GALLERY

IVAN SLCSSCX Anodized + Etched

The lead up to this fun project for a new customer in Utah began 18 months ago when he spotted a PDXTI team bike (this one) in the TRP display at the North American Handmade Bike Show in Salt Lake City. Those wheels! The tan hoods! Those blue iSSi pedals!

With the customer's specifications and some general guidance we developed a plan: a clean and simple belt-drive single speed with a striking finish and tan hoods on the Hylex. When fleshing out the details of the cosmetic finish our customer expressed an affinity for mountains and trees, and handed it off to us.

Mountains and trees figure prominently for us; it is where we live and where we ride.  Of late we have been doing custom finishes with more and more layering of etching, media blasting, and anodizing. With spring splitting at the seams with colored blossoms and foliage around us there needed to be plenty of color. But not necessarily flashy. Instead something bright but not loud, something clean and linear but also varied and marbled, something defined and organized but somehow chaotic. Classy but not boring. And lots of color. But not too tidy, and not too much  :)

We are thrilled with how the bike came out. The custom RADHAUS finish is cool and stately but striking; it has mountains and trees and tan hoods; it is dark and bright both; it is kind of everything at once.

IVAN S&S Travel Bike

When we say the IVAN is a go-anywhere, do-anything fun machine, we really really mean it. Really!

Sure, the IVAN's bread and butter is as a cyclocross race bike, and our Elite level R&D race team has proven the pedigree with dozens of podiums at events and series like the OBRA Grand Prix Series, USA National Championships, and the World Famous Cyclocross Crusade.

But being purpose built for Pacific Northwest conditions makes the IVAN equally capable out in the wild, be it ripping forest fire roads, heading up for high country skiing in the Cascades, or going overland on the Oregon Outback route.

Adding to the bike's already bountiful utility, as with our WAYPOINT and APPIA models the IVAN is designed to accommodate S&S Couplers. This ingenious system, formally known as Bicycle Torque Couplings, provides a safe, simple, and secure means of taking your own bike anywhere in the world without the hassle and expense of transporting oversize baggage.

S&S couplers are manufactured by S&S Machine in California and built into REN frames in our Portland shop.

Depending on the carrier, S&S Couplers can save $300-$800 in baggage fees on most international round trip flights. Perhaps more important than the financial savings, coupled travel bikes mean you get to ride your bike, dialed just the way you like it, anywhere you go. No more clunky beach cruiser rental bikes or ill fitting loaners from a friend's basement.

With the addition of S&S couplers all sizes of REN production bikes fit into a 26x26x10 suitcase. While the packing process varies depending on the specific components on the bike, for most frame sizes the breakdown consists of pulling wheels, handlebars, saddle/seatpost, wrapping the rear derailleur and frame with velcro covers to prevent damage, and stacking everything neatly into a travel case or bag. After becoming familiar with the process a bike can be packed and ready to fly in about 20 minutes. The best part about it? A simple 6" spanner wrench is the only tool the couplers require.

Oh, and of course in addition to S&S couplers, if you want some llamas or quilt squares or your name on your bike, we can do that too! Custom finishes (like the work from RADHAUS shown here) are available for every bike we sell.

NAHBS 2018 SSCX IVAN Pops Up at Sea Otter Classic

Great to see the SSCX IVAN we put together with TRP, HiFi, and Gates, with a custom RADHAUS finish, for the TRP display at NAHBS 2018 in CX Magazine's list of cyclocross and gravel bikes that caught their eyes during the annual Sea Otter Classic in April. We really love the geometric graphic and trippy vibrant colors.

Check out CX Magazine's photos here.
Peep through our set of photos in the first gallery below, and Tim Lucking from Gates Carbon Drive's photos in the second gallery.