Why Alt Cycling Is the Best Approach to Riding Bikes

The Alt Cycling Approach

What drew me to this style of riding was the freedom from any real rules, which cycling is rife with. No matching outfits, tight-fitting jerseys, padded shorts, or clip-in shoes with ankle socks. Simply walk out your door, hop on your bike, and head down the street, through the fields, and into the woods. These types of rides have no strict parameters. It isn’t about speed, distance, watts, or outperforming the local legend on Strava.It’s about venturing out on your own or with friends, exploring your local landscape and connecting with your surroundings.

This style of riding bikes reminds me of my past experiences in the skateboarding community. Much like skateboarding, alt cycling feels like an independent, individualized experience that maintains a real attachment to a community of equally passionate individuals who might all have their own ideas about how they want to approach it. A good example of this is the accessories attached to your bike, and the bike itself. I’ve seen self-expression via self-bleached or shellacked bar tape, custom sticker jobs, twine-wrapped cables, and the list goes on. Making your bike feel like your own is a big part of it all.

Your riding position says a lot about your approach, too. Are you riding in a more relaxed, upright bar position? This might indicate that you are more into navigating things at a slower pace while enjoying the comforts of your surroundings. Wide drop bars might imply that you want to go fast downhill, but enjoy changing up your hand position to take in the scenery when navigating forest trails.

That’s the beauty of alt cycling: there is no wrong way to ride your bicycle and no set of rules to follow.

What Is Alt Cycling?

What are the origins of alt cycling, and how do you define this style of riding? Both are good questions, and neither is easily answered. I’ll say this, though: you know it when you see it. Some things that may or may not define an alt cyclist setup include: a steel frame, a rigid front fork, a Brooks saddle, swept-back or extra-wide drop handlebars, a pair of Bedrock Mountain clogs or sandals, large knobby tires, a bike bag or a basket, or a reflective triangle hanging off the back of your bike.

If you're riding down the road and see a cyclist pass with any or all of these things, chances are they're a fellow alt cyclist. And it’s important that if you do spot an alt cyclist in the wild, you chase them down and start up a conversation about the appeal of vintage Shimano XTR and Dura-Ace groupsets, friction shifting, and a general disdain for wireless electronic shifting.

Alt Cycling People, Brands, & Channels to Know

Speaking of fellow alt cyclists, it's good to know who's pushing this community forward. You can’t talk about alt cycling without mentioning Grant Petersen, the founder of Rivendell Bicycle Works in Walnut Creek, California. Grant worked for Bridgestone bikes for a number of years before branching out and starting his own thoughtfully crafted bicycle company in 1994. In the years since, Rivendell has become synonymous with alt cycling, and Petersen was the pioneer of the style. He has also long spoken out about the cycling industry’s focus on technological advancement and has written a number of books on the subject, advocating for keeping cycling simple and an ethos of riding slow and comfortable. Grant has been documenting his life on the bicycle for decades through film photography and has his scans up on the Rivendell blog.

There's also Ronnie Romance of Ron’s Bikes, aka the aforementioned Ultraromance on YouTube and Instagram. During peak New England foliage, he plays host to the ultimate annual East Coast alt cycling get-together known as the Nutmeg Nor’Easter, a multi-day campout event with group rides and a bike fashion show of sorts. He and his partner Arya Namdol also co-host a new podcast called Alt Bike NOW! for conversations about all things alt cycling.

The alt-curious will also come across The Radavist, a website dedicated to documenting all sides of non-competitive cycling, including alt cycling. John Watson, the founder, takes some of the most inspiring, beautiful bicycle photographs on the internet.

Another group holding down the alt community is the previously mentioned Genosack Crew. This group of friends from Minneapolis is constantly getting out on bikepacking missions and documenting cruises around town. Their Instagram and YouTube channel are both worth a brief time warp.

Are you ready to go deeper down the steel, gorgeously lugged funnel? A few others carrying the ethos of alt cycling with videos that will get you hyped to go out and ride include John Medina out in the Bay Area; Oslo, Norway's Bikes, Books & Buildings; and Probably Riding in South Korea. Then check out Calling in Sick Mag, an independent alt cycling zine printed and produced in San Francisco, featuring stories and photography from all around the alt cycling community.

