Customer Interviews: Adventure Racer Shane Hagerman

From time to time our customers tell us about impressive rides they’ve done, but few live up to Shane Hagerman’s tales. Shane is a member of Team Odyssey Adventure racing, a race team that competes in multi-day endurance races throughout the world. The four members of Team Odyssey work together to cover hundreds of miles over the course of a few days, sleeping just a few hours a time to give them an advantage over other teams. 

The backcountry routes that the courses follow are often rough and obstacle strewn, meaning their bikes must be as durable yet as light as possible. A few Team Odyssey members ride Rohloff SPEEDHUBs for this reason, including a teammate of Shane’s that we recently built this lightweight titanium Vassago Optimus Ti for. 

Read on to learn more about Shane, adventure racing, and why the SPEEDHUB is his drivetrain of choice.

Mount Diablo Bikepacking Trip

Mount Diablo is known among Bay Area cyclists for being a long, punishing, and oftentimes intensely hot climb. While the team here at Cycle Monkey knew the reputation the mountain had, we experienced the pain it can dish out firsthand on our recent weekend bikepacking trip on the fireroads and singletrack that wind up the mountain. While we got our fair share of the flowing singletrack, sweeping views, and triumphant peaks that we had come for, our ride was also marked by steep climbs, brutal heat, and bushwhacking through overgrown trails. Regardless, the mountain delivered a fun and adventurous weekend that lit a fire under us to go on an extended offroad tour.