Three More Interesting Bikes From Sea Otter

With a full schedule this spring, instead of burning jet fuel to make the trek from the East Coast and beyond, we hired Californian contributor Evan Christenson to hop on the train and cover Sea Otter in his signature style. Here’s the fourth installment (find his other reports—with a lot more bikes—linked at the bottom of this post):

Paul Zeigle’s Champagne Supernova Surly Ogre

On display at the Surly booth was Paul’s new Surly Ogre. Paul is the general manager at Surly, a position that apparently comes with some perks. Mainly, access to just released bikes. The chassis it’s based on isn’t new, but it features their brand new colorway, dubbed Champagne Supernova.

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The bags on the bike are a mix he’s had lying around for some time. The standout is that unique leather framebag that he made with Michael Dammer on a trip to Ecuador—learn more about the Dammers in the related content grid below. It features baseball stitching and weighs a ton. The handlebar bag is a roughly 24-year-old Carradice Barley, which has seen many Minnesota winters and has been re-waxed several times. The saddlebag is a Baggins Bag, made by the folks at Rivendell, and the feed bag is from Makeshifter out of Portland.

The bike features a very capable, utilitarian drivetrain consisting of a Shimano Deore 10-speed derailleur and shifter and Surly OD cranks; scroll down for the full build kit. Paul is running the new Surly Corner Bar along with an old WTB Speed V saddle. Oh, and the flask cage is custom-made by Kieft Racing in the UK. Find the full build kit list below.

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Full Build Kit

• Frame 2022 Surly Ogre (Champagne Supernova)
• Fork 2022 Surly Ogre (Champagne Supernova)
• Wheels Surly Rabbit Hole 29”
• Tires Teravail Ehline 29 x 2.5”
• Crankset Surly O.D.
• Derailleur Shimano Deore 10-speed
• Shifter Shimano Deore 10-speed
• Cassette Shimano Deore 10-speed
• Handlebar Surly Corner Bar
• Grips Brooks leather tape + ESI foam grips
• Headset Cane Creek 40
• Brakes Avid BB7 MTN
• Saddle WTB Speed V
• Seatpost Kalloy Uno
• Rear Bag Rivendell Baggins
• Front Bag Carradice Barley
• Stem Bag Maksehifter Snackhole

Paul picked the Ogre frame because it’s perfect for his top two-wheel setups: 27.5 x 3.0” or 29 x 2.5”. When asked if he had any rides planned for it, Paul responded, “I have some routes I’ve been mapping out on in northern MN and the U.P. of Michigan that have a mix of gravel, doubletrack, and singletrack. The Ogre is comfortable on mixed terrain routes and likes to get dirty on the more technical trails too.”

When I brought the bike back from photographing it, upon questioning, Dan from Surly shotgunned an IPA at 10 a.m. too. They were there to make sure Sea Otter didn’t go by too clean-cut and sober, just like this Ogre.

Joe Cruz’s Mosaic GT-2

Looking all shiny at the Hammerhead booth was Joe Cruz’s Mosaic GT-2. Joe’s bike was used in the booth to help convey his approach to route making and his relationship with maps. Behind it was a set of posters with selected captions from Joe’s writing. Find that below alongside a gallery and full build kit.

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It was built up with a SRAM AXS group, Zipp 101 XPLR wheels with Rene Herse 650b x 48mm tires, a Brooks C15 carved saddle, King Cages, and a painted-to-match cockpit. It was adorned with a well-worn and well-traveled set of Revelate bags for his minimalist style of bikepacking.

• Frame Mosaic GT-2, 45cm
• Fork Enve ENVE Gravel Fork (Painted to Match)
• Wheels ZIPP 101 XPLR Wheelset
• Tires Rene Herse Juniper Ridge 650b x 48mm
• Crankset SRAM FORCE AXS XPLR
• Derailleur SRAM FORCE AXS XPLR
• Shifter SRAM FORCE AXS XPLR
• Cassette SRAM FORCE AXS XPLR 10-44T
• Bottom Bracket SRAM
• Handlebar Zipp Service Course SL70, 42mm
• Stem Zipp Service Course (Painted to Match)
• Bar Tape ZIPP
• Headset Chris King
• Brakes SRAM Force
• Saddle Brooks C-15 Carved
• Seatpost Zipp Service Course (Painted to Match)

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Maps & Exploration

by Joe Cruz

Exploration is curiosity, adaptation, learning. It’s humility and the responsibility to hear what strangers or new landscapes or one’s own emotions are speaking. It’s an opportunity to be lifted by a place.

Maps are scientific and aesthetic. They lay before us possibilities, they give us the confidence to be in motion. Looking at a map is in miniature the exploration that consulting a map is preparation for, open-ended and dynamic. Maps are also declarations of what is important. We don’t have to be the explorers who used the silences in maps as a pretense for their extractions and extinctions. We can acknowledge what a map leaves out and in the best cases we can reclaim that very map for something more tolerant and expansive.

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Exploration is more than deciding where to go. It’s a freedom to be impacted by things you couldn’t anticipate. It’s a feeling of wonder for the horizon, and the potential to wander in geography and transformation.

Our thoughts are maps of the universe, our stories are maps of time. More literal maps are unfolded and smoothed on a tabletop before a trip. Or we toggle between digital layers to plot a route and upload that distilled imagination into a tiny handlebar computer. With these at the ready, we pedal to meet a somewhere on its own concrete terms.

Exploration has been a way for me to smear my consciousness so that there’s no difference between the sky and mountain and self. Exploring with a map is to traverse a distance inside as much as it is to cover kilometers.

The Sierra Oddity

For the fifth year in a row, Paul Components and Sierra Nevada Brewing have teamed up to build a one-off, ultra-custom bike to raffle off for the California Mountain Biking Coalition. This year, they teamed up with Oddity Cycles to build a custom anodized Ti Klunker. It features color-matched, custom anodized parts from White Industries, Velocity, and of course, Paul. Scroll down for a full gallery, more build details, and learn how to enter to win this amazing rig.

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In order to get the entire “Pale Ale Green” color scheme, Paul got raw parts from White Industries and Velocity USA to anodize to match their own parts. Additionally, Ron from King Cage custom bent two hollow titanium can cages, and Phil Wood made the custom length spokes. Other interesting parts include Dynaplug’s new Covert bar-end tire plugging systems. It’s finished off with WTB tires, grips, and saddle.

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You can enter the drawing here. The winner will be announced at the end of the month. “Your donation to CAMTB will help fuel its ongoing state level mountain biking and trail advocacy efforts in California, including working with important land managers like CA State Parks and the US Forest Service, as well as tracking and influencing state and federal legislation and elections that impact access to public lands and natural resource conservation.” So far, it has raised more than $12,000.

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