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When it comes to downhill mountain biking, Steve Peat’s name is legendary. To commemorate their athlete and the only carbon wheelset to win a UCI downhill championship, ENVE has issued a limited edition Steve Peat M90 collection. Head to ENVE to see more!
Holy. Shit. This. Bike.
HSTB. The Crema Duo changed Los Angeles’ riding for me. In fact, it changed how I feel about the potential for ‘cross bikes to be the most versatile bike in your stable. Take everything you love about your bike and turn it up to 11. Big tires, disc brakes, lightweight, snappy geometry and the ability to hold your own in a pace-line, while still being able to crush singletrack and fire roads all in a tight package.
The Vanilla Workshop has multiple tiers in terms of frameset design and production. At the highest tier is a Vanilla. These are 100% custom, lugged beauties made entirely by Sacha White. Their wait list is so long, it’s not even worth mentioning. Then on the more readily-available tier is a Speedvagen frameset. These used to be only available as a 100% custom geometry with multiple options from paint, ranging from a simple, single color with detail hits to complex, “Surprise Me” paint jobs that are so wild, they’ve inspired how other builders tackle paint design.
Now, Speedvagen has a third option in its pricing catalog: the OG1 road frameset. These are stock frames, already painted and in stock now, ready to ship to you in days or weeks, not months. The OG1 also carries a pricetag that won’t make you choke on your morning breakfast, when it comes to a made in the USA frame anyway.
The OG1 is still made 100% by hand in the Vanilla Workshop and it’s painted in house with a custom Speedvagen design, usually two per year with the first year’s designs being limited to a matte lavender or a burly-looking matte olive drab! It’s obvious which color you’re seeing here.
These frames are a deal, but there’s a catch…
Enve continues their limited-edition wheelsets in June with a collaboration kit and wheel package designed by those auteurs over at Manual for Speed. The kit is designed by graphic artist Rob Lowe aka Supermundane and is a visual interpretation of Light Speed. This design is then followed through on a set of Enve SES 5.6 disc rims with Chris King ceramic R45 disc hubs. Personally, this is my favorite MFS design yet! Head over to Enve for complete pricing.
You can also pre-order the kit-only at Manual for Speed and be entered into a raffle for a free wheelset!
… and I’ll be telling you all about it next week. It’d been a while since I’ve ridden steel on the road. Man, what a great feeling.
Barcelona, at least as far as I’m concerned, is Los Angeles’ European sister city. Not so much in terms of its urbanism, or gracious public plazas, or the seemingly lack of vehicular congestion, but in terms of the riding. Mediterranean climates make for photogenic trails and even in the winter months, this city is a joy to ride in. When we arrived in Barcelona, I had no idea what to expect. Mattia from Legor Cicli and Ken from ENVE told us (meaning myself and photographer Jeff Curtis, who came along to document the trip for ENVE) we’d be riding dirt roads and trails all within the city limits.
It’s been real fun! I can’t help but be impressed with all this city has to offer and we barely scratched the surface. Over the past few days we’ve spent the afternoons climbing dirt roads and bombing down singletrack with Legor Cicli, all within in the city limits. I can’t help but be reminded of Los Angeles, either! But like all good things, even trips to Barcelona must come to an end…
Today I’m hopping in the ENVE van and driving to Germany for the Berliner Fahrradschau with Crema Cycles. If you’re going to be at the show, track me down and say hello! Oh and bring me some Schnapps!
Whether you hit the road or the trails!
With a 382mm axle to crown, a 47mm rake and an integrated fender, the GRD is a road fork with just a bit more room for a bigger tire (35mm), without going all the way with a ‘cross fork. These details, along with the security of a 12 mm thru-axle make the GRD perfect for dirt roads.
See more at ENVE.
What can I possibly say about LOW‘s track bikes that hasn’t already been said? They’re sleek, made in San Francisco race machines with plenty of both street and track experience, a clean profile and killer, almost race car-inspired graphics. Hell, even as I’m typing this, you’ve probably already moved onto the photos!
