Open House and “In The Dirt” Screening – May 16, 2024

Join us for an evening of film and conversation at Rodeo’s new Lakewood, Colorado HQ. This will be our first ever open house, and we are proud to use it to feature a beautiful film titled “In The Dirt, by director TC Johnstone, which tells the ongoing story of members of the Navajo Nation who are building an incredible community on and around bikes.

Through a grassroots native-led effort, this group of dedicated cyclists and their families have overcome countless odds to build a cycling culture that today has become the fastest-growing recreational sport on the Navajo Nation. 50% of the proceeds of this screening will go to Silver Stallion, in Gallup, NM.

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The Tour Divide, Day by Day

In June 2024, Edyn Teitge became, at 15, the youngest solo rider of the Tour Divide. This is his story via his own words, day by day through the ride. Images throughout by Edyn and Eddie Clark Media.

The Tour Divide is one of the world’s longest and most well-known off-road bikepacking races. Stretching nearly 2,700 miles from Banff, Alberta, Canada to the US-Mexico border at Antelope Wells, New Mexico, it closely follows the Great Divide Mountain Bike route along the spine of the continent. The route gains around 150,000 feet of elevation with conditions ranging from unkept narrow single-track sections of the CDT, to smooth gravel and dirt roads, to death mud, and to long stretches of pavement. And somehow I got it in my mind that it would be a “fun” thing to do. 

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Adrian’s Story

Hi there. This is Stephen here with an intro to this piece. Back in Covid times, 2021, the bike space was as crazy as it will ever be. Some of the business was good, and a lot of it was, honestly, bad. One thing that cannot be argued, the stress and anxiety of it all left everything a blur. I can’t remember a lot of what happened in those 2-3 years. This story, I had forgotten about this one mostly. I remember there was this guy, Adrian, and he ordered a bike. I was running operations and didn’t talk to most customers at that point, Isaac was customer service and sales, so he did. Despite the chaos during his time at working here, Isaac did a great job taking care of people, and he built out a great bike spec for Adrian. Adrian had ordered this bike, and then because of the trickle down effects of Covid, it turned out that his funds for buying the bike had to be funneled on just staying afloat during that difficult era. So, Adrian got in touch to cancel the order. Once a build is underway, we do charge a restocking fee to cancel it, because we have to order all those parts on a per-bike basis. In Adrian’s case, it seemed like a good idea to waive that fee. But then Isaac said “what if we just give him the bike?”. I really don’t remember much from that moment, but in that moment I think it was strangely obvious to us that the right thing to do was to just give him the bike for free. So we did. Adrian was so awesome and grateful. He never hinted at getting the bike for free, and wasn’t trying to guilt us into giving him a bike. I think all of us, Adrian, Isaac, and myself were all equally surprised this whole thing was happening. We finished the build, we boxed it up, we shipped it, and then, more or less, the bike disappeared.

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Doble Medalla de bronce en el CNBC

El Campeonato Nacional de Bici-mensajería de Colombia (CNBC) es un evento anual de ciclismo urbano que reúne a los mejores mensajeros en bicicleta y ciclistas del país y el continente. Los participantes compiten en una variedad de eventos que ponen a prueba las habilidades, la resistencia y la determinación de los ciclistas. El punto crucial del evento es la Main-Race, donde se simula la rutina diaria de un mensajero en bicicleta en carreras de clasificación y final durante dos días en un área delimitada por un circuito abierto al público. 

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Podcast: Ride, XPLOR, Create?

This week, we are back in the Lab to consider the new SRAM RED XPLR AXS (so many capital letters!) and its use of the UDH (moar capital letters! moar!). While we jest at the branding, the tech is serious business. The new 1×13 groupset leans into the SRAM Transmission style rear derailleur and brings it to drop bar bikes, with the UDH hanger instead of the previous convention of specific hangers for specific frames. This change is a big deal for Rodeo because the design is at odds with the pre-existing design of the Trail Donkey as the frame is not UDH compatible.

We delve into some of the specifics, but the majority of the conversation is about how these big standard shifts in the bike industry affect small-frame brands. Along the way, we also find a few tangents to discuss some of the nuances of groupsets in this day and age of cycling. In this conversation, Stephen and Logan talk shop at first, before the Intern passes the baton to Drew van Kampen and Cameron “Coco” Lindberg to get into the weeds. Then, it’s back to Stephen and Logan to bring it all around.

Host: Logan Jones-Wilkins

Guests: Stephen Fitzgerald, Drew van Kampen, and Cameron “Coco” Lindberg

Producer: Logan Jones-Wilkins

Podcast: the Rodeo Rider Files – Conor Dancy

This is the first installment of a podcast series that we are calling the Rodeo Rider Files where we will sit down with a few members of the Rodeo Labs extended family. First up is Conor Dancy.

Conor lives in Northern Virginia, amongst the historic gravel roads of Loudoun County, and is a pilot for a . He is a real matter-of-fact presence and someone who loves cycling, the little things, and Big Dumb Rides—all things we can get behind.

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Iceland by Skis. Iceland By Bike.

Cody Cirillo and Matthew Tufts approached us early this year with an inspiring pitch: They wanted to spend a couple of human-powered months riding the outer perimeter of Iceland on Rodeo Labs bikes, all the while carrying their skis, and peeling off to notch seemingly innumerable ski descents along the way. We get plenty of project pitches at Rodeo, but this one stood out because it combined a world that we know a lot about with a world that we know very little about, all in a land that we very much want to explore ourselves someday.

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The Rodeo Podcast: Tour Divide Recap

We sat down with two Rodeo athletes, Edyn Teitge and Cade Reichenberger, who both completed the 2,700 mile 2024 Tour Divide with class, and both in with their unique style. Cade rode to a 4th place overall finish in 15 days on his Rodeo Labs TD4, an incredible achievement on it’s own, but even more so considering that this was Cade’s first go at Divide as a relative newcomer to the genre. Not to be outdone, Edyn rode to the finish in 20 days, also on his TD4, becoming, at 15 years of age, the youngest solo rider to ever complete the event.

With stories this diverse it’s hard to fit them both into a single episode, but we gave it a good shot with hosts Logan Jones-Wilkins and Steve The Intern tossing in questions from their own cycling perspectives.

Here is a photo breakdown of Cade’s TD4, which featured flat bars, a Tailfin rear rack, and a Fox 32 50mm front suspension fork.

Edyn chose a different built type for his TD4, leaving it in drop bar configuration, and foregoing a suspension fork in favor of Redshift suspension stem and seatpost combo. As a Tailfin supported rider, Edyn enjoyed a particularly cool array of bags built specifically for his bike.

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Edyn’s ride in particular has been well covered in the media at the following links:

Bikepacking.com

velo.com

Bikes Or Death

Both Cade and Edyn wore our Explorts Expedition bibshorts, which are design with the demands of bikepacking and ultra racing in mind, and each also wore RDO lab jerseys with Edyn chosing our SPF Highlighter jersey, and Cade option for our Merino wool short sleeve jersey.

Both riders also ran our Rodeo 2.0 wheelsets.