The Radavist

First Impressions: Meet the New Quincy – Juliana’s Answer to the Popular Stigmata.
Words by Amy Jurries, riding photos by Ian Collins, and bike photos by John Watson

Quincy, California sits at the northern end of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. It’s in the heart of California’s Gold Country where in the mid-1800s, miners from all over the world came for their chance at striking it rich. It’s in part thanks to the Gold Rush that within spitting distance of town, you have access to hundreds of miles of mountainous dirt roads.

While the town itself is small, with not much more than a movie theater and a few places to shop, each year around September the population swells with the crazy two-wheeled set for Grinduro weekend. Juliana’s new drop bar bike, the Quincy, is 100-percent made to rule on this terrain. Before Sea Otter, I was invited down to hang out with the Juliana/Santa Cruz team and test out the Quincy. With a 40+ mile ride in the mountains around Big Basin Redwoods State Park, we rode hard on everything from tarmac connectors and loose chalky gravel to branches, mud, and gopher-hole-checkered grassy downhills.

It’s hard not to make that reference on a bike called the Chris Cross. Back when Fat Chance began, I doubt Chris Chance would have foreseen the future, or at least where and how people would be riding these bikes that are a mix of ‘cross and road bikes yet here we are. Brent bought a Chris Cross with the “Team Fade” finish and matching stem to be his all-rounder bike in SoCal and on a recent outing to Los Angeles, I was able to shoot this damn perfect bike.

Can you OD from OD green? I can’t and at the 2019 Sea Otter Classic, there was a lot of olive drab green bikes, one of which I wanted to spend a little more time documenting because it was from two brands taking on the all-road market. Chapter2 is based out of New Zealand, spearheaded by Mike Pryde. They pride themselves in many of the roadie mantras with “light, fast, responsive” in their tagline, yet the Chapter2 AO looks to add a couple more to that list. If I were to expand on the light, fast, responsive, line, I’d add in versatility and compatibility to that list.

Whoa whoa whoa. What? Last year we saw a plastic shelled prototype of Niner’s full suspension all road, the MCR 9 RDO, and this year at Sea Otter, the brand teased an updated prototype, to the shock and awe of trail shredders and roadies alike.

Niner calls the MCR 9 RDO their Magic Carpet Ride, alluding to the cushy feel that full suspension offers all-day gravel racers. Their theory is the suspension allows riders to run their tires at higher pressures, avoiding snakebite tire tears, rim damage, and less rolling resistance, all with 50mm x 27.5 clearance. Their CVA design – constant varying arc – boasts modified leverage ratios for less travel and total lockout maximizes energy on pavement climbs. The frame is made from Niner’s RDO carbon layup, with one piece forged linkages, has a removable front derailleur mounts and has full sleeve internal routing.

While this bike might not be for everyone, it is cool to see. If you’re feeling this design, let Niner know in the comments and be on the lookout for the MCR 9 RDO late 2019.

____

Follow Niner on Instagram and follow Rebecca Rusch on Instagram.

Salsa hasn’t had a true road bike in their lineup for some time now. Sure, they have the Warbird, which is a gravel racing road bike, but with that, comes a more stable geometry with a longer wheelbase. The Warroad is a straight up endurance road bike, with two wheel sizes and multiple build kit options. Warroad is a new platform for Salsa, designed to take on chunky, imperfect asphalt, with what Salsa is calling their “Endurance Road Geometry.”

Big tires, short chainstays, double crankset, pick two. Normally. Then there’s the concept of a boost road bike, in which case, pick all three. I call it a concept because there’s a lot that has to go into making a boost road bike a reality. To go from 142mm rear spacing to 148mm rear you’ve got to move things outboard a bit. I’ve seen a number of cobbled together solutions for this, which usually revolve around adopting a complete MTB drivetrain from the bottom bracket spindle, to the cranks, cassette, and chainline. But what about a road bike? Or a chubby road bike? That’s where it gets interesting.

