Biking

Learn more about Jake's West Coast at the official website.

Jake's West Coast is my cycling brand and YouTube channel. I've been cycling in some capacity since I was a child, but since going to college I've realized it's a hobby I'll keep with me for life.

During and after college, I got my start riding UC Santa Cruc's Upper Campus, where I often rode singletrack before classes. I rode a retrofitted Specialized Hardrock while getting my start. After graduation, we continued to ride in Santa Cruz, riding Upper Campus's many "9 Drops", but also exploring other riding areas like Soquel Demonstration State Forest, and Skeggs and Pacifica to the north. While we were doing this post-college riding, I gradudated to my first full-sus bike, a Santa Cruz Tallboy 2019.

My first ever video uploaded on YouTube was during my time at UCSC, a video of a day of riding where my friend and I ride from our dorm up and around campus, with me filming on a head mounted Gopro. It's since been reuploaded on the Jake's West Coast channel.

During Covid in 2020, the interests of my riding group changed, and a bunch of the members started to do longer gravel rides from home, which was very convenient because you didn't need to pack your bike up and drive anywhere - just get outside and do 5-10 warmup miles on your way to where you're going. The Bay Area is absolutely amazing for this - you'll see gravel riders and road cyclists alike all over the place. I lucked out at the beginning of Covid to be recommended Canyon, who, due to their ownership of their full supply chain, was able to sell me a full carbon Grizl CF SL 7 1by, even during the bike shortage that cropped up during Covid as people returned to socially distant outdoors activity. That bike has been great and I have been riding it for years, even as ride interest changed once more.

It was here that I started Jake's West Coast. I had always been interested in photography and videography, and this was a good balance of regular content to edit and an opportunity to save great memories of the places we've ridden together. I upgraded my riding setup to a chest mounted camera, which vastly improved my POV quality.

Fast forward a few years and we're out of Covid. We've fully converted to Gravel riding and have done some pretty cool long rides. As we do more and more distance, I start to come up on the decision point as a gravel rider where you decide how you'll attack road riding. Option 1 is to get a second road wheelset and switch out depending on what kind of riding you want to do. I decide against this (to the chagrin of my wallet) and decide to go with Option 2: build my own road bike (I guess this is option 3, you can buy a prebuilt). This was as much an artistic exercise as well as an exercise in learning about sourcing parts for a reasonable price. I rely heavily on friends for suggestions of places to get parts from. My frame, a Specialized Allez Sprint arrives hot off the press from Asia, and my groupset is sourced from Merlin Cyclery in the UK. My seat and stem are bought secondhand from a friend. After assembling, we arrive at the road bike I've currently been riding - an absolute beauty and something I love riding each time i clip in. Get a glimpse on Instagram.

These days, the production quality of Jake's West Coast has improved significantly. I've experimented with more mounting locations - now using a Gopro Bite Mount and seat rail mount to get front POV and behind angles that are becoming the Jake's West coast style. Editing wise, I've started editing GoPro log (similar to RAW) formats to have better control over color, and in the age of AI I have created all my own static content and audio content that is used in videos.

Photography has also become an interest that I'm able to take biking with me. I bought a Sony α6300 body and paired it with a TTArtisan pancake lens to build a small form factor camera that I've been taking with me in my handlebar bag on rides. It's a great way to learn about photography concepts as I capture all the cool places that cycling takes us to in photo. As a bonus, I'm able to use those photos for YouTube thumbnails which has elevated the artsy-ness of my video offerings.

This project of mine has come about over many years of development, and will continue for many more. I am so grateful for the places it's brought me, the creative outlet it's given me, and the lifelong friends that it's brought into my life.