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Sueños de Colombia: Scarab Cycles Paramo Ultra Gravel Bike Review

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Sueños de Colombia: Scarab Cycles Paramo Ultra Gravel Bike Review

The Paramo Ultra from Colombian bicycle builders Scarab Cycles is arguably the brand’s most versatile offering. With clearance for thicc tires, sliding dropouts, and comfortable geometry, the Paramo Ultra is inspired by the unrelenting high-elevation Andean mountain terrain where Scarab is based to provide a capable ride experience in even the most demanding pursuits. And because every Scarab is built to order based on a rider’s size, discipline, and style, no two builds are ever the same.

Josh has ridden a Paramo Ultra for the past six months both in Colombia where it was made and on his local roads and trails around the Sonoran desert. Below, he shares his thoughts on the build as well on Scarab’s overall approach to fabricating custom bicycles in the mountains outside Medellín…

A Multi-Bike Review of the Tumbleweed Big Dipper Drop Bars

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A Multi-Bike Review of the Tumbleweed Big Dipper Drop Bars

Wide bars are becoming more and more prolific in the drop-bar MTB, touring bike, and even gravel bike subgenres. A craze that began with the Crust and Ron’s Bikes Towel Rack bars has now become widespread in the industry, with multiple brands putting their spin on an ultra-wide offering. Among these is Tumbleweed, who have worked to design a model suited for the Stargazer touring bike (one of my favorites in that subcategory of drop-bar bikes). Fittingly dubbed the Big Dipper Bars ($115), I’ve been stealthily test-riding them on two recent review bikes. I have some thoughts on the Big Dippers and the appropriate application for wide drop handlebars in general. Let’s check it out below!

A 600-Mile First-Ride Review of Beast Components’ Carbon Hybrid Bar

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A 600-Mile First-Ride Review of Beast Components’ Carbon Hybrid Bar

Fresh off racing the North-South Colorado Bikepacking Race, where she finished 1st women’s and 7th overall, Hailey Moore is here to share her first-ride impressions of Germany-based Beast Components’ Carbon Hybrid Bar. The mtb-shift-and-lever compatible design allowed her to run her Bearclaw Ti Hardtail as a monster-tourer, drop bar 29er, but how did the modified design manifest in ride quality as she pedaled 600 miles down Colorado’s Front Range? Read on for her thoughts…

Vintage Bicycles: 1987 Steve Potts Signature

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Vintage Bicycles: 1987 Steve Potts Signature

This entry from our Vintage Bicycles series is my personal favorite bike I’ve shot thus far. It’s not often you find such a clean and pristine example of a 1980s Potts Signature, complete with WTB dirt drops, a LD stem, and a full WTB/Suntour Grease Guard kit. Today we’re stoked to feature this gem with words by the Vintage MTB Workshop‘s Tasshi Dennis so read on below for more!

Surly Ghost Grappler Drop Bar Touring Bike

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Surly Ghost Grappler Drop Bar Touring Bike

With so many brands tossin’ their crusty, salty caps into the drop bar touring bike ring, Surly decided to do the Surly thing and offer something a little different with the Ghost Grappler, a 27.5×2.5″ wheeled, steel chassis, horizontal track ends, multi-surface tourer with a lot of stack for a comfortable riding position. Looking at this bike, you might be compelled to compare it to the Salsa Fargo, the Otso Fenrir, the Moots ESC, AWOL, and Kona’s Sutra ULTD. The Retail is set at $1899, pending availability with supply chain shortages. Check out more at Surly.

Width Without the Waves: A Few Rides in on the 560mm Wide Crust x Nitto Shaka Bar

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Width Without the Waves: A Few Rides in on the 560mm Wide Crust x Nitto Shaka Bar

Crust Bikes gives the people what they want and that ranges from frames, to complete bikes, accessories, parts, and yeah, handlebars. Their small-time operation allows them to pivot easily to follow trends and in a lot of ways, set the trends themselves. With road bikes permuting into even more capable off-road machines, a lot of the ideologies of mountain bike design and technology have found its way onto drop-bar bicycles. Sure, the obvious moves are those shorter-travel suspension forks but something that not many people have touched on is bar width.

That’s where Crust Bikes and Ultra Romance have really influenced and inspired the question: what is the appropriate width for a drop-bar bicycle? We already looked at my Sklar with the Towel Rack Bars but after much demand – and my own curiosity – I decided to try out the Made in Japan by Nitto Shaka Bar.

No Comment Needed

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No Comment Needed

I’ve been waiting to post this graphic, designed by Poler’s CX team, who races on flat bar ‘cross bikes each season. It’s an obvious troll, but damn, that’s a great graphic but with all the flat bar ‘cross and all-road bikes, decked out with Eagle, it does make you wonder.