The Rodeo Labs Journal | Rodeo Adventure Labs

The Rodeo Newsletter, Volume 1

Hey there dear reader! Please let me to (re)introduce myself. My name is Stephen Fitzgerald, and I’m the Intern In Chief around here at Rodeo, which means that I sweep the stairs, ride the Donkeys, wipe the counters, and also try to run the whole operation on the side, with the help of six or seven other rad humans.

It’s been on my mind since about 2020 to start doing regular newsletter updates, and since exactly that moment that I first thought of the idea, I’ve also been putting it off. Until today! Today I’m doing the thing.

Back to the bike, Chapter 1: Just Trying to get through

My name is Brynn- I am a travel nurse, an adventurer, and endlessly curious. To balance the stress of working in the hospital, I seek solace in the outdoors- hiking, rock climbing, and of course, cycling. Over the course of the pandemic however, my desire to ride my bike almost disappeared. Motivation was difficult to find and the idea of finding new routes, people to ride with, or dealing with a mechanical seemed insurmountable. While this story is about bikes, it is also just a story about me, learning to cope as a nurse in this world. It is a story that illustrates what I lost in myself and what I have come to find again, through the lens of finding my way back to the saddle. It is a story of loss, fear, and grief, but also a story of hope, growth and finding joy again. And of course, a return to the bike as a way of healing.

Chris’ Switch-Up Flaanimal Titanium

Flaanimal 5 Titanium switch-up gravel bike

@chrismagnotta is one of the original five riders who said “sure I’m in” when the Rodeo team started in 2014. Since then he’s done innumerable questionable things on his Donkey, such as Leadville 100, Unbound 200, White Rim, Slickrock, etc etc. so when he decided it was time for a new Flaanimal Ti he asked “should I go flat bar or drop bar?”

We responded “Why not both?”

Podcast: From Waffles to GRVL

Welcome to the Rodeo Labs Race Director Round Up! Over the next few weeks, as the gravel race “season” gets underway, we have decided to take on a mini-series focusing on gravel racing through the collective eyes of gravel race directors from across the country. Race directors are both the tastemakers and the police of the nebulous concept of “the spirit of gravel.” While race directors have a fantastic platform to voice their perspective for their own races, that voice is often limited to those narrow confines. The goal here is to use our podcast, as a small journalistically minded outlet with no skin in the game, to give them a collective platform to share their interpretations of the state of the sport.

Copper on Carbon Campagnolo TD4

From time to time we have the opportunity to build extra special bikes here at Rodeo Labs. The Rat Rod Ridge Supply Flaanimal was a favorite, as was the TD4 switch-up bike, and many others.

When Campagnolo invited us to create a special build for their Sea Otter booth this year, we readily accepted the challenge, and we knew that we needed to create something truly unique and eye catching. Off to work we went!

Naked means Naked with TD4.

Traildonkey 4, TD4, Naked unidirectional carbon fiber,

We’ve offered “Naked” frames at Rodeo for a long time, but naked has never really meant NAKED, because practically speaking carbon bikes are often not precise enough to show in their naked state. There are almost always small aberrations and flaws in a frame once it leaves the mold, Those are mostly covered with putty and then paint. Some sections of the weave or layup come out smooth and those may be clear coated, but very few bike companies will offer their frame in its visually naked state because clear coat doesn’t only show the beauty of carbon fiber, it also shows the abnormalities.

Gravel Bike traildonkey Uni Directional

TD4 production / delivery update

Its been five months since we announced Traildonkey 4.0 (TD4) at Philly Bike Expo. The response that the bike received and continues to receive from our community and customers has been thrilling to all of us here in Denver who have been at the genesis of its creation.

Gravel Bike TD4

Podcast: The Mid Majors

Welcome to the Rodeo Labs Race Director Round Up! Over the next few weeks, as the gravel race “season” gets underway, we have decided to take on a mini-series focusing on gravel racing through the collective eyes of gravel race directors from across the country. Race directors are both the tastemakers and the police of the nucleus concept of “the spirit of gravel.” While race directors have a fantastic platform to voice their perspective for their own races, that voice is often limited to those narrow confines. The goal here is to use our podcast, as a small journalistically minded outlet with no skin in the game, to give them a collective platform to share their interpretations of the state of the sport.

Part two of the Race Director round up focuses on the directors of the “mid majors” in gravel racing. These races are the bread and butter of the discipline. They are the independent heartbeat of dirt road racing. Often, the promoters are the heartbeat as well – investing so much of their time and money into the ventures that are never guaranteed to pay off. With this investment, and with those race promoters shaping their races from their own personality and geographies, the different races offer both comparisons and contrasts. This offers us at the Rodeo Labs Podcast a chance to get a little non-linear with our stories.

In this episode the over five hours of recorded conversations with the race directors of these independent “mid major” races. Thank you to all who agreed to chat, and, for those interested, attached is a list of the race directors and their races.

Podcast: The Race Director Round Up — Part One

Welcome to the Rodeo Labs Race Director Round Up! Over the next few weeks, as the gravel race “season” gets underway, we have decided to take on a mini-series focusing on gravel racing through the collective eyes of gravel race directors from across the country. Race directors are both the tastemakers and the police of the nucleus concept of “the spirit of gravel.” While race directors have a fantastic platform to voice their perspective for their own races, that voice is often limited to those narrow confines. The goal here is to use our podcast, as a small journalistically minded outlet with no skin in the game, to give them a collective platform to share their interpretations of the state of the sport.

In part one, Logan introduces the series through a field dispatch from the Gravel Worlds gravel race in Nebraska last summer and the dialogue that followed. The first conversation was with Andy Jones-Wilkins, who is not only Logan’s father, but also an accomplished ultra-runner and pundit. Using the conversation with Andy as a framework, Logan sat down with Jason Strohbehn, the race director of Gravel Worlds and the co-host of the Gravel Family Podcast, to learn more about the race and start at the question that is guiding the whole series: what is the state of gravel bike racing?

Podcast: Adventure Guidance

Adventuring on dirt is what brings everyone to Rodeo Labs. Yes, there are other contributing factors, but if your intention is not to adventure on bikes, on dirt, you might want to find a different bike company. With that ethos at our core, Logan wanted to do a bit of a deep dive into a fellow dirt adventure based cycling company: The Gravel Adventure Field Guides.

Nonetheless, while reporting on the guides themselves, Logan found the project was a gateway into a discussion about adventure on bikes, on dirt, in the 21st century. So, in hopes of not ignoring those other voices, the podcast grew into something different from the standard Rodeo Labs production.