Bike of the Week: Stinner Refugio
- Posted on
- By Aidan Raynor
Built to conquer the epic gravel roads along the banks of the Red River as well as the 1,200 km of Paris-Breast-Paris.
The Stinner Refugio is the Swiss Army of bikes. Built to do everything, Stinner’s gravel model crushes everything from the gnarliest gravel single track to long road rides in the country side. This particular customer came to us looking for a bike that they could do most of their riding with, whether that was going to be gravel or road. They started cycling back in the mid 90s as a bike courier and weekend Randoneur while in university. Going out for 600 km brevets on an old steel Gardin were some of their favourite memories on the bike so we made sure to keep that in-mind during the build.
Starting with the frame, this particular Refugio is made out of steel and custom fit to the rider. Before ordering the frame we did a fitting for our client in our Retul fitting studio. This particular rider has always found that bikes are too short in the seat tube or too long in the top tube. So after our fitting we sent the information to Stinner with all the customer specifications. Rack and fender mounts included this frame was ready to build.
For wheel selection we needed two pairs of wheels, 650B for gravel and 700C for the road. For the road we went with an aluminum model from Stinner’s house brand made by Rolf, tubeless ready and burly enough to be ridden for hundreds of kilometres at a time without worrying about the wheels integrity, mounted with Continental Grand Prix 5000s. For gravel we used Easton’s 650B wheels, again tubeless ready for every rock and root you could throw at them. For these we mounted them with WTB Venture’s for their gravel performance on smooth gravel as well as nobs on the sides to provide grip on the corners. On the wheels, in order to get easier gears on the gravel and better ratios on the road so we used a 34 tooth cassette on the road for the flats to the steepest roads in Vermont and a 36 tooth for gravel with a compact crankset to make sure even the muddiest climbs are rideable.
We love the little details that make our custom builds stand out from the crowd. Finished with a matching blue Brooks saddle and Velo Orange Fenders, we couldn’t wait to hear what this bike got up to. From huge gravel loops around the Red River as well as a some gnarly Laurentian single track this bike got a lot of love in its first season, we’re excited to see what it gets up to in 2023.
Come start building your dream gravel bike today. See our website for more details about our custom build process.
