In 2001, Josh begin his career as a bicycle entrepreneur with the development of the CELLO bicycle case, a system for converting a BOB Trailer into a bicycle shipping case. This project evolved into BikeTrailerShop.com in 2006 which was an instant hit and lead to BikeBagShop.com and BikeKidShop.com which were eventually all consolidated into BikeShopHub.com. In 2013 Josh moved this thriving business to Tucson.
In 2017 an outdated ecommerce platform had lead to an inability to adapt to the changing ecommerce and bicycle markets. Over the course of 2018 and 2019 Josh worked to correct this by pivoting the business into Campfire Cycling.
Josh grew up in Flagstaff, AZ getting into cycling at an early age, racing mountain bikes. Cycling has been a big part of his life ever since, driving ideas for business and bicycle advocacy. Now with two young kids, Josh doesn’t get out on as many bicycling adventures as he’d like. That said, Josh recently managed to get his whole family out on our first bicycle camping adventure.
Wandering through my old haunts – April. 28, 2025
Last weekend I was up in Flagstaff celebrating my sister’s birthday and had a chance to head out for a ride. While out in Ft. Tuthill I decide to take the Highland trail headed south. I soon realized this was a connector trail out to Kachina Village where I grew up. I would have loved if this trail had existed when I was a kid. Riding through my old haunts and seeing my old neighborhood was a blast. And the whole ride was very reminiscent of my youth wandering and discovering (No route planning or GPS were involved). Here’s a pic of the house I grew up in.
Trevor’s Closet Black – April. 21, 2025
Last Friday the team circled up with Trevor and got caught up on all things Otso. Having been an Otso dealer for about a year now, we’ve become quite intimate with their impressive lineup of adventure ready bikes. But if anyone could fill us in on all the nitty gritty details it is Trevor. Trevor formerly worked for another of our favorite brands Surly and we know him for having a Surly color named after him, Trevor’s Closet Black.
Desert Survivors – April. 14, 2025
As David explained, we had an unexpectedly hot bikepacking trip last weekend. The day before the trip, we sent out an email warning folks that with these conditions, we no longer considered this an intermediate bikepacking trip, we were moving into the advanced zone. Given that these intermediate trips are ofter a “leveling-up” trip we wanted to make sure everyone who decided to persevere was ready for the challenge.
The first day was certainly a draining one. But our rugged group made the most of the day and everyone seemed to have a great time. Sunday was much nicer with a bit lower temps and a tailwind blowing us back to the car. Here we all are smiling after a successful, hot, windy, advanced overnighter.
Safe Travels Burger! – April. 07, 2025
With their upcoming hiatus, Burger will be missed sorely around here. Burger did an amazing job at establishing our new Sales/Ecom Support role, helping David and I churn through the daily ecommerce shipments to start the day and then transitioning up onto the sales floor to educate and inform our customers about all of the amazing bikepacking products we offer. Not only that, but Burger also put together an excellent documentation of the role and all of the key processes and flows to get efficiently through the day to give the next person a head start. But more than anything Burger’s kindness and enthusiasm was a joy to be around.
Thank you for the great work at Campfire, Burger!
BxBxB Cyclovia Preview – March. 31, 2025
Breakfast by Bike today was a preview ride of this weekend’s Cyclovia, taking over Treat avenue from Broadway to Madera Park. See you out there!
Tout Terrain Trailer Testing – March. 24, 2025
So far the Tout Terrain Mule Trailer has been proving itself a worthy breakfast carrier on our monthly breakfast by bike rides. Our March ride to the Barrio BMX jumps was the perfect opportunity to test out its extreme capabities. Its very fun to watch it gracefully bob up and down as Toby guides it through the pump track.
Campfire & Moonrise – March. 17, 2025
A fun group campfire and a jaw dropping moonrise put me softly to sleep on our Colossal Cave overnighter last weekend. Usually I sleep poorly on my first night of camping but I slept great that night.
#psychpacking – March. 10, 2025
Living the tidbits life, you’ve gotta take the inspiration when it comes. Riding home from Campire with Toby yesterday, he asked me if I’d mentioned psychpacking in a tidbit yet…
Psychpacking is just commuting on my bikepacking bike for the 3 or 4 days before a bikepacking trip. With our Colossal Cave trip coming up this weekend I am in full #psychpacking mode. It started because I tend to have some of my gear at the house and some of my gear at the shop. But what I really got me hooked on the habit is how it makes packing a little less last minute as I tend to end up working on getting ready a little sooner with my bikepacking bike in sight and top of mind.
I also like that while psychpacking I tend to sort out any issues with my bike and I usually avoid those first mile disasters. Finally its fun to explain to folks encounters along my commute that I’m not bikepacking now but I will be soon and right now I’m psychpacking!
Nate’s SAUER Rig – March. 03, 2025
Our friends Henley and Dexter have just kicked of the inaugural SAUER – Sonoran Ultra Endurance Ride this morning. The 300 mile route they have put together starts in Tucson meanders down to Patagonia, follows along the border near Nogales and then returns up through Arivaca and past Three Points.
