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One of my personal favorite riding jackets is now available in a new color for fall 2018. The Search and State S1-J riding jacket now comes in navy blue. It’s the same, made in New York quality you’ve come to expect from SAS, just in a new color. Head to Search and State for more!
Well that was fast! The Paul Component Flat Mount Klampers are now in stock at PAUL. They come in long or short pull and Campagnolo pull, as well as a variety of finishes including polished. There are also flat mount front adapters! Head to Paul to see all the important information!
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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Cerakote is a high quality, durable coating that can take a beating. It’s more resilient than powder, won’t chip like paint, and will endure constant use over the years. As part of a limited release, Thomson has just launched a Cerakote lineup including an Elite X2, X4, and seat post, in a subtle Olive Drab. Head to Thomson for ordering!
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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At Grinduro, Chico-based Paul Component Engineering displayed their new flat mount Klampers. Expect more details to come, but I had to share these with y’all seeing as how many have expressed an interest in seeing Klampers updating to this popular disc brake interface. EDIT: Check them out now at Paul!
With companies like Moots, it’s not the branding, or legacy, or history, or name that makes the frames, it’s the people that work there. Both literally and figuratively. One of the job perks at Moots is the incredible employee purchase program, the details of which I’ll omit here, to save them from a flood of job applications. Joking aside, the company knows that the best product research and development can come from within and pride can often result from ownership. While the workers might not own Moots, each of them is part of the process. In today’s world, that means a lot, ATMO anyway.
The first thing that really struck me as I walked the floor of the production facilities was how many amazing employee bikes there were, of all makes and builds. From full on road bikes, to fatty all-road, mountain, commuter, and bikepacking setups. While my time was limited at Moots, I did my best to grab a few of these bikes and shoot details. The one that evaded my lens was Peter’s rim brake Psychlo X, which I don’t even want to describe here because it’ll make me cry! I suppose you’ve gotta leave something to look forward to on the next trip to Steamboat Springs. That and Taco Cabo!
I hope you enjoy this gallery, as much as these employees enjoy their commutes!
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One of the hardest things about reporting on frame builders and their shops is doing their operations justice. I’m still buzzing from my trip to Colorado to hang out with the crew at Moots and ride the Steamboat Ramble Ride. Spending a few solid days literally living amidst the operations, riding with the fabricators, talking and photographing everyone behind the scenes brought such great joy that I’m literally gushing as I write this intro. The 23 people that make this company tick are all great people who truly love their job and love cycling, at many capacities. Capturing that in photos and then writing about it is not easy!
Moots began in 1981, from the shop of Kent Eriksen, called Sore Saddle Cyclery, which technically opened in 1980, but the operations of Moots didn’t get rolling for a whole year. Kent began the brand with the help of many others, and eventually sold it off to begin his own company, Eriksen Cycles. Meanwhile, Moots began to permutate into their current state as one of the largest framebuilding operations in the USA. I can’t compare their shop to anyone else, other than Seven in the Boston-area. In terms of scale and organization.
Now through September 21st, Cane Creek’s in-house brand eeBrakes – formally eeCycleworks from California – is offering a pink and black, El Rosado limited edition set of these amazing caliper brakes, complete with eeBarKeeps and eeNut preload stem cap. They’re available in regular and direct mount sets and in my experience offer the most tire clearance out of any caliper I’ve used. Plus they look damn good. This kit isn’t cheap at $700, but in my experience with the eeBrakes, they make a rim brake bike stop like a disc brake bike. Check out more at Cane Creek.
In the world of Rivendell’s Sackville bags, specificity is key. When their Sackville Small wasn’t selling all that well, they retired it and redesigned a new pack. Coming in at 7.25”H x 12W x 11”, the Bagboy saddlesack has just enough space to make it useful for anything from sub24 overnighters to grocery runs and everything in between. Head to Rivendell for a complete list of changes and for ordering.
Photo by Cass Gilbert
This is big news! Back in 2017, Tumbleweed Bicycle Co made a trip to Peru. During that Journey, Daniel from Tumbleweed and Cas Gilbert really fell in love with the RatKing Frames T Rack. The hook was set and now Tumbleweed just announced they were taking over production and sales of the RatKing T Rack. Check out the full press-release below, which tells you how you can win one of these racks!
For photographically-inclined fans of the brand Mission Workshop, this announcement will be music to your ears. The SF-based brand just announced their new camera pack, the Integer. This pack carries the same silhouette as other packs in the MW lineup but has an integrated camera storage compartment, all within a weather-proof and heavily detailed shell. Check out the video for a usage walkthrough, see more specs below, and check out all the pertinent information at Mission Workshop.
After our review of the Kingdom Vendetta hardtail, featuring that Fog City Gear bag, a few people emailed asking for more information on those bags. Well, Kingdom Bike USA just launched a contest on their Instagram, giving a few of the bags away. Head over to enter and if you’re not lucky enough to win one, you can always holler at Fog City to make one for ya!
We just visited White Industries earlier this year for the first time and have a stout photo gallery showing the ins and outs of their operations, but for a motion picture version, check out this new video from the team at PAUL!
Paddles n’ Puppies: A Visit to Alpacka Raft HQ
Words and photos by Spencer Harding
I’ve been fawning over Alpacka rafts for years but have yet to obtain one. I have used the shitty Klymit one, which resulted in my raft flipping while holding my camera at the end of a rapid. I learned the hard way that there is only one true name in the packrafting game: Alpacka Raft.
Last year my friend Molly (see our last trip for more cute photos of her and Sprocket) got a job working at Alpacka Raft HQ in Mancos, Colorado. Mancos is a quaint town nestled right between the full-on Rocky Mountains and the eastern edge of the Colorado Plateau. Ever since she got the job I had been waiting for an excuse to stop by and check out the factory. Turns out Mancos is not even close to being on the way from Salt Lake City to Denver (to meet up for this year’s DFL the Divide trip) but was well worth the detour.
The Ramblin Roll is the simplest flat fix kit you can find and it just got simpler. The popular saddle-rail mounted rolls now utilize a Voile strap for ease of removal and attachment, are made in Los Angeles by Yanco and in stock now at GSC’s webshop!
Inspired by the great Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, artist Gerald Bowles created this graphic and it felt like such a great image for the Radavist, so we put it on a “big gulp” Purist bottle. We’re selling a set of bottles for $25 plus shipping. That’s $30 shipped in the US and $40 Internationally. Scoop up a PAIR of bottles below!
SORRY SOLD OUT!
If you have a Santa Cruz, Yeti, Alchemy or other compatible brand’s full sus MTB and want some Chris King bling on your head tube, well, the wait is over. I feel like I first heard about the PR&D behind this headset years ago, so it’s great to see it come to fruition. Check out specs below and get on the pre-order at Chris King.
