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Holy shit. Where do I even begin here? First off, we just saw where Rick Hunter builds his frames in Bonny Doon, just outside of Santa Cruz so we have context. Second off, the name of this bike is one of the deadliest vipers on Earth, the Bushmaster. These snakes are capable of multiple strikes in milliseconds and will deliver a fatal amount of venom without blinking an eye *snakes don’t have eyelids.*
Multiple strikes, multiple gears. No, wait. This is a singlespeed, right? Look again.
Kit builds aren’t Rick Hunter’s thing. You won’t find derailleur hangers ordered from a catalog in drawers, or your every day, run of the mill 44mm head tube waiting en queue for assemblage. Not at Hunter Cycles.
Rick Hunter is one of those builders that makes what I like to call utilitarian art. Utilitarian because each of his bikes are made to tackle one or many jobs efficiently and with a dash of fun. Or the other way around. Art because each bike is unique. Or rather, each run of production frames are unique. Be it a WoodRat, a Cyclo-Cross disc bike or a road frame. Rick will design, fabricate and finish his own cable stops, derailleur hangers and head tubes. There are a lotta hours put into each bike. More recently he’s been working on some feats of engineering and reverse practicality however with his completely insane Bushmaster bikes…
One of the best qualities of steel is its ability to be resurrected from disaster.
In-home or in-workshop bicycle storage is essential and while many of the systems we use to hang our bikes might be bomb-proof, sometimes the building itself is a little janky. Last year, Garrett from Strawfoot‘s bike rack fell off the wall at his shop, crushing his beloved Hunter ‘Cross bike.
Devastated, he called up Rick Hunter and put the bike in queue for repair. A few weeks later (he and Garrett are best buds, hence the fast turnaround,) Garrett’s bike was ready for powder. The color he chose was fitting for this resurrected zombie bike: matte black.
This will be Garrett’s Grinduro bike, but with a 40mm WTB Nano setup tubeless, which coincidentally is what I rode and will be riding this weekend in Quincy.
If you’re rolling through this weekend, swing through the Strawfoot booth and say hey to Garrett!
Porcelain Rocket’s Moots Fatty with Hunter Fork
Words and photos by Morgan Taylor
Our recent trip through the Rockies to visit Porcelain Rocket’s shop was months in the making. The plan was to start with the shop visit in Calgary and then backtrack for a ride with Kevin Tweed in Banff the following day. I was excited to experience first hand the majestic Canadian Rockies, and to ride with Kevin on his home turf – but we were skunked.
In the days approaching our visit, massive wildfires burning south of the border combined with stagnant weather patterns to send a blanket of smoke over much of southern BC and Alberta. I had imagined shooting Scott’s Moots with a breathtaking Banff backdrop that I knew Kevin could lead us to, but that idea was out the window. Fortunately, Scott’s Moots holds its own. The haze lifted just enough to let an orange sun bring out the depth in the titanium, and we made some magic.
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.
In Los Angeles, if you don’t have a cross bike, you’re fuckin’ up. Seriously. There are so many dirt roads and tracks to explore, all within the city limits that you’ll quickly realize your road bike or mountain bike’s limitations.
For Yanco, he wanted a frame from a California pedigree. He had put a deposit down with Hunter Cycles a while back, way before the second year of Mudfoot Stinners popped up. So when his spot in the Hunter queue finally came up, he contacted Geoff McFetridge and Aaron about setting him up with a Mudfoot-painted ENVE fork for his Hunter.
At first, no one was sure how it’d look, but after Rick posted a photo of the grey frame with blue logos, we all knew it’d look incredible. Matched with mango Chris King, some Paul skewers and a little sumpin’ sumpin’ locked into the downtube bottle bosses, this bike has some real style…
Then it fell over and I felt horrible! Sorry Yanco! Hopefully it’s not the last time this bike goes #RubberSideUp…
In 2009, Rick from Hunter Cycles introduced an affordable, production-level bicycle brand called Pajaro. Named after the Pajaro River, where Rick’s old shop was located, these bikes used lower-end steel and came in stock sizes. They ran around $700 for a frameset, yet still featured some of what I would consider to be “Hunter-esque” details like wishbone stays, segmented forks and elegant braces – check out the fork crown!
On our last morning of the Speedvagen Fit Tour in SF at Mission Workshop, a customer named Jason rolled up on this Pajaro cyclocross bike, which he had set up as a commuter. I love bikes like this for a few reasons: they’re simple, functional and yet still stylish with choice components where they matter… The twisted Oury grips are a nice touch.
