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The SOMA Wolverine is an affordable all rounder that can be built in a number of different ways. We’ve documented a number of these builds over the years and they always pull at our heartstrings. For this week’s Readers’ Rides, Luke, a longtime follower and commenter of The Radavist shares with us his stunning build…
The Stayer OG Plus is a frame to take advantage of the mullet, mix and match, mountain bike drive chain, and road bike shifter component options that make bikes like this sort of a strange bird. Monstercross? Adventure bike? Or just a touring bike? Whatever you call it, the OG Plus has a phenotype we can all get behind.
You might not expect the co-owner of Crust Bikes to have oftentimes preferred a moto for solo touring over a bicycle but it’s true. Matt from Crust Bikes is a longtime lover of mini motos and often found himself on them when he was touring around the world. One bike in particular always met his fancy; the Postie bike. Although, he preferred the bike not only for its whopping 7 horsepower but its step-through design, which inspired the new Evasion Trail 140. Matt gave us a sneak peek at this new all steel chassis tourer, so let’s check out the forthcoming Evasion Trail 140 below…
The almightly Elephant Bikes National Forest Explorer, or NFE for short, is now available for pre-order! Elephant Bikes is building a single batch of green, thru-axle stock NFEs in early 2024—delivery in May. Read on for more…
Sometimes it takes really pushing a bike to unlock its potential. This was the case for Andy White of FYXO on a recent bush bash down in Australia aboard his trusty Karate Monkey. Read on for a full review of this tried-and true-touring platform…
We got our first look at the made in Portland, Oregon Sim Works SimLoaders bags during our Chris King Open House Reportage this year and today, the Japanese brand announced the full lineup, coinciding with a completely redesigned Doppo touring bike, now dubbed the Locust and with either 27.5×2.8″ or 29×2.4″ tire clearance!
We first showcased the Doppo when John did a bike tour around Mt. Fuji with the Circles crew back in 2016, so it’s exciting to see the newest permutation of this line. Read on for a complete look at the SimLoaders Bags and the new Doppo Locust below!
Falconer Cycles is now making titanium frames and last weekend, he unveiled a stunning titanium hardtail touring bike to John…
For creatives – be it sculptors or painters – expanding into other mediums is often fulfilling and cathartic. Learning new methodologies and processes keeps makers engaged with their work. Lots of bicycle fabricators start out TIG welding steel frames and, later, expand into working with titanium. This offers new horizons for not only the brand but also for loyal followers to access a superior material.
Cameron Falconer is the latest builder to be documented here expanding into titanium from steel. While in Southern Arizona last weekend, John caught up with Cam who showcased a titanium hardtail touring bike with a custom titanium rack. This was “John’s modern bike shoot of the year” as he put it excitedly and you can see why below…
For this week’s Readers’ Rides, Bryan shares his journey from a Specialized road bike to an All-City Space Horse with us. Read along to learn how this bike changed his perspective on riding!
On their fourth trip to Kyrgyzstan, Belén Castello and Tristan Bogaard return for Tristan to ride the 2023 Silk Road Mountain Race. But with a few days on their hands before the start, they decide to blaze a new 250-mile route that circumnavigates the Ala-Too, from the capital of Bishkek. With hopeful hearts and full panniers, they start their ride by setting out over Kegeti Pass (12,401′). After surmounting the pass, tragedy strikes as Tristan falls ill. Things aren’t always sunsets and tailwinds on bike tours, so come take a journey through accepting defeat in the beautiful mountains and valleys of Kyrgyzstan.
Armed with bike, camera, and plenty of curiosity Werka Szalas set out for a month on the road in Northern Spain. The main focus of her trip was to visit the Picos de Europa National Park in the province of Asturias but she couldn’t help spending time detouring through Leon and Cantabria, too. Read on and check out her gallery for a closer look at a few of the lesser-known corners of Spain.
With its mixed-surface riding through four distinct sections of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument that surrounds Las Cruces, New Mexico, the Monumental Loop has plenty of spice—and not just from the chile you’ll find in Hatch. Every fall, the Loop’s organizers extend an open invitation for cyclo-tourists to come experience the 250-mile desert figure eight as part of the Dangerbird group ride event. This year’s rolling extravaganza was a coupled with the Bikepacking Summit, which Daniel Zaid attended and reports on below…
Wide bars are becoming more and more prolific in the drop-bar MTB, touring bike, and even gravel bike subgenres. A craze that began with the Crust and Ron’s Bikes Towel Rack bars has now become widespread in the industry, with multiple brands putting their spin on an ultra-wide offering. Among these is Tumbleweed, who have worked to design a model suited for the Stargazer touring bike (one of my favorites in that subcategory of drop-bar bikes). Fittingly dubbed the Big Dipper Bars ($115), I’ve been stealthily test-riding them on two recent review bikes. I have some thoughts on the Big Dippers and the appropriate application for wide drop handlebars in general. Let’s check it out below!
The Velo Orange Utility Bar and Utility Rack are companion products where the rack component mounts directly to either a flat or riser handlebar. In his review of the Utility combo, Nic Morales writes about the refreshingly simple nature of the design, and his impressions of the setup for bikepacking, commuting, and even on a mini-velo.
While winter has already set in over in Colorado’s San Juan Mountains, Todd Gillman and a troop of friends snuck in one last hurrah of the year, a two-day leaf peep bike tour to circumnavigate Mt. Wilson while the leaves were still poppin’. Read on for Todd’s lively route description and file this instant backcountry classic away for next year—you won’t soon forget Aaron LaVanchy‘s stunning photo set…
Prioritizing longevity and smooth shifting, Shimano’s LINKGLIDE technology offers an alternative to the weight and speed focus of most 12-speed drivetrains, with a new cassette designed to last 3x longer than their HYPERGLIDE+ technology. It uses an 11-speed chain, a new tooth design, and Shimano’s legacy HG freehub to achieve these feats. Whether it’s going on a new bike or bringing an old rig into the 1x world Shimano’s new LINKGLIDE technology might just be the right fit for you.
Announced at this year’s Moab Outerbike, the Esker Cycles Hayduke LVS –available as a frame ($2,950) or a complete ($4,950)–is a hardtail mountain bike with 600-millimeter chainstays and touring accouterments aplenty. Esker even developed a specialty rack for this bike, dubbed the Molle Rackwald ($300.) Needless to say, it’s a unique offering from the brand.
John was able to ride one for a bit, including on an overnighter with the Esker Cycles team and Sincere Cycles in Santa Fe, so read on for an in-depth look at this rare and funky bike!
What does it mean to ride the 3,300-mile spine of the Continental Divide, from the Canadian to Mexican border across the United States? Very few people can say, but Kurt Refsnider can now count himself among them. In his fourth installment from the Continental Divide Trail, Kurt writes about the final miles through a geologist’s lens and how New Mexico held just as much resistance as it did enchantment.
Is it a drop-bar mountain bike? A gravel rig on ‘roids? Or a bike from another dimension? When it comes to codifying bikes these days, it’s really easy to get really lost (real quick). However, once in a while, a bike comes along that challenges the norm, flips the bird to conventional geo numbers, and stands alone: not as an outlier, but as an original. Sam Rice has been test riding Curve Cycling‘s long-awaited GMX+ and shares his thoughts on why it isn’t “just another touring bike” below, along with a look at their updated Seek 430 FM carbon fork.
