Requisite Gear Photo

Here's one of our bikes built up. We're riding steel-frame Surly Long Haul Truckers with steel racks and 36 spoke wheels. Our wheels were built by the boys at Menlo Velo, an excellent old-school bike shop in Menlo Park that steered us true the whole way through our bike-building process. Harris and Matt are riding 26-inch mountain wheels, Thea and Ben on larger 700c road wheels. The drive-train is comprised of all mountain components, a 44-32-22 crankset in front and an 11-34 cassette in the back. V-brakes and un-integrated Shimano shifters and brake levers were selected for simplicity and serviceability on the road. Unloaded weight is 33 pounds on the rig shown here. We chose to mix road frame geometry with mountain bike components in an attempt to get the best of both bike worlds: the speed and efficiency of a road bike with the low gearing of a mountain drive-train to make it up the steep climbs even when fully-loaded. They may not be light but at least they look tough. If you have any ideas for bike names drop us a line…