Singletrack/MTB
Gravel/All-road
Dirt-road Touring
Fat-bike
Our Reader’s Rig of the week comes from Noah in British Columbia, who shares the first bike he ever built under the Serious Bicycles name. Meet Noah and learn more about his one-of-a-kind rigid ripper here…
Words by Noah Wilcox, photos by Miles Arbour
Hi, I’m Noah from Cumberland, British Columbia. I’ve been riding bikes in some form or another most of my life. I’ve always been a maker of things. Professionally, I do carpentry and found my way to metalworking through building custom motorcycles and flat track race bikes as well as a BMW pickup truck, but that’s a story for another time.
Currently, I’m building bicycles as a hobby under the name Serious Bicycles, mostly for friends, but I seem to have acquired a reputation as the weird bike builder guy around here. As such, recent projects have included a tall cargo bike and a pedal-powered outboard for a Race 2 Alaska boat. I would describe myself as a civilian bicyclist at heart, not a mountain biker, not a roadie, even though I often ride both mountains and roads. Maybe you can relate?
Now, about the blue bike, number 001. This bike was the first frame I built as Serious Bicycles about four years ago. There were several bicycle-shaped objects before it, but officially, this is bike number one. I finished building up this frame a day or two before packing it up to go to Portugal for a 485-kilometer tour from Lisbon to Porto, with my skateboard lashed to the front rack—talk about a shakedown ride.
- Frame: Serious Bicycles 001
- Fork: SimWorks Doppo
- Rims: RaceFace Turbine 29
- Hubs: RaceFace Vault
- Tires: Schwalbe Rick XC 2.4
- Handlebars: Serious Bicycles Mood Bar
- Headset: White Industries
- Crankset: Engin Cycles Port Royal 175mm
- Pedals: North Shore Billet Daemon
- Cassette: 10-42 11-speed
- Derailleur(s): Shimano GRX 11-speed
- Brakes: Shimano XT four-piston
- Shifter(s): Microshift 11-speed friction
- Saddle: Specialized Power
- Seatpost: OneUp 200mm
- Stem: S&M Redneck FLT
- Front bags: Swift Zietgeist
- Frame bags: Serious Bags wedges
- Rear bags: Serious Bags micro pannier
- Accessory bags: Serious Bags Lunch Bag
- Rack: Tumbleweed T Rack
This bike has done a ton of tours both locally and abroad. After moving to Cumberland from Vancouver, it’s also served as my primary mountain bike for a while because a rigid bike is a silly amount of fun around here. The frame is getting a bit long in the tooth and has far exceeded its original design brief, so I’m in the process of building a new frame to replace it.
The salmon/purple bags on the bike are a recent addition. I made them in the days leading up to a recent scouting trip with Miles. I finished them the day before we left. For that same trip, I had to bend a new set of handlebars as I cracked the old pair in a collision with a tree. I made the bars the morning before we left. Seeing a pattern here?
You can see more from Noah and Serious Bicycles on Instagram.
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Use the form below to submit your bikepacking rig. We’ll choose one per week to feature in a Reader’s Rig Dispatch and on Instagram. To enter, email us your best photo of the bike (preferably at a 90° angle), your Instagram username (optional), and a short description of you and your rig. If your bike is selected, we’ll need a total of five photos and a little bit more info.
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Further Reading
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