Kali Journal

Marcus Schoepe, 19, lives in Morgan Hill and he's been hanging around Kali World Headquarters for longer than we can remember. Just like anyone who we see around the warehouse for any length of time, we put him to work. "Marcus is a great kid," said Brad Waldron, Kali Lead Engineer. "I love that I can just tell him to do something or point him in the direction of something that needs to done and it's taken care of." For someone who would rather be riding the dirt jumps than just about anything else, we've found him to be surprisingly pleasant and hard working. As a matter of fact, we would say he optimizes what it means to be part of the Kali Krew. He cares and it shows in everything he does. "It's surprising, for such a big kid he's so graceful on the bike," said Waldron. "He just keeps getting better and better."  His favorite 100 yards is not surprising to us. Our backyard is his second home, after all. At least five times a week, for about three hours a day, he's out there maintaining or shredding the jumps. Normally Marcus starts the day off picking up trash and keeping an eye out for anything that need touching up. The job entails some housekeeping, some detailed shovel work and a whole lot of babysitting of the local groms.  He can see the entirety of his favorite line while standing atop Kali's tall tower. There is the quick ride down the ramp, giving him the speed he need to launch off the first wooden kicker over a gap to a smooth dirt landing, which sets him up for the next ramp. The second jump of the line is a favorite of Marcus' especially since it is currently riding exquisitely. It's about two Marcus' tall and he's not short. The gap is the biggest jump in the yard. He routinely hits it like it's nothing. "I just try to stay focused on what I need to do," said Marcus. "I think about trying to complete the tricks I want in my line. To warm up, I normally just cruise for a little bit, ride the jumps and limit my tricks for a bit while I ease myself into doing them."  Marcus has been riding pretty regularly for the last five years and the last three have been mostly here at Kali. He rides six times-a-week for at least a couple hours per session. He loves riding here and the only thing he would want to see different is more additional dirt jumps. Even though a majority of his riding is in the same spot he does like to get out and go other places and isn’t afraid to take his dirt jumper to the concrete at a skatepark. Typically he rides with Kali’s very own Zac West, but recently has been riding with a couple of other buddies. "I love riding with them because they are highly skilled and it makes me want to push myself further."  Follow Marcus on Instagram: @lilmarcussw  

Loyal coaching and bike fitting preaches consistency, rest and recovery.

Consistency, I always joke with my four hour rule. If you only have four hours a week to ride, I'd rather see four, one hour rides then one four hour ride. Your body will absorb that fitness a lot better. It's also not as fatiguing, so that's another thing. Then rest/recovery. If you start training harder, you got to make sure the rest is there. The body rebuilds itself, if the training is there to tear the body down, you rest, and it springboards off that. It's easy to ride hard and hard to ride easy. And cycling is such an aerobic sport. And there’s sports, like cycling, such as cross country skiing, you know, when you're racing, it's anaerobic for a good chunk of the race, but to allow the body to handle that kind of load, you got to ride aerobically a lot, and a lot of people don't know what true aerobic effort is. I see riders all the time, you know, they go medium hard to pretty hard, all the time. But when you go hard, learn how to go ballistically hard.

Seth Beiden is the best. He’s one of those friends you can’t get enough of and unfortunately you never do. Sure, he’s in marketing and part of his job is to be positive and enthusiastic, but you get the distinct impression he didn’t train to be the life of the party, that’s just the way it is.  He’s the first one to either suggest a crazy idea or he’s at the front of the line to give it a go. Whether it be business meetings in a hot tub or adult big wheel races, it is always Seth cheering the loudest.  Seth works in PR for the Sasquatch Agency, lives in Santa Rosa, Ca with his wife and son  and we genuinely hope everyone has someone like Seth in their lives. He was kind enough to share his Kali 100 with us, so enjoy.  Dawn patrol, morning ride, sunride, or whatever you may call it is my favorite time to be outside, especially on weekdays. You have the trails to yourself, leaving behind those who wait-out the darkness and cold for fairer temperatures, and watch the world come alive. COVID times feel restricting in most areas, but they have been freeing for me on ride potential. With no fatherly school drop-off duties at 8am these days, the mornings are mine for now. Located one mile from my front door is Annadel State Park along with three of the best riding buddies a guy could ask for. Nearly every night there is a group text “Who’s riding tomorrow?” and many times we get all four of us rolling out for our “6:30 at the bridge” rendezvous. Rather than complain about where we can’t go during the pandemic, we are thrilled to be able to spend so much time on our bikes on our local trails. Many mornings we pedal to the trail in the dark just in time for enough light to open up enough to navigate the rocks on our climb up Rough Go trail. After that we roll across the park and down to the other side of the park on various routes. We refill at a local drinking fountain and pedal back up to the top of South Burma, one of the high points in the park, before the usual “so which way out today?” question pops up. One of us calls it, the rest shrug and nod with approval and we roll.  I knew exactly which “Kali 100” section was going to be my topic for this story, but I am thankful to have many options. About an hour or so into the ride we are nearly to the top of South Burma and the trail snakes its way around the northwest side to the east side of the mountain before topping out. This is precisely where the sunrise, the first rays of light we’ll see that day, smacks us in the face with a polite but forceful “Welcome to today! Nicely done!” type of vibe. I always relish this section at this time of day, because I know we’ve been up and rolling since dark, and this is the only way to see this view. I realized that my Kali 100 had more to do with the time of day and how far I had come that morning than the rocks, roots and dirt that makes up the trail itself.  It is a moment in time more than a location or destination, and you can only access it once a day. Without the recent fires that have wreaked havoc on Sonoma County and much of Annadel State Park, the sunlight would barely make its way through the foliage of the redwood and oak trees in this beautiful park and we might not have this amazing morning awakening. Half-full thinking.  I hope everyone gets the chance to catch their own dawn patrol sunrise soon, no matter where they ride.

