Slacker clothing update#

A first for Pelago, the Stavanger features a tapered headtube that takes a carbon fork. Finally, the seat stays feature rarely seen mid-height bosses for Carradice-style bag supports, as well as M10 threaded holes near the dropout for pulling trailers. You’ll find triple mounts on the fork blades as well. It features the usual fender and rack mounts, three bottle cage mounts on the main triangle, and mounts for a bolt-on top tube bag. The double-butted chromoly steel frame and Pelago’s proprietary lugged cargo fork are decked out with attachment points. External, full-length cable and hose routing as well as internal dynamo/Di2 wiring is ideal from an all-terrain, all-weather perspective. The disc brakes have been updated to flat-mount standard, and it features 12mm thru-axles in the front and rear. A surprising number of our friends here in Berlin happily cruise around on the laid-back Hanko commuter, which could easily pull double-duty as a chill camping bike, and their sturdy Commuter Racks have carried many a Neapolitan pie on Pizza Gravel ( rides too.įrom afar, the Stavanger’s sleek tubes and curved fork give it classic contours, but up close it becomes obvious that nearly every aspect is state of the art.

Pelago’s products focus on durability, functionality, and beauty, an ethos that echoes throughout the Stavanger’s design. Based in the cycling city of Helsinki, Finland, the brand’s small team of everyday riders designs reliable steel bicycles, useful accessories, and understated clothing that transition seamlessly between the urban environment and trips further afield. Could this be the one?īefore I dive in, a few words to introduce Pelago Bicycles. Could there even be one road bike that does it all? Of course, marketing for all-road bikes typically promises the moon in terms of versatility, so it was Pelago’s relative restraint in that regard coupled with the Stavanger’s extensive feature set that intrigued me. My ultimate all-terrain rando bike wish list grew longer the more miles I collected, and I had to accept that the Space Horse couldn’t match my perhaps unrealistic requirements. I see it a lot like constraining myself to a single prime lens in photography: you’re forced to adapt and get creative, and you learn a lot about your equipment as you push it into new roles. In recent years, I’ve pressed my venerable All-City Space Horse Disc into service for everything from gravel events to brevets to months-long bikepacking tours across Europe.

Slacker clothing update#

Far from just an update to current standards and more tire clearance, the new Stavanger is part of an exciting trend of small brands pushing the off-road limits of steel road bikes beyond what the mainstream currently offers. Fast forward to 2022, the Stavanger has been completely revamped with bikepacking and gravel riding in mind.

Since its initial release over a decade ago, the Pelago Stavanger has reliably propelled its riders to their destinations in much the same manner as other genre-defying classics such as the Surly Cross-Check and All-City Space Horse, the latter being my personal frame of reference for this review. The modern all-steel, all-road bike-now benefiting from wider tires and lightweight bikepacking bags-can be seen as the spiritual successor to those versatile workhorses of yesteryear. Almost always, this was their only steed, which they also commuted on back home. Look no further than the stoic pursuits of the Rough-Stuff Fellowship riders, who toured far and wide on their steel touring bikes loaded down with canvas bedrolls and tin teapots, all while rolling and pushing on “wide” 28mm tires. The idea that we need a dedicated bike for every purpose and surface is a relatively new invention of marketing.