#monumental-loop

Reportage By: john watson

Gotta F’ It Up… Just a Tiny Bit: Monumental Loop Matt’s Monē Bikes Rigid Singlespeed 29er

Wabi-sabi is an ancient and deeply-held Japanese philosophy that sees the beauty in imperfection, appreciates simplicity, and accepts that change is inevitable. This concept, if applicable to any bicycle, feels most appropriate for a custom, handmade, rigid singlespeed 29er mountain bike. Especially a Monē Bikes. That’s not a dig at all on Cjell’s abilities as a framebuilder but as he spelled it out in a text to Matt Mason, this bike’s owner and the co-founder of the Monumental Loop, “Gotta fuck it up… just a tiny bit.”

Reportage By: Daniel Zaid

Not About Bikes: 2023 Bikepacking Summit and DangerBird Ride

With its mixed-surface riding through four distinct sections of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument that surrounds Las Cruces, New Mexico, the Monumental Loop has plenty of spice—and not just from the chile you’ll find in Hatch. Every fall, the Loop’s organizers extend an open invitation for cyclo-tourists to come experience the 250-mile desert figure eight as part of the Dangerbird group ride event. This year’s rolling extravaganza was a coupled with the Bikepacking Summit, which Daniel Zaid attended and reports on below…

Radar

Radar Roundup: BTCHN Ti Post, Wolf Tooth Olive Drab, Mosaic MT-1, Wizard Works Lil Presto, SAS Frogskin, Mosaic MT-1, and Chile Chasers

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: Monumental Loop x Rogue Panda, Singular Gryphon Titanium, Curve Rocket Pooch, Gravel Ride des 13 Forges Teaser, and Joonas Vinnari

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: Big Bro Pre-Order, Shredly Riding Romper, Ingrid Limited Colors, ILE Photo Bag Prime, and Monumental Loop New Logo Reveal

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: 100 Hour Garmin, 1×13 Campy Ratio Kit, Duzer Loves the Monumental Loop, and Bikepacking the Greenbrier River Trail

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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New Mexico Magazine Covers the Monumental Loop

New Mexico Magazine pinged Albuquerque-based photographer Evan Green to travel down to Las Cruces and chase Hayley Clifford and Matt Mason out on the Monumental Loop for a feature-length article entitled “Monumental Effort“. It’s now online and free to read for all (as media should be) so be sure to hop over and check it out!

Radar

The Radavist 2021 Calendar: November

“Monumental” is the eleventh layout of the Radavist 2021 Calendar. It was shot with a Sony A9ii and the Tamron 28-200mm f/2.8-5.6 di iii rxd lens outside of Radium Springs, New Mexico.

“With cooler temps on the way, it’s time we migrate to the Southwestern deserts for long and dusty rides. This was our cover image for our Dangerbird gallery. If you missed that, check it out!”

For a high-res JPG, suitable for print and desktop wallpaper*, right-click and save link as – The Radavist 2021 – November. Please, this photo is for personal use only!
(*set background to white and center for optimal coverage)

The mobile background this month comes from Iceland’s Black Sand Beach, Reynisfjara. Click here to download October’s Mobile Wallpaper.

Radar

Bikes Or Death Interviews Cjell from Moné Bikes

As part of Bikes or Death’s Dangerbird coverage, Patrick sat down with Cjell from Moné Bikes to chat about framebuilding, Silver City, and more! Give it a listen at Bikes or Death. Also, related to the Dangerbird is a new Monumental Loop Patreon, where you can support New Mexico bicycle touring and bikepacking by subscribing.

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DangerBirds and Desert Peaks

Ryan Duzer was in Las Cruces for the Monumental Loop Dangerbird last weekend and has a few videos showcasing the event. Here’s part one for you to enjoy today!

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Congrats to Matt Mason for Winning the Baphomet Bicycles and Ride Group Raffle Bike!

Last week, Dillen from Baphomet Bicycles compiled a list of everyone that bought a Ride Group bracelet and used a randomizer application to select one lucky person to be the new owner of that snazzy SSMTB. Well, Matt bought a single ticket and ended up winning the bike! Dillen was already coming to Matt’s house to stay for the NM Bikepacking Summit, so he hand-delivered the bike. After a quick ride, Matt decided he’d take the bike on the Dangerbird. That’s serendipity at its finest.

Thanks to Baphomet Bicycles and Ride Group for pulling this together. They raised over $9,000 for Ride Group! I’d like to thank everyone from The Radavist’s community who donated, including the makers who donated products for this bike: Paul Component, White Industries, Teravail, Revel, Buckhorn Bags, Farewell, and Doom Bars.

Expect some photos of this bike loaded down and dusty in our Dangerbird coverage tomorrow.

Reportage By: john watson

Scenes from the 2021 New Mexico Bikepacking Summit and the Dangerbird Grand Depart Rider and Bike Portaits

New Mexico has a lot of really amazing bicycle touring routes, from the mountainous aspen forests to the southern deserts. One such route is the Monumental Loop, which is based out of the Southern New Mexico city of Las Cruces, co-founded by Matt Mason. The Monumental Loop is a passion project for Matt but this year, he wanted to do something special to celebrate the cycling community in New Mexico. Part of that includes the first-ever New Mexico Bikepacking Summit. The weekend’s events included a Makers’ Mart at Outdoor Adventures, a local bike shop, and a grand depart for the Dangerbird, Matt’s nickname for the Monumental Loop. As you can imagine, after photographing the weekend’s events and touring the northern loop, I’m super zonked, so let’s get to it!

Radar

The Dangerbird Returns to Las Cruces on October 23, 2021

Photo by Nathan Burnside

Update! See our coverage here:
–Wind, Chile, Chonk, and the Monumental Loop: the 2021 Dangerbird in Las Cruces
–Scenes from the 2021 New Mexico Bikepacking Summit and the Dangerbird Grand Depart Rider and Bike Portaits

If you don’t follow Monumental Loop on Instagram, then you might have missed the details for this fall’s Dangerbird race/ride. We’ll be there in attendance to ride/tour the Full Bird. Check out all the details from Matt below and don’t miss the Bikes or Death Podcast interview with him too!

Reportage By: Nathan Burnside

The Monumental Loop 2.0: A Father and Daughter Bikepack

This is Melina’s first bikepacking trip. She’s been on a couple of road tours and knows how to turn a set of cranks. That said, off-road has never been her thing. In fact she can’t remember the last time she threw her leg over a mountain bike. She’s headed off to graduate school soon, and I want her to be hooked on bikepacking before she leaves. So this needs to be awesome. Naturally, I’ve turned to southern New Mexico and the venerable Monumental Loop.