That feller up at Bearclaw Bicycle Co is doing some really amazing things. The whole catalog is composed of some paradigm-shifting designs and a crowd favorite is the Beaux Jaxon. If you dig drop bars and chonk tires, that’s the frame for you. Throw in a titanium segmented fork and you’ve got a dream machine. Kevin Hinton is a tattoo artist here in Santa Fe. He also runs his Adventure Bikepacking Instagram account as a side project, which hosts overnighters, and tours in the area.

Originally from Los Angeles, Kevin cut his chops touring all over California, specifically in the desert, taking on the Stagecoach 400 multiple times. This particular loop goes from high pine country down through Anza Borrego and into San Diego before climbing back up to the pines. The Anza section is particularly sandy, so when Kevin built up this dream bike, he had some specific requirements and took that list to Sincere Cycles for the build…

So why the Beaux Jaxon? Well, unlike rigid mountain bikes, which often use suspension-corrected forks to account for the 100-120mm of travel the frames were designed around, the Beaux Jaxon maintains a specific gravel geometry with an appropriately-sized axle-to-crown measurement. This makes the handling more like a gravel bike and less like a mountain bike. This is one of those areas that are open for debate by geometry aficionados, product designers, and framebuilders alike.

Remember too, as a side note, that most geo specs on hardtails are at 20% sag…

The big tires of the Beaux Jaxon mean Kevin will be able to pedal through sandy areas he’d have to walk his bike through normally as well. Yet, when it comes time to portage, he won’t break his back since this bike (unloaded) is impressively light.

Titanium is by far my personal favorite frame material. Especially on a touring bike. The flex and movement of the bike keep hand, wrist, and ass fatigue to a minimum, while really coming alive on descents and technical terrain. The Beaux Jaxon comes available as a frameset with a matching ti fork for that oh so smooth ride quality. Or you could run one of their carbon forks!

Yet, there’s not much that can make traversing 400 miles of rough Southern California terrain 100% comfortable, so Kevin went with a rather dynamic cockpit, featuring the RedShift Shockstop stem and Kitchen Sink handlebars, complete with the ergonomic Cruise Control Grips, which offer an ergo spot to rest your hands on the flats, as well as a comfy bar-end grip location. These are really neat in person and even just pedaling this brand-spankin’ bike down the block, I could see how they’d be beneficial on a tour.

Speaking of pedaling this bike down the block to photograph it, the weather shifted abruptly, dropping 20º in a few hours and with it, a horrendous wind, which ushered in snow. We went from shorts weather to coats and pants again in an afternoon. The entire time I was shooting the bike, I was sprinting forward to catch it as the wind knocked my stand free.

The last cherry on top of the build was incorporating Rival levers with an Eagle mech and cassette, offering drop bar shifter actuation with MTB gearing. This is the bike that Bailey first did the Ratio Upgrade conversion to, the week prior to my own.

Overall, Kevin’s Beaux Jaxon build came out super sweet and I can’t wait to see it loaded down, dusty, scratched up, and well used. A bit of beausage on a Bearclaw is always a sight to behold.

If you’d like a similar project brought to life, holler at Sincere Cycles! I guarantee you’ll be as stoked as Kevin is!