Rodeo Podcast EP6: Evan Christenson

On the sixth episode of the podcast, Nik and Stephen sit down with Evan Christenson. We talk about Evan’s multitude of bike touring trips, how he ended up getting his second choice pick of a custom bicycle–a Flaanimal 4.0– a bike he immediately took bike-packing in Morocco and Uganda. He seemingly hasn’t looked back, but if he isn’t out under the stars he has been at protests across the West photographing and taking part in the Black Lives Matter protests and handling customer service at Rodeo Adventure Labs.

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The Grandest Tour: Glacial Lessons

There are some places which defy even the best of cameras.

These are places where the sheer veracity of color can’t be quantified by a manufactured pallet. Where the scale and magnitude of the landscape is too significant to be downsized.  Places so unique that any fleeting snapshot of moments in time neglects the peripheral context to illustrate the divine profundity of its individuality. These are the places of poems, of songs, and of myths that transcend the visual and can only be truly expressed through the emotions of the most exquisite lyrics.

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Flaanimal 5.0 // PSL Finish

The Pumpkin Spice Latte Flaanimal 5.0 is working out to be the most rare color. Having just built two in the most recent batch of builds we’re pretty close to saying that we think it’s the best color we currently offer. The orange Cerakote has an almost pearlescent finish, and the chocolate brown accent color accents the layout nicely.

For so long we are only able to look at renderings of these color options, and we’re thrilled to finally have these out in the wild in real life.

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The Grandest Tour: Home on the Road

I didn’t have a lot, but it was enough.

I didn’t have a lot of food, but it was enough. I didn’t have a lot of comfort, but it was enough.  I didn’t have a lot of money, but it was enough. I didn’t have a lot of gear, but it was enough. Last of all, I didn’t have a lot of time. But it was enough.

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The Grandest Tour: Wheeler Peak Mountain Duathlon FKT

See a mountain, summit a mountain.

A simple proposition, but one that can entail so many different things. Some mountains are best tackled by a lightweight road-bike, others call for a machine that is a bit burlier, and some can only be conquered by one’s own hands and feet. However, every once and a while there comes a certain summit that calls for blurring the lines between those spheres of separation.

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Rodeo Podcast EP5: Connor Ryan

On the fifth episode of the podcast, Nik and Stephen sit down with Connor Ryan, a Natives Outdoors athlete. We talk about Connor riding 1,000 miles at the Break the (BI)cycle. The focus of this ride is to break the silence around mental health for black and Indigenous men. For Connor, the ride starts on September 10th, and he is up for the long haul and raising awareness!

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Flaanimal 5.0 / Redneck Racing Green Build

One of the first Flaanimal 5.0 Cerakote builds was this beautiful Redneck Racing Green bike with matching Cerakoted Hanjo fenders. It cuts a lovely figure and will no doubt perform admirably both commuting and out riding gravel.

This Flaanimal was built with a GRX 800 series 1x drivetrain and a Praxis Zayante Carbon crankset. This setup should perform reliably for untold thousands of miles in all conditions.

The T47 bottom bracket with inboard bearings is incredibly versatile for running almost any spindle type while retaining the security of a threaded bottom bracket interface.

Flaanimal uses a removable fender bridge design allowing for maximum adjustability when fitting and for clean lines when a fender or rack are not installed.

The carbon seat tube on 5.0 helped us remove static weight from the frameset while retaining strength in a non-stressed area. It also pairs quite nicely with a carbon seat post!

Cerakote coating replaces liquid paint on our 5.0 frames. It offers both lighter coating weight and class leading abrasion and wear resistance. All Flaanimal 5.0 frames are Cerakoted in Denver, Colorado.

The Grandest Tour: A Class in Productive Loneliness

Loneliness is such a fickle thing.

For what seems like an overwhelming majority of our population, loneliness is a wasteful feeling. Loneliness is mental destitution; a dead-end street on the front stoop of depression, anxiety, and even death. All around the world, millions face these dead-end streets, and all too many never escape. Over the last year I have had my fair share of trips down that path. There have been the soggy winter rides, the classic case of college isolation, the solo Valentine’s Day dinner, and, of course, the never-ending quarantine in a no-stoplight town.  

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Rodeo Podcast EP3: Jones Pass / Logan Jones Wilkins

On the third episode of the Rodeo Podcast we first gather around to talk about big mountain adventures aboard drop bar bikes. Our recent ride up Jones Pass is a perfect case study of what this sort of riding is like so we use it as the main talking point. Should drop bar adventure bikes be up on these roads and trails that are typically the domain of the traditional mountain bike? How do we kit out our bikes for rides like this? Should you even attempt this sort of route? Is any of this any fun?

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