State 4130 All-Road Gravel Bike – Custom Build

Last year, I decided that I wanted to buy a modern gravel bike to see what all the hype was about: one-by drivetrains, tubeless tires, carbon wheels, disc brakes.   After extensive research, the State Bicycle Co.’s 4130 All-Road caught my eye.  I was attracted to the cool semi-raw phosphate finish, having experimented with different unpainted metal finishes in the past.  I was also impressed with the clearance it has for super-wide tires, bigger than any other stock gravel bike at the time.  That’s a feature that’s increasingly come into style over the past twelve months, and which proves that the folks at State know what they’re doing.  Originally, my plan was to buy just a frameset and build it entirely custom.  The price for a complete 4130 All-Road was so low, I decided to get one stock and customize it by replacing parts over time.  Read on for details on my custom build and more photos!

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IF Mode Folding Bicycle with Upgrades

Many of the bikes I collect, restore and write about are many decades old, and often require extensive research for me to even to accurately identify their model and year of manufacture.  The IF Mode is not one of those. It won a Eurobike award when it debuted in 2008, followed by iF Product Design GOLD Award in 2009, where its designer Mark Sanders was honored alongside Steve Jobs, another winner that year.  Manufactured by Pacific Cycles, it is described as “the Aston Martin of folding bikes.”  I picked up this one in 2020 and gave it a series of upgrades to make it a perfect urban commuter.  Read on to learn more.

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