tag
Hello dear readers. Are you ready?
Buckle your seatbelts, put on your out-of-office. Be sure to prepare a too-carefully-constructed pour-over coffee, or maybe a glass of tap water, and settle in. We are about to embark on a journey together, an unbiased, at times fanciful, long-term review of the GMX+ adventure bike from Curve Cycling.
In this shop visit, Sam swings by Curve Cycling’s Melbourne digs and chats with the team about the brand’s history, their team of riders, and, of course, their range of adventure-first titanium and steel freedom machines. Read on to get the full rundown.
A bike’s stance dictates how you’ll ride it. When you see bikes like this, you don’t think of speed and efficiency. Coming off of a lightweight carbon gravel bike review and jumping back onto this Bombtrack Beyond 2 made me think about my headspace while riding a bike. For me, bikes like the Beyond 2, AWOL, Sutra ULTD, and Otso Fenrir instill a feeling of unintentionality when riding. They’re machines for meandering. While they are all touring bikes, designed for front and rear racks, they are so much more. I’ve put in many meandering miles on this bike and am ready to break it down for you, so read on below.
Today we’re pleased to feature Warsaw, Poland-based framebuilders True Love Cycles and their Heart Breaker 29er drop-bar adventure bike. Read on below as Jan from True Love Cycles gives us all the details in both words and some lovely desert photos!
We already looked at Moots’ new adventure platform, the Routt ESC a while back, in a photo review and as a Beautiful Builds video, but having never seen the Neo-Retro build spec in person, I had to take the build Moots brought to Mid South outside of District Bicycles for some photos. This build kit looks amazing, with mostly silver parts, a bead-blasted ti Moots stem/seatpost, and yeah, that’s a barcon shifter. Let’s check it out below.
Our Radar Roundup compiles products and videos from the ‘net in an easy-to-digest format. Read on below for today’s findings…
The Routt ESC is the latest bike to roll out of Moots’ Steamboat Springs facility where they’ve been making titanium frames for over 40 years. Watch this edition of our Beautiful Builds series for the full rundown on what makes the Routt ESC so different from any other bike in the Routt lineup…
See our full review of the Routt ESC in today’s Reportage.
The Baxter was a blip in a long line of adventure bikes to grace Moots’ 40 years of building frames in the Rockies. Personally, I really liked the Baxter. It held its own in the Steamboat Ramble Ride and tackled our “Disconnected” project in the Inyo Mountains with SRAM but the Baxter had some quirks that needed to be addressed. With the Routt ESC, Moots did just that, abandoning the Baxter model altogether.
In an era where adventure, gravel, touring, and bikepacking bikes are seeing lots of permutation, there’s no time for nostalgia. Brands need to address their bike’s quirks and redesign as needed. That’s where the Routt ESC comes in. It’s like the Baxter and the Routt gravel line had a lovechild, which resulted in a completely new paradigm within the Moots catalog. Let’s check out this new Routt ESC bike in more detail below!
It’s Friday and that means it’s another Readers’ Rides feature. This time, we look at Chris’ Rodeo Labs Trail Donkey, with a pretty wild parts spec. Chris supplied all the build details so let’s check it out below!
Zach Small’s Amigo Frameworks in Nashville, TN recently announced a preorder for the new uber-adaptable Bug Out gravel bike. Featuring the ability to run one speed or twelve, flat bars or drops, adjustable headtube angle, modifiable wheelbase, and room for up to 700 x 50c tires, the Bug Out is designed to handle pretty much anything thrown at it. Zach had one built-up and on display at this year’s Philly Bike Expo where we were able to take an up-close and detailed look.
Bombtrack has an extensive catalog of dropbar and flat bar bikes ranging from classic touring bikes (pictured, the Arise Tour), gravel, road, hardtails, and rigid MTB tourers. As always, the brand is spot-on with its specs and colors, so if you’re wanting to check out some great bikes this morning, roll on over to Bombtrack to see the full 2022 catalog.
8Bar Bikes’ newest model to hit their extensive catalog of gravel and adventure bikes is the Tflsberg steel adventure bike. It can be built up as a flat bar or drop bar bike, takes up to a 29×2.2 or 27.5×2.8 tires, features a robust and gusseted chassis, and can fit a 500mm ATC suspension fork for added comfort. If you like touring in the desert, the Tflsberg has plenty of cargo bosses too.
There are too many details to list, so hop over to 8Bar Bikes to check it out in detail.
Mosaic has added two new frameset models to their G-Series lineup of gravel and adventure bikes. The GT-1X and GT-2X are two new Mosaic framesets for riders seeking a big tire, off-road capable titanium adventure bike. Both GT-X frames are designed around a 29×2.25 tire, a gravel-specific or MTB drivetrain, and a geometry that incorporates a longer top tube and shorter stem, allowing the rider to set up their GT-X in a drop bar or flat bar configuration. The addition of optional frame bag and accessory mounts, as well as rack and fender mounts, make the GT-X capable of all-season, all-terrain exploration.
The GT-1X utilizes Mosaic’s top-of-the-line, double-butted titanium tubeset. Custom geometry and a rider-specific tubeset are included as “standard” options on GT-1X, making it a truly custom build. The GT-1X is offered in the rider’s choice of Mosaic Paint Layout or the Mosaic Factory Finish.
The GT-2X utilizes Mosaic’s simpler straight gauge titanium tubeset. The GT-2X is offered in 7 stock sizes from S-XXL, with custom geometry available as an upgrade. The GT-2X is finished in Mosaic’s standard raw finish, with available upgrade options to a Mosaic Paint Layout or the Mosaic Factory Finish.
Every GT-X adventure bike is built to order and finished in Mosaic’s Boulder, Colorado facility. Orders can be placed through a Mosaic dealer, and frames carry a 12 week lead time from the date that the details are confirmed, the order is signed off and put into the build queue.
See more at Mosaic.
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.”
Over the next few weeks, Kona will be rolling out their drop bar adventure bikes, beginning with the Rove DL and Roce LTD models today. The DL is a 650b do-it-all, no-nonsense fully-steel bike, filled with all the cargo and extra bottle bosses you’d need in a neat, tight, 1x drivetrain kit. The DL’s fork has cargo bosses and this year, it comes in a bright blue. While the Rove LTD is a 2x, 650b machine with a carbon fork, also equipped with cargo bosses on the fork. Check out the full spread at Kona! If you’d like a full review, check out our Related column below the fold.