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Photo by Brian Vernor
Design Within Reach is the a sponsor of the Richard Sachs Cyclocross Team this year and on their blog, they’ve pulled together a piece on what it means to race ‘cross.
What’s special about Richard Sachs’ bikes?
“Richard is what’s most special about the bikes. Riding a Sachs isn’t just riding a bike, it’s being part of a group that appreciates doing things differently.” – BrittLee Bowman, CX racer
Check out the whole feature at DWR’s blog!
When I began working with the team at Firefly on my first disc brake road bike back in 2014, I wanted it to be perfect. The problem was at the time, the industry was very imperfect when it came to disc brakes on road bikes and all the accompanying standards. That was three or four years ago. Flat mount wasn’t on the table, many road forks used a 15mm thru-axle, and SRAM’s 1x XD driver had just switched to the road market after a successful introduction into the MTB market years prior. Trying to figure out the specs on this bike took a lot of back and forth for both me and Firefly. I wanted this bike to be perfect… this is, after all, a dream bike!
Since getting the Rad Rod in 2015, I’ve had this bike built up a number of different ways, traveled the globe with it, toured on it, and came to the conclusion that I truly do love it. So when Tyler emailed me, asking what I’d think about sending it back for a retrofit, I was intrigued.
His proposal was a rear-end retrofit, with a new Firefly thru-axle dropout but most importantly, a new 3D-printed titanium yoke that would allow for a large tire and the use of a 2x drivetrain. By this point, I’d ridden a number of other drop bar “all road” bikes, but really wanted a straight up “chubby road,” or a disc brake, 650b, 2x road bike.
Named after a trail. Well, THE trail that dances along the Little Grand Canyon in the San Rafael Swell, Utah, the Goodwater is a completely capable and versatile hardtail from the team at Breadwinner Cycles in Portland, Oregon. We’ve seen a review on this bike from Gabe Tiller and now here’s Ethan from Breadwinner’s own bike. A massive XL frame with a saddle height so high that I had to use the dropper to get a leg over it, I was impressed with how damn good it looks at a particularly large scale. As a big dude myself, it’s not often I shoot a bike this large!
Spending time at the Breadwinner Cafe was a real highlight of my trip to Portland and maybe next time I can pull Ethan out on a ride. The last ride I had with Tony and Ira resulted in some of my favorite Portland MTB photos…
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Without showing any favoritism, out of all the bikes at Grinduro, this bike made by W.H. Bradford Designs was one of the most unique and the only hardtail in the whole grouping, discounting the Southpark ‘rigid’ with the Lauf fork. When I first saw this bike, I was partially blinded by the fluoro front end on it. But then the brushed purple rear triangle and the little angry mountain – a symbol from Grinduro, angry Mount Hough – caught my eye, all carefully executed by Eric from Color Works Paint. It’s those little details that make bikes fun and that’s what Grinduro is all about right, fun?
With matching Yanco Bags, a SRAM MTB kit, Industry Nine wheels, and its mean and rowdy stance, I might not be showing favoritism, but I feel like I saved the best for last. What was your favorite bike from Grinduro this year? See them all in our search string.
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Coffee and bikes. It’s a timeless pairing and one that Breadwinner Cycles, the Portland-based framebuilding operation, has embraced with their new cafe and shop. It’d been since 2015 when I got to visit their facilities, which at the time were in Tony Pereira’s house. Tony and Ira Ryan make up Breadwinner, along with some of their employees. Last year, Breadwinner opened their new shop and an adjacent cafe, along the bicycle expressway off North Williams. Since then, it’s become a hub for people meeting for group rides, or laptop-toting freelancers, and tourists like myself wanting to peek into the process that is making a Breadwinner.
For the past few years, Chris King has opened their doors to the public as part of an entire weekend of events dubbed the Chris King Open House. This event’s intent is to be coordinated with a product launch of their new colors for the year, as well as to showcase what makes their operations tick, and to display a selection of custom bikes, built by some of their best builder customers.
the two new colors for this year: matte turqoise and matte mango.
This year, they sent out an open invite to 30 of their best builder accounts, offering up discounted pricing to them to build a bike for the show, passing on the discount to their customers. Out of those 30 builders, 17 showed up, and they were displayed alongside a Pegoretti bike, which we looked at on Friday. These bikes lined the halls of the Chris King factory, where visitors could look at their features in great detail, chat with the builders about their process, and if they were so inclined, purchase their dream bike.
I was invited up to the Open House to document these bikes for the builders and for Chris King, as well as offering up an ultimate dream bike gallery for you, the readers of this website. Please enjoy! Which bike do you like the best and why? Oh and if you’re interested in one of the bikes showcased here, be sure to reach out to the builders, who are linked in the bike descriptions below.
While I was shooting photos at Breadwinner, Russ from Path Less Pedaled showed up to do their shop visit video, which is very informative, so check it out!
Finally! I finally made it to a Chris King Open House. Over the years, I’ve heard how much fun these events are. The events began on Thursday with an Industry Summit. On Friday we rode out to Chris King’s barn for lunch and Saturday, the doors at the Chris King factory opened to the public where visitors could take tours of the facilities, see the DropSet in person, check out the new limited edition colors – Matte Mango and Matte Turquoise – and ogle the bikes on display from 18 frame builders.
We’ll take a look at those tomorrow, but for now, let’s look inside the Chris King Open House!
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Follow Chris King Precision Components on Instagram and check out more from the Open House at #ChrisKingOpenHouse.
We’ve lost a lot of celebrities in the past few years but none shook me as much as the passing of Dario Pegoretti. The man was a legend. A true auteur. A builder that didn’t just weld bikes together, he created moving art. After the news settled of his death, I felt like I hadn’t paid my respects. That is until this bike rolled past me at Chris King the other day.
