The HALKA is built for the biggest bucket-list goals whether you’re an expedition mountaineer or in the role of a guide, with just the features required to safely summit and return to the realms where the rest of us live. With UCI World Championship XC titles in both long and short formats, Vittoria is proud to finally offer to the public what hyper bicycles factory racers have trusted for the past two seasons. When designing the Peyote, simply going fast wasn’t the goal. Instead, we viewed success as the reduction of time from point-A to point-B, taking speed, grip, control, dependability, and rider fatigue into account. That said, the first thing is to start with a bike that can be upgraded.
In addition to accurate and impartial news reporting, and compelling, original storytelling, his interests include camping in all climates and conditions, track cycling and bikepacking, all forms of fitness, the resplendent majesty of coffee, and sports of every kind. In my case, much of my daily riding happens on commuter/hybrid bikes. Recently, thanks to bikes like the Priority 600 All Road, I am starting to also look at adventure bikes. If you want to ride trails, you’ll likely need to spend around $200 plus to get something a light trail won’t instantly beat down. And make sure it has a threadless headset and a derailleur with a replaceable hanger. But on a mountain bike, weight can really drag down the enjoyment.
Suspension is just not something I’ve ever felt that I needed, so this is my first bike since owning a 1995 Pro-Flex 855 that has had suspension, and needless to say it’s a completely different box of frogs. I set the suspension up to the letter of the manual for my weight and rode it for a month or so like that to get used to it. Having never owned a proper bike with suspension and only having ridden one in anger a handful of times, I had very little to compare it to, but I do feel like 160 mm of travel on the front and 155 mm at the back are beyond my riding for sure. Overall, I increasingly rode a fairly niche bike relative to my location for normal stuff and having a great time.
So I would ask them to define “good bike,” because the meaning of that can vary greatly from person to person. The Ice Pack is a stripped-down yet full-featured technical winter pack. With availability in 40L, 55L, and 70L volumes, it is all-purpose with low-profile crampon and easy-access ice tool carry systems making it great for alpine climbing, water ice, or multi-day winter mountaineering. Designed specifically for on-trail backpacking, the Unbound prioritizes mobile storage and accessibility for the hiker on the go. I’m not sure I know any cyclists or even bike people who could reasonably ride the SRD without having fun. It’s like having a weird friend who your parents accept through familiarity over time, who’s low-key and effortless to hang out with, but who also goads you to climb lamp posts, snort wasabi in the cinema, and get thrown out of the club for dancing too weird on a night out.
My children love it and they are very happyand amazed. I recommend King Toys and I myself will reach out to King Toys for future purchases. The stiffer lever feels a lot snappier and makes the brakes feel much more direct and powerful, whereas the original lever has greater modulation and feels a little more progressive. The Oak lever adds a twizzly knob for adjustment normally reserved for the MT7, so if that’s important to you then the Oak lever upgrade might offer an alternative to a fancier brake set. The stem looked incredible in the unique raw forged finish. It weighs just 86 g and is tested to exceed standards for an enduro bike.
At just over 400 euros it’s not inexpensive, but it’s built to last and offers an insane range for the weight. Tires are, for me, one of the most important choices for any build. Most people, including Schwalbe themselves, seem to think that the “G” in Schwalbe’s G series of tires refers to gravel, however, it actually refers to wildman and all round good egg Grant. Grant works for Schwalbe in the UK but in his spare time is also a tire nerd, who indulged me and my fantasies about the kind of riding I might do for far longer than reasonable. It was built under the ambiguous and slightly tongue-in-cheek Sour SRD umbrella (more on that below). It’s neither an enduro bike nor their new race-proven ultra-distance/XC prototype we saw at last year’s Bespoked.
I was overbiking for sure, but simultaneously, I was pushing myself to ride new things rather than pushing my fitness as I’d expected. The lack of anything fun to ride locally and my deep desire to ride the bike all the time instilled a sense of being lost and bored, which seemed to always result in play. I’d cruise around looking for things to ride up, down, off, or onto. I could go out for a ride with no aim and no idea where I was going and have a great time just repeatedly trying to hop over a log or riding down a set of steps fast enough to be able to ride up again on the other side; just playing around by myself, having a nice time.
The SRD came with the classic Acto5 mountain cranks, nice and short in 165—because this bike has all the gears—and long cranks are for flat-earthers. Looking at a component in isolation, I really prefer the performance of SRAM electronic shifting, especially in wet, grimy conditions, but some people prefer mechanical shifting, and those people prefer Shimano. Looking at buying a $600 mech, I love the idea that individual parts of the mech can be replaced if they get damaged, that it will run with almost any shifter, and that I can swap the cage out to run short or long so it can be used on more or less any bike. The frame is made from custom butted and bent 4130 tubes and cast parts manufactured in Taiwan.
I ride it every week on the local mountain bike trails. And I shopped around for a month or two until I found deals on all the parts. The reality is that each new feature has to either increase price or take away from something else to compensate. That’s how bikes end up with a front disc brake and a rear rim brake. Most people don’t hyper bicycles ride on mountain bike trails, so make sure you avoid bikes with features you don’t need. The Day Pack Collection covers a broad range of single-day activities whether it’s a few hours outside, all day off-trail excursions, peak-bagging, bikepacking, summit pushes, or your day-to-day adventures between home and work and back.