Journal | Hunt Bike Wheels

With Autumn drawing in and winter looming on the horizon (at least in the Northern Hemisphere) it’s time to day dream about summer! Or instead of just daydreaming you could bite the bullet and book a winter bike packing trip to try and find some warmer weather. But where should you go? Read on to find out some top destinations to go bike packing this winter.

South East Asia offers a variety of destinations for a backpacking trip. Cambodia, Vietnam, Lao and Thailand all offer unique cultures and experiences. Traffic can be a little hectic around bigger cities and on main roads, however they are used to slow moving mopeds and motorbikes so after a while you learn to become part of the flow of traffic.

Ryan Le Garrec is a French Videographer who has been following the Ultra Cycling calendar for the past year. He has provided some of the amazing images and video that has appeared in the Hunt Beyond newsletter and social media so we took the time to sit down with Ryan and find out a bit more about the man behind the lens.

As a child I always wanted to put my eye to daddy’s big camera. Kids look up to firemen and policemen, but I looked up at the war reporter and the superhero of my childhood, my dad. He was literally dodging bullets and bombs to tell the world what’s going on and report about people suffering the evil side of the human race. That and the fact I found cameras super sexy sparked a very early interest for filming.

Check out this awesome build from Malthe. His Evil Wreckoning fitted with full Sram AXS drivetrain and dropper and a Lyric Ultimate to match.

Hunt open Dev rider Claire Frecknall has recently returned from the Turin - Nice Rally, a bike packing ride across the alps to the Mediterranean sea. Read on to find out how the ride went and to see some stunning images from the mountains... 

The Torino-Nice Rally is a self supported bike-packing adventure criss crossing the French-Italian border for around 700km (with around 15,500m of climbing) between Turin and Nice. There’s tarmac, gravel and some tough hike-a-bike for those who choose it.

We catch up with our supported rider Rodney Soncco. Rodney has been making waves in the world of Ultra racing over the past few years and has recently returned from the Inca Divide in Peru.

Read on to find out about Rodney’s cycling career, his path into the world of Ultra cycling and how Inca Divide went for him.

The one-way bikepacking trip is a fantastic way cover a large distance and experience a vast array of landscapes and cultures. It can take you across a mountain range, connect 2 cities or if you pedalled for long enough could cross continents.

But how would you go about planning such an adventure? Read on for some top tips on taking on a one-way trip.

‘It’s an autonomous bicycle adventure race around the Ariege department of the Pyrenees, there will be hike-a-bike’. That’s how Further race Director, Camille Mc Millan, sold the event to us and it’s a good job that he doesn’t work in marketing.

Further was about more than riding bicycles up big mountains and brutal hike-a-bikes. Yes these were a key feature of the event, however the real ethos of the event is to collectively celebrate the beauty of suffering, the beauty of the mountains and the beatify of a shared passion.

Further is an intriguing event in terms of equipment. The race route around the Pyrenees is based around a series of 'sectors' which must be completed in chronological order, however the riders must plan the best route between each sector.

We took a look at some of the bikes of Further to see what riders thought was the fastest option...

Start of August is a privotal point of the summer. Not only is the start of the end of summer but it is also time for 2 awesome cycling events, first being Ardrock (lets not talk about that one) and Brighton Big Dog. 

The Big Dog is a Local 6 hour XC race based in Brighton's Stanmer Park, just on the outskirts of the city. Being based just outside Brighton and with a large amount of our staff living in the thriving city, it is always a big talking point in the office with a large amount of our team taking part or coming to watch.

We were stoked when Bombtrack invited us along for the 2019 edition of their Groundwork event; a few days in the forests of Kürten in Western Germany with key media, team/sponsored riders, distrobutor staff and even a couple of lucky connected brands (including us!).

Usually around 40-50 of the "Bombtrack family" go along each year, and we sent Ollie to get the scoop on the 2020 range and suffer in the dirt. Click the link below to find out why Ollie ended up back in Belgium watching a pro Kermesse for a day, how not to remove a SRAM NX Eagle mech from a bike, and just how bad Tom Hill is at childrens-bike cycling limbo...