Greetings from the Kali World Headquarters. We would like to introduce you to our new semi-regular story series called The Kali 100.We, like most of you, have been stuck at home or at least close to home for well over a year now and we have been going a little stir crazy and, dare we say, downright bored and unappreciative of our local rides. It had gotten to the point where it didn't matter which bike we were on, whether it be the road bike, the mountain bike, the dirt jumper or the gravel grinder, we were hating on our rides and we longed for somewhere else. Then Stephen Stills reminded us we needed to  “Love the One Your With.” So this series is our tribute to the greatest 100 yards of any and all locals rides. We start with a little story from our friend, Jakob Schiller, out of Albuquerque, New Mexico where his favorite 100 yards is not deep and steep or especially scenic, but his most beloved stretch of street is right outside his front door, and he loves it for its ability to wear out his boys before bedtime.We hope you enjoy the story and if you have a few minutes why not drop us an email with your Kali 100, so we can share it with the whole Krew. --------- Several nights each week I head out with my five-year-old son Marcos and three-year-old step-son Yusuf for an after-dinner bike ride. They’re still amped from the day and need to burn off some energy. We throw on jackets, gloves, and hats and then strap on helmets. It’s usually dark so we also turn on bike lights and they both head down the driveway on their pedalless strider bikes. At the street they turn left and start pushing furiously with their feet. Both balance well so it’s fun to see them scoot and glide, scoot and glide. Yusuf likes to ride his bike back and forth across the street in a zig-zag pattern, leaning into each turn as he heads the other direction. Marcos likes the sidewalk because the down section of driveways give him a little boost. We only make it two blocks, or a little more than 100 yards, because just to the west of our house is a little park where they insist on dismounting, taking off their helmets, and playing with our dog Rosie, who walks with me while the boys ride. The boys team up and play tug-of-war with Rosie using her leash until one side loses interest. Then the boys climb the knobby Mulberry tree at the east end of the park.  When they’re bored with the tree, both boys grab their helmets, get back on their bikes, turn their lights back on, and start to scoot back home. If they’re getting tired and grumpy the ride home might take a little longer because one of them will complain. When we finally get back to the house we hang up their bikes and helmets and take off all their warm clothes and they jump in the bath. Then it’s bedtime and time to do it all again tomorrow.  

Got out for a ride this morning. It was awesome. Felt great. I even came home and washed my bike, my kit and myself. And now I’m stuck at this blasted box staring at the internet, watching Friday Fail videos and waiting for my next Zoom meeting to start.  I’ve scrolled PinkBike, Bike Rumor, CyclingTips, CyclingNews, VeloNews and dug into the chat rooms on Reddit. And now I’m headed deep into the data on Strava, mine and everyone else's.  The thing is, during this extended “vacation” from all things normal I’ve started to observe an interesting social phenomenon, the subtle nuanced naming conventions people use on their Strava rides to indicate what to expect from their data.  I present my list of suggestions to you, so you can, in very few words, let me and everyone else know why your most recent ride wasn’t filled with PRs, Local Hero accolades and KOM crowns.  1. The number one way to stop your Strava friends from digging into your data and judging you for the lame ride file you just uploaded is to name your ride after your ride computer and what why it let you down. “Garmin Failed to Upload” or “Wahoo Kickr should be kicked to the curb” or just “Technology Sucks.” This technology failure category pretty much exonerates you from having to defend your ride in any capacity. And if part of your ride went pretty well and then it all went back you can always pull out the “Garmin Failed Halfway through my Ride.” Gold.  2. This old chestnut is an awesome way to flag your friends on why your average speed  was so anemic or why you only road 14 miles on a Saturday. It is the riding with friends or what we will refer to as the everyone else slows me down. “Ran into Sue just as I headed out” or “It was so great to catch up with Don.”  3. Number three is a classic, because it allows you to use outside forces to disguise your lame ride file. This is “The Coach told me to go easy” or “Scheduled off day ride” naming or what we call the I was forced by an outside source to take it easy. And whose coach is going to call them on this. I mean you are paying them, afterall. 4. This is the category where you blame your lame ass ride on your whip. Things like “I double flatted” or “I forgot to charge my damn Di2 battery” are great starts, but the equipment malfunction category has some great options.. Broken chain. Cut in the sidewall. Leak in the front fork. Leak in the back shock. Saddle came loose. Pedals came loose. The list just goes on and on. 5. Number five is the “I wasn’t feeling it” naming convention. This is the mind over matter category where you reference the fact you totally had the legs to lay down some sweet PRs, but your mind was just not going to have any of it. “I couldn’t get my head in the game and The ride was over before I realized I should have been paying attention to my VO2 Max,” are two examples. 6. We also have the “Something interrupted my amazing workout category.” This includes the my ride was interrupted by an urgent phone call and the forgotten appointment naming convention. We will be calling this the Universe did not want me to flex my muscles category. 7. Then there is the  “I'm fat and out of shape because life has been hard.” Or what we will refer to going forward as the honesty with a twinge of the take pity on me twist. These riders will either hide their workouts on Strava or post sporadically to let their fans know they haven’t sold off their bikes, but you can tell by what they name their rides they are not interested in talking about it. 8. And the final category is for the rider who says “I don’t use Strava. Hell, I don’t use Zwift or a Garmin or a Power Meter or even index shifting. I run a Bridgestone MB2 with Suntour shifters with toe clips and straps. I wear real wool shorts and I wax my chain before every ride. And I’m perfectly happy and know for a fact I’m not missing anything with all this newfangled technology.” There are many levels for this category, but these riders can usually be found hunkered over their wheel truing stand muttering something about bananas being the perfect ride food and how the world ended when they forced World Tour Professionals to wear helmets. We are not a big fan of this category for this reason alone. 

