My interests, as far as motorcycles are concerned, revolve around adventure. Going places and experiencing them in a way that is only imaginable on two wheels. It’s an appointment that doesn’t replace even when I think about professional cycling. Sure, there’s a lot of private dramas and team dynamics where the world’s most successful cyclists compete on a big stage, but that’s not all. There’s also a story about how those other people have become great.
One such story, which we’ve heard many times over the years, is about the mountains in Colombia. The desirable thing about this story is that it is very simple for all of us, and especially for Americans, to get involved. We can write our own bankruptcy and enjoy the adventure ourselves. For me, that’s the most exciting component and at the end of the summer, that’s precisely what I want to do.
But I didn’t do it alone. I went to Colombia to buy a classic metal gravel motorcycle built by a company called Scarab Cycles and enjoy Colombian cycling while I was there. The other people in the logo showed me the paths they love and told me the story they knew. I caught a glimpse of the logo’s hitale while eating arepas and drinking Belgian beer (I’ll explain). I was also able to notice the same hobby through the Safetti homemade Colombian clothing logo and notice the city of Medellin on foot.
If you’ve ever thought about going to Colombia and seeing if the rumors you heard were true, they are, and here I tell you about my experience.
My adventure connecting with Scarab Cycles about Colombia. Scarab makes traditional metal motorcycles that tell the story of their home country. The logo has features for both road and mountain bikes, but they’re the gravel bikes I’ve heard the most about. I had noticed one of the special editions at the Enve Custom Bike Show and the Made Show in Portland, so I reached out and we talked.
Scarab doesn’t make up the whole of Colombian cycling and that’s not the point. The logo is located in a small town about forty-five minutes south of Medellín. As you walk through the front door of the store, position yourself right in the middle. of the northwestern edge of the Andes Mountains, with climbs in all directions. Some of those climbs are paved, but many are not and all are steep.
Whatever you end up doing, you have to understand that there is basically no flat riding. You are either heading up or down. For Scarab, and by extension for me, it’s the unpaved roads that hold the intrigue.
As a component of this first level of planning, we are talking about a motorcycle. The concept was to fully immerse myself in the culture through Scarab’s eyes, but also to bring some of that culture home and revel in it in my own environment. I didn’t know it at the time, it turns out that the two of them maybe just use other motorcycles. I ended up building a motorcycle for home and found myself riding a motorcycle in Colombia.
Before arriving in Medellín, I spoke with the founders; Santiago Toro on the geometry and conceptual nature of bicycles and Alejandro Bustamante on visual designs. On the mechanical side, I sought to stay fast, stiff and smooth and chose to ride the Apuna allroad motorcycle by extending the tire length to 700. x 40 mm. I also chose the component based on my preferences.
Visually, both bikes tell a story of Colombia and I also wanted to make it exclusive to myself. My family has a tree frog and my son loves them, so when I learned that the golden poison dart frog is local to the Pacific coast region of Colombia, it’s the best bridge. I drew a frog and chose a color from the Scarab palette that matched the frog’s color. Other than that, I asked to upgrade a slightly darker contrast color to the dirtier. motorcycle spaces. Like any client, Scarab has been with me both through one and both steps of the road.
On my way to the airport, the bike was waiting for me at the Sautomobileab workshop and all that went out to get there. I flew from the Pacific Northwest to Miami and then to Medellin. After landing, I got into a car and headed south, past El Café de Rigo, owned by Rigoberto Urán. As an American, this kind of cultural deference to cycling is unheard of and I knew I was in for something unique.
I wanted to maximize my stay in Colombia, so I opted for a red-eye flight. Unfortunately, it wasn’t going to be the kind of soft, red eyes you fall asleep to when the plane takes off and then wake up. landing. I had two stopovers and in total it lasted almost 24 hours when I arrived at the Scarab factory.
Despite that, I stepped into the shop and right away I wanted to get out on the bike. One of the advantages of a custom bike is that everything fits exactly the way that you want it to without any adjustment. I’d given all my measurements and specified every detail of the build so there was no need to make any changes. All I had to do was change and the plan was to do a short gravel ride then meet at Scarab owner Santiago Toro’s house for dinner.
