Toby is an alchemist of bike love, a wizard of cycling culture and a prophet of adventuring by bicycle. We’re so stoked to have him plying his trade managing our bike shop, building up new bicycles, servicing old ones and fine tuning our showroom in anticipation of the return of cool weather and a functional Toole street in front of our building.
Toby has been living the bike shop life since 2004, getting started at the Sports Basement in San Fransisco before relocating to Ventura. In 2010, Toby co-founded the Ventura Bike Hub an amazing community bike shop. Toby helped build this organization into a thriving and integral part of Ventura’s cycling community and it was a tough and sad parting of ways for him and his partner Benicia to move on to Tucson. But it is also a testament of what they built that they can move along and pass their leadership on to the next generation of HUB leaders.
Beyond bicycle wrenching and riding, Toby’s interests include surfing, restoring old cars and traveling with his family.
Healing vibes – January. 15, 2026
We had a pretty exciting weekend at our house. On Friday I got an emergency call at work that my kiddo had broken his arm. He was with the EMT’s not too far from the shop so I rushed down there (carefully) to meet them and comfort him. Confirmed his arm was shaped like a spoon. We got him to the urgent care and and got him splinted up until the swelling could go down.
We were up until the wee hours of the morning dealing with it. It was a wild weekend because not only is it our kiddos weekend (he broke it 2 days before his birthday) but we had other birthdays as well (The owner of our fabulous shop, Josh, my illustrious coworker Jacob, my friend Nick, among others) that we missed. It was an exhausting weekend without much rest, he was uncomfortable and of course sad he lost the use of his arm on his birthday weekend. In good news, he got his cast on today! So send those healing vibes!
Kings Cake – January. 08, 2026
Last week was Kings Day in France. Our work Neighbor Phillipe is from France and runs a cool XRay research lab called Examinart. We always help them with their bikes and they show us cool stuff and some love. The love this week was Galette des Rois a beautiful puff pastry with almond filling and porcelain figurines inside.
They continue the tradition of baking this treat at home complete with vintage figurines from the flea market to enjoy this tasty treat. This was beyond delicious and it was cool to try another version of the cake- I’ve only ever had the Mardi Gras style and I hate to say it but I’m a convert to the French style.
Always grateful for treats….
Hot debates – January. 01, 2026
Right after the discussion Elliot was working at the counter and I noticed a fantastic grease smear across his face. Does this make him look more like a mechanic or is it kind of like the cat 5 tattoo of the chainring on your calf that everyone makes fun of and calls you an amateur. To be honest- we don’t really care, but it’s all in fun.
Goodbye David! :.(- December. 25, 2025
We had many good times at the shop with David. He is a vast well of knowledge and experience. He was the kind of person who when you needed something it was there! Like kaboom! Done!
I just wanted to share my appreciation of getting to work with David the last couple of years and share a cute photo! I’m still excited to work with David, albeit at a different capacity at his new gig with QBP. I have many good and funny photos of Tang- but I’m gonna leave yall with the cutest one! (Bunny fo scale).
Mechanics gone wild- December. 18, 2025
If you havn’t gathered yet that Jacob is an incredible mechanic, here is another post for you. Whenever a hard to find problem comes along, something that multiple people couldn’t fix- Jacob is your person. He’s got those amazing problem solving skills and out of the box thinking that you can’t be taught.
If one of us is stumped he offers help and hops right in and gets those gears turning and makes it happen! Here he is filing some pawls that wouldn’t engage to get someone rolling until the proper ones comes in. He also solved someone’s mystery jumping chain problem that has been driving them nuts and a bunch of folks couldn’t solve it! Cheers to abother Jacob appreciation post!
Gleaming for a cleaning – December. 11, 2025
I have had a problem with accessing tools while my storage shed full of bikes and parts. So full that I can’t get to anything haha. My goal is to get rid of all my extraneous bikes and parts by the new year. So I pulled everything out and re-organized all my tools and “necessary” bikes than put everything else to the side.
It’s one beautiful sight to be able to access everything you need easily. One of the highlights that I hadn’t looked at in a while is this early 70’s Gitane Track Standard rocking its full chrome regalia. I had big dreams of getting it rolling again, I did pop some other wheels and cranks and rolled it around the block, but it’s a little too big for me and I’m a bit too busy to get it back rolling. This is especially pertinent since we just opened up a brand new Velodrome here in Tucson. Hopefully I’ll get back onto the track in the new year. The Gitane is looking for a new owner BTW….
