Flaanimal – Page 4 – Rodeo Adventure Labs, LLC

Flaanimal 3.0 Adventure Bike. specification preview

Update: The Flaanimal is now live at www.rodeo-labs.com/flaanimal3

We promised we’d do this on January 31st, so it is time to spill the beans on the production spec Flaanimal 3.0 adaptable frameset.

Let’s start with an overview and recap. The Flaanimal adventure bike project has always been a bit of a younger sibling project to the Traildonkey. Insomuch as we never intended to release a carbon adventure bike, and then we did, we also never intended to release a steel adventure bike, but now we are.

Where to next

Today is almost exactly the three year anniversary of when we started Rodeo Labs in 2014. On that day Peder Horner and myself had some beer and ate some pie at Denver Bike Cafe while dreaming up the beginnings of this circus. We scribbled some names on some paper and laughed a lot as we considered the possibilities that starting from scratch allowed us.

2017 Community Flaanimal goals plans products Rodeo Rodeo Rally Rodeo Roundup Rodeo Wheels Team traildonkey

The Road Not Taken

A poem by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Photos by Stephen Fitzgerald and Galen Stiglebauer / Colorado Cycling Adventures:

Colorado Colorado Cycling Adventures Dirt Roads Fall Color Flaanimal Galen Lost Park Robert Frost Rodeo Labs traildonkey

Prototype: Flaanimal Ti

The Lab is a restless place. A lot of ideas get tossed around. Good ideas get made, bad ideas get dust binned.

The Flaanimal is an idea that we have been brewing on for a while. It’s roots can be traced back to the Traildonkey, Belgium, and Texas (affectionately known as Tejas). Conversations swirled then turned into action. We made a Version 1 design, tested it, then moved on to Version 2 with refinements, added features, new tubing draws, and reduced weight. The choice of materials that we use for the project has always been a point of discussion. 853? 725? 525? Custom? For Flaanimal the go-to option was always steel, but we kept saying “what if”. What if we built it out of titanium? Steel is amazing, but Ti has some special properties that steel doesn’t have. It doesn’t corrode like steel, it’s stronger and lighter than most steel blends, and it has it’s own lively feel that is distinct from other materials.

Enter the Flaanimal Ti. Flaanimal Ti is a continuation of the Flaanimal project. It uses the same geometries and basic specifications of the Flaanimal but keeps the conversation going.

Adventure Bike Cyclocross Bike Flaanimal Gravel Bike Prototype Rodeo Labs rodeo spork Steel Bike Ti Titanium

Photo Essay: The Unspeakable Ride

Some rides haunt you. You see a peak or a road out of the corner of your eye and you know that you must go and find where it goes. Until you do there will be no rest and yet when you decide to go there is also no rest. Fear creeps in, and doubt. Is it do-able? Can you do it? These are the scary rides with unknown outcomes. Yet these are the rides we most love.

At Rodeo failure IS an option. It’s OK to turn around and go home if necessary. But if you manage to press on and push through you accomplish something special. Something outside of the measurements of distance, power, calories, and altitude gained.

Adventure Colorado Cyclocross cyclomountaineering Exploring Flaanimal Gravel Rodeo Labs traildonkey

The Steamboat Ralleye via Kitsbow

197 dirty, epic miles and 19,302 brutal feet of climbing from Fort Collins to Steamboat Springs, Colorado with Niner Bikes and the Ralleye Riders.

Our own Timothy Fegel was along for the ride on his beta Flaanimal on what was no doubt an amazing adventure.

Music: Mr. & Mrs. Smith – Dirty Laundry

Bikepacking Flaanimal Gravel Kitsbow Ralley steamboat springs Tim Fegel

A day at the races: CX Season opener

It is a funny and rare thing when everything converges. This year cyclocross season started a bit early with a season opener at Oskar Blues farm in Longmont. We’ve been a little bit quicker on our toes than last year so we already had our kits in-hand a few days before race day. On a lark I decided that I wanted to race the prototype Traildonkey as well. I’ve actually had this bike in storage since April because as a very early prototype it had a lot of imperfections in the design (which we’ve since revised and refined). I’ve been riding the Flaanimal prototype a lot lately and while I do love the bike and the feel of steel I wanted to go back and get re-antiquated with our first bike project, the one born at almost exactly the same time the team was in January 2014.

2015 cyclocross race elektrobunny Flaanimal Oskar Blues Rodeo Labs rodeo spork traildonkey

Rodeo Rally // Rampart Range // Video

Rampart Rally was one of the most difficult, most incredible rides we’ve ever done. Patrick, Chris, Peder, Jacob, Tim, Michael, myself. All the usuals were there, the guys who show up time and again for the biggest things that we do as a team. It strikes me that, when boiled down, this is the group that casts the mold for Rodeo. Not everyone will ride bikes the way we do or do the things we do and that is okay, but at the end of the day when it comes to telling the story of who we are as a team, you couldn’t ask for a better crew.

Rampart Rally covered 80-100 miles each of the two days, but through conditions that we ourselves would admit were often over the top. We were each equipped with bikes that had fairly skinny, fairly slick tires, but that is where the similarities ended. Steel, carbon, road, MTB, CX, everything was represented. We aren’t biased towards Traildonkeys and Flaanimals, we love each of the bikes that showed up to tackle the course. At the end of the day on a ride like this, just showing up and pedaling until you arrive at your destination is the most important requirement. Everything else is gravy.

I couldn’t be more happy to call these men team mates. It is an honor to call them friends as well.

-Stephen

Adventure riding Buffalo Creek Colorado Cycling Cyclocross Flaanimal Mountain Biking Rampart Range Road bikes Rockies Rodeo Rally Singletrack The Vanilla Workshop traildonkey Waterton Canyon Woodland Park

A different kind of loop

We took a different type of route on Sunday morning. We just weren’t feeling the normal ruts we sometimes ride in. A figure 8 course way up high gave us about 10 miles of gravel, 10 miles of pavement, and 10 miles of singletrack. This is my favorite type of riding. It feels less like routine and more like adventure.

https://www.strava.com/activities/360013948