A Year In The Life of A Donkey

Today my Trail Donkey turned one year old.  Not sure how many Donkey years that is, but it’s about 3,748.3 miles of adventures.  Lots of people ask me what kind of bike the Trail Donkey is.  I’m still not sure what to tell them, other than it’s a cyclocross-adventure-commuter-criterium-dirt-gravel-grinder-group-ride-fendered-fat-tire-road-racer-kind of jobby.  Jack of All Trades, Master of Fun might be a better way to sum it up.  Here’s what my Donkey’s First Year looked like.

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This is absurd. Cycling Imogen Pass.

It’s 10am on a Thursday morning in late August, I’m getting ready for a bike ride and thinking about the year so far. It’s the time of year when people start asking themselves where the summer went and why didn’t they get that thing done that they wanted to do this year.

I’ve asked that question more then once this year myself and the answer is always the same: You can never get it all done, you can only try your best.

Ouray overhead

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World’s Worst Climb™

Shrine Mountain Road, Georgetown, CO

I’d heard of The World’s Worst Climb™ in passing comment and conversation.

There were rumors of a dirt switchbacking climb snaking up the near vertical mountain slopes that wall in the historic town of Georgetown, CO. Rumors they were though. Nobody I knew had ever done it. I think the first photo evidence of its existence may have come from Matt Deviney on Instagram. Or maybe it was a photo linked on Strava? I can’t remember.

Saxon Mountain Road, Georgetown, CO. The World's Worst Climb™

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ALPHARD – Or well Le tour de Grandes Alpes

NOTE: This writeup and photos were kindly submitted by Alex Munz. Alex hails from Amsertam, Netherlands

In a region far, far away (imagine Star Wars music), two lycra padawan’s were heading out to conquer the mountains… okok i stop.

Anyways Cyril and me (Alex) we went out on a big bikepacking adventure. We had the crazy and of course awesome idea to do the Tour de Grandes Alpes on our bikes. With panniers and our tents, cooking gear, cloth, shoes, rainjackets… bikes were way to heavy :D

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Flaanimal 3.0 // Rapha Brevet build

The kind folks at Rapha Boulder asked us if we’d like to display a Flaanimal 3.0 in their store with their Brevet collection.

Instead of sending a stock frame build over Rodeo designed and painted this one-off graphics scheme to compliment the Rapha aesthetic while at the same time trying to keep it “us” as well. We worked within the Rapha palette and hinted at shapes in play in their collections, but we also included distinctly Rodeo queues such as the trees from our 4.0 kits and 2.0 wheels as well as our Ride / Explore / Create iconography. The Flaanimal and Rodeo Spork logos also got unique treatments in the overall design.

It’s a really cool opportunity and an honor to be asked by a respected brand like Rapha to show what we do in their space. We had our own little Monster Garage, jammed on it almost non-stop for 3 days, and finished with zero time to spare.

We decided to keep the build functional, not stratospheric so our parts selection was intentional. Sram Rival 1 is a perfect gravel / brevet grouppo to work with, having a huge gear range and simplified shifting. Brooks C13 saddle and matching rubber bar tape provide ultra durable and compliant contact points. Clement Xplor MSO tubeless tires mounted on our proprietary 2.0 carbon wheels offer versatile, strong, and light rotational performance. Fizik Cryano controls match the aesthetic of the build. A Chris King i7 headset will provide endless performance up front and the Praxis Zayante hollow forged 1x crankset will due likewise in the propulsion department. This build is balanced, functional, dependable, and attainable and those are Rodeo qualities.

This build will be on display at Rapha’s Boulder Clubhouse in the coming weeks and can always be seen in our Flickr gallery. For purchase inquiries please shoot us an email. This Flaanimal is a size 58cm. For inquiries on custom paint and custom builds on any of our bikes always feel free to get in touch.

Rodeo Labs Flaanimal // Rapha Brevet Bags custom build