#new-mexico

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: john watson

Updated 2023 Conditions: Four Rolls of Film Over Four Days – Bike Touring the CDT in Northern New Mexico

The Northern New Mexico Continental Divide Trail, or CDT for short, is a popular route for bicycle touring. Singletrack and overgrown double-track compose most of this true-to-form high-country route, where beautiful campsites and natural water sources abound. Yet, it can be a challenge to pick up the route’s thread season after season, as deadfall and weather-related changes obstruct wayfinding. John and a group of six friends recently rode the 93-mile section, and he documented the scenery with his 35mm rangefinder camera and a 35mm focal length lens.

Find the most current, mostly singletrack route of the Northern NM CDT below, along with route notes and a wonderful gallery that captures the vibe of this stunning section of bike-legal trail below.

Radar

Readers’ Rides: RM’s Moné El Continente

This week’s Readers’ Rides comes from Las Cruces, NM and features a bike from Silver City, NM’s own Moné Bikes. Let’s check out RM’s Moné El Continente below!

Reportage By: John Watson

An Early Look at The Monē Bikes Hachita Prototype All-Rounder: A Sincere Cycles Build

Cjell here with a quick report from the field on my latest prototype bike model, the Moné Hachita. I’m still dialing in the details but have released a few protos into the wild. The new/forthcoming frame featured here was just built up by my friend Bailey Newbrey. For those unfamiliar, Bailey is the owner/operator/janitor/DJ of Sincere Cycles in Santa Fe.

The new bike is one we’re working on over here at Monē. The current Monē line-up has a slack/playful hardtail with very big tire clearance, a drop bar with very big tire clearance, and a gravel bike with just big tire clearance. In many ways, these thru-axle, disc-braked bikes are superior to this new bike. In all ways, really, save one: ultimate retro compatibility.

Radar

Radar Roundup: Revel Ranger Fits Bigger Rubber, Ritchey Ascent New Color and Corralitos Bar, Garmin Edge Solar 540/840 , Velo Orange Neutrino Pre-Order, and Vermejo Charcoal Burner

Our Radar Roundup compiles products and videos from the ‘net in an easy-to-digest format. Read on below for today’s findings…

Reportage By: John Watson

The Radavist’s Top Ten Stories of 2022

Radical Atavism is about sharing stories from the road, knocking the dust off your bike, and reflecting on an experience. These thoughtful reflections, penned by autodidactic raconteurs, are just one of the feathers we’ll proudly peacock in our caps. Looking back at the past twelve months, we’ve got a list of ten articles that stood out from the rest. Included are stories from the birthplace of mountain biking in the US, of FKTs, CKTs, events, and more. Don’t miss out on this nostalgic trip through The Radavist’s Top Ten Stories of 2022!

Radar

An Ode to the Local Bike Shop

Over the past three years, our local bike shops have endured a lot of strife. From the Covid bike boom to supply chain shortages to a surplus of bikes and impending economic turmoil, these small shops have learned to adapt to the ever-changing environment. Last night, I posted this photo to our Instagram, rallying people to plug their local bike shop. In a form of internet solidarity, people shared their location and favorite shop, so I figured we could do it over here on the website.

So let’s hear it! Who is your local bike shop? (drop a link to their IG) and where do you live?

We’ve lost a lot of shops since Covid hit. Let’s hold onto the ones we still have.

Taken in Sincere Cycles, Santa Fe, NM. Love ya, Bailey!

Radar

Sending Love to Baphomet Bicycles

Dillen from Baphomet Bicycles was *involved in an accident in Valdez* (edited 9.6.22), outside of Taos, New Mexico, yesterday, resulting in the loss of his foot. The authorities are still piecing the puzzle together, but Dillen is alive and recovering at a hospital in Albuquerque. We’ve had Dillen and his wife Jenn in our thoughts for the past 24 hours and will post any updates here… Please be safe out there today, folks.

If you want to help, hold tight, Jenn and Dillen are trying to wrap their heads around this situation. You can, however, leave Dillen some love on his Instagram.

*Edit: 9.6.22 – this is a complex story and one that we’ll unfortunately not know what really happened for some time. We’ll do our best to update/edit the post as events warrant.

Edit: 9.7.22 – Dillen and Jenn have a GoFundMe setup to assist with their medical expenses from this tragedy. Jenn annotated the GoFundMe site with the latest update to this complicated story as well. See it at Go Fund Me.

