*All the bikes from The Tree in the Road Ride in one picture - A Multi Exposure*

It’s that time of year to look back at the bikes of 2025. As I look back on the year, a few things became crystal clear. The year did not go as planned and I think I ended the year in a different mindset than when I started.

2025 simply did not go as planned. Here are some fun facts.

According to my stats, I rode about half the miles I did in 2024
I rode more models of bicycles than I did in 2024
I spent more time working on bikes than I did in 2024

The reality behind those 3 facts without context don’t look that good. The reality for me and why those facts became true in 2025 are quite simple though. The early parts of 2025 were spent focused on my mom’s health & eventual passing and my focus on my. new job. Later in the year I had some good bouts of riding, I just couldn’t catch up nor could I get my routine & consistency back.

However, not all was lost. I rode The Heywood Ride with friends as well as Mark’s Tree in the Road Ride in western Iowa. While I would like to have done more events, I am thankful for the friends that have been in my life for so long and I am thankful I got to ride with those friends an support a ride put on by my friends. I also spent a lot more time tweaking and playing bikes in the garage. I also ended the year getting a few of my favorite bikes really dialed and as a result, I found myself riding for fun a lot more than riding with intensity.

So let’s get down to it. Here are the two bikes that I rode the most as well as tweaked the most. These two bikes saw several different set ups over the course of the year and I am really really happy with where they ended up.

On the left is my WH Bradford Adventure Cross and on the right is my Tumbleweed Bicycle Company Titanium Stargazer. I have written about these two bikes in the past here on the blog and on my previous ImagineGnat blog.

No bike in my collection has seen the amount of tweaking and changing as the WHB. I’ve had this set up with so many different wheels, bars, bags, forks, tires, gears, and no gears. It’s a true chameleon. What put this bike over the top for me was a set of Black Sheep titanium bars I picked up off Facebook marketplace. I had been riding this on gravel and longish multi surface adventure rides. Eventually, my hands would go numb with only one position and these new ti bars gave me the big sweep back position as well as the aero bar like hand position. This rig will see some serious miles in this set up in 2026.

The Stargazer Ti came into my fleet as a sure thing. I rode and loved the steel version for almost 3 years. How could I not absolutely love switching to a ti bike and custom Meriwether titanium fork that shaves 3+ pounds off my previous build? Yeah, it is pretty much a perfect bike. I rode it at The Hewood in May. I also spent a lot of time tweaking the set up on this bike. I found my happy place in the above configuration. I do plan to remove the generator hub/light on this bike and put that on a different bike in 2026. This bike just deserves some lighter wheels (which I own) and some 2.4” fast tires like the Maxxis Aspen or 2.3” Vittoria Terreno XC Race. Big, comfy, light and can go for days and days. What is not to like? This bike will see serious time and miles in 2026. I absolutely love it.

There is no question that these two bikes saw the most miles and time in 2025.

*My V1 Salsa Fargo got some early spring miles*

One of the more notable bikes I got rolling in 2025 is my original Salsa Fargo. This is the bike that pretty much jump started it all for me. It is the thing that collected the most amazing group of people. Of course I have endless rich experiences with this bicycle and it skyrocketed my career so many years ago, but it’s the people that stand out and I think about when I ride this bike. I will forget someone so I am just going to leave actual names out of this, but these people are some of the finest people on this planet and I am thankful for every one of them. I started writing about the creation of this rig as well as the early parts of the words “Adventure by Bike” in early 2025. I was unable to finish and put the time and energy into this story due to my life changes. Maybe I can get back to this in 2026. I still think it’s a story worth telling and I fear the history being lost or recreated to suit current environments. This bike is still in tweaking mode. Since this image, I have made changes to the stem and I think this bike deserves some new, modern tires in 2026. Looking at that pick above, I think for a bike that is approaching 20 years old it looks pretty damn good and had some features way ahead of its time. More to come on this one when it’s truly done.

The Meriwether Collection - I happy to say that somehow I have ended up with 3 Meriwether bicycles in my collection. I planned two of them, the Ti and the Klunkpacker. The Ti Do It All was the bike of choice for the Tree in the Road Ride as well as some faster Saturday jaunts to Marthas Bakery in Dundas, MN. The third, the 2017 650b Rando, came into my life with some luck when someone was downsizing their collection. While I did not ride them enough, these bikes mean a lot to me. Whit closed his shop this year. I feel lucky to know him and I still think he is one of the top builders I have ever worked with. The ti do it all bike is torn down for a complete ground up rebuild. The Klunker still needs new custom frame bags. The Rando is done and I ride it when I am in the mood or when my route has a higher percentage of pavement.

The Tumbleweed SunLiner is my trusty sidekick for when I plan to ramble and take pics. I didn’t ride it that much this year. It’s been apart twice and rebuilt twice. It just works. I may replace this in 2026 with a Tumbleweed Prospector titanium. Still undecided because I can’t really imagine taking this apart and letting it go. The only change I plan to make with this if I keep it, is big, fat 29er tires on it for even more fun & capability. .

I’ve shared images of this Surly fat bike for many, many years. No more. This one left the nest. This bike is just right and did pretty much everything. It’s my favorite bike color too. It was just time for a change. You’ll see the new one possibly by the end of the year on this blog. Stay tuned.

There are a couple more rigs that are in process and got some milage, but they are just not ready to share yet. That’s not intended to be secretive. They are just not done and don't meet my photo standards yet with the builds and set ups. I also rode my Ibis Ripley MTB but took no pictures of it in 2025.

Overall, I’d say that was a pretty good year for bicycles. Hopefully 2026 will bring more miles, experiences and people into my world. Fingers crossed!

Bikes of 2025

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