Singletrack/MTB
Gravel/All-road
Dirt-road Touring
Fat-bike
This week’s Reader’s Rig comes from Natalie in Arkansas, who shares her one-of-a-kind hardtail from Slow Southern Steel, a bike she’s been using to dive head-first into the world of ultra-racing. See more here…
Words and photos by Natalie Peet
Hi, my name is Natalie! I grew up in Bentonville, Arkansas, and was introduced to mountain biking by my father when I was 16. Back then, Bentonville wasn’t quite the hub of cycling that it is today, but it was well on its way. During that first ride with my dad, I crashed three times, bent my wheel in half, and ended up with two bloody elbows. I was absolutely hooked.
Mountain biking was always a way for me to get outside and explore nature. After high school, I moved to Austin, Texas, went to college, and became a river guide out west during my summers. While in Texas, I worked in a coffee shop, Juan Pelota, inside of Mellow Johnny’s bike shop. There, my love for bikes really took off after meeting my friend Olivia and purchasing a mountain bike. Through my friendship with Olivia, we have inspired each other to ride more and have schemed up some epic bikepacking trips together. I have since moved back to Northwest Arkansas to chase my love for mountain biking and landed a job with Progressive Trail Design, the OG trail company in Bentonville. I’m a GIS Designer and make trail maps. I began ultra-racing after returning to Bentonville last year and have become absolutely addicted to ultra-endurance bikepack racing.
My bike is a custom SSS (Slow Southern Steel) made by my boyfriend Jesse Turner, a local Northwest Arkansas frame builder. The bike was designed to meet my needs of wanting to rip technical singletrack but also putting long miles in the saddle comfortably. It was custom fit to my body dimensions and weight and has some cool special touches such as bubbles-inspired drillium and custom chain seatstay bridge. I also got to pick out the pearl lavender powder coat, which I love. I only got to ride it a few times before I rode it 400 miles for Ozark Doom. I had no discomfort related to the bike itself during that race, and it was obvious that the bike was made for me. I’m excited to race it some more this year!
- Frame: Custom SSS Warhorn
- Fork: RockShox Sid Ultimate 120mm
- Rims: Crank Brothers
- Hubs: Crank Brothers
- Tires: Teravail Ehline 2.35, Durable
- Handlebars: Nitto
- Grips: Wolf Tooth
- Headset: Wolf Tooth
- Crankset: Shimano XT
- Pedals: Shimano XT
- Cassette: Shimano XT
- Derailleur(s): Shimano XT
- Brakes: Shimano XT
- Shifter(s): Shimano XT
- Saddle: Specialized Mimic
- Seatpost: Wolf Tooth Resolve
- Stem: Whiskey
- Front bags: South City Stitchworks
- Frame bags: South City Stitchworks
- Accessory bags: South City Stitchworks
- Other accessories: Gremlin Bells, Panda Express Fortune for good luck, Cane Creek bar ends
The bags on the bike were made by Zach Smith at South City Stitchworks. The bags were custom designed to meet my storage needs. I am a pretty unorganized person just in general, so I requested having two storage compartments on the main drive side of the frame bag to separate my gear more efficiently. This feature comes in handy during wet-weather rides when you try to separate your wet gear from dry gear. On the non-drive side, I have a map pocket, where I like to keep smaller items.
I have a matching full-length top tube bag where I like to store snacks and my portable battery. There are also two mesh pockets on the non-drive side that are great for storing sticky, used wrappers. I run two matching feed bags to store bottles and extra snacks. All my bags are matchy-matchy in a cute purple and pink combo to compliment the pearl lavender color of my frame. I also sewed a Grateful Dead patch on my top tube bag because it sums up most of my bikepacking experiences.
You can follow Natalie on Instagram.
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