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Titanium hardtails offer the best riding experience out of any material, ATMO, and seeing more US companies offering them is always a good thing. Alchemy’s newest offering is its Argos, a 140mm travel hardtail. This frame is made from Alchemy’s own blend of titanium, feature a sculpted rear triangle, and come available as completes with packages from GX to AXS. Head to Alchemy to see more from this beaut!
This week’s Readers’ Rides comes from Erik‘s Stanton (Made in the UK) hardtail. We love a good rowdy hardtail so let’s check this one out in detail below!
The new Chameleon is here from Santa Cruz Bicycles and yes, we got our grubby paws on an early press-release build we’re currently reviewing – look for that next week – but today we’re hoping you’ll check out the amazing stories Santa Cruz pulled together for the launch. There are tales from Indigenous women, framebuilders, bar owners, and an employee who works at Santa Cruz Bicycles. It takes a lot of effort to pull together stories like this, so head to Santa Cruz Bicycles to check them and this new dang beautiful bike out!
Look for our review next week and check out our review of the old Chameleon in our Related Archives below.
The Rangefinder is Salsa’s entry-level hardtail mountain bike that launched last year amidst supply chain shortages and a boom in bicycle sales. It’s hard to know when supplies will return at a normal capacity or if your local dealer will even get any of these in but we still wanted to tip our cap to Salsa’s graphics department that did a great job on these new colors for 2022. See more at Salsa where you can see the build specs for Deore and Advent kits in 29 or 27.5+ platforms.
Guerilla Gravity is best known for their made-in Colorado carbon and aluminum full suspension bikes but today the brand announced its updated steel-framed hardtail 120-140mm travel 29er. The Pedalhead got a revamp including bosses for better frame storage of bottles and cargo gear and most impressively, a new modular dropout system that allows riders to transition from gears to singlespeed riding with a twisting of a few bolts.
The Pedalhead comes in a few build configurations starting at $3,495. Head to Guerilla Gravity for more!
Today’s Readers’ Rides comes from Anchorage, Alaska. Adrian‘s 9zero7 Saber is built up to take on just about anything, so let’s check it out in detail below!
On Saturday morning, bright and early, I dropped Bailey and Erik off at Cumbres Pass, on the Colorado/New Mexico border. These two are riding the length of New Mexico on the Continental Divide Trail, bypassing Wilderness areas along the way. Not many people have ridden the length of this segment of the CDT, as it traverses the most remote stretches of the New Mexico back country. I’m not sure how much these two will be updating their Instagram accounts along the way, but give them a follow if you’re into this kind of thing. Oh, and they’re riding it singlespeed (32x22t). Hopefully, we’ll have a story from them when they’re done.
Tailwinds and cold water, you two!
Check out their bikes in our Reportage Archives below…
This week’s Readers’ Rides comes from Andrew and his Binary Bicycles Chuparosa hardtail. Let’s check out photos and words from Andrew below…
Fat bikes. They’re the cycling industry’s lost children. The forgotten ones. Remember when every brand under the sun had a fat bike in their catalog? Now there are only a few brands still putting in the PR&D required to make these bikes less cumbersome, less heavy, and more like a true-to-form mountain bike. One of those brands is Otso, whose Voytek is all the above and more. I’ve held onto this bike for probably longer than they anticipated, cycling through the winter months, into the spring, and well into the summer. I’ve ridden it in its thicc 26″+ form and now in its chonk 29+ form and have pulled together a comprehensive argument for why bikes like the Voytek hopefully stay around for a while…
Check out Leah Lind-White shredding the 2022 Kona ESD after work one afternoon…
We took a look at Baphomet Bicycles earlier this year and in that post, we discussed the ideology surrounding the iconography of this unique framebuilding operation, nestled in the mountain town of Taos, New Mexico. If you haven’t read that piece, you really should check it out first.
