Rodeo Adventure Labs wants you to have fun on your bike, with each ride offering new adventures and new discoveries. Rodeo’s “laboratory” is not the domain of scientists in white coats, but the great outdoors – open, wild and raw in its beauty.
Rodeo offers bikes, wheelsets and accessories for the adventure cycling lifestyle. Rodeo builds bikes that are to be ridden, not to be painstakingly color-matched with contrasting bar tape, bottle cages and saddle and then hung on the wall to look at. Rodeo’s bikes are at their best spattered in mud or caked with dust after a horizon-broadening ride.
There are two basic platforms for bikes that can be customized with component build packages that suit a rider’s individual needs and tastes. The Flaanimal 4.1 is Rodeo’s steel bike frameset, built from Reynolds 725 tubing for either geared drivetrain or Gates belt drive single speed (with a seatstay that can be separated for installation). The buyer can build the frameset up herself, or choose from a variety of build packages that include Shimano’s GRX gravel-specific groupset (in 1x or 2x configurations), SRAM Rival or Force (in mechanical and eTap) and the aforementioned Gates belt drive single-speed. The Flaanimal can be used with either 650b or 700c wheels, and as with all of Rodeo’s offerings, the parts package can be individually customized to meet a customer’s physique and intended uses. Notably, this ability to build a unique ride comes at a very affordable entry price point: just $1,100 for frame and fork.
Carbon fiber provides the composite backbone for Rodeo’s other platform, the Traildonkey, which comes in two versions, the new-for-2019 3.0, and the older 2.1, which is on sale currently. Built to tackle the rigors of adventure riding and racing, the Traildonkey is a reliable and trusted companion and workhorse, but clearly not a recalcitrant jackass. As with all of Rodeo’s offerings, the Traildonkey can be custom-built to individual specs, and it can also be painted to taste for an upcharge. For those who prefer the raw, workhorse (donkey-like?) look, the Traildonkey comes in a “naked” version of the 3k carbon weave with a gloss clear coat and no decals or graphics.
Once you’ve dispatched your personalized steed, Rodeo will keep you rolling with their carbon wheelsets, available to “family” members (those who purchased a frameset) for a $300 discount. Rodeo’s carbon wheels are built for adventure (read “rugged”) use, with disc brake compatibility and a wide, stable internal rim width of 21.5mm, meant to pair with wide-section tires. The wheels come in both 700c and 650b versions, and have been “lab-tested” in the harshest conditions, including the Dirty Kanza and Crusher in the Tushar gravel races, and the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders.
So this off-season, invest in a personalized ride from Rodeo Adventure Labs, ditch the white coat, hit the trails and fire roads and come back with great stories backed up by the grime on your rig. The “scientists” at Rodeo Labs will be able to measure the smile on your face.