2023 Sea Otter Finds (Part 2)

The gates were opened today, and amid the flood, the flow, and the noise were a couple of gems of humanity. I had a great day surfing the chaos of Sea Otter. Some booths are a close out, and some faces just open up, begging to be understood. I like this atmosphere. I love how we can have people in lycra on road bikes next to famous athletes in Red Bull helmets next to kids on striders next to whatever else. Under our tight clothes and new sponsors and gravel forks, we’re all just the same thing: bike nerds trundling and grumbling through what is undoubtedly our heaven, an endless sea of bikes and old friends and rides and things to just talk about. Happy bike week.

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Damo

Damo was my favorite person I met today. He’s from Australia, is an avid bikepacker, and converted to Buddhism 14 years ago. He works construction in Buddhist temples, and because of his association with it, he can handle projects with religious significance. He talks about the pillars of Buddhism as we walk through the pits together, sipping our free non-alcoholic beers. “Ultimately, it’s just about being a good person. Don’t lie. Don’t steal. Be generous. It’s not hard!”

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Damo builds his own bikes, including this fillet-brazed mullet hardtail with a twin top tube and quotes inspired by old songs he loves written with a Sharpie. The “keep right” on the handlebars is to remind himself we ride on the right side here in the United States. He’s out here with Cjell from Mone Bikes, and the two have just come from Arizona, where they rode the Fool’s Loop together (he loved it). After an upcoming stint in a temple in upstate New York, Damo is headed back to Europe to ride the Slovenia West Loop for a third time. Damo is building bikes for the fun of it. He’s only made about 20, and after I mention I’m thinking about trying it, he looks me in the eye and says, “I genuinely encourage you to do it. It is so rewarding.”

Outride

I spent some time at the Specialized booth and was pleased to meet Luke Bashford, a cyclist and neuroscientist at Newcastle University/University of Colorado. He’s collaborating with Outride’s research program run by Esther Walker and trying to write a paper on the scientific understanding of the benefits of cycling in youth. He says we have so much anecdotal evidence of the benefits of cycling and a good scientific understanding of the benefits of exercise in children. He just wants to connect those two things and hopes one day it will help shape future policy decisions. They were doing a fun demonstration, putting EEG brain scanners on people while they rode bikes, and the difference in brain activity was astounding.

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Luke summed it all up perfectly, saying, “People are here for the new releases and the shiny bikes. But, if you dig a little deeper, we’re all here because we once rode a bike and it made us feel better.”

Cedaero

I met up with the team from Cedearo from Minnesota and got a nice tour of their booth out in the corner. Dan runs a tight-knit operation, and is very passionate about their production in Duluth. He co-founded and ran Granite Gear for 30 years and personally dealt with the ethical dilemmas of moving production over to Asia. With Cedaero, it’s different. “You really can’t make custom frame bags in Asia,” says Dan. He’s optimistic about their future but also aware of the difficulty ahead.

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Recently, he walked into their shop solemnly and sat down and began reading aloud Kitsbow’s letter announcing their closure. The whole team got quiet. Dan started crying, and everyone else followed. Dan is pensive over the whole thing. He’s still looking forward, though. He’s confident in the quality of their product. They were showing off this new fork bag. It’s made to mount to a King Manything Cage, costs $90, and is available now.

Bourdeau

Jarod Bourdeau works in Monterey at the local bike shop, Work Horse Bicycles. A few years ago, he took a frame building course at UBI and is now making frames in his garage in his free time. “We built these things for overnighters out here.” All the frames are lugged steel, and I loved the Ti Jones truss fork on his personal bike.

Follow him on Instagram for hilarious photos of broken bike parts from behind the workbench.

Wheeltop

There are a ton of booths with brands from China here this year. They’re showcasing everything from non-labeled carbon frames to solar paneled-equipped scooters to components, lights, and clothing. I especially liked my time at the Wheeltop booth.

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Wheeltop makes a 12-speed wireless mountain bike derailleur and shifter set. It felt alright in the hand and looked a lot like the SRAM Eagle derailleur. It’s $400 and ships directly from China. They said it’s available now, but I couldn’t find the derailleur for sale on their website.

