Barry Lachapelle
Founder & Creative Director
I have been riding since the mid-nineties, when a Trek 830 and the singletrack of Northern Ontario got their hooks in me. I was drawn to long distances even as a kid, and my friends and I were bikepacking before anyone called it that, loading our bikes with bags and riding forty or fifty kilometres out of town on fishing trips.
Life eventually pulled me into the city, and the bike came with me everywhere. Over the years I lived and rode in Toronto, Montreal, New York, Tokyo, and London. Those were my road years, spent commuting and touring across North America, Asia, and Europe.
Then, about ten years ago, I found a gravel magazine in Heathrow Airport, and it sent me straight back to the dirt, and my mind exploded. I have been living gravel and bikepacking ever since. Now I am settled on Vancouver Island with my family, and my riding has slowed from big, remote backcountry trips to meditative solo laps on my local trails, which is exactly where I test most of the gear I write about.