Perhaps you recall Thomson making bikes with Lynskey a few years back? Those US made frames were a unique move for the component manufacturer and even though they didn’t sell a ton of the collaboration bikes, it set a precedent for the brand, prompting this project. Yesterday, I met Mike from Thomson, who was in town en route to NAHBS in Sacramento. Mike was unpacking and building up this flashy titanium bike when I saw the Thomson logo on the downtube. While it looks like a polished, finished product, this frame is, in fact, a working prototype. Not the first Thomson bike, but one of the first bikes Thomson has developed to be made overseas in Taiwan.

At the end of most trips, I end up with left-over photos or photos that don’t have a home in any one specific gallery. Yet, while in Tucson, I found myself carrying a camera and shooting photos on just about every ride, resulting in some pretty stout photographic documentation of a handful of rides. Without diving deep into the history or the meaning, I decided to simply present these routes with ample photographic documentation.

After spending close to a month in Tucson, I got a good handle on what the cycling community is like in that wonderful city. Well, in the winter anyway, summer is another story. One place I found myself stopping by frequently for events is Transit Cycles. With Spencer’s gallery being one of my favorite Shop Visits on this site, I didn’t feel it necessary to completely revisit Transit, photographically. While they did move to a new location since Spencer’s piece, many of the vignettes and textures are still relevant to Transit’s modus operandi. I did, however, feel compelled to check out their new space and hit some highlights, and as the title implies, to shoot the owner, Duncan’s, Black Cat All Road.

There were a lot of practical and well thought out bikes at this year’s Super Stoke Weekend and if time had allowed – short days and long ride agendas always make it hard – I would have shot them all. My methodology was to try to capture some of the themes present in the stable of steeds. With Gideon’s bike, I was able to shoot a 333 Fab. One of four present at the ride. With Spencer’s bike, it was about a similar approach to frame design but from an overseas production perspective. Black Mountain Cycles is a shop in Point Reyes Station, California. Mike Valey who owns the shop designs bikes for the brand after he spent years designing bikes for other companies in the industry. He and Sean from Soulcraft worked on this frame, dubbed the MCD, or Monster Cross Disc, with specially-designed dropouts for the thru-axles. While this bike is a departure from the traditional monster cross ideologies (700x45mm ish wheels with wide dirt drops,) it gets the point across and thrives off the ambiguity of mainstream monster cross definitions.

I was amazed at the number of 333 Fab bikes rolling at this year’s Super Stoke Weekend. One of which was this limited edition, Kyler Martz-designed, Now You’re Finished-painted, AirLandSea all-road/light tourer, piloted by Gideon Tsang from Austin. Morgan Taylor reviewed one for the site last year. Max from 333 Fab designed these bikes as a “Cascadian Rambler,” meant to take on all day or multi-day dirt road rides throughout the Pacific Northwest and beyond.

These bikes are made in a limited production run, with various sizing to ensure the rider can get their custom fit dialed in. You can choose from one of seven sizes, with the ability to fit riders ranging from 5’ – 6’5”. The sizing doesn’t stop at the geometry alone, Each individual size has its own specific tubeset with engineered tube diameters to ensure a proper ride quality. How they build up the frames is up to them! I particularly took to Gideon’s build spec, as it’d be close to how I’d build one of these up myself.

A few years ago, the disparity between road bikes, disc road bikes, and all-road bikes was very high. It was hard to find a disc road bike or all-road that had hydraulic brakes, clearance for 42mm tires, and extra bottle bosses for under $3,000. In the last year, the amount of all-road models on the market has increased drastically, which is great for the consumer! Bigger brands who typically address racing have looked to expand into all-road, gravel, and adventure platforms. Even Cannondale has thrown their hat in the ring with the affordable Topstone. I can’t help but think about how a bike like this would have blown the market apart a few years ago but how does it stack up against the already hefty list of options out there?

Plante Cycles is a small framebuilding operation in Rancho Cucamonga. Stephen Plante builds each frame in his home garage, at the base of the San Gabriel mountains, where he tests out the designs for each model. At the Cub House’s Bike Show and Swap this year, Stephen brought two bikes, one of which I’ve been meaning to shoot photos of.