Search Term – Change
As part of Bikes or Death’s Dangerbird coverage, Patrick sat down with Cjell from Moné Bikes to chat about framebuilding, Silver City, and more! Give it a listen at Bikes or Death. Also, related to the Dangerbird is a new Monumental Loop Patreon, where you can support New Mexico bicycle touring and bikepacking by subscribing.
Washboard roads, rocky doubletrack, creosote, cacti, centipedes, tarantulas, and vistas for miles. The Monumental Loop provides it all in a healthy mix, featuring the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument, BLM, and state lands surrounding the town of Las Cruces, New Mexico. With the mighty Organ Mountains looming in the background, it’s hard to imagine a better touring or bikepacking route in Southern New Mexico. When you add in the delicious food on the route, you’ve got yourself a winning combination. To help celebrate this monumental achievement (tee hee), Matt Mason, co-founder of the Loop, throws a grand depart each year dubbed the Dangerbird which took a brief hiatus last year due to the Pandemic. With Covid protocols in place and our numbers remaining slightly elevated in New Mexico, Matt made sure the entire weekend’s events took place outdoors, so I felt safe to head down to experience this gem of the Chihuahuan Desert…
New Mexico has a lot of really amazing bicycle touring routes, from the mountainous aspen forests to the southern deserts. One such route is the Monumental Loop, which is based out of the Southern New Mexico city of Las Cruces, co-founded by Matt Mason. The Monumental Loop is a passion project for Matt but this year, he wanted to do something special to celebrate the cycling community in New Mexico. Part of that includes the first-ever New Mexico Bikepacking Summit. The weekend’s events included a Makers’ Mart at Outdoor Adventures, a local bike shop, and a grand depart for the Dangerbird, Matt’s nickname for the Monumental Loop. As you can imagine, after photographing the weekend’s events and touring the northern loop, I’m super zonked, so let’s get to it!
Today’s Readers’ Rides comes from Anchorage, Alaska. Adrian‘s 9zero7 Saber is built up to take on just about anything, so let’s check it out in detail below!
It makes sense if you own a bike company that you’d develop your own line of bikepacking or bicycle touring bags. Many brands have done this and the latest is 8Bar Bikes, whose new bags are all in stock at their webshop now, including their new Anything Cages, which are designed to carry a JetBoil, a drybag, or a growler of your favorite beer. Head on over to 8Bar to see it all…
Available for men and women, in a variety of colors, the new Ibex Wool Shak Lite bomber jackets aren’t cycling-specific per se but they offer warmth and comfort in a naturally wicking and odor-free 100% merino Ponte wool construction in a classic bomber silhouette. Perfect for bicycle touring in shoulder seasons or riding in winter months. Ibex’ clothing is bombproof, designed to look great off the bike, at a bar, or cafe, while keeping you warm and protected from temperature fluctuations. This garment is classified as a Midlayer piece, with 19.5 micron wool, and 300 gm2 weight. The full-zip front allows for venting and the zippered pockets will keep your goods safe-n-secure. See more at Ibex.
Bikerafting is when you incorporate a bike onto a packraft like an Alpacka Raft. While navigating rivers and other bodies of water shouldn’t be taken with a grain of salt and if you don’t have whitewater experience, you should seek out proper training before embarking on a packraft or bikerafting trip. Once you’ve done that, buy this book for inspiration. The Bikeraft Guide is a 325 page book, packed with stories, instructional how-tos, illustrations, and more. It was compiled by Lizzy and Doom of Four Corners Guides and is a great companion for those bikeraft curious. Let’s take a quick look below…
Big Agnes’ Bikepacking Collection features lightweight tents that pack up into stuff sacks that fit perfectly on your bike’s handlebars. These tents feature shorter poles and have tons of details specifically-designed for bicycle touring and bikepacking. After some production delays, the entire Bikepacking Collection is in stock at Big Agnes, including this impressive Tiger Wall UL3 3-person tent. See the full Bikepacking Collection at Big Agnes.
Ortlieb has been making bicycle touring bags for what seems like an eternity but over the past few years, they’ve begun to make bikepacking bags, always offering a few clever details and their legendary waterproof construction. Newest to this lineup is the Handlebar Pack QR, or quick-release. These bags lash to your handlebars in seconds, perfect for big, expedition rides, long gravel trips, and S24O alike.
Specs:
-$160 MSRP
-11-liter capacity, plus two small exterior mesh pockets
-IP64 – dustproof & waterproof to 1-meter for 30min
-Sustainably made in Germany
See more at Ortlieb.
