like his story please consider buying his book “Will your way back” You can find a link on www.benandbikes.com.