ATB Bikes & Brands

You really need the right rig to taste this free-spirited, creative cycling style, as not all bikes are made to handle it. I'd recommend an ATB-style setup. The term ATB goes hand-in-hand with alt cycling. It was first coined in the 1980s, referring to any bicycle that could handle off-road terrain—think rigid lugged steel frames that can fit large, aggressive tires. Some historic examples include the Bridgestone MB-1 and the Specialized Rockhopper of the '80s and '90s. These bikes are still highly sought after on the used market, with some fetching over $1,000 for the frames alone (depending on the year and condition).

Contemporary brands and shops pushing this style forward include Crust Bikes, Rivendell Bicycle Works, Blue Lug, The Woods Cyclery in the UK, and La Marche Bikes, to name a few. That said, you don’t need a brand-new, super-expensive setup or beautiful vintage mountain bike to get started. The most important thing is having a bike you feel comfortable on, one that can take you off the beaten path and makes you want to get out and ride.

My Alt Cycling Bike Build

Which brings me to my journey into alt cycling. After years of riding a budget-friendly Specialized Diverge, I took the plunge and invested in a fully custom Crust. The frame I landed on was the Romanceür. I loved that it's made using Reynolds 853 steel tubing, which is produced in the United Kingdom, and, as Crust puts it, the frame “is designed to be able to take you out for a couple-day jaunt and bring everything you may need for a whimsical time, in style.” I paired the brazed ornate lug frame with a modern SRAM GX Eagle 1x12 mountain bike groupset, offering a wide gear range that allows me to tackle deep forest singletrack while still maintaining a well-rounded, party-pace speed on the road. I know it’s not the most classic of groupsets, but with my build, I was going for a classic look with modern technology (but no electronic shifting, yuck!). This setup gets me wherever I need to go, whether it’s up the street for a cup of coffee or out on an all-day ride through Pennsylvania's rural farmlands and rolling hills.

Going deep on bike builds is a part of the alt cycling scene. So I'll do that now, in case it provides some motivation to start your own alt cycling journey with a proper ATB build. The drivetrain is obviously one of the most important aspects of the build, as it essentially acts as the engine of your bicycle. It makes the bike move efficiently with the terrain you anticipate riding. For my setup, I knew I would be all over the place: flat roads, steep hill climbs in the woods, and rough, bumpy fields. So, I opted for a wide range of gears with the 1x12 SRAM Eagle groupset. Because this is technically a mountain bike groupset, I went with a Microshift 12-speed shifter at the end of my drop bars to operate the gears. I paired the SRAM cassette and derailleur with a beautiful, made-in-the-USA White Industries MARG30 crank and a polished MR30 1x chainring. For pedals, I chose Crust’s Northbank pedals, a low-profile, flat pedal with a classic mountain bike-inspired design.

From there, I selected some of the finest-rolling rubber in the biking world, Ultradynamico MARS 650b 2.2 tires, paired with a wheelset made by Crust. Moving up the bike to the cockpit section, I settled on a Brooks C17 saddle, Nitto 65 seatpost, and extra-wide Crust drop bars called the Towel Rack, then wrapped them in classic Newbaums cloth bar tape, which is handmade in Philly, not far from where I live. Each one of these choices helped shape my ATB setup into a dream build that'll wear well with time.

But like any dream, my bike is constantly changing and evolving. A pilgrimage to Blue Lug in Tokyo might yield a bag full of goodies, like the Blue Lug X Brooks collaboration saddle, an alternate-colored triangle reflector, or the endless alt bike accessories offered on their website, like the Twist Flowers created by Ghooost, an artist based in Hatagaya. Modifications are part of the journey.

Alt cycling brings me back to the simplicity of the bicycle, and why it was created in the first place. It's a means of transportation, a way to travel from point A to point B; no specialized clothing or apps to track your distance, speed, and wattage necessary. Riding an ATB setup gives me a way to explore the back roads and trails in my local community and, more importantly, get out into nature.

There's something satisfying about leaving the house without a planned route, following a road you’ve never been down, and turning onto a trail just to see where it leads. You might end up stopping by the creek to make some camp coffee or finding a new stretch of trail you never knew existed. These qualities don't really exist in traditional cycling culture. In alt cycling, there's less emphasis on having the fastest bike or newest, tech-savvy equipment. Instead, they're replaced by an appreciation for the character of a bike, the places it can take you, and the stories that come from riding it.