The Radavist

Every summer, ENVE Composites hosts a massive open house at their HQ in Ogden, Utah with an accompanying gravel ride. The 2023 ENVE Grodeo, which went down just one week ago,  featured an impressive list of 24 frame builders from around the world. Spencer Harding was on the ground documenting all of the beautiful bicycles and riding festivities and, below, he presents Part One of his event recap with a stacked gallery of bikes, some snapshots from the builder ride, and Trackline time trail at the Grodeo. Let’s get to it!

It’s that time of year again! The Chris King Open House returned to Portland this past weekend and, with it, a showcase of seventeen custom bikes. Let’s check them out in detail below!

With Covid-19 throwing a wrench in the spokes of the traditional tradeshow schedule, even open houses have had to switch to an online, or virtual, format. We saw this earlier in the year with ENVE and now, the 2020 Chris King Open House. While it wasn’t safe to travel to Portland to document the bikes, Chris King’s in-house photographer Jacob Olsen did a stellar job at documenting all ten bikes, while videography team Modify Content knocked out some great, in-depth video profiles of these handmade marvels. We’ve got part two today, featuring Pursuit, Rock Lobster, Sage, Speedvagen, and Sycip, so let’s jump right in…

During the fabrication of a Pursuit Cycles, Carl Strong’s custom carbon brand, each of the six sections of the MUSA carbon frame come out of the mold and then are printed with some stats. This includes mold number, frame size, layup version, and a number of parts made from that mold, then finally weight is handwritten on. Eventually, when the frame is complete and getting prep for paint these notes are removed. As this bike was one of the firsts Lead Out ARs to be produced this idea hooked me, I loved the process and tracking, I wanted to play into that. Taking some inspiration from recent sneaker trends as well. I decided on a Helvetica style to the point design.

Last year, ENVE opened its doors to the public for an Open House event. Once inside, visitors took a tour of its Ogden, Utah facilities and were greeted by two-dozen custom bikes from builders across the globe. This year the pandemic forced ENVE to pivot a bit, holding a virtual tour and framebuilder showcase they’re calling the Builder Round-Up. We’re pleased to once again host this showcase, with two-part coverage, so read on below for part two of a full breakdown on these Beautiful Bicycles along with a few teasers of new ENVE product…

Subverting adages is something Carl Strong has made a career from. Take the classic quote by Keith Bontrager: “Light, Cheap, and Strong, pick two.” That old saying need not apply here, because a Strong Frame is light and cheap when you consider “knowledge is wealth” and when you buy a Strong Frame, you’re buying some of that knowledge earned through a lifetime of building bikes.

Carl Strong began to tinker with making bicycle frames in the late 80’s, before setting up shop in his grandma’s garage in the early 90’s. Now, over 3,000 frames later, he is smashing yet another adage: “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” Not that Carl is a dog but you get the idea. This year, Carl had a big announcement for the industry. He has built another brand, all within the walls of his small, yet efficient shop in Bozeman, Montana: Pursuit Cycles.