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It’s not often that I come across bicycle photography that piques my interest. Hey, I’m critical! You kind of have to be these days, right? At any rate, when I came across Twenty Tree’s photo of what I’m assuming is his new Stoemper cross bike, I had to share it. Those macro photos are too fucking good!
See the full Flickr photoset here!
Photos by Fredrik Posse
It’s not everyday that PiNP does a Reader’s Rides post. In fact, it’s been months! When I received this email from Fredrik however, I had to share. The world of the fat tire road bike has expanded rapidly with the growing popularity of ‘gravel grinder’ rides. While I’ll say that cross bikes are the best all-rounders, some people want to tune their ride with a slightly different characteristics.
That’s what Fredrik achieved with his his new ride. Check out more below!
Here’s a rad, feel good video from Portland Design Works and Breadwinner Cycles. Featuring members of the team racing, hanging out and Tony’s cute kid. Such a great video and the Holeshot SS disc looks so good guys!
Geekhouse has really nails the brightly-colored bicycle and while I prefer my Mudville as black as they come, some people love the neon. Take NB from Blue Lug‘s new Team Mudville… Now getting dirty in Japan during this year’s season. See more photos of this bright beast at the Blue Lug Flickr!
Photo by Kevin Sparrow
… on what it he believes it means to photograph cyclocross. Head over to the Rapha blog and check it out!
I’ve really enjoyed these past few #SVENNESS videos from CX Hairs, especially this one from the first UCI World Cup of the season. That descent looks like so much fun!
Photos by Andy White
Look, I don’t deal well with foul weather. Not anymore, anyway. The years of living in NYC have dwindled away as far as my body is concerned. Now, I’ve adapted to desert life in Texas. So when spring rains come, the trees are blooming and it’s grey outside, I succumb to all kinds of allergies and moody blues.
Maybe that’s why when Andy from FYXO mentioned doing 160k today in the rainy, muddy hills of Kinglake, I opted out for a shorter, more manageable ride. Or maybe, as destiny would have it, I’d be content with 100k. For whatever reason, my “man cold” was a perfect excuse to opt out of one of Fyxo’s fabled tough rides.
We began heading out to the familiar hillside, before approaching what I’m calling “cuntbuster”, or in the native tongue “Pine Ridge Road”. The first hundred meters or so was totally rideable, but we scaled 300 meters in elevation in just under 3k (1,200′ in 1.2 miles). Basically, we hiked up the 30+ degree, rutted, nasty “road”.
At the top, we quickly descended into a glorious stretch of gravel aptly named Watson’s Rd, got lost and then saw a very rare site…
From there, the ride became an animal rescue mission. Head over to FYXO for the full scoop on how we saved a rare Wedgetail Eagle and check out numbers and such on my Strava.
Yep, this one’s long but if you’re into ‘cross, you should check this out for sure. Nice one CX Hairs!
Holeshot!
For me, nothing beats a 32h 3x wheelset for my cross bike but after talking with the guys at Easton about their new EA90 SLX tubeless race wheels, I was willing to try a set out.
While these can be used for road or cross, I have no desire to run them as road wheels. Tubeless rules for off-road riding, especially if you live in an area with a lot of rocks, roots and thorns. Why? There’s no pinch-flatting. The latex sealant also keeps trail debris from flatting your tires. Around this time of year in Austin, the thorns get blown and washed onto the trails, leaving you with at least one flat per ride if you’re not careful.
I don’t have this issue on my 29’r but my cross bike…
Check out more of my Initial Reaction to Easton’s EA90 SL tubeless race wheels below and more photos in the Gallery of my dialed-in Geekhouse Mudville, race-ready (for all who have asked).
Last night brought the third and most fun edition of the Beat the Clock Cycling and Cycleast Urbocross race series. Why was it fun? It was a long course, on singletrack, doubletrack, hobo trails and taped sections through woodchips. Also, it had the gnarliest runup I’ve ever seen. This area of town is one of my favorite training grounds and last night, a couple dozen racers found out why. See for yourself in the Gallery!
I remember seeing this frame listed on the Signal Cycles blog as being for sale. It was a tad too big for me and besides, I didn’t need a new cross bike. Someone out there did and eventually, the frame made its way to Austin, Texas, where it was built up by Minor Baker, a local racer. When I saw it at the Bicycle Sport Shop Six Shooter, I thought it looked familiar and sure enough, it was Shannon Skerritt’s old pit bike! I’m stoked to see another piece of rad steel at home in Austin. Check out more in the Gallery!
In the world of cross bikes, there’s something just inherently honest about a single speed race machine. It’s gotta be the big, knobby tires, cantilever brakes, unicrown fork and no-nonsense utilitarianism, right? Wrong. It’s pink and it’s a Vicious Cycles! This bike in particular is over 10 years old and it has been raced extensively over that time period. It’s been wrecked, loved, hated, spit on, puked on (maybe?) and it’s still alive, begging for more. When I was at the Bicycle Sport Shop Six Shooter, this was one of the first bikes that caught my eye.
See more in the Gallery!
What seems like ages ago, I was in Minneapolis for the All-City Championships. It was a very, very blurry time in my life, because all we ended up doing was partying and riding. One evening, Jeff asked if I could tag along with the Fulton Racing Team as they embarked on a “cross practice” ride. Basically, we rode some tight singletrack on cross bikes in the woods.
I can deal with that! While it was too dark to shoot in the woods, I managed to get some pretty decent team photos, which Jeff just posted. Head over to All-City to check them out.
This past weekend brought the first cross race of the season to Texas: the Bicycle Sport Shop Six Shooter. Since my first cross race at the end of last year’s season, I’ve been looking forward to this event all summer. I spend so much time on my cross bike during the off-season, that it’s only natural for me to push myself and it, to the test. After getting a good night’s sleep, I cleaned up the bike and headed out to the course to see what Austin had prepared for us.
Turns out, the BSS Six Shooter broke records this year. It was the biggest turn out to a cross race in Texas history. Now, I know that may not seem like a big deal to the Northwest or Northeastern United States but it was a huge turnout. My class had 80 racers register! It was a bit intimidating, but I just broke free like a demon and ended up winning. I guess ripping through the woods really is a great form of “training”. Since I was blasted the rest of the Saturday, I decided I’d shoot photos on Sunday and cheer on my friends.
There were thrills, hella funny spills (sorry Josh, I had to) and good times were had. Check out more in the Gallery!
Mike over at Mash was out at the Bay Area Super Prestige Series races this weekend in SF with his team of rippers. You’ve gotta head over to Mash and check more photos out.
… of racing bikes and shooting photos. I hope everyone had a rad weekend! There will be lots to come this week on the site! Rubber side up!
Technically, they did cross at the of last season with the Worlds being in Kentucky. For this year, however, Manual for Speed will be covering the 2013 season in its entirety and you can head over to see their introductory first post, featuring the muddy, snowy shitshow that was the UCI Worlds.
See more at Manual for Speed.
Best of luck to everyone racing this weekend!
Locals Only isn’t about exclusivity when used in this context, because truth be told, each time I’ve been on this ride, there are usually more out of towners than locals. It’s more of a way that Kyle and Ty like to throw visitors into the proverbial fire. The first time I did this ride, it was at night, in the rain, during goat head season and with no lights. It sucked. This time, it was rad. I won’t post the route (locals only, breh), but we did about 25 miles and 3,000′.
Check out more in the Gallery!