Run what ya brung and get out there!

#rideexplorecreate

It’s time for another guitar bike! This one inspired again by @officialgretsch , this time the Chet Atkins model with its cool doodles and glyphs. But we didn’t stop there, this bike’s owner Mitch asked for original designs in the mix as well, including a one-off head tube logo design, and a Flaanimal being abducted by a UFO.

As informal as the doodles are, this design also managed to keep things classy with its copper flake, white, and black color blocking laid over the svelte lines of the naked titanium Flaanimal 6 itself.

Happy New Bike Day, Mitch. It’s a beaut!

#flaanimal
#rodeospork
#custompaint
#rideexplorecreate

Podcast Alert! What rhymes with both Beskar and Death Star? Vistar, obviously. And speaking of Death Star, Vistar seeks to break into the near-triopoly grip that groupset manufacturers have on the market these days. Vistar is the love baby drivetrain of two very proud parents, @trpcycling and @classified.cc cc, and offers something never before seen in the market: An electronic internally geared two speed rear hub fully integrated with an electronic 1x drivetrain, which creates a groupset that has the upsides of a 2x with the elegance of a 1x.

But is it any good? We sat down with our very own @ljoneswilkins to pepper him with that and many other questions about the groupset, as he’s had it on his bike for over a month and has about 50 hours of riding on it everywhere from Oregon to Unbound.

You can find the Rodeo Podcast on your favorite podcasting platform, or embedded in the Journal at rodeo-labs.com

#rideexplorecreate

Lab Work!: The prevailing knowledge is that 2x drivetrains limit tire clearance, and we get questions about that a fair bit. Yes, we know that 1x is the prevailing choice for many people, but 2x builds are still requested by our customers thanks to narrower shift gaps and the wide gear ranges that can be achieved with 2x.

Many (all) frames with short chainstays have issues with front derailleurs interfering with large tires. For instance some frames can barely fit a 2x drivetrain if a 45mm tire is installed.

The most common point of interference is not the front derailleur cage itself, but in the case of AXS 2x, it’s the battery that contacts the tire or sits impractically close to it.

But what about on our frames? We had a customer ask, so we test fit an AXS front mech to see for ourselves. For sure in the full forward slider position a huge tire can and will contact the AXS battery, but when running the largest (2.1” - 2.2”) tires on our frames, one must move the slider to the back position, so that’s where we did these tests.

Pictured here is the TD4.0 with the slider all the way back, which moves the tire away from the battery. Mounted is a 700x2.1” tire. The tire does clear the battery, but only with 5-6mm of clearance, which is perhaps minimally allowable in drier conditions. Not perfect, but way better than for instance any frame with stays in the 515mm to 535mm range.

But since the battery is the culprit, we did a quick search for a smaller third party AXS battery and easily found one. This demanded a test fit! The smaller battery opens up the gap to more than 12mm with a 2.1” tire, and allows even a 2.2” to fit. Nice!

How many other modern gravel framesets, with a bit of creativity, allow 2.2” tires and a 2x AXS drivetrain? None that we are aware of.

PS: longer chainstays are extremely stable at speed, and sure footed when loaded down.

PPS: We don’t see any clearance issues with mechanical 2x drivetrains.

This concludes this Lab Work session.

Viva la weekend
Viva the big rides
Viva the adventure lab

#rideexplorecreate

Samantha’s TD4.2 was an opportunity to do something totally fresh. She asked for a design that was nature inspired, but in a palette of rose gold and white. When we hit upon the use of leaves as the base for color blocking the frame, we knew that we were onto something fun and totally different, which is always a goal with our custom paint projects. Samantha also asked for a subtle nod to her dog on the top tube, which we were more than happy to oblige. This bike will be ridden in a wide range of conditions from champagne gravel to super chunky stuff, so this build was done with two wheelsets. One features 700x45 tires, and the other 700x2.2.

Happy New Bike Day Samantha! There isn’t another one like it out there.

#traildonkey
#rodeospork
#gravelbike
#newbikeday