Radar

Radar Roundup: Ritchey WCS GX Gravel Wheelset, Cybercycles Cranks, 13mm Voile Rack Straps, Tumbleweed Shirts, 4130 Olive Drab, Bicycle Nomad on VICE News, The Trails Before Us, Path Less Paved

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: Say It Ain’t So: Valles Caldera Becoming Wilderness?!?!, Route Werks Restock, Wolf Tooth Encase System, The Search For Two Lake Trail, and Carbon Fiber vs. Aluminum Bikes

Our Radar Roundup compiles products and videos from the ‘net in an easy-to-digest format. Read on below for today’s findings…

Reportage By: Eric Burnside

The Kids Are Alright: Eric’s Tour of the North Loop on the Dangerbird

My roommate, Austin, and I are discussing Ryan Van Duzer’s YouTube channel over coffee when there’s a knock at the front door. It’s my dad and my sister Paulina—they just made it back from dropping off her Subaru in Hatch, NM. I’ve been trying to get Austin into bike touring but he’s racing enduro today, leaving the rest of us Burnsides to rush out of here and join in on the Dangerbird. For the uninitiated, the Dangerbird is a desert celebration that takes place on the Monumental Loop, a 245-mile figure-eight track that tags all the desert peaks surrounding Las Cruces, New Mexico. The event draws in bikers and ultrarunners from all over, with the figure eight starting and ending in the city’s downtown square.

Reportage By: Andy Karr

New Mexico Chillest Known Time (CKT) Attempt: A Bike Tour from Santa Fe to Las Cruces on 35 mm

I have written, deleted, and rewritten this article several times now. There was the version that leaned in hard to trying to be funny, the version that tried too hard to be philosophical and deep, the version that was a cut-and-dry, day-by-day account of the trip, and finally this one: some words written less about the trip itself and more about why I am so thankful we approached it the way that we did.

Read on for Andy Karr‘s full re-telling of a recent bike tour from Santa Fe to Las Cruces, New Mexico…

Reportage By: John Watson

The Radavist’s Top 10 Articles of 2021

This year’s retrospective includes a look at our highest traffic pieces. These articles really blew up, bringing in a lot of comments, backlinks, social media posts, and traffic. While it should come as no surprise, most are bike reviews but a few of these galleries are seminal bits of Reportage. In this list are nine Reportage articles and one Radar, so let’s jump right in!

Radar

Jason Pawley Shows Us Some Love!

I tell ya what, it’s been a real honor to see so many of my photographs inspire artists to render those vignettes in their own hand style. Jason Pawley dropped this beautiful drawing of Bailey sending his basket bike (again) on his Instagram this morning and it was the first thing I saw when I got out of bed. It’s from our Caja Overnighter post from a few weeks ago. Follow Jason and his work on his Instagram…

Radar

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 By: Josh Weinberg

Monē Bikes Hits the Road with the New El Pebblito Gravel Bike

We just featured the boundary-pushing Full Enjoy from MONē Bikes in Monday’s gallery of unique builds from this year’s Sedona Mountain Bike Festival. Then, not twenty-four hours later, Cjell announced that his new El Pebblito gravel framesets were available for sale.

Read on for more!

Radar

The Monumental Loop: Riding With a Crew!

Ryan Duzer’s second episode from the Monumental Loop is live on his YouTube channel. Watch it here for a look at this beautiful terrain and some dusty cyclotourits!

Radar

People for Bikes and Ride Spot Present: Ride for Gratitude – Silver Stallion Century

Our friends at Silver Stallion have a fundraiser going on right now with People for Bikes and Ride Spot:

“In celebration of Native American Heritage Month, we pledged to donate $10 for each of the first 500 riders who completed a Ride for Gratitude Challenge to Silver Stallion Bicycle and Coffee Works. Thanks to your outstanding participation, we hit our goal in the first week! With half of November still to go, our friends at SRAM generously offered to match our $5,000 donation if we can get 200 riders to ride 100 miles by the end of the month! That’s 100 miles total, not all at once. Silver Stallion is a small nonprofit bicycle recyclery based in Gallup, NM, serving Dinétah (the Navajo Nation) and the surrounding communities with a mission to empower and develop youth and young adult vocational skills in the bicycle repair and specialty coffee industries.”

Find out how you can help out at People for Bikes!