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This video coincides with our Reportage this morning…
Single Speed Arizona is an annual event held in a different location around the state each year. It’s full of festivities and one-speed fun. In 2022, Flat Tire Bike Shop hosted on their home trails of Cave Creek. Ryan McKee of Cycling for Longevity was there with his video camera and takes us along for the ride in this immersive video…
Following a hiatus in 2021, Single Speed Arizona (SSAZ) returned earlier this month – over an action-packed weekend – to Cave Creek. We’ll be hosting a full event report and photo gallery soon, but today we’re kicking off our coverage with a pre-ride tour of Southwest Wildlife Conservation Center and a gallery of bikes (and their riders), which is about as eclectic and diverse as it gets.
Jarrod Bunk referred to Guy Stone as a “bike superhero” following his time photographing Guy’s “New Trix” singlespeed mountain bike at the 2021 Philly Bike Expo. A tax accountant by day and framebuilder by night (and afternoon, early morning, lunch brakes, etc), Guy fabricates his own handmade lugs (sometimes handmade bottom brackets as well) and free-brazes frames without the use of a traditional fixture or jig. He also isn’t opposed to eschewing industry trends to achieve the perfect fit for his riders, allowing form to follow function. Below, we take a detailed look at Guy’s personal New Trix singlespeed, along with insights into his design process.
Beautiful Builds. Like Beautiful Bicycles but in video! For our first video in this series, John goes over his Retrotec Funduro with videographer Justin Balog in beautiful Santa Fe, NM. Check the video out above and be sure to like and subscribe to The Pro’s Closet’s YouTube, where we’ll be hosting our videos from here on out…
Many thanks to the Fat Tire Society for maintaining these wonderful trails and to our creative director Cari Carmean for the kick-ass Beautiful Builds type treatment!
Music: Electric Wizard “Dunwich”
Yep. You heard that right. Singlespeed Arizona is returning in 2022 to Cave Creek, AZ February 4-6th. You can lurk on the SSAZ Facebook page for future updates as events warrant. We’ll see ya there!
Today’s Readers’ Rides comes from Bavaria, Germany. Benjamin walks us through his lovely SOMA Rush in detail below, in all its fixed gear elegance…
Today, November 2nd, is the 2021 International SingleSpeed Day, founded by Paul from Paul Component Engineering and our friend Amanda last year. Here’s the scoop from the team at Paul (below), read on for how you can win a grip of prizes, and check out today’s Pasta Party review to commemorate ISSD!…
Built from All-City’s proprietary A.C.E. steel tubing, the Nature Cross Single Speed is an option for a light, fast, and to be honest, good lookin’ SSCX bike for this season. These complete bikes ($2,299) and framesets ($1,499) come with an eccentric bottom bracket for easy gear swaps and for 2022 the Nature Cross comes in an ombré fade “Pink Lemonade” paint scheme. Check out all the details at All-City.
The beauty of bikes is in the people who ride them—and how they all have a story. I have little doubt that everyone—serious riders, aeroed and grimaced, and carefree cruisers alike—have experienced that epiphanous fresh-air feeling of freedom that accompanies spinning your legs astride two wheels. Sometimes we just enjoy it at the moment—letting the short-lived wave of release and clarity wash over us during a weeknight burrito run, or a trip to the coffee shop. Other times we chase that feeling down with the hope that, somehow, it might change our life.
What first intrigued me about Josh Uhl was, however, not his history with bikes but his podcast Here For Now, which he started in February of 2021. Josh uses this platform to have intentional and intimate conversations with his guests about motivation, struggle, and the big whys of life. Listening to an early episode with Peter Hogan, where the recovering addict asserts that “Bikes aren’t God,” and to a later episode where the writer Zoe Röm reflects on the delusion of “authenticity” on social media, I found myself frequently nodding along. Yes, exactly.
