#rando

Reportage By: Morgan Taylor

What Butts: Getting Under the Paint with a Wake Robin Cycles Rando Bike

Why do some bikes get up to speed with seemingly less effort than others? Why do some bikes leave me less fatigued after long rides? My idea of the ultimate road and adventure bike is one that has all the wonderful vertical compliance that we know can be built into a bicycle as a system, but that also responds to and rewards its rider by flexing just right in the lateral axis as well.

We all know custom steel bikes have the potential to be a rider’s one and only. And that leads us to Wake Robin Cycles and the subject of this review. The Wake Robin is a low trail, rim brake randonneuring bike, custom built for Chip over at What Bars. If there’s one kind of bike that’s revered to ride smooth over long distances, rim brake rando bikes are it. But, not all custom bikes are equal, particularly those built for someone who isn’t you – so this one’s got plenty for us to talk about.

Radar

Readers’ Rides: Ben’s Bantam 650b Randonneur

This week’s Readers’ Rides comes from Ben and features his beautiful Bantam Randonneurring machine. Check it out below with a full build spec and with words by Ben!

Radar

What Exactly is the Surly Pack Rat?

What is the Surly Pack Rat? Well that’s a question a lot of people have been asking since a photo was leaked courtesy of Mr. Pubes a few weeks ago. Yes, it’s got rim brakes, and according to Surly, the geometry’s been optimized for riding with a front load and to reduce toe overlap.

That means it’ll ship with 650×42 tires on the larger sizes, and 26×1.5″ on the smaller sizes. With a 44mm fork offset it’s not a low trail bike, but it does have a relatively steep head angle compared to other bikes in those sizes – 74º on the 650b bikes and 72.5º on the 26″ bikes.

This whole conversation is a minefield, so… jump on in! Surly’s got a huge blog post up about it, so head on over there and dig in if you’re into it.

Reportage By: Morgan Taylor

A Thomson and Ortlieb Decaleur Hack

Carrying stuff on bikes can be complicated – especially when you’re a notorious over-packer who likes to have a DSLR on hand. The Wolverine is my first ground-up drop bar build in a while, and I wanted to ensure that both transporting and accessing my camera would be well thought out.

Since we got married last October, Stephanie and I have been putting the pieces together to take off on a multi-month trip beginning in July. Wanting to produce galleries and stories on the road means having a bike-camping friendly way to carry my camera gear. I decided on a Swift Ozette rando bag – and the Hinterland Collection made with X-Pac VX21 had classic rando utility with a technical, modern twist.

I got talking with Martina at Swift over email, and ended up heading down to Seattle to visit their studio and pick up my bag in person. While Martina does get out on a lot of adventures herself, she also loves to live vicariously through others. Finding out that Stephanie and I were headed in the direction of the Great Divide route and planning on sticking to dirt as much as possible, she recommended finding a robust decaleur solution for my Ozette.