I feel like I’ve known Martina and Jason from Swift Industries since the brand’s inception. It must have been the 2010 Philly Bike Expo where we first met. Later, I bought an Ozette bag for my Geekhouse touring bike in 2011, and for a number of years, we’ve stayed in close contact. Both the Radavist and Swift Industries grew at parallel trajectories. It’s now 2021 and I realized I’ve never interviewed Martina about the Swift Campout, so today we’re pleased to host a quick interview to stoke the flames for the 2021 Swift Campout, which is coming up fast, on June 19th-20th! So read on below for some insight into this wonderful event!
While we understand the competitive nature of bikepacking races and fastest-known time attempts and records, we still love the chiller pace of bicycle touring and a different kind of FKT. Kody and company clearly set the record for the Funnest Known Time on the White Rim!
Check out a few stills from this video below.
It’s inundating to keep up with cycling’s technological advancements yet if one development has shifted the paradigm for drivetrains in the past few years, it’s SRAM’s AXS system. While the kit is a dreamy riding experience, the price can be daunting, and that alone is a major reason why many people haven’t had the chance to ride it. Yet, as with all cycling tech, it tends to trickle down like alluvium in the desert.
The new GX Eagle AXS rolled downhill and right into my lap recently, so I decided to put it on the Sklar touring bike because why not? Check out the unveiling below with some initial thoughts on the system and a component breakdown with pricing/availability…
Aren’t familiar with the Rough Stuff Fellowship? Well, here’s a good introduction. After a successful Vol. 1 book, featuring impressive feats of bicycle touring photos and stories, the RSF has launched a Vol. 2 on Kickstarter…
Bombtrack’s latest video showcases a father’s relationship with his daughter via bicycle touring.
Jones Bikes’ beloved H bars have really filled a niche in the bicycle touring community. You’ll see these bars all over the world, on all sorts of bikes. Recently, Jones updated the H Bar line to include a 35mm clamp model. This new bar has the same 45º sweep as the other Jones bars, comes in a 710mm width, and a 22.2mm standard grip area various accessories. If you’re worried about space to mount accessories, worry not, the entire front loop is 22.2mm diameter.
See the entire spec sheet at Jones.
In the summer of 2017, Lael Wilcox rode all of the major roads in Alaska, totaling 4,500 miles on mixed pavement and gravel. Lael is fourth-generation Alaskan. This is where she began endurance riding and her goal to get to know her home state.
In 2020, Lael went back to Alaska with her girlfriend Rue, a photojournalist, to ride together and document her project of riding all of the roads.
This scholarship is intended to enable another woman to design and ride her own 1,000 mile Alaskan adventure in the summer of 2021. This scholarship is open to a woman (including femme, trans and non-binary) of any age with any level of bicycle touring experience. We are looking for positive energy and a strong desire to experience the remote roads of Alaska and have some fun.
The recipient of the scholarship will receive a Specialized Diverge bicycle, Revelate Designs bikepacking bags, PEARL iZUMi apparel, a premium subscription to Komoot, Easton wheels, a Wahoo ELEMNT ROAM GPS, Big Agnes camping equipment, Rene Herse tires, a year subscription to Bicycle Quarterly, Trail Butter, and a $1,500 travel stipend provided by Easton.
Prepare a digital application based upon the questions on the following page and send to Lael Wilcox and the selection team at laelridesalaska@gmail.com no later than February 6, 2021. Provide your responses as the text of an email. The recipient of the scholarship will be announced April 5, 2021.
The scholarship selection team includes Lael Wilcox, previous scholarship recipients Kailey Kornhauser and Brooke Larsen, Abigale Wilson from PEARL iZUMi, Cari Carmean from The Radavist, and Natsuko Hirose from Bicycle Quarterly.
Head to LaelWilcox.com to apply for this scholarship!
Coming off a week of downtime after one of the most tumultuous years of our lives has brought clarity to this annual retrospective. To be honest, I had no idea what to expect as Covid-19 gripped the global community and changed life as we know it. We looked to our new home in Santa Fe, New Mexico and the surrounding areas for inspiration, pinged our good friends for their penmanship, and listened to communities that have been underrepresented in cycling. What resulted were a lot of articles that tackled some big issues and the realization that we still have a lot of work to do.
I’ve spent the past few weeks mulling over our content and have compiled a list of some of the most meaningful and fun pieces from the past twelve months. Read on below for a selection of memorable moments from 2020, in chronological order…
If you’ve had the chance to use the Big Agnes Bikepacking tents, then you know how convenient they are. With the short tent poles and bike harness pack, these tents pack down to a manageable size for bicycle touring. New for 2021 comes the Copper Spur HV UL3 and the Tiger Wall UL2/UL3 Bikepack Solution Dye (pictured). Head to Big Agnes to check out the full Bikepacking line in detail.