Tall Bikes Will Save the World

I met up with Brendan Lehman and Josh Becker, who were both rolling into Sea Otter to see some friends and make some connections. They’re camping out on their way over here from Santa Cruz and will ride back tomorrow.

I’m really just using this as a reminder. If you haven’t seen Tall Bikes Will Save the World, go do it now! It’s linked in the Related Content grid at the bottom of this posts along with a few other things I’ve mentioned.

Ergon

Ergon showed me their new prototype grips. They’re a combination of three downhill variations and seem super tacky. More interestingly, they told me about how they’re moving their production back to Germany and are already making 10 products there, with more on the way.

These grips will eventually be made in Germany too. It’s all a way to control their supply chain a bit more closely, which seems to be increasingly popular these days. So many companies were shaken up by the whole supply chain horror show of 2020.

Bronson

I’ve met a couple people out peddling their own products through the aisles of Sea Otter, and Bronson was my favorite. He’s 24 years old and has been riding bikes since he was in third grade. He says he fell in love with it in Boy Scouts and has never really stopped. He became fascinated by the mechanics of suspension early on, watching off-road trucks drive over jumps, and when he learned bikes could have suspension too, he became hooked.

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He’s learned the physics of bike mechanics and thinks he’s found a loophole to make your bike better. It’s a stem that’s 150mm tall and has a -15mm length stem designed to bring you up and back and effectively slacken your head tube angle. Bronson rattles off the numbers of all the bikes he’s tested this thing on. He’s a smart guy, always thinking, a bike nerd to the core. He has videos on his Instagram shredding his mountain bike with the stem on. He dubs it “geometry of the future on the bike you have now.” Bronson makes them himself in a machine shop in California. They sell for $400 on his website, BeMoreBikes.com.

Dada

Daniel Dada was rolling around with a beat up Surly, and I ran over to talk to him and stayed for a long time listening to his stories. Dada ran a photo studio in Miami for decades but sold everything and retired when COVID hit. He’s been riding around the country since, all the way down the East Coast, through Florida, around the South, into Texas, up the Great Divide. He’s headed to Washington and looks forward to touring around Europe. He’s trained to work at Walgreens and will stop in towns for a month or so to make some money and reconnect with society. “If you spend too much time in the bush, it makes you a little loopy,” he says.

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Dada has no storage unit, no car, nothing to go back to, and nothing to give unnecessary attention to. He’s a drifter. Free to the core. He’s drifted into Sea Otter and soon will drift out the other side. You can find him on Instagram.

Restrap Hike-a-Bike Harness

I met John from Restrap as he was walking around with a bike on his back. He invited me over to the booth to give it a try, and I gotta say, I really liked this thing. I suggested adding a hip belt too, but the bike felt solid on my back. The harness was super easy to deploy and put back in the pouch too. The team was so adamant that they expected this thing to flop, but they’ve been shocked by the amount of orders they’ve already received.

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The Hike a Bike Harness is undeniably a niche product that fills a pea-sized hole in the market, but they’ve done it well and I look forward to seeing what kind of routes this opens up in the future. They also gave me a teaser of their upcoming bikepacking-specific sandals that are made to attach to each other and cinch around a saddle bag for easier carrying. Stay tuned for more on those.

Josie Fouts

Josie and I used to race for the same team back in San Diego, and it it was great to see her again. She even showed me her own hike-a-bike harness. She works for Orucase, and they sewed deployable straps into her framebag in case she wants to throw the bike on her back to help with long hikes. Josie was born without her left hand and is a certified badass. She’s bikepacked a few times, including Komoot’s Montanas Vacías Rally last year, and she’s gearing up now for the Rapha Yomp Rally. You can follow her on Instagram.

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Stay tuned for my third update from Sea Otter later this week, which will showcase another miscellaneous selection of standout people, bikes, and products from this year’s event. If you’d like me to check out anything or meet anyone in particular, please drop a note in the conversation below!

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