This weekend is the Chris King Open House, and to commemorate Pegoretti, Above Category shipped CKPC out this Love 3 aluminum road bike. Handmade and hand painted by the man himself. Aluminum you say? Yes! Dario made a small run of these bikes from Columbus’ XLR8 tubesets. He machined his own dropouts with replaceable hangers, used 30mm OS chainstays, a 31.6 seatpost for extra stiffness, and a threaded BB for worry-free rides. After his final fun of Love 3 frames, he continued his practice in steel.
Above Category built this bike up, as part of their permanent collection, so I had to show my respects to Pegoretti and give it some extra special love on the shop floor at Chris King, where the bottom bracket, headset, and hubs were machined.
Ride in Peace, Dario.
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I met Norther Cycles owner StarMichael back in 2015 here in Portland at the Bike and Beer festival where I shot one of his creations, a beautiful randonneuring frame. As with most of 2015’s content, when our server crashed, we lost the images. Bummer! So when Rie and the Sim Works crew said they were going to a few shops to deliver tires and racks, I tagged along, especially once I heard they were going to Norther Cycles.
Technology. Sometimes it gets a bad rep but when you consider the possibilities for makers, it can be a powerful tool to wield. Take Taylorsville’s Dana Fenimore and his brand Southpark. 10 years ago and he would have spent painstaking hours carving these lugs, or paying top dollar for a laser cutter to cut out these elaborate logos and designs. Now he just runs the lugs through a CNC machine and Voila! a work of art.
Dana’s handwork stopped the show at the 2018 Grinduro Town Hall, with curious enthusiasts querying how he was able to deliver such fine lugwork on this Lauf fork-equipped mountain bike. Did I mention that Dana built the CNC machine too? Yeah, he’s got some skills!
What do you think? Does the fact that a CNC machine made these lugs undermine the craft, or enhance it? Unfortunately, I cannot find Dana’s website or social media links, so if you have those, drop them in the comments.
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Another super clean flat bar all-road, or “hybrid” bike on display at Grinduro was this steel Caletti Scrambler, painted in a beautiful silver, adorned with the California Grizzly geometric graphic, topped off with purple anodized bits. Bikes like this really make sense for an event like Grinduro, where the washboarded roads can provide a challenging grip for drop bars, which are prone to slipping. It might be a matter of preference, but flat bar ‘cross and all-road bikes really look mean!
If you’d like to know more about the Caletti Scrambler, check out our review from last year!
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Man! What a year for the Town Hall bikes at Grinduro. There were nine bikes from builders on display, all the result of their ideal Grinduro rigs, and many of the brands took it as an opportunity to release some balleur builds. Take for instance this Breadwinner Cycles B Road, blinged out with custom Andrew the Maker bags made from Burberry fabric.
The result is one of my favorite Breadwinners to date, especially when you look at the complete build from a distance. It has panache!
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The GR2 is the latest bike from Bend, Oregon’s Argonaut Cycles. After years of design, development, and testing, Ben and his team are finally rolling these capable models out the door. With a racing geometry, lightweight layup, and in-house paint, the GR2 is a veritable dream bike.
For Grinduro this year, Argonaut displayed this beautiful build with SRAM Red eTap, Zipp, and WTB 38mm tires.
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Adam Sklar wants to shake the negative connotations with the word “hybrid.” You see, Adam likes flat bar ‘cross bikes. He likes how shreddy they are and he always jokes about how people cringe at the word “hybrid.” For Grinduro this year, he brought a titanium bike, which I’m calling the Hybrid Moments. Partially because, well, it’s a hybrid and also because he’s never heard the song by the Misfits. Millennials!
Built with SRAM cah caw Eagle XX1, Zipp wheels, and those nifty new Paul Klamper Flat Mounts. What about that fork? Shhhhh!
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Grinduro is here! Beginning today in Quincy, California, smack dab in the Lost Sierra, the Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship and Giro bring the fun to backroads and mountaintop singletrack in the Plumas National Forest. At the Town Hall, in the Quincy Fairgrounds, a selection of frame builders will display their work, as a collaboration with SRAM and Zipp. On the list is Portland’s Speedvagen, who brought along some extra eye candy, including this Surprise Me Road, with a striking, autumn-inspired paint job.
Built with Force 1 road, EE Cycleworks brakes, and ENVE, the rest of the details are there for you to see in this gallery, so enjoy!
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Mosaic Cycles recently collaborated with Mitch Hoke on a Wounded Warrior Project XT-1 ‘cross bike. Mitch is a pilot for the Air National Guard and has worked with WWP over the year raising awareness and helping out brothers and sisters who were injured in battle. Check out the full press-release from this unique project below!
Mountain towns with thriving ski scenes often benefit from a strong cycling presence to keep the economy alive during warmer months. Take Steamboat Springs, Colorado for instance. With a heavy snow sports presence and a healthy bike scene, the town is able to maintain tourism capital year round. This growth, however, was piecemeal, with one man doing the cycling community a great service by moving to this sleepy little Colorado town, forever changing the cycling community. Not just in Colorado either! His work rippled throughout the world… That man is Kent Eriksen.
In 1975 Kent Eriksen moved to Steamboat and in 1980 he started Sore Saddle Cyclery and Moots Bicycles with the help of several business partners. Kent didn’t just want to make bicycle frames, he wanted to innovate bicycle frame production. While it was summer, Sore Saddle kept the people of Steamboat rolling, and during the slow winter months, Moots production ramped up, to help secure the financial feasibility of Sore Saddle Cyclery. It was a unique business model and one that ensured the success of Moots.