Check out more in the Gallery and if you’re interested in a custom Hunter, holler at Rick!
Japan’s Sim Works makes some of the raddest components out there and boy, do they know how to pick a great framebuilder to work with! Rick Hunter has been conspiring with the Japanese company and there are some really dialed products coming in the near future. For now, we have to make due with these great photos of Rick and his Wood Rat 27.5 hardtail.
Check out more at the Sim Works Flickr!
Ride Along: Garrett Kautz from Strawfoot
Words and photos by John Watson
Strawfoot is one of those companies that has gained a lot of momentum over the past year in the cycling industry because of social media and word of mouth. While Strawfoot is a bag company, they’re most known for their socks. I was first introduced to Garrett from Brian Vernor last year, when I visited his small shop in Santa Cruz.
Over the past few months, Strawfoot has grown. They’ve moved to a bigger shop, are sponsoring a cross team and yes, he’s continued making socks, which sell out almost immediately…
I’m on the road and won’t have access to WiFi over the next few days – or at least I don’t think – but I really want to post about this. Scott from Porcelain Rocket has a brand new website and it’s really worth checking out.
So good dude!
I get so many people asking where I bought my Porcelain Rocket for Hunter Cycles “fanny pack”. Well, Rick’s got a new stock of Shred Packs up on his site, along with caps, stickers, patches and those lovely Nugz.
Head over to the Hunter Cycles web shop to pick one up.
While most cantilever cable hangers have built in barrel adjusters, some don’t. Since I run the Speedvagen x ENVE Integrated stem, I don’t have an in-line adjuster. Before, I used to just re-clamp my yoke or canti if I needed more stopping power and that’s just not right.
These little things have been floating around on the internet since 2011, but I completely forgot about them until last December…
One day, I’d love to check out Rick Hunter’s shop and ride his pump track. As part of their Dream Bike series, Easton interviewed Rick about his work and that killer road bike he built for the charity.
I really, really, really love the work of Rick Hunter. In fact, if I didn’t have a plump stable already, I would get him to build me something. What? I don’t know but after seeing this Easton Cycling Dream Bike, something tells me it’d look fast!
The fifth installment of the Easton Cycling Dream Bike Charity Sweepstakes looks amazing and all proceeds go to the Red Cross. Check out more at the East Cycling Facebook…
… and more photos below!
This has got to be one of the sickest Hunter cross bikes I’ve seen. Big, fat, tapered head tube, elegantly-sleeved seat tube cluster, slender seat stays, deep chain stays and that incredible paint. I even kinda like the disc brakes on this one!
Head over to Blue Lug’s Flickr to see more. Seriously, I’m so into this!
Photos by John Daniel Reiss
There’s always room for some SF and Santa Cruz love here on PiNP, especially when it’s from the lens of JDR. These new team Fresh Air Bicycles Hunter cross bikes look so good! I love seeing grassroots support from people like Rick Hunter. Check out the Team Fresh Air Hunter Flickr group and see more photos at JDR’s Flickr.
Call it a hip bag, call it a lumbar bag, or just man up and call it a fanny pack. Whatever you call it, they’re practical and yes, I even prefer to use one as a camera bag, as opposed to a backpack while riding. Porcelain Rocket’s new limited run for Hunter Cycles is pretty boss. I can only wonder how to order one?
Santa Cruz, I think I’m in love and while it may be an infatuation with the trails, the wood or just the people, every time I go there, my heart palpitates. On Wednesday, Vernor scooped me up and we headed south from SF, along the coastal roads. We met up with Garrett from Strawfoot and it was a pleasant surprise.
Strawfoot is one of those companies that I never would have known about if it weren’t for Vernor, so to finally see the operation and bags in person, solidified my expectations. More on that to come but for now, a little on Garrett’s new Hunter disc cross bike.
Bicycle camping in Santa Cruz is something I’ve yet to experience but with its endless amount of fire, frontage and park roads, any weekend can turn into some solitary time in the ‘wood. When Garrett approached Rick Hunter about a bike, Rick wanted to try something a little different.
Discs, a rather unique cable routing style and Sim Works by Nitto components are simply accents to Rick’s excellent craftsmanship and engineering prowess. Ok, I’m done sugar coating the work of Mr. Hunter. This bike rules. It’s going to look better with age, after chips and dings but right now, it’s so easy on the eyes…
