Fwd: jobst Brandt Ride Bike! book project

[Sourav Das]

I believe many are familiar with the Instagram project (which is really to get a feel for the greatest hits), but hopefully there is interest beyond the scrolling and likes. 

Sourav

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Matthew Forrester <mforre...@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Oct 24, 2022, 2:59 PM
Subject: Jobst Brandt Ride Bike! book project
To: 

Hi everyone!

I am working on a book project with some friends about the life and rides of Jobst Brandt which is about to launch on Kickstarter. I thought this would be of interest to the group.

Jobst Brandt was a cyclist and engineer whose passion and intellect changed the way we ride bikes today. Years before the evolution of mountain bikes and gravel bikes, his legendary "Jobst rides" took Bay Area racers including Tom Ritchey, Gary Fisher and Eric Heiden over dirt roads and landslides in the Santa Cruz mountains and the Sierras. The project is being done with the participation and approval of the Brandt family. Isola Press is a small outfit in the UK who specialize in boutique cycling books and you may be familiar with some of their other work such as the Rough Stuff Fellowship Archive. 

• Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/isolapress/jobst-brandt-ride-bike-book
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jobstbrandt.ridebike/ 

Please share this Kickstarter far and wide with your cycling friends, clubs, Facebook groups and other social media. It will notify you as soon as the campaign goes live, and there will be a limited early bird discount on the hardcover version of the book. Having a successful Kickstarter is crucial to the outcome of our project and your support at an early stage will really make a difference and help us make the best book possible. 

[Massimiliano Poletto]

The Kickstarter is now live. Thank you, Sourav, for making us aware of it.

I have no internal knowledge of the project, but I am pretty sure the book will be more than worth the Kickstarter price.

If you're not familiar with Jobst's writing and adventures, check these out:

https://www.trentobike.org/Countries/Europe/Tour_Reports/Tour_of_the_Alps/

I credit Jobst with inspiring me to try long distance cycling and "adventure" riding back in the late 90s.

I had the pleasure of riding with him, once, in the '00s. We did a Calaveras - Mines Road loop together, a little over a 100 miles. He was in his late seventies, strongly opinionated and funny and still strong as an ox. A real inspiration.

max

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[Sourav Das]

I believe the process of digitizing his slides had been initiated well before 2015. The colors on some of them are truly stunning (this is probably known to camera enthusiasts). I do expect unique photos like the one below of Stelvio before it was paved.

I found out about Jobst about three years into "serious" cycling from a number of sources -- Ray Hosler, Sheldon Brown, and a co-worker who used to be active on rec.bicycles.tech. I had broken 20 mins on Old La Honda and while my roadie compatriots were setting loftier goals and shelling out on lightweight equipment in preparation, I was realizing that I was not going to last very long with this kind of ritual torture every weekend and there had to be more than this.

Jobst hadn't ridden for years before I started riding. But I did talk to Ray Hosler at Pescadero and Tom Ritchey on Old Haul Rd (on separate occasions, the latter on a Super Bowl Sunday). I even contacted Peter Johnson and he machined a set of Jobst collets for my Basso (photos). He no longer worked on bikes but surgical equipment, but he was surprised to hear anyone mention them and asked if I knew him or was, "just a disciple". He also noted that he had only ever made those for Jobst and no one else. Peter died earlier this year.

I had decided then I'd like to do some of those tours myself, then got sucked into randonneuring leading to PBP 2019. I have a feeling it is going to happen the more I stare at these photos.

Sourav

[Dave Bianco]

After joining the kickstarter last year because of these emails, I rec'd my copy of RIDE BIKE! yesterday.   They did an incredible job and the stories are really great.

-Dave

[Doug Williams]

Received mine yesterday as well and can confirm it is exquisite.

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[John Dewey]

Just ordered mine. Whenever I need a warm / fuzzy, I just pick up the Rough Stuff Fellowship Archive...also Isola Press. And I feel much better. 

This is all great comfort reading. You should all buy now.

Jock

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[fme...@gmail.com]

I wonder if anyone ever put together a route library of the Jobst rides in the South Bay.

Fabrice M

[Doug Williams]

See "Once Upon a Ride" by Ray Hosler with contains descriptions and sketchy maps of many Jobst rides.

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[Juliayn Coleman]

a lot of those rides don't really exist anymore... meaning, the roads and trails themselves have changed. I noticed some dirt roads pictured in the book which are now paved. And the whole landscape of the bay area is changed too. fifty eventful years have gone by.

but, I'm sure it would be interesting to know, regardless.

[Sourav Das]

There is definitely a lot more text than I had anticipated, which is great. They seem to have covered different phases of his life and his "OG tech bro cyclist" persona as well as the perspectives of those who were around him. 

Also worth reading are Ray Hosler's post made right after his death: https://rayhosler.wordpress.com/2015/05/06/jobst-brandt-leaves-behind-memories-to-last-a-lifetime/

The bikes: https://rayhosler.wordpress.com/2020/07/14/jobst-brandts-bikes/

Re routes, while some of those roads are now either paved, like Cloverdale Rd and West Old La Honda Rd, or completely overgrown, like Hihn Hammond Rd out of Big Basin SP, they are not exactly some kind of unobtanium. Most of them are accessible and just waiting to be ridden. Some also involved closed roads like Ward Rd, private logging roads like Old Haul Rd into Waterman Gap to the infamous Gate 10 where they hid from trucks on occasion, or private ranches like Star Hill Rd, and Bear Gulch Rd to Hwy 84 when landowners and cyclists co-existed better. Can't exactly publish them. 

Sourav

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