Pictured here is Nate Garcia’s Land Shark all ready to go and featuring a new custom rack-top bag that he put together for the race. Go Nate!
Old Man Mountain Team Product Training – February. 24, 2025
The team gathered yesterday morning for an improptu product training with Chris, one of the co-owners of Old Man Mountain and Robert Axle Project. Chris and I go way back to the days when I was selling boat loads of BOB Trailers and Chris was discovering there was a business to be had in making custom through axles for BOB Trailers.
Chris did an excellent job of sharing the journey of growing Robert Axle Project and then acquiring Old Man Mountain in 2018. We’ve been really excited to see where Chris, Katy and the team at RAP/OMM are taking things. They’ve just launched some really great new products including the OMM Atlas Trunk Bag and the OMM Hemlock Fork Packs with FLiP Cages (featured in David’s Product Spotlight below).
Gotta Getaway – February. 17, 2025
I was lucky to get to ride with Toby and Jake this weekend on the Black Canyon Trail. It was an epic ride with endless single track and a great group to enjoy the trail with. And it was a much appreciated escape from the heavy news cycle and the challenges of shop life. 3 days in nature is a sure fire reset button. Here is a glamour shot of Jake from day 1!
Tout-Terrain Product Training – February. 10, 2025
Yesterday morning the Campfire team gathered for a presentation by our friend Wade Greene who manages Tout Terrain Bicycles US distribution. Wade gave us a full run through of the Tout-Terrain bicycle lineup. These bicycles have many rare or unique features oriented at world bicycle travelers and bikepackers. The most notable feature of many of their models is the Pinon drive, which is included on the models that Wade brought by for the training, the Outback Xplore || 29 and the Scrambler Xplore GT II Select 3.1. Other stand out feature are their bicycle frames with integrated racks and their highly durable carbon forks.
We began selling these bikes last year, but found it incredibly helpful to do this deep dive with Wade. This meeting with Wade was the first of what we plan on making a monthly practice of meeting with our key brand partners. Before the pandemic, rep visits, demo days and gathering at trade shows was much more common. To keep up with the evolving times, we’ve decided to find ways to bring the show to us in digestable, bite-sized ways. Thanks to Wade and Tout Terrain for helping us kick off this new direction in increasing our team’s product knowledge!
B-by-B atop A-Mountain – February. 03, 2025
For our first breakfast-by-bike of 2025 we were a little more ambitious then usual as Toby and Dan pulled their breakfast laden trailers up the climb to the top of A-Mountain. Standing in the warm sun overlooking the city made for an interesting change in perspective on our first Thursday morning of the month tradition, as encapsulated by this highly contrasted photo.
Tucson Bikeways Maps are Back! – January. 27, 2025
Toby shouted out for joy when a two box load of maps arrived at the shop earlier this week. Come by the shop if you need one. There is also an online version available.
Happy New Bike Day Mando! – January. 20, 2025
We were excited and relieved last week to finally deliver Mando his Bombtrack Beyond Adventure+. It had been nearly a year since he had decided this was the bike for him and it took us that long to get ahold of one. Mando’s patience was unwavering and he was rewarded with this unique and capable adventure bike.
Thank you Mando and also thank you so much for setting up the trail and treat cache on our November Ironwood bikepacking trip. Enjoy the ride!
MTB ride with Joe Cruz – January. 13, 2025
I had the great pleasure of getting out on a ride with Joe while he is in town for a few weeks escaping the Vermont winter. I am always inspired by Joe’s adventuring. He’s invariably brewing up something cool with plans this month to ride the Fool’s Loop and then the Monumental Loop and some epic summer plans for riding through Macedonia.
Beyond what you may know of Joe Cruz as a prolific bikepacker, Bikepacking.com editor and speaker, Joe is a philosophy professor at Williams College in Vermont. Our conversation naturally centered around bikes and bike adventures but then took an interesting turn as we discussed Joe’s upcoming course on the ethics of AI, a topic that I find very compelling these days.
After a free preview to Joe’s new course, our conversation looped back around to bikes. We talked bike racks (see Joe’s favorite new rack adapter below) and made curious by Joe’s 2024 gear review I inquired for more details of his recently developed used-clothing shopping habit. It’s always great to catch up with Joe, and it’s about time that we start planning ahead for another one of his inspiring talks here at Campfire.
Into the New Year! – January. 6, 2025
This photo is by our friend and photo editor of High Country News, Bear Guerra. We had the pleasure of riding with Bear on our inaugeral ride of Colassal Cave last year. I looked it up to represent the spring bikepacking rides that we just launched this week. But something about the pensive beauty of the photo got me reflecting about the year ahead.
As I start another year of this labor of love, I am gazing at the road ahead. We’ve been making slow and steady progress on a variety of fronts and are starting to see some fruits. Most notably, our internal processes are getting refined and upgraded, little-by-little. We have a long journey in our aspirations for growing our community engagement, but we keep moving forward. And on a smaller scale, I am about ready to launch into a more active social media presence. I also have ambitions to start capturing video on our bikepacking adventures. Look for me fumbling around with my GoPro and publishing some okayish video.