When our small organization pulled out of the parking lot, they met for the first time on a paved road. The roads were narrow and usually lacked significant shoulders, however, as I’ve noticed in other countries, drivers are more courteous than at home. As in the Czech Republic, drivers tend to treat cyclists more like road users. No one makes their way into the other lane, but no one deliberately overtakes them either.
I discovered that Colombia also has roads of a different size. While there were many cars and trucks on the roads, there were also many motorcycles and bicycles. Despite the narrow and winding roads, drivers regularly split the road. in 3 lanes to overtake or allow the passage of small road users. Mine is that while I wouldn’t expect broad shoulders, Colombian drivers treat cyclists well enough to make one feel safe.
Of course, all of this was going through my head while I was also managing the organizational dynamics with a new organization, a logo, a new motorcycle, and steep climbs. There was a lot to think about, but I kept my eyes and ears open and the Scarab Apuna was one of the best climbing bikes. I had plenty of power and attacked the hills. In short, I had a great time.
Then we pulled off the sidewalk and I went from front to back. The roads were very tricky and my limited technical driving skills were not up to par. I jumped from rock to rock and found myself walking up hills so steep and technical that I was nervous about falling as I sought to dodge the rocks. This was especially true near where we got to the top and turned when the slopes were between 19 and 25 percent.
The praise for the steep climbs is sure to make for incredible views. Every time we had a moment to breathe, a look to the left or right was mind-blowing. Rugged, lush mountains, green as far as the eye can see, and a late afternoon sun in the avocado fields, this is the kind of Colombian landscape you imagine. In person, it’s even more impressive.
Finally, despite my insistence, we turned around and went back to dinner. We arrived at the Toro space just as the sun was setting and after a quick change, it was time for the classic Colombian meal. I didn’t understand all the names, however, there were arepas and guava paste candies, which popped up repeatedly during the trip.
Now that I think about it in retrospect, I would say that that first day was the purest Colombian delight of the entire trip. Steep, paved climbs in traffic are common, as are steep, technical off-road climbs and descents. In any case, they will be accompanied by beautiful perspectives and at the end there will be arepas and guava paste sweets.
I haven’t done an exhaustive search to locate all the framework developers founded in Colombia, but it’s not that important in this story. Scarab is looking to make more than just your average small chassis manufacturer. It’s true that it’s small, the procedures are on their scale. Although I talked about it a bit above, the frames are custom-designed for you, but this is largely a guided procedure with quick templates and a quick design style. In short, Scarab caters to a foreign audience and offers a product exclusive to you and exclusive in Colombia.
Every motorcycle produced through Scarab tells the story of Colombia and this is your chance to enjoy that story anywhere in the world. This means you won’t want to go to Colombia to pick up your Scarab. The lopass will send your motorcycle to you wherever you are. If you have the opportunity to do so, you will keep memories with a motorcycle in a way that simply would not be imaginable otherwise. In my case, I was doing more than just making memories. However, I also tried to dig deeper into who the other people behind Scarab are.
Scarab is a partnership with 3 pillars. Santiago Toro is the founder, frame builder and experienced engineer, while Alejandro Bustamante is the artist who directs all the visual creation. There’s also a board of directors whose love of cycling and Colombian entrepreneurship is helping to run the company. Each piece is a hobby business in a different way and no one is more vital than the other. But it was with Bustamante that I spent the most time.
Bustamante ferried our little group around in his first generation Chevrolet Trooper and we talked at length about his artist’s journey. Bustamante had his training in architecture and had spent time in Europe learning and working. In terms of cycling, he had a passing interest over the years. Sometimes commuting and sometimes racing but things changed when he walked into a random small shop asking about further upgrades. The owner showed him that if he wanted to take the bike farther, he’d need to modify the fork. The idea that you could modify a bike was an eye opener. As we talked, I asked him if it changed his life and he said “yes.”
Today, Bustamante is an adventurer, a strong rider, and a challenge solver. Scarab’s day-to-day task is to solve customers’ visual challenges. People have varying degrees of experience and focus when it comes to the appearance of their motorcycle and that helps them put the portions together. He’s also on an artistic journey.
