Customer Interviews: Mountain Biker Scott Sumner

Scott Sumner is one of the most devoted Rohloff converts we know. We've set up four of his mountain bikes with SPEEDHUBs, and he says he'll never go back to a derailleur system. He has even convinced a number of his riding buddies to try out the Rohloff internal gear drivetrain, and afterwards they had us build up bikes for them.

Read on to learn why Scott is such a fan of his Rohloff SPEEDHUBs.

Neil and Xan MTB Road Trip: Part 3 – Colorado and Utah

After some epic rides in the Springs, it was time to pack up the car and start the real adventure. I crammed all of my stuff into the van and we headed north to do one of Neil's favorite rides in Golden back from when he was in college. Even though I've spent plenty of time in Colorado at this point, I still sometimes go on a ride that totally blows my mind. Golden Gate Canyon was absolutely one of these rides.

Neil and Xan MTB Road Trip: Part 1 - California to Colorado

I left for a two week trip to Colorado in mid-May to pick up our youngest monkey, Xan, from college and do some epic riding along the way. The plan was for me to drive to Colorado Springs solo, meet up with Xan at Colorado College and ride the Front Range area for a few days, then road trip to through the mountain bike meccas of Colorado and Utah. I took my Oxide Cycles Battleaxe, and Xan would be riding his Ventana Zeus, both Rohloff SPEEDHUB equipped.

On the first day of the trip, I left Berkeley in the morning heading east in Interstate 80. My first stop was in Sacramento to provide some follow-up service for a customer. Afterwords, I continued on to the Boreal ski area exit to ride Hole in the Ground, a fun trail that flows through evergreen forest and over classic Sierra Nevada granite. Unfortunately, spring conditions meant snow was still present in places, and I ended up spending about an hour alternating between walking and riding through intermittent snow patches as I attempted to reach the trailhead. By the time I was at the trailhead, there was far too much snow to make riding worthwhile, so I bailed on the ride and hit the road, getting to Elko, NV for the night.

Guest Post: Fruita and Grand Junction Trip, By Xan Marshland

This October I joined a few other members of the Colorado College Cycling Club on a trip to Fruita and Grand Junction, on the western side of the Rocky Mountains. Our plan was to ride some of the area’s renowned cross country and all-mountain trails for four days, camping by one of the trailheads and spending all day riding until we were exhausted. This area had been on my list of places to ride for years, so I was incredibly excited to finally get out there.

I started riding cross-country in my freshman year of high school, but my riding style has progressed greatly since then to favor more adrenaline-inducing trails. Due in no small part to the influence of my team coach and Chief Monkey Neil's aggressive (or insane, depending on your perspective) riding style, I quickly began to prioritize descending steep, technical terrain over fitness-based riding. By my senior year I had fully embraced the “all-mountain” attitude of earning as many vertical feet of descending as I could under my own power.