Reader’s Rig: Yeshe’s Mone El Continente

Words and photos by Yeshe Parks (@yeeesshh), with additional shots by Cass.

Hi, I’m Yeshe Parks and I grew up frolicking in the forests, streams, and fields of Maine. I started mountain biking at the ripe old age of 12. Bikes have been a pretty strong thread in my life ever since. I’ve lived all over the US and my biking preferences have adapted to my surroundings. At the moment, I live in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and do all I can to stay on dirt. I work primarily as an artist and freelance animator.

I rekindled my love for the mountain bike when I moved here a few years ago. It had been some years (decades, even?) since I’d donned knobby tires. But, since New Mexico has seemingly endless dirt, the time was right and I got a well-loved XC bike off of Craigslist.

After a few months on the Craigslist score, I was looking for something that fit my tastes, and my 6’5” body, a bit better. I thought I could build my own bike, but quickly realized I needed more than a little guidance. After some serious research (Instagram’s algorithm), I found the amazing bikes of Cjell Mone. He was building beautiful frames, forks, bars and stems out of a Wonder Bread truck in the parking lot of the old post office in southern New Mexico. If he couldn’t help me, I probably couldn’t be helped.

So, after finally sliding into his DMs, we decided to give a mentor/apprenticeship relationship a try. I moved to Silver City for a couple of months and started learning the ways of Mone Bikes (fun fact: in all of the preparatory communications we both overlooked the slight issue of my height exceeding that of the inside of the truck). As my final project, we built a tricked out futuristic mountain bike frame that doubled as an off-road tour rig and I was stoked.

A little less than a year later, I was convinced I needed a bike-Bonnie to my current bike-Clyde: a steel, non-suspension corrected, 29+ drop bar mountain bike with all the carrying bosses of a touring bike. So, naturally, I snagged an early prototype El Continente, as seen here, and I couldn’t be happier with such an obscure bike request. I definitely haven’t ridden all the bikes, and I usually can’t describe what supple even means, but I do know that Cjell’s bikes tick all the boxes for me: they have clearance for days, are tucked and very playful in the rear, are compliant and super responsive with a balance of flex and stiffness and they are, in my opinion, about as pretty as a bike can get.

• Frame/Fork Early prototype Mone El Continete w bi-plane fork
• Rims Whiskey Rims
• Hubs SON 32 Dynamo, 350 DT 350 w/ ratchet upgrade
• Tires Teravail Cumberland 2.6” w/ Cush Core inserts
• Handlebars Crust x Nitto Shaka bar
• Headset White Industries
• Crankset Race Face Affect 34t
• Cassette Singlespeed 22-18t
• Brakes TRP Hylex
• Saddle Brooks carved c17
• Seatpost Thompson Elite 27.2 setback
• Stem Mone Custom
• Front Bag(s) Custom Rockgeist Frame Bag
• Rear Bag(s) Oveja Negra gear Jammer
• Accessory Bag(s) Nuclear Sunrise and Oveja Negra Feedbags, Rockgeist Large top tube bag
• Other Accessories Sinewave Beacon dynamo light

You can see more from Yeshe on Instagram @yeeesshh.

Please keep the conversation civil, constructive, and inclusive, or your comment will be removed.