John has been in the Bay Area for the weeks leading up to Sea Otter. While there, he went on a bike camping trip aboard Sklar Bikes PBJ touring bikes with some friends…

Nicholas, Adam, and I hatched this plan late last year. “Let’s do a bike tour this spring!” someone interjected in the group chat. Getting out of a warm and windy Santa Fe area in the early spring and into the humid and lush springtime of the Bay Area sounded like a dream, so we made a rough plan, and I marked my calendar.

Adam did a great job capturing the vibes from the tour in this video! Be sure to subscribe to Sklar Bikes YouTube.

I proposed an idea: Nick could ride my titanium PBJ, aka the Desert Moose, and I’d ride his made in Taiwan steel PBJ. This would offer up a few perspectives of interest, as Nick hadn’t ridden the titanium version, nor had I ridden the steel frame. At the same time, I had a rough idea of what to expect from the steel frame versus my titanium frame… and what better testing grounds than the exact sort of tour the PBJ was designed for?

Touring is a mindset. It’s not about written in stone planning. Bike tours have an ephemeral air surrounding them and the Bay Area is one of the best places in the country to embark on one with friends. All you need is a few broad brush strokes of ideas and you can dip into or out of the mountains with ease. You can utilize public transit like trains and ferries to connect different legs, too.

With a plethora of small coastal and mountain towns sprinkled throughout, resupply is easy. There’s abundant water, state parks with camping, and food options. None of us packed any more than 3L of water at a time. Dinners were bought in town and carried to camp. Our plans changed due to unforeseen weather. And that’s ok.

The days were spent slowly tractor crawling up steep pitches and hootin’ and hollerin’ down the descents. Goofiness abound as we jokingly referred to this as the FKT, or fartiest known tour. Stopping to smell the Harlequin flowers. Respice.

A lot of dirt roads, a little bit of singletrack, and some pavement. The smell of cooked rotors wafted over us after a rocky descent. Our hands tingled from wielding our fully loaded bikes through rock gardens. Bodies sated, bikes dirty, and legs throbbing. All hail the almighty bike tour.

We wrapped up the trip by taking the ferry across the Bay and back to the city. Unfortunately, we cut the route short by a day due to rain. If you want to wet your whistle, check out our route below! For more commentary, read along in the gallery captions.

Nicholas and I will pen our thoughts on the two chassis materials of the PBJ shortly, but for now, roll on over to Sklar Bikes to check out the PBJ in detail. For now, enjoy these photos!