Bikepacking doesn’t just start at the trailhead. Options also abound for lightweight bike trips planned around forest roads, shale roads, crushed rock, piste, and the pavement that connects them.
Without much ground truth beta, we handpicked the Salsa Cutthroat to scout an off-pavement bikepacking trip across Cuba — a decision based on scattered intel, topographical maps, satellite imagery, and logical thinking. In spite of our planning, we misjudged the terrain. But what about the bike?
Dylan Taylor is currently leading the American Trail Race and after 14 days he’s just about halfway through the 5,148 mile route. We caught up with Dylan to inquire about his bike, gear kit, and race experience so far…
After just 12 days, Indiana Schulz is almost halfway through the 5,000 mile American Trail Race from North Carolina to Oregon. We intercepted Indy just outside the Smoky Mountains to learn more about his gear kit and trip so far…
Back in the fall Logan and Joe borrowed a pair of Salsa Warbirds to ride the Green Mountain Gravel Growler. Here are their thoughts on the bike after a week of riding gravel, dirt tracks, plenty of singletrack… and Vermont’s infamous Class 4 roads.
The new 3T Exploro has a dozen built-in, proprietary technologies. Nameplates like ‘GravelPlus’, ‘Sqaero’, and ‘RealFast’ permeate its marketing. Such labels generally make our eyes gloss over. But considering the implications behind the bike’s name, as well as its tagline – Going Nowhere Fast – Logan just had to try it. Read on to find out if the Exploro lives up to both its aspirations and its tech cred…
Why Cycle? This is the question that lies at the heart of new bike brand from Utah. Anthony Pease takes the R+, their featherweight adventure rig, across tarmac roads, forest tracks, goat paths, hike a bikes and chunky downhills, to see if they’ve figured out the answer…
Seven new bikes with a lot of adventure potential from the 2016 Interbike Outdoor Demo…
After a few months with the Specialized Diverge – both full throttle down desert blacktop and along meandering New Mexican dirt roads – we find out if this All Road rig is true to its name’s dictionary definition.
Joining the ever-burgeoning ranks of the ‘adventure bike’, Trek’s 920 aims to rewrite the classic touring rulebook. For a start, it uses a lightweight aluminum frame, the latest in industry thru-axle standards, and sports clearances for 2.2in 29er tires. There’s custom racks and provision for 6 water bottles too. But does this mean it can really go where no touring bike has previously been? Skyler Des Roches takes one to British Colombia to find out…
Named after one of the first bikes the company ever produced, the all new, 2017 Specialized Sequoia is an adventure rig that aims to introduce a new generation to the pleasures of all-road bikepacking. We take it to North Carolina’s Pisgah National Forest to see how it performs, both on and off road…
A review of the Advocate Cycles Lorax, a semi-normal bike in a nontraditional lineup from a very unconventional company.
Whether labeled gravel, all-road, adventure, or a jumble of those terms, it’s hard to ignore the wave of genre-blending cross bikes that have slammed into the marketplace recently. One such rig, the Niner RLT 9 Steel, seems to do each of those words justice…
