Rodeo Labs Podcast EP.2: The Corral

For the second episode of the Rodeo Labs Podcast we had a little huddle and talked about what’s been going on lately here at The Lab. One of our goals with this podcast is to give a bit of an unscripted peek behind the curtain and show more of the behind the scenes of what we do.

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8 Moves to Stay Strong in the Saddle

Curtis Hall is the Co-Founder and Head Coach at BAREfit Adventure Training in Louisville, Ky. He works with adventure athletes and enthusiasts to help them not only perform higher but also more sustainably. Www.barefitlife.com @barefit.life @capt.curtis

With the roads more open and my gym closed, I’ve been riding more, lifting less and finding all the kinks in my armor. My lower back”s a little achy, my hip flexors are tight, that spot right behind my knee is wanting to lock up and some old shoulder injuries are starting to talk to me again. These kinks usually stay below the surface thanks to my normal coaching/training schedule, but thanks to activities shifting, I’ve had to get creative in my daily movements to keep these issues at bay and have worked the following exercises into my daily regime to stay strong for my outdoor cycling adventures.

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Victor’s 5.0 / GRX 800 2x

It’s been quite a marathon over these last few weeks getting initial Flaanimal 5.0 framesets landed, built, coated, and shipped. We’re still in the heat of it as we speak. This GRX 800 2x build shipped out today and we had enough time to grab some photos before it did.

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First 5.0 delivery / Production update

It’s Friday so it’s time for a Flaanimal 5.0 update. You’re looking at the first complete customer build bike which for us is a monumental milestone. Chris was the FIRST build order on Feb 15th and we’re so happy to get him his bike in that order. Thanks for hanging in Chris, we know you’ve been excited and you’ve been absurdly patient. Chris actually moved a lot of parts from his 3.0 Flaanimal to this 5.0 platform. It’s quite a bit more capable and a lot lighter as well!

GENERAL PRODUCTION UPDATE:

Not many frames have arrived yet. We’re in FedEx and shipping broker hell. We have tracking numbers but also tracking “exceptions” which means “WTF” in Fedex speak. We’re working on it with intensity + finesse (which means you can only nag so much then you have to just wait for people to do their jobs).

Final finishing on the frames has proven to be quite labor intensive. Twice this week we’ve said “make it more perfect” and knowingly caused delays. We hate to do it but there is no option. QC is QC.

20 frames will arrive when FedEx sorts their stuff out


70 frames will ship to us around the 7th.


More frames will ship to us around the 14th.


More frames will ship on the 21st. The rhythm is basically one air shipment per week.

ANY FRAMES NOT PRE-ORDERED prior to Tuesday the 28th will be shipped via ocean which has a 4 week transit time. We expect to see those frames mid to late September. Do we love that? No! But we’d rather deliver the facts now than apologize that things are late in September.

We are very aware that we are well past our estimated dates on Flaanimal 5.0. We’re really sorry about that and we know that some people feel really let down by that. The offer always stands: If you can’t or won’t wait for your bike we get it and can refund you. Rodeo is super solid financially and we don’t spend pre-order proceeds before we deliver the order to the customer.

Our big ask is this: if you are not canceling your order please don’t call or email asking for an update on your bike. Everyone here is 100% busy working on builds and logistics and we’ve spent quite a lot of time in the last few weeks answering phone calls and emails from people who understandably want an update. But we’re to the point where we are simply a small company and have finite hours in a day and we need to spend those hours on the production / fulfillment side more than the email / phone call side. We realize that we’re making a huge ask here. We’re asking people who made that first big deposit of trust when they ordered to almost write us a more or less blank check or trust. We realize that’s a big ask, but we’re asking anyway. If you ask around about Rodeo you will find that our customer service and follow through track record is absolutely excellent. We’re committed, we care a ton, and we’re going to get these bikes out to their owners.

Thank you!

-Stephen Fitzgerald / Founder

Video: Jay Petervary’s Arkansas High Route TD3

Jay Petervary gear breakdown

On his way back home to Idaho after his @arhighcountryrace bikepacking race Fastest Known Time (FKT) @jay_petervary stopped by The Lab and offered to do a VERY thorough part by part gear breakdown on his Traildonkey 3. Well over a decade of ultra distance racing and bikepacking experience go into Jay’s decisions on how to set up his bike and we had a great time nerding out on fine details and thinking about how we will tweak our own bikepacking setups now.

Almost no detail of this build has been spared in this video but somehow we may have edited out Jay’s tire selection. He used the Panaracer SS semi slick tire for this effort.

Owner’s Bikes, Owners Stories: Zach Adams

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Editor’s note: Zach sent us this post in an email and I enjoyed his story so much that I asked him if we could share it. He kindly agreed. What I like about this the most is that it is about someone discovering cycling from the outside. It isn’t about someone trying to add the new It-Bike to their collection, it’s about starting from zero and discovering it all fresh for himself. If you’ve got a Rodeo owner story that you would like to share please shoot us a note. We love hearing from our owners.

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