Greetings and good tidings from Nutmeg Country, or welcome to the world of love, kindness, friendship, and joy. Maybe you’ve felt it all year long, or maybe you’ve been yearning to finally make the pilgrimage to the largest gathering of wool and steel on the East Coast. Either way, Jarrod Bunk has no doubt that stories of the soft times had in Nutmeg Country have reached your ears. The allure has been written about many times in this corner of the internet. The annual Nutmeg Nor’easter masquerades as the best alt-cycling weekend but Jarrod’s here to tell you that what you’ll find when you arrive is the biggest group hug you could ever hope for. This is a cycling festival that’s more about the people and the riding is just the reason to gather. Read on for Jarrod’s recap of the 2023 edition of the Nutmeg Nor’Easter.
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Athens Divide: A Micro Adventure Race
The Athens Divide is proof that you don’t have to lose a night of sleep to experience the full range of adventure racing. Billed as a “micro adventure,” this point-to-point race hosted by Donhou Bicycles takes riders over Athens’ urban ridgelines where, no matter the bike, everyone’s hiking somewhere. Read on for Tom Donhou’s recap of the first Athens Divide, with photos from Maliakos Nikos.
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Losing Our Heads at the Onguza Loskop Local Cycling Festival in Namibia
Held in Omaruru, Namibia this past July, the Onguza Loskop Local is a weekend festival with “great food, drinks & friends, with a wee bit of cycling thrown in for good measure.” After deciding the event looked really lekker Cape Town locals Stan Engelbrecht and Donnet Dumas made the trip out and each rode the event in divergent fashions—Donnet on a borrowed too-small Giant, and Stan on his ill-advised fixed-gear with skinny tires—and share a joint account of their adventure…
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Clint’s SaltAir Cycles Twentysixie Fixed Gear
While the 2023 Enve Grodeo was chock-full of some of the snazziest bespoke all-road bikes from around the world, Spencer Harding’s eye was caught by an eccentric build noticeably absent from the show floor. Fortunately, he was able to get the bike’s owner, Clint, to stop throwing skids long enough to snag a closeup. Pulling influence from some strange corners of the bike world and outfitting the frame with some amazing and unique parts, Clint’s SaltAir stood out for more reasons than its single rear cog. Clint rode this pink dream on all 92 miles of the Enve Grodeo, a feat in itself regardless of it being a fixed gear 26-er. Let’s have a closer look!
Radar
Readers’ Rides: Pieter’s Simple, Comfortable Fixed Gear Omnium CXC v3
Fixed gears and single speeds make for great commuter bikes. They’re simple, comfortable, help perfect your spin, and are less prone to leave you stranded with a mechanical. Pieter from the Netherlands sent in his Omnium CXC V3 with some special details for this week’s Readers’ Rides, so let’s check it out!
Radar
Radar Roundup: Bender Grab ‘n’ Go, Udog Distanza, Stash Cache, MKS MM-Cube Ezy, Manastash Ridge Tires, Pony Express, Los(t) Sueños, and How to Ride Gravel
Our Radar Roundup compiles products and videos from the ‘net in an easy-to-digest format. Read on below for today’s findings…
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Bicycle Boys Clubhouse: The Fixie Kingdom of Bangkok
Up at the crack of dawn, we start our ride through the bustling streets of Bangkok. As the sun struggles to break through the dense smog that engulfs the city, we wrestle and weave through the maddening metropolis. People flood the streets. Market stalls pop up around us, and woks roar as they fire up and perfume the air with an explosion of rich Thai aromas. For once we won’t stop. We’re on a mission, we tell ourselves as we ignore the pull of the pad thai, and arrive at our destination: Bicycle Boys Clubhouse (BBCH).
Tucked away on Charoen Krung – the first road ever built in Thailand – Bicycle Boys Clubhouse is a breath of fresh air. A bike and coffee shop specializing in fixed/track bikes, high-end components, and kick-ass food. Surrounded by an array of artisans, specialty coffee hideouts, and a lowkey vinyl record store, the space exudes a sense of style. But BBCH is more than just a trendy bike shop: it’s a statement and a community.
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The Upside of Smaller Events: The 2022 Red Bull Bay Climb
The Red Bull Bay Climb is pure and simple: straight line it up three of San Francisco’s steepest blocks, rinse, repeat in a new heat. If you’re a finalist, you’ll be one of the lucky ones who gets to go through the process four times. Erik Mathy covered the event in his usual, stunning, photographic fashion. Check out his full photo gallery and event recap.
