@chrismagnotta is one of the original five riders who said “sure I’m in” when the Rodeo team started in 2014. Since then he’s done innumerable questionable things on his Donkey, such as Leadville 100, Unbound 200, White Rim, Slickrock, etc etc. so when he decided it was time for a new Flaanimal Ti he asked “should I go flat bar or drop bar?”
We responded “Why not both?”
Integrated bars, stems, and headsets are all the rage in the cycling industry right now because they allow companies to design sleeker, prettier bikes, and many people love riding sleeker, prettier bikes. Our new Traildonkey 4.0 platform is fully compatible with integration if you chose to go that route. But should you build your TD4 (or Flaanimal) with an integrated cockpit? That is a decision to weigh carefully before you take the plunge.
But first, let’s make sure everyone is on the same page with terms.
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We’ve been hard at work in the spray booth in 2022 and as we lean into the final months of the year it is worth having a look back at some highlights of our work.
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While we wait impatiently for Traildonkeys to arrive we’ve been quite busy building and delivering Flaanimals. Lately Flux customs has been completing our Cerakote and custom painted frames in waves so we’ve had some great looking bikes leaving. Below is a gallery of builds and details.
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It’s no secret around here that we’re good friends with Matt Hawkins, the owner of the venerable Ridge Supply sock-and-rad-merchandise stoke company. We’ve done a special Ridge x Rodeo Traildonkey with Matt in the past, and Matt currently owns three Donkeys in different configurations which makes him a preeminent collector of Rodeo bikes. So I guess it came as no surprise that when Matt saw the Flaanimal 5.0 prototype at Philly Bike Expo in late 2019 he quickly said “I want one”. What did come as a surprise was just how long it took us to build and deliver the bike that he had in his head.
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The Pumpkin Spice Latte Flaanimal 5.0 is working out to be the most rare color. Having just built two in the most recent batch of builds we’re pretty close to saying that we think it’s the best color we currently offer. The orange Cerakote has an almost pearlescent finish, and the chocolate brown accent color accents the layout nicely.
For so long we are only able to look at renderings of these color options, and we’re thrilled to finally have these out in the wild in real life.
One of the first Flaanimal 5.0 Cerakote builds was this beautiful Redneck Racing Green bike with matching Cerakoted Hanjo fenders. It cuts a lovely figure and will no doubt perform admirably both commuting and out riding gravel.
This Flaanimal was built with a GRX 800 series 1x drivetrain and a Praxis Zayante Carbon crankset. This setup should perform reliably for untold thousands of miles in all conditions.
The T47 bottom bracket with inboard bearings is incredibly versatile for running almost any spindle type while retaining the security of a threaded bottom bracket interface.
Flaanimal uses a removable fender bridge design allowing for maximum adjustability when fitting and for clean lines when a fender or rack are not installed.
The carbon seat tube on 5.0 helped us remove static weight from the frameset while retaining strength in a non-stressed area. It also pairs quite nicely with a carbon seat post!
Cerakote coating replaces liquid paint on our 5.0 frames. It offers both lighter coating weight and class leading abrasion and wear resistance. All Flaanimal 5.0 frames are Cerakoted in Denver, Colorado.
It’s been quite a marathon over these last few weeks getting initial Flaanimal 5.0 framesets landed, built, coated, and shipped. We’re still in the heat of it as we speak. This GRX 800 2x build shipped out today and we had enough time to grab some photos before it did.
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