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These days, it’s extremely difficult to find complete bikes in stock, especially specialty bikes like tourers and adventure bikes. Jones just announced they’ve restocked their SWB and LWB bike models. Whether you like a zippy and responsive bike or one built for the long haul, the SWB/LWB Jones offer a truly unique riding experience.
See more at Jones Bikes.
Today’s Readers’ Rides is going to stoke a lot of you out. Chris sent in his Kruch “All-Country” Drop Bar 29er and it’s a real looker, so let’s jump right in!
Am I the only one here that cringes every time I hear the word gravel? It’s been a common word in my world for a few years now, and believe me, I hear the word a lot… but I just can’t embrace it. The word gravel still brings to mind all-day slogs across flat/windblown prairies on the type of surface that’s devoid of traction yet still slowly and steadily saps your spirit. In other words: somehow, somewhere it firmly lodged in my brain that “gravel” is the antithesis of “fun.”
This bicycle named Lil Romeo was chosen for my first attempt at the Tour Divide based on trust built over the years of adventuring together. A Reynolds 853 steel Crust Romanceür that I’ve ridden for 4 years in 4 different United Nations recognized countries. The custom frame bag that held food, 3 liters of water, and often a can of nitro coffee has the Tibetan national flag that is not recognized by the United Nations. I love this flag almost as much as I love this bike. Not for the sake of Nationalism, but for the sake of Beauty. Lots of parts on this bike were selected for beauty, practicality, and nostalgia.
I have been internet friends with Irlanda for so long that I don’t even remember how we started communicating. What I do remember is that she told me she had the dream of making bicycle bags and accessories but at the moment, sewing fancy dresses are what paid her bills. Settled in the México-USA border city of Tijuana, she has been dressing brides and quinceañeras for over twenty years and it was around fourteen years ago that she started riding a bike to get around. As she took part in organizing group rides, she sewed hip bags and gave them away as an incentive to attract more people to ride, and that’s how sewing bike bags became a hobby. Along those two decades, she started growing tired of the high fashion world while at the same time she made more bicycle accessories, but still, the money flowed mainly from the people who came to her from either side of the border to get their dresses made.
These days, chances are you’ve got a local bag maker in your state. In my area here in New Mexico, there are a few, and just down the hill from Santa Fe in Albuquerque is Buckhorn Bags, a small company run by Sam Lutz. Sam makes custom framebags, both full and half, as well as a plethora of other accessory bags. I’ve got two bikes that have been begging for framebags, so when Sam announced he was going to start offering them, I sent him some money, a few photos, and waited for a few weeks. Well, I’ve been using these bags for a while now and would like to share the process and product with you so check out more below…
Tumbleweed’s 800mm wide Persuader bars are a great option for your touring bike, with a large, flat area at the stem clamp for bags, zero front sweep to keep those bags nice and neat, 50mm rise, a 30º back sweep, and weighing only 638g. These bars can easily be cut down if 800mm is too wide for your taste but can certainly be ridden uncut.
The pre-order opens today at 10 am PST at Tumbleweed Bicycle Co, with a two-week delivery time.
Bicycle tourists are some of my favorite subjects to document. Especially ones that ride by their own rules. When a fella named Beau Walters dropped me a line on Instagram on Sunday, asking if I was free to meet up in Santa Fe as it was on his touring route from Boulder to Mexico City, I naturally obliged. Little did I know what I was getting myself into!
Vernacular, venomous snakes, alligators, Spanish moss, and a one-off Crust Bikes Lightning Bolt cantilever frame. That’s the theme for this week’s Readers’ Rides, sent in by Tin, the radical videographer responsible for those magical Crust Bikes videos that have graced this website over the past year. Tin finished up a trip to Florida, where he rode around the marshlands in Central Florida aboard his new-to-him Crust Bikes Lightning Bolt. Check out his dreamy photos below, along with a brief intro and a bike check breakdown by Tin, for this very special Readers’ Rides…
Sometimes we get cruisers, basket bikes, dialed gravel rigs, and other times we get bikes sent to us that really pull at our heartstrings like Dakota‘s AWOL Expert. These bikes were so ahead of their time and since their inception, we’ve seen lots of bikes that have the same look and feel. So when Dakota sent his in, we had to share it! Check out Dakota’s words and photos below…
The Salsa Vaya is a crowd favorite and today’s Readers’ Rides comes from Ryan who presents his 650b converted Vaya 3. Read on below for more words and photos of this sweet bike!
Cutthroat C AXS Build shown here $7,199 USD.
The Cutthroat is a favorite amongst Tour Divide aficionados and weekend warriors alike. Back in 2015, when it was announced, the Cutthroat got tested out on the Tour Divide course and it remains a fan favorite today. While the frame hasn’t changed since our Review of the 2020 model last year, it does come in four new build specs, plus as a frameset. Head to Salsa to read all about the 2021 Cutthroat builds.
With the snow melting and the season ripe for desert ramblings, Kyle Klain took his 2016 NAHBS-built Sklar fatbike and converted it to 29+. After spending all winter with fatbike 26+ tires, the bike has undergone quite the transformation. This weekend while celebrating my 40th birthday in Southeastern Utah, I documented this stunning build in the morning sun. Check it out in detail below…
Matt has submitted a Readers’ Rides post before and this week, we’re featuring his “Unicorn” Soma Wolverine build, which he’s documented in detail for your enjoyment below!
A little while back, Patrick from Bikes or Death reached out, saying he was going to be in Santa Fe and was hoping we could sit down for a podcast interview. Naturally, I obliged, and last night we hung out at our office here in Santa Fe and talked about bikes, photography, other randomness related to this website. I won’t give too much away but I was really stoked on how it went. Doing interviews is a great way to bond with a person and afterward, I just had to shoot Patrick’s Chumba Cycles Stella Ti. While the podcast episode won’t be out for a few weeks, I wanted to feature this rad build while it was all still fresh on my mind, so enjoy!
Somewhere along David‘s journey in 2019, where he spent weeks riding from New York through Pennsylvania and moving across the country from LA to Johnstown, something clicked and it was time to look for something a bit lighter to replace his long-loved Rocky Moutain Sherpa. That bike had seen a lot of miles over the years and the weight, well let’s just say it’s stout.
Hear me out here, set your preconceptions aside for a bit. Before jumping into today’s Shop Visit, I have to clear the air and give an introduction to the iconography and ideologies which represent this particular framebuilder’s brand…
That feller up at Bearclaw Bicycle Co is doing some really amazing things. The whole catalog is composed of some paradigm-shifting designs and a crowd favorite is the Beaux Jaxon. If you dig drop bars and chonk tires, that’s the frame for you. Throw in a titanium segmented fork and you’ve got a dream machine. Kevin Hinton is a tattoo artist here in Santa Fe. He also runs his Adventure Bikepacking Instagram account as a side project, which hosts overnighters, and tours in the area.
Originally from Los Angeles, Kevin cut his chops touring all over California, specifically in the desert, taking on the Stagecoach 400 multiple times. This particular loop goes from high pine country down through Anza Borrego and into San Diego before climbing back up to the pines. The Anza section is particularly sandy, so when Kevin built up this dream bike, he had some specific requirements and took that list to Sincere Cycles for the build…
