Xtra Team Talks: Where do you aspire to ride?

Don’tcha just love the random convos that pop up on long rides that help you learn a little bit more about your buds? In this installment of Xtra Team Talks, the Xtracycle team got to dreaming about places where we would one day love to ride our bikes.

Marie-Claire, Client Happiness

So difficult to choose just one! I would love to be able to ride everywhere we want to go. I dream of riding to California from here. I wish I could ride up to Montreal one summer (though if the drive is any indication, I’m not sure how pleasant a ride that would be). Europe, of course! Africa and India, for sure! Vietnam apparently is a perfect place to visit by bike. But the ride that seems the most accessible logistically and yet plenty breathtaking and challenging for our family is the Cabot Trail in Nova Scotia.

Ross, Founder

Two come to mind:

1) In 2021 we are planning an around-the-world Relay Ride with the RFA. I’d love to ride a section of that with my family (Team RiSk – Ross + Ike + Shannon + Kale).

2) I’ve always wanted to experience first-hand the bicycle culture of Copenhagen. The dream is to manifest a summer-long house-swap with another family!

xtra team talks

Ashley, Sales & Marketing

Currently the top rides on my bucket list are in the American southwest: the White Rim Trail in Canyonlands National Park, ancestral homelands of the Ancestral Puebloans, Ute, Navajo and Paiute; the dirt roads of Bears Ear National Monument; and the Arizona Trail. Give me those endless desert roads! I’d also love to go on a combination of the EuroVelo Pilgrim’s Route and Capitals Route with my partner and daughter one day. I love making memories with my loved ones while in the saddle.

xtracycle team talks

Evan, Operations

I’d love to be able to ride on any street in the world with infrastructure that makes it truly safe and accessible for riders of any age from 2 – 122. This means that the well-being of all people (whether walking, riding a bike, taking public transit, etc) using streets will need to be reimagined so that it’s safe regardless of the mode of travel. Travel speed for certain road users (ie people going in cars) should not take precedence over the safety of other road users.

Steve, Product

Personally, I have always dreamt of riding a bike in Amsterdam. Although I have done a fair bit of road and mountain biking, my bike has always been much more about my daily commute, my way of getting stuff done, and my means of exploring the cities and towns I have lived in. Although its gotten better through the years, it has always felt like I was an outlier using my bike to do all these things. I always thought it would be cool to be in a place where this wasn’t the case. I imagine getting there and feeling like – ahhhhh, I am finally with my people.

Kris, Sales and Marketing

I’d love to ride through every major European city at some point. Bike infrastructure is so different there and I want to experience it first-hand. I think if everyone could see what it is like to live in a place where bike transportation is the norm, it would seem less alien to them here in the US. Image from Barry Neild/CNN.