More Mya Content – December. 04, 2025
We knew that you definitely have not got enough Mya (pronounced Meeya) the Dog Content. Her person David, is a rad guy and had purchased his surly Bridge Club from us to do some bike touring and traveling.
David brings Miya in with him whenever he comes to the shop, because he knows how much we love her, and we found out recently that she also knows when she’s getting close to the shop and starts going crazy in the car when they pull up. David just did a rad trip cycling down the coast with Miya and was gracious enough to share some pictures from their travels with us. Here is an epic shot of Miya in her comfortable basket setup hanging out at a park on the Oregon coast.
Ohhhh Deer – November. 27, 2025
While on a night time cruise the other evening I heard some rustling and saw some movement off to the side. So I did what any unrational human being would do and stopped to see what this large animal was.
Could it be a mountain lion, a bobcat, the elusive Jaguar, or some Javelina? To my delight it was a huge group of deer! After I stopped and they decided I wasn’t a threat they all chilled out and I got a good chance to observe them munching on the flora and resting. My favorite was the one that plopped down in the middle.
Welcome Elliot! – November. 20, 2025
For Elliot’s first day last week I thought it would be an awesome idea to welcome him with some of our favorite La Estrella doughnuts. Little did I know that Elliot and his partner had picked some up and brought some in as well. Would it be dougnutpocalis if we have too many or if you couldn’t get any? That’s what we’re calling it anyway. Believe it or not it took us some days to get through these!
Behind the screens – November. 14, 2025
Here is our illustrious owner Josh Lipton in the dungeon (aka our basement) showing what goes into making this place tick. Not one, not two, not 3 but 4 screens, 2 bottles and a Granny Smith apple! haha.
Pie season – November. 07, 2025
As we ease into fall (it’s still high 80’s here(30’Ish for the Celsius folks) we roll into soup and pie time! I don’t like the cold, but I do the simple nourishment of soups and my sweet tooth loves pie.
Our friend Dexter (fast as heck person who does and wins amazing gravel races) baked us this amazing apple pie (notice the Campfire logo) straight off his win at Vermont Super 8 bikepacking race, as a Thank you for helping with his bikes. One thing us folks love in the shop is being fed amazing food. If you really want to know the way to our hearts, this is it haha. Hint hint
Día De Los Muertos – October. 30, 2025
With Halloween, Tucson also has strong local participation in Día de los Muertos. There are usually lots of dances, altar and ofrenda building, and family gatherings leading up to the weekend festivities.
Tucson hosts a couple of processions — one that honors people who have lost their lives while migrating across the borderlands, which has been happening for over 25 years — and the long-running All Souls Procession, now in its 36th year and usually drawing about 150,000 participants.
You can learn more and watch the livestream on November 9th at
🔗 allsoulsprocession.org
They would also love your support to help keep this amazing community event going!
Here’s a shot of an amazing dance we came across on our way home!
Spooky season continued – October. 24, 2025
I’m trying hard to get into the spirit of the season this year- it’s felt off for the last couple of years for a variety of reasons. So far this year we’ve made a multitude of visits to thrift stores to finds bits and pieces to make our costumes as well as the requisite visit to spirit Halloween to satiate the kiddo.
We’ve changed the outer bulbs to spooky colors on our porch light. I try every breakfast by bike to get into the festive spirit weather it be snow, sun and holiday decorations for each current event, season and holiday (bunnies for Easter, spooky things for Halloween, Tesla dumpster fire, or what have you) enjoy these pancakes from the last breakfast by bike!
Spooky season chill rides – October. 18, 2025
As spooky season slowly rolls in (it’s been warm!) we’ve been stoked to have a fairly quick cool down this last week with the remnants of a couple tropical storms blow through and the beginnings of crisp(for us) mornings. It will get colder yet but I feel like this is the sweet spot for weather in the area.
The other thing about Tucson this time of year is that there’s about 3 events every day and you’ve gotta choose what event to go to. Anywho- back to the point: I’ve been enjoying chill rides in the evenings- a friend of the shop Erik Bingesser introduced me to #chillestrideever which is a picture of your bike on a couch that people put in the streets. Turns out there’s plenty of couches put up around town and I couldn’t think of a more #chillestrideevzr than this skeleton on the couch just chillin!