Yesterday I caught up with Dillen from Baphomet Bicycles, as he came to town to ride the BFL, an event Sincere Cycles throws each year, offering a classic 55 mile loop with over 10,000′ elevation gain and a “B” loop with 38 miles and 6,400′ elevation. Both take you deep into the Sangre de Cristo mountains at the terminus of the mighty Rocky Mountains. Doing either singlespeed is quite the undertaking!
Dillen finished this build right before the event and drove in from Taos for the day. We pedaled together briefly and then his chain exploded about 10 miles into the ride, sending him back down to town. Later in the day, we caught up to shoot his new 29er hardtail, aptly named the “Left Hand Path”, so let’s check it out in detail below!
We’ve shared, photographed, and yeah, owned some pretty amazing Firefly builds over the years but this one, #1066, might take the cake in terms of a deep custom creation. There are so many hidden details, from the 44RN ring, to the ano-matched eeWings cranks, anodized stem, and more. Spend some time drooling over a few more choice details below and see the full spread at Firefly’s Flickr.
The word supple gets thrown around a lot, mostly related to randonneur, road, or gravel bikes with a bi-plane steel fork and typically, rim brakes, yet I’m convinced I’ve built the most supple, modern mountain bike, just in time for our San Juan Hut trip this week. Check it out in detail below…
Chumba Cycles has been supporting ultra-endurance and all-around badass athlete Alexandera Houchin for some time now, outfitting her with a variety of bikes for her endeavors. Yet with the announcement of Chumba’s in-house titanium manufacturing earlier this year, Mark and Vince, the owners of Chumba, wanted to get Alexandera on some new frames. You might recall our coverage of the Sendero Titanium from this year’s ENVE Builder Round Up. After the show, I reached out to Chumba to see if they’d share some photos of Alexandera’s new bikes, so let’s check them out below…
The Chromag Surface has been in the brand’s 29er catalog for years but the Surface Voyager is something different entirely. With multiple cargo bosses, a 140mm travel fork, and sliding dropouts, perfect for converting the bike to a singlespeed, the Surface Voyager has versatility and capability built-in.
With a CNC’d headtube, custom sliding dropouts and a beautiful chainstay yoke, it’s not just your run of the mill hardtail. This frame is built by Chris Dekerf in Canada and retails for $2,121. See more at Chromag.
Canyon’s most popular hardtail in the European market has finally made it to the USA. The Grand Canyon 7 is an aluminum chassis hardtail, built with a SRAM kit, a RockShox Judy Silver 120mm fork, and comes in either turquoise or black. With a 67.5º head angle and a 74º seat angle, it’s by no means a hyper-progressive geometry but it is a great all-rounder, in an affordable package. Check out more info at Canyon.
Shop new & used Canyon bikes with our partner TPC – The Pro’s Closet.
For 2022 the beloved Honzo got a geometry overhaul, with slacker headtubes (from 67º to 66.5º), steeper seat tube angle (from 74º to 76º) longer reach (by 5mm per size), shorter seat tubes, which allow for the use of longer dropper posts and more standover, as well as 42mm offset on the RockShox Recon RL Solo Air 120mm fork.
This might not seem like a complete overhaul but in hardtail design, a few degrees can drastically improve a bike’s handling. The best thing about the Honzo still remains its price, which is only $1699 USD. Holler at your local dealer for availability and see all the changes in detail at Kona.
The Big Honzo is the Honzo’s big sibling. It’s a Honzo with bigger tires (27.5×2.8″) and a nice build kit featuring hydraulic disc brakes and 130mm of suspension. You’ll have all the benefits of bigger, 2.8” tires such as increased traction and control in a variety of terrains while softening the ride along the way.
For 2022, the Big Honzo DL ($1799 – in mint) is a 12-speed hardtail with Shimano Deore while the Big Honzo ($1499 – in black) is specced with Deore 11-speed. The Honzo platform is perfect for someone that’s curious about getting into mountain biking without breaking the bank. See more at Kona…
