Duzer Doz America

Friday afternoon at work, I heard that some of my cycling friends got together with Ryan Van Duzer, a guy who was riding a cruiser across America. Yes, he's riding a 3-speed cruiser pulling a trailer all the way across the country. I heard that people were getting together with Ryan on Friday night so I headed out. Everyone met at Boulders on Broadway, our favorite bike-friendly bar in Tempe.

I really enjoyed meeting Ryan and his friend, Matt, who are both from Boulder, Colorado. Matt lives in Scottsdale and was giving Ryan a place to stay when he turned his route south to avoid mountains. Exchanging heat for mountains? Not sure if that's a fair trade, but if anyone can do this ride on a cruiser, it's Ryan. Plus, he makes it interesting for all of us to watch and hear about. Check out the videos on his site - they're very entertaining.

Ryan is extremely full of energy and just good fun to be around. He's a great advocate for riding bikes! He's also raising money for a Boulder bike cooperative, Community Cycles. The local bike community had a great turnout with 20 to 30 people coming over the course of the night. Conversation was great and I enjoyed meeting a few new people. Especially, Susan Kayler, a lawyer who is the photo radar queen of the Internet (ie the #1 search result on Google).

On Saturday night, I got a late night instant message telling me that a group of people were going to ride with Ryan out of Phoenix. Chris and I decided we'd join the group ride. We got up really early in the morning and met up at the Bike Saviours co-op. The ride was 25 miles from Tempe to just outside Chandler and 25 miles back. It was hot, hot, hot as summer in Phoenix typically is. However, it felt good to do a long ride again and to hang out with good people.

Best wishes to Ryan Van Duzer on his ride across America! Glad we could be a tiny part of it.

Check out Ryan Van Duzer on the web:
RyanVanDuzer.com
New Belgium's Duzer Across America
Duzer on Twitter
Duzer's Cruiser on Flickr