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Hotdogs and Mallets: The Eugene Bike Polo Club
For years the words “Bike Polo” have elicited, in my silly little noggin, some sort of barbaric mosh pit of hardcore/anarchist/fixie-skidding/male-presenting jousters, bloody-fresh shinners and maybe getting whacked by one of those croquette things being swung around like a Morgenstern circa 1490. A fight to the death on bikes. I grew up dancing ballet and racing BMX, forging me timid of sports balls and physical contact sports, in general. I had this unfounded bias that bike polo was too edgy and savage; like something I’d not ever try because of my aversion to sports where another human might hit you with a ball, a mallet, or heaven forbid, their own sweaty soul-sack. I imagined a lot of brute force and all-out thrashing: Steel bike frames colliding in explosive fashion inside of a cartoon fight cloud, mallets and balls flying from all directions, and me in the center with time standing still, going full-on Neo (The Matrix, 1999 film) from the saddle in an act of self-preservation.
I was wrong.
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Eric’s Hyphy Klein Quantum Race Fixie
Summoning Fixed Gear Gallery, circa 2006, here with this one! Eric works at Revel Bikes in Carbondale, Colorado. He’s their product design engineer and loves CNC components and old, vintage frames. His latest build is this wild Klein Quantum Race built to 2006 standards, with a few nods to current trends, so let’s check it out!
Radar
Readers’ Rides: Todd’s Morlock, the Time Machine
Today’s Readers’ Rides is unlike anything we’ve hosted. Read on below for Todd‘s Morlock, an homage to safety bicycles of the 1890s. This one’s a real treat, so let’s check it out in detail below!
Radar
Radar Roundup: 44RN Sunglasses, Link Wrench, Bumper Bar, MASH Steel Bikes, Standert Stichsäge, and Back To Basics
Our Radar Roundup compiles products and videos from the ‘net in an easy-to-digest format. Read on below for today’s findings…
Radar
Radar Roundup: New Why R+, Hayduke and Japhy Ti, Tour de Kili, Blurred Lines, and Bikepacking on a Fixed Gear
Our Radar Roundup compiles products and videos from the ‘net in an easy-to-digest format. Read on below for today’s findings…
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Radar Roundup: State Tracklocross, Lost and Found Returns, HMPL, Crust Brush/Pull Up Bars, Rock Lobster Deal, and What’s Riv without Grant?
Our Radar Roundup compiles products and videos from the ‘net in an easy-to-digest format. Read on below for today’s findings…
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Monster Track NYC 2022: Alleycats are Alive and Well
In 2011, a little over a year after I found my passion for cycling through riding fixed gear bikes through the concrete jungle of New York City, I found myself, camera in hand, at Monster Track. The event is one of cycling’s most famous, most dangerous, and most significant alleycats in the world. Fast forward to 2022, and here I am again, camera in hand, at the 23rd edition of the annual brakeless urban street race.
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A Second Spin Cycles 90s Grove Innovations Track Bike
Today we’re pleased to showcase a build from our friend Martin at Second Spin Cycles. Martin works on restoring old mountain, road, and yes, track bikes for his clients by speccing the period-correct components and more.
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Readers’ Rides: Matt’s All-City Nature Boy Fixed Gear
It’s hard to argue the versatility of the old All-City Nature Boy canti models. They were perfect commuters, ‘cross racers, and when set up fixed, perfect for commuting on snowy winter roads. Check out Matt‘s build and a full spec breakdown below!
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2021 Philly Bike Expo: Bishop Bikes Columbus SLX/MAX Track Bike
It wouldn’t be Philly Bike Expo coverage without a Bishop Bikes gallery and for 2021, photographer Jarrod Bunk selected this beautiful Columbus tubing track bike.
Where do I even begin here? At first, I thought Chris brought back the 2013 NAHBS track bike I photographed, and then I thought it was his personal blue track bike, stripped raw since it has the same Drillium Revival stem. Upon closer examination, this is true-to-form Chris Bishop doing his thing with the simplest form of bicycle. I just got off the phone with Chris Bishop where we spent a good forty-five minutes discussing this bike. There’s a lot going on with this “simple” machine so let’s get to it!