The first thing you notice about Simon Bosman, 59, when you come upon him on the trails around Sedona is absolutely nothing.  He doesn’t take this personally. As a matter of fact he’s grown pretty accustomed to this, as he is almost always accompanied on the trail by his trusty trail dog, Po and Po gets all the attention. But truth be known Po just might be the most aloof, dare we say unfriendly trail dog, in all the land. He doesn’t give a shit about being petted, talked to or even making eye contact. He only has eyes for Simon and he makes it very clear he has no interest in standing around and chewing the fat. He’s here to rip the gnar.  Aside from Po’s complete lack of social etiquette, he is an amazing riding partner. Po hangs at the back of the pack, keeping a close watch on the entire group and then he moves up one rider at a time until he finds himself once again tucked in on Simon’s wheel. And Simon’s wheel is a great place to be. He’s wicked fast, whippy smooth with a story and filled to the brim with local knowledge assuring if you ride with Simon you will find yourself on some “special” local trails, taking in amzazing vistas and pounding through some quality Sedona chunk.    Where are you from?  I was born in Durban, South Africa in 1961. In 1968 my family and I left and moved to Zimbabwe where we lived until 1979 when we made our way back to South Africa. After all the moving I went to Phoenix, Arizona in the early 80s and found Sedona where I currently live. Back in Africa me, my brother, mom and dad used to live in tents while constructing our brick house on a reservation. We had no power tools for this job, just some help from local natives. All of our furniture was handmade. We cooked in our wood fire stove and grew our own vegetable garden. When did you start riding? I’ve been riding my whole life, I’ve always been active. My first time riding single track was when I was about 6 or 7 years old. I used to ride my friend’s bikes and never got a bike of my own until I was 16. I love all terrain and the gnarly parts of the ride extra. I used to race XC in the late 80s and did my first downhill race in 1990. As time went on I raced nationals and got sponsored. I’ve also raced dirt bikes and street bikes. I am excited by anything you can do on wheels. How often do you ride? As often as I can! It is calming. I always have to be active. My love for physical activity even reflects on my job. I hated working an office job and I currently work in landscaping.  When I’m mountain biking doing a big line I take it on staying in control bit by bit. Just like in my life. When you take on things in small mouthfuls you can achieve a lot. Riding has helped me overcome ADHD and anxiety. I can’t imagine overcoming those things without my bike. After all these years I’m still learning new tricks and techniques. Are there any destinations you want to ride at when there’s less travel restrictions? I am so lucky to have nearby places to ride like Prescott, but there’s lots I would like to explore in British Columbia, Canada.  How did your dog “Po” become so good on trails? I have always liked having a trained dog on the trails with me. I’ve always had animals but not your typical house pets. A few of my previous pets when I lived on the reservation were; monkeys, leopards, pythons and a bunch of different kinds of birds. Tell us about a crazy experience you had while riding your bike. One time I was riding with Bike Magazine on Mingus Mountain. We were doing the Black Canyon trail. This is a trail I rode a bunch of times but there’s one section that is on the edge of a 90 foot cliff. One of my friends wheelied across it but when I went across this section my back wheel caught a rock hidden in the dewy grass on the trail. This sent me backwards off the cliff. After about 15 feet of falling I caught and hung onto a bush and was pulled up by a human chain to safety.  What does the future hold for you and Po? Making a daily list of things that I’d like to accomplish. Starting with the things you want to do least but are important. I think we all have way more time each day to accomplish things than we think we have. Making a list is key to positioning yourself appropriately to succeed at whatever we want.