Our friend Alexandera Houchin sent us over an exciting email yesterday, celebrating her making the cover of Freehub Magazine’s latest issue. Here’s Freehub’s description of this issue:
“An unprecedented number of people are riding mountain bikes as an outlet for exercise and exploration and, as a result, discovering a truth we all eventually come to know: Every ride is an adventure. Freehub’s 12.4 edition is a celebration of this truth and a meditation on how adventure leads to discovery, both of the outside world and within oneself. In our cover story, ultra-endurance racer Alexandera Houchin writes about how her relationship with the bike has instilled a deeper understanding of her identity as a Native woman—and how she’s come to realize the act of racing is a ceremonial expression of her Ojibwe spirit. Transformative adventure pervades this book, with feature stories on a life-changing family bikepacking journey in the Alaskan wilderness and the existential reckonings of a rider attempting to clear a long-neglected trail in central Nevada’s remote Toiyabe Range. Welcome to Issue 12.4—a tribute to self-discovery and embracing the unknown.”
Read on below for Alexandera’s thoughts on this experience…
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…
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…
This week’s Readers’ Rides is Christopher‘s Salsa Fargo all loaded down for the North Central Washington 250. Check out all the frame specs and some of Christopher’s photos below!
Crust Bikes recently received a shipment of frames and in that shipment was stock of the Florida Man singlespeed frames designed by Leo Rodgers. These bikes can be ridden as a fixed gear, a coaster cruiser, or a singlespeed (with a front brake only), are available in six frame sizes and are in stock now at Crust Bikes. Head on over to see more details of these wild-looking frames.
Last weekend’s visit to Why Cycles and Revel Bikes brought with it a veritable overload of Beautiful Bicycles but one, in particular, stood out to me. Matt’s El Jefe build was one of the last bikes I shot on the trip but had such a wild build kit that I wanted to reserve it for its own gallery, so let’s check it out in detail below.
There is often a delicate dance when multiple creative minds collaborate on a project. Let’s take a look at the world of music for an example. The combination of two or more tyrannical artists can often be lackluster if not outright disastrous. Think of all the countless “supergroups” that have fallen decidedly shy of expectations; out of respect for the bands and the fans, we can each conjure up our own lists. There are occasions, however, when minds meld in harmonious magic. There’s a push and pull where something is born amongst the friction that otherwise was improbable. Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy come to mind immediately; the brief brilliance of Uncle Tupelo a friendship rooted in creation with a dash of competition, each vying for center stage. Of course, that same recipe would result in the demise of the band. Even as both would achieve tremendous success in their following projects, it’s arguable if it was better music.
“Dzil Ta’ah Adventure” is the fifth layout of the Radavist 2021 Calendar. It was shot with a Sony A9ii and a Tamron 28-200mm f/2.8-5.6 di iii rxd lens in Kayenta, AZ.
“Jon Yazzie lives in the Navajo Nation and runs a guided tour company called Dzil Ta’ah Adventures. He rides single speed mountain bike frames exclusively and is working to expand bicycle access on the Reservation. Our story with Jon will come out next month but this shot from a ride in his backyard should get you stoked to see more.”
For a high-res JPG, suitable for print and desktop wallpaper*, right-click and save link as – The Radavist 2021 – May. Please, this photo is for personal use only!
(*set background to white and center for optimal coverage)
The mobile background this month is from this same vista. Click here to download May’s Mobile Wallpaper.
Last year, I rode bikes all over New Mexico with this guy, @baileygenenewbrey. To limit my contact with people I pretty much rode with the same small group all year and Bailey was in that group.
We often discussed how staying local has been a big change. With Covid shutting down all events, I had no reason to travel. To be safe, and as a new resident of New Mexico, I just kept it to a 100-mile radius of our home and began scouring the map for places to see/fish/ride.
One of the biggest takeaways for me is how a few close friends can make something as severe as an utterly shit pandemic more manageable. We both helped each other through some rough spots, spent nights under the stars, stoked each other out on rides, shot great photos, and most importantly, became really close friends.
It’s moments like this (still within the pandemic) that really make me value close friendship. Who helped you through 2020 and continues to in 2021?
