Who better to share a RoadsLikeThese story than Michael Tabtabai of Leave It On The Road? So stoked to share his story this week! It’s a little more bike heavy than we normally post, but LIOTR is fighting cancer with every epic ride, so after checking out the amazing photos and story please check the LIOTR site and see what you can do. Inspired? Get out there and find a way to turn what you love into something amazing!!
rider / words: Michael Tabtabai
photos: James Kendi & Michael Tabtabai
A couple months ago I rode my bike from Portland, OR to Los Angeles, CA. About 1400 miles in 14 days. I did it to raise funds for the fight against cancer, something I’ve been doing on the bike for over ten years now. My organization is called Leave It On The Road, and even though I’ve been raising money on the bike for a long time, LIOTR is kind of just getting started as an official organization or brand. So far LIOTR has consisted of two rides, the PDX > LAX ride, and a 3500 mile, 24 day ride across the US in 2013. You can definitely expect more fun stuff in 2015.
Anyway, back to this adventure. My brother in law James is a talented photographer. He shot all the photos of my cross country ride, and we get along really well. So when I was planning this ride, he jumped at the chance to shoot it. And a couple of months ago we rolled out form PDX, me on the bike and my wife and James in the support car, taking photos of the journey along the way. I took photos from the bike with an iPhone and a Ricoh GR. The mix of our perspectives is something I love about the photos that came out of these last two rides. I post images on Instagram throughout the day, and at night we’d do an image blast to the blog and tumblr pages. The live storytelling is a big part of what I love about LIOTR.
These shots are from the Portland to San Fransisco leg of the journey. I rode about 100 miles per day for eight days, solo. I’d stop every couple of hours or so to fuel up from the van, and that support meant I could ride my Speedvagen as light as possible, not having to carry anything except tubes and a camera. After last year’s 150-185 mile per day rides, 14 centuries in a row actually felt pretty easy. I think a big part of that was having the confidence of knowing what was going to happen to my body. I knew days 1 and 2 would feel great, days 3-5 would suck, and every day after that would feel amazing. The fact that this route was one of the most beautiful routes I’ve ever done didn’t hurt either. The roads and scenery were amazing. From coastal mountains to the redwoods to the small towns we stayed in… I’d do this route 100 times over and never get sick of it.
Check out more at leaveitontheroad.com. There are tons of updates on the blog and some products for sale with the proceeds going to our supported organizations. Oh, and follow along on Instagram too! @leaveitontheroad