Scarab stands out for its beautiful limited-edition creations that tell very express stories about Colombia. Some of them tell the story of the landscape, one tells the story of one that Bustamante took on a bicycle, there is one that reflects the art of Colombia’s famous Chiva. buses, and the last one is a beetle exploration to celebrate the beetle. 5th Anniversary. This new one is a collaboration component with a local artist, as well as others, but most importantly they are all part of Bustamante’s artistic journey.
It’s anything I can relate to myself as an advertising artist, but if you’re not familiar, it’s a very common arc. The details are different for the artist and the type of art, however, it is an exploration of an idea. Once you’re done, you see what you can replace and explore a new direction. Each one leads to the next and for Bustamante, it wasn’t that other. He told me about a short film to see a minimal look, then one more. Minimal look, then a maximum look, then we drank another beer and celebrated by taking a brief moment to appreciate the existing design.
Toro, on the other hand, is an engineer. His procedure was quite a mystery to me, however, one thing I heard was the preference for resolving disorders. For Toro, the disorders are not visual but rather concepts about how to create the most maneuverable motorcycle imaginable and ensure that each motorcycle is perfectly square and repeatable. His eyes lit up when he spoke of the refinement of the template used throughout the brand. I’ll be honest, it’s kind of foreign to me and my experience, but I can tell you that it works. The workmanship is impeccable and the grip is sublime.
I hedged my bet by saying I didn’t do an exhaustive search for Colombian bikes. The truth is that I did look and didn’t find many. Colombian cycling clothing is a different story. There are a lot of options. The brand I spent time with was Safetti.
This is basically because the founder of Safetti, Federico Vélez, lives not far from Scarab and owns a space that he rents out to tourists. In fact, on those days, she says she spends more time thinking about home and multi-sport education. to run the business. Instead, he says that his wife takes care of the business and that the day I went to Safetti’s headquarters in Medellín, she was the one who showed us around.
What I discovered most interesting was not who was in charge, but the scale of production that existed under the company’s roof. There are no corporations that design and manufacture clothes under the same roof. In contrast, Safetti employs many other people who hand-sew exquisite garments just a few feet from where others design them.
Also, like the Scarab bikes, the Safetti clothing tells a Colombian story. Many models date back to an older era of cycling. If that’s not your style, fashion designs use a color palette and main design points that come directly from Colombia. You may also realize that the costs are lower than expected. At least in the U. S. , exchange rates are favorable, but the quality is as smart as any logo you can delight in the most. I spent some time riding in the Uncover Gravel Short Sleeve Jersey and Gravel Bib Shorts and felt right at home.
I had the opportunity to do two other hikes in Colombia. The first was an excursion to an old café with the best combination of sightseeing and horseback riding. The scenery was a little less rugged than on the first walk, but only a little. The roads were usually satisfactory, but still very steep and the maximum altitude also plays a role.
For me, the highlight of this trip is drinking Coca-Cola in a small shop at the most sensitive point of a steep climb. I felt quite damaged and almost missed a corner, but Bustamante, from Scarab, gestured for me to come back. As it turned out, some of us had broken up, so we thought we’d grab a beer while we waited, but I opted for the soda. When I stayed there and regained some strength, I knew that this would not be a time I would soon find myself. forget. But that’s not the destination of the trip.
Instead, we started the descent until we finally found our way to a coffee plantation closer to the valley floor. We had more soft drinks but also a poultry stew and a new hand-roasted coffee at Café Finca El Reposo. Like all coffees I’ve tried in Colombia they were floral and spicy due to the altitude we were at. However, the pleasure of watching someone roast it in front of you and then prepare it with a French press transcends the actual main points. of coffee. When we were in a position to continue, it was time for a 16km climb and a warm rain.
The last ride of the trip was the best match for the all-road Apuna I was on. Almost the entire ride was still either climbing or descending but a good portion of it had pavement. The off-road section was far less rough too. As usual, I found myself alone on the long gravel climb somewhere between the fast group and the slow group. This time though, it wasn’t the mid-ride orange soda that stands out as memorable but the Belgium beer at the end.
Next to the Scarab factory is TorreAlta Cervecería. This “Belgian-inspired craft brewery in El Retiro, Colombia” is a wonderful place to grab a drink after the trip. There is seating, wonderful food and a Belgian double in the afternoon sun. Near the equator is the best way to end several days of intense driving.
At that moment, I never wanted to leave.
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