Miguel Crawford
Class of 2023
Promoter, Innovator, Routeur, Storyteller
Miguel Crawford grew up in Sebastopol, California, where he became immersed in the riding and racing cultures of Sonoma and Marin Counties. With a love of maps and exploration, “Mig” started designing routes that are “fun, often very long and hard, magical mystery tours through the diverse, challenging, and eclectic hills of Sonoma County and beyond.
With a small group of his friends, these rides started to grow, and the official Grasshopper Adventure Series was launched in 1998.
The Grasshopper rides, Mig says, “were born from my love of riding and creating the perfect combination of road and dirt to challenge person and machine.”
‘Hoppers’ are not officially races, but they draw an experienced and competitive field. It’s a shape-shifting series, evolving with the positive spirit of strong riders in wide-ranging landscapes. The rides called for a variety of bike types and helped spark interest in gravel riding and the creation of a new genre of bikes.
Literally decades ahead of when the bike industry started marketing gravel bikes, Mig and his friends were pushing their old road bikes to the limit, installing the largest tires the frames could handle and taking parts from early mountain bikes to create new frankenbikes that could handle the abuse of long mixed-terrain rides.
As Yuri Hauswald reminisced, “I was fortunate to do the very first Grasshopper way back when and I’m forever grateful for toeing the line that day because Miguel’s series, and the ensuing years of adventures, have forever changed my life.”
“The Grasshopper Adventure Series was my first introduction to ‘mixed terrain’ events, a term yet to be used back in the late ‘90s, and they opened my eyes to the places that bikes could take us and the friendships that could be born from riding together.”
These rides have grown in popularity and being held monthly starting in January to late April or May each year, they have attracted top racers seeking early season training. They also welcome riders new to off-road touring and have become “must do'' events for northern Californians seeking fun and a challenge.
As Ted King asked and answered, “What is the Grasshopper Adventure Series? It's everything that's right about bike riding as we know it! It's fun, it's camaraderie, it's mass start, it's gravel, and it's badass.”
The 2022 Hopper series sold-out with between 250-400 riders at each of the five events with many participants indicating that they were new to gravel riding and were excited to push their limits alongside top professional riders. While the crowds and terrain were diverse, everyone was there with a smile on their face and Mig is to be thanked for having the vision and energy to make these events happen, all while working with his wife Tera to raise three kids and teach Spanish at a local high school.
