117 miles is in the books for my longest gravel race ever, and what an absolutely epic experience it was! The Rule of Three 117 mile course in Bentonville, Arkansas was a true mixed-terrain challenge, throwing everything imaginable at me. We had 30 miles of challenging singletrack – often loose, twisty, and technical – interspersed with 40 miles of diverse gravel, featuring both relentless climbs and exhilarating fast descents. The rest of the 40 miles were on the road, providing moments of swift cruising before dipping back onto the rough stuff. Through every single twist, turn, climb, and descent, my new Clydesdale BFG 32er gravel bike not only handled it all, but it truly crushed it.
Dear Lennard and Nick,
I have been 6’ 8” for roughly 30 years, but a cyclist for only a dozen or so. When I decided to get into cycling, I quickly learned the challenges of finding a bike that actually fits. After a failed attempt with the largest bike that could be ordered from the local bike shop (a 64cm Trek that just wasn’t big enough), I was fortunate enough to find Zinn cycles. The custom bikes were out of the range of what I could afford, but fortunately the KHS 747 offered an affordable option and introduction into real cycling. The 747 was a great starter road bike, had good enough components, and allowed me to actually ride comfortably for the first time in my adult life. Even though it was a budget-friendly option, Lennard Zinn was still helpful in helping size and fit me on the bike which I was grateful for. After a number of years, I decided I was cycling enough that I could justify moving up to something even better, and graduating college after 25 years of continuous enrollment (not a typo) I decided to treat myself to a Clydesdale as a graduation gift. Living only a short drive away from Zinn Cycles new retail store, I was able to visit in person and Lennard was again able to provide his guidance and assistance for the pre-sales and the final fitting, and Nick was able to help with spec decision making to make sure the bike had exactly what I was looking for… and the Zinn team has been helpful ever since with maintenance and minor repairs after the fact.
We recently had the opportunity to build a fully custom Electric Road Bike for Rolf Dietrich, founder of Rolf Prima wheels, a renowned premium wheel deign and manufacturing company that has been building high end cycling wheels for many years. Rolf has ridden hundreds of high end bikes and seen many handmade titanium bikes in his long career in the bike industry. It was an honor for us to be chosen to build his custom e-bike.
A happy customer sent us an email reviewing his new Custom e-bike. We worked with this customer who had some body mechanic issues to build a great custom bike. He did the Gold Medal Bike fit that includes an initial fit with Lennard Zinn followed by a full body analysis and 3D retul fit with Larry Meyer at BUILD sports performance lab in Louisville.
Tall triathletes know that smaller athletes have inherent advantages over them on the run portion of the event and that it’s advantageous to gain as much time on lightweight runners as possible before donning running shoes. The Clydesdale Tri is designed to do just that for riders who are too tall to fit on stock-sized triathlon bikes from any other brand. The Tri also offers tall riders more speed in time trials.
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“Aerodynamics matter greatly”, at least that seems to be a common thought among triathletes, if social media is in any way reliable. Balancing aerodynamics with power and comfort is a necessity for long course races such as the 70.3 and 140.6. This year I am riding a bike which provides a better share of aerodynamics and comfort than anything else commonly available for someone 6’4 and over.
Justin sent us an email reviewing his new Clydesdale e-bike, the Whip. It was built with our new super-strong, carbon Duro fork.
We loved hearing from Jan, for whom we made a custom, step-through travel road bike. This bike has z-couplers, allowing the bike to be taken apart for travel. These couplers integrate so smoothly into the frame, they are almost invisible! The step-through design solves for mobility issues that accompany longevity and/ or injuries. At Zinn Cycles, we build step-through bikes that perform to the level of any other custom bike with the benefit of accessibility.