Sometimes technological advances hit a few bumps in the road. That’s the case for ENVE at the moment. They just issued a recall for their Tapered Road 2.0 Disc Forks, claiming up to 600 could be affected by a stress riser forming above the disc mount on the left leg of the fork. So far, a few have cracked, but no injuries have been reported. To see if your fork is part of this recall, head to Bicycle Retailer.
During 2016, ENVE will be releasing a limited number of special edition monthly wheelsets, including an exclusive theme, derived from one of their partner teams, athletes, charities, designers and frame builders. Each of these releases will be featured limited wheel artwork, painted hubs, ceramic bearings, wheel bags and custom memorabilia.
The first wheelset features a SES 4.5 Clincher with a custom painted ENVE carbon hub for Team Dimension Data and the Qhubeka charity for whom the team races for to raise awareness.
These wheelsets will be available in limited numbers worldwide, both direct from ENVE and via ENVE’s dealers. See more information at ENVE.
“If Ferrari made an off-road vehicle, that’s what it’d be like to ride the Santa Cruz Stigmata.”
That’s been the simile I’ve used countless times when describing how this bike rides. In fact, I still can’t think of a better way of describing the Stigmata’s handling and capabilities.
Seven months is a long time for a review and honestly, I wanted to get this up before ‘cross season began but with very little expectations to race this season, I quickly realized that I had been using the Stigmata in every other way than it’s market intention. That’s the beauty of ‘cross bikes though, right?
Let’s step back a bit and look at what this bicycle is.
With a 31mm depth, an external rim width of 28mm and an internal rim width of 21mm, it’s obvious ENVE wanted to make a cyclocross-specific wheelset for dedicated ‘cross athletes. Available as tubular-only, these made in the USA carbon wheels were designed specifically for the weekend races and are available in a variety of hub, freewheel and axle specifications. Head over to ENVE for more information.
I gotta say, out of all the expo bikes at Grinduro, Todd from Black Cat‘s creation is most up my alley. Black bikes look mean, but then you add in a custom-machined lower headset cup, a beautiful stem, custom in-house gold paint details, those ENVE M‘s with RockNRoad tires and SRAM’s 10-42 rear cluster, resulting in one very dialed machine.
There’s nothing else to say, other than enjoy!
I also wanted to thank Todd from Black Cat for organizing the builder’s expo at Grinduro!
Colby has one of the best jobs in the cycling industry. He works for ENVE, where he’s the liaison for frame builders. Basically, if you’re a builder, he sets up your account and ensures that you’ve got everything you need to get your latest project or show bike rolling.
When it was time for a disc cyclocross bike, Colby reached out to Aaron Stinner in Santa Barbara for an OD green and orange race-paint-inspired shred sled that would pack a fat tire and blast the surrounding dirt roads of Ogden, Utah with ease.
Naturally, this bike was Colby’s go-to for Grinduro…
This year for Eurobike, ENVE contacted one of their favorite British frame builders to design a bike for their booth. Harry from Field Cycles is best known (over here in the US anyway) for bright paint and his unique tubing selection. Both of which were turned a few notches for this unique bike.
Check out more photos and full tubing specs below!
Coming in at 232g Hub Set (74g Front Hub + 158g Rear Hub), ENVE‘s new made / assembled in the USA 20/24 hubset caused quite the stir at Eurobike, winning a Eurobike Award and grabbing the attention of weight weenies everywhere. Even if shaving grams isn’t your thing (it’s not mine, personally), you can still appreciate these hubs’ beauty.
As with all lightweight, USA-made products, they’re not cheap, coming in at $1350 for a hubset. They are however one of the sleekest looking designs I’ve seen in the road hub market. Interested in a set? ENVE is taking orders now and will be shipping mid to late October.
For those wanting to know more, check out the full specs below.
