I’m back in the shop after a month in Bolivia. My partner and I fitted about 12 days of riding bikes into our holiday. Here’s a bit of a list of the gear we took and how we set our bikes up for some high plains drifting.
We already knew that the Soma Wolverine was a versatile bike — it can take any gearing, chain or belt drive, wide 700c tyres with fenders and almost any combination of racks and bags — but in this build we discovered it can be set up as a more rugged off–road tourer visually reminiscent of early mountain bikes. We squeezed in 2.1″ tyres on 650b rims, fit the brand new through–axle fork, set it up with a swept flat bar and added a bit of character with pink anodised hubs, seat clamp and headset.
Huw In some ways the center of Huw’s fleet is his Pivot Mach 4. It’s a serious dual-suspension cross country bike. It was built up from scratch with a load of nice parts. When it comes to his own mountain bike Huw is a bit of a weight weenie. While he was building this one up he could have told you which parts saved weight compared to the ones on his last bike, and how much, to the gram. From another perspective though, it’s his Batavus that is the central bike in his fleet. It’s the one he rides the most since he commutes on it and it gets pressed into service for a wide range of extra-curricular activities – cyclocross, Gravel Grinders, a Woods Point ride. At the moment it’s set up single-speed with a Porteur rack. This is not so that it’s a low-maintenance commuter though, he…
We stock Rawland frames and we have been meaning to post about them for a while, but between all the distractions of the workshop we never quite made it. Our hand has been forced though after my Drakkar has gone viral on the internet.