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Rick Hunter is onto something. I’m telling you. Slingshots are hip as hell right now. From bikepacking to shootin’ beer cans, these childhood relics were in need of a facelift. A 4130 facelift. My skillz are dialed and yours can be too with these made in Santa Cruz Slingers.
$100 is a lot to drop on something like this, but hey, they’re steel, painted in house and will awe men and women alike. Just don’t let your friends “borrow” one for too long!
In stock now at Hunter Cycles.
There’s nothing like taking a brand-new bike and throwing it into the proverbial fire.
Bikes like this are not meant to be babied, nurtured, wiped down with a microfiber cloth, and sprayed with chemicals to make them look shiny. They’re meant to be abused, smashed, shredded, and put to the test straight out of the gate. Especially bikes specifically designed for arguably one of the most intense endurance races in the Continental United States.
The Salsa Cutthroat is what I would call a first for the company, in the sense that it’s a bike designed for a specific event: the Tour Divide Race.
Stories. We all have to have stories to coincide with photos right? Nowadays, someone has to get lost, or their life threatened, or lose a battle to nature’s mood swings. Catastrophe, calamity and someone’s a casualty of what everyone seems to be dubbing “adventure.”
Truth is, a bike ride is hardly ever an “adventure.” Much less a bike launch. I don’t like that word: “adventure.” It tends to envelop so much of our day-to-day lives, especially those of us who spend a great deal of time outdoors. Was it an adventure? No, it was a hike. Or we went swimming. Or we got lost for an hour. “Adventure.” It’s been watered down, branded, packaged and delivered to us in a freeze-dried, waterproof pouch. We share our curated lives exposed through meticulously VSCO’d / Photoshopped vignettes on Instagram.
While this may seem cynical, I can assure you it’s far from that. It’s more of an explanation, or a primer if you will and here comes to the top coat: while the word adventure’s definition is subjective, the spirit of conquest is the thing that ties all facets of that word together. For some people, conquest lies in what others might deem an obtainable task. For others, it’s something so far-fetched that it’s more of an impossibility than a probability… Whatever it is, “adventure” means different things to different people, but we should all be more creative in how we define it. According to my opinion anyway.
Man, talk about a rad trip! Justin wrote this awesome piece on the Salsa blog about a trip that he took with a friend and a photographer. As you guessed, it spanned 5 trail systems in 5 different states over the course of 5 days, all while driving from each system on their motos, fit with 2-by-2 racks.
Head over to Salsa to catch the rest of this story!
Last year, when Salsa introduced the Bucksaw full suspension fatbike, it caused quite a stir. It did, in fact, feature the then brand-new Rock Shox Bluto fork, which in itself was a catalyst for heated internet discussion.
Yesterday Salsa poured it on with the announcement of the Bucksaw Carbon. A full-suspension fatbike with a carbon front triangle, seat stay and an aluminum chainstay. This sheds 300 grams off the total frame weight.
If this is your kinda thing, and how can it not be, then head over to Salsa to see more!
Well, this morning we saw the Rock Shox Bluto fat bike suspension fork, with its tapered steerer and ample clearance. Problem is, a lot of the available fat bikes have traditional 1 1/8″ steerers. Although, over the past year, a lot of the fat bike offerings have converted to tapered steerers but the Salsa Bucksaw is the first to be designed around the Bluto. To add to the radness, they’ve added a rear shock too. That makes it the first full suspension – using Salsa’s Split Pivot™ system – fat bike in production.
Wow.
Available in the fall of 2014, the Bucksaw 1 will be $4,999 and Bucksaw 2 will be $3,999, and both will come with the RockShox Bluto fork.
See more at Salsa and make sure you read the Developing Buchsaw post!
Ever since my Geekhouse got stolen (R.I.P.), I’ve been on a commuter and touring bike kick. Austin has a ton of great builds rolling around and when I can, I stop to admire them. My riding buddy Josh has a great Salsa Vaya that he picked up not too long ago. When I bumped into him yesterday, I had to take some photos of it. It’s nothing special by any means but it’s a great build and his OG Chrome bag shows lots of use, so I met him at the bar where he works, the Liberty and shot some portraits.
Click on the above photo to launch the gallery, or here to open in a new tab.
Liam’s Samurai Cycles track frame was at the 2011 NAHBS and somehow I missed it. How do you miss a copper-plated track frame at NAHBS? I have no idea but I did. Samurai is run by Koh Annouraa, a 17-year pro Keirin racer and he’s based in Houston Texas. Which is where Liam rode his track bike from to Austin for SxSW. The trip was about 182 miles and he did it in 19 hours, including a 3-hour power nap. Madness!
I met up with Liam and took some photos of his copper-plated Samurai Cycles track bike. Check out more photos below!
When I first saw the Colossi Cycles Double Dog stem, I salivated, even though I was unsure of the structural stability of its design. Sure, I’ve seen similar stems before, but always with the slot at the top of the stem, never on the sides. A few days after I posted it up, I got an email from Colossi asking me if I’d like to try one out. Not knowing immediately what I’d use it for, I asked for a quill stem. Then a few days later, a new project came up so I specified a 110mm 1 /8″ threadless at 73°, the classic angle used by Cinelli for their 1a road stems*.
Check out more photos below!
Three weeks ago, John laid out a quick look at dirt drops on early mountain bikes by using his 1983 Steve Potts as a vehicle for the discussion and today we’re looking at our favorite modern drop-bar 29er mountain bikes. But first, we’ve got to define what a drop-bar 29er mountain bike is!
We’ve got a story coming up tomorrow that references this Mountain and City Biking article written by Black Mountain Cycle‘s Mike Varley from 1991 about drop bars on mountain bikes. Also known as dirt drops, Mike discusses the benefits of the unique riding position offered by these off-road drop bars in the original article text below…
In this Dust-Up, Travis claims 27.2 mm seatposts are symptoms of the gravel industry’s refusal to evolve. Turns out there’s more to it, but he’s still upset.
In Tailfin‘s most interesting bike check video to date, you can take a closer look at Tailfin R&D Division rider Quinda Verheul’s prototype Sour Bicycles full suspension mountain bike and kit setup for taking on the 2024 Atlas Mountain Race…
Our Radar Roundup compiles products and videos from the ‘net in an easy-to-digest format. Read on below for today’s findings…
Our Radar Roundup compiles products and videos from the ‘net in an easy-to-digest format. Read on below for today’s findings…
Our Radar Roundup compiles products and videos from the ‘net in an easy-to-digest format. Read on below for today’s findings…
Our Radar Roundup compiles products and videos from the ‘net in an easy-to-digest format. Read on below for today’s findings…
Our Radar Roundup compiles products and videos from the ‘net in an easy-to-digest format. Read on below for today’s findings…
