Bike Check: Mark's Wildwood Cycles

Bike Check: Mark’s Winterized Wildwood Cycles

All Pictures, most words: Mark Karu (IG: @curbwzrd)

Wildwood Cycles are made in Victoria creations of Jesse Hildebrandt, as recently featured in the Vancouver Frame Builders Show held in Musette Cafe’s downtown location. Jesse’s been building as Wildwood since 2013, but Mark and Jesse go further back to their days in Victoria’s BMX scene: “[Jesse]was legitimately the first person I met in Victoria. I didn’t even have a home yet and was living at the Goldstream campground.” With Jesse getting into building and Mark spending more time on road bikes, if not necessarily or often on actual roads, it made sense for the two to get together on a bike made to fit the ‘unique’ demands Mark makes of a road bike. To start, Mark’s Wildwood is set up for the biggest tire clearance possible while still running normal road brakes, so he can run massive 30’s, or a still massive set of 28’s with fenders. It’s also set up with a bunch of other custom details, but we’ll let Mark tell you about those.

From quite literally the day it was made last February, Mark’s been putting his Wildwood through the paces: “When Jesse finished the frame I had to grab it from him right as he was finishing it up, the welds were still warm, and I built it up that night to ride to Nanaimo with Parker the next day to do the Lillooet Mighty Riders training camp.” With his recent move to Vancouver promising substantially more rain than a balmy Victoria winter, Mark’s decided to set up his Wildwood for a winter of commuting and exploring on the roads, trails, and god knows what else in and around Vancouver. With more on the bike and its new setup, here’s Mark:

The frame was welded on the Island using Columbus Spirit tubing paired to Paragon Machine Works 44 mm head tube and pf30 bottom bracket. For the first time since I’ve started to ride road I didn’t ‘size down’ my frame to get a shorter head tube. This thing fits like a glove with a 58.5 cm top tube, 58 cm seat tube and 140 mm head tube.

I hate rain. I grew up in a desert climate, an arctic desert, but a desert none the less; I bought my first rain coat when I was 19. To make pnw style winter riding more enjoyable I have made a ton on changes from my summer set up to make it as enjoyable as possible. I changed out the entire drivetrain from my normal Red/Dura-Ace mix to a mash up between Force, Tiagra and FSA, with the addition of a mid-cage derailleur and 12-30 cassette. I hunted down a full carbon fork with fender eyelets and painted it black, as to not be embarrassed by the brand originally plastered on it. Anyone that rides with me knows my distaste for headset dust covers, but 7 days a weeks of rain means I will have to try put up with one for a few months.

For the winter my tires dropped from just under to 30 mm to 25 mm to clear the fenders and any garbage that gets pulled into them. The YNOT saddle bag out back always has two tubes, a couple patches and a single tire lever.

Almost everyone in the pnw throws fenders and lights on their bikes at some point; I took it to another level for this winter. My fenders do not rattle or wiggle, the only noise audible off them is spray hitting the comically long extensions. The extensions are attached to the stock rubber extensions giving them the flex they need for adventurous training rides (#roadbikesoffroad).

Even though my day job consists of selling some of the most common battery powered lights on the market, I took a step back from batteries and into the rando-vibes realm of hub powered lights. Up front I have a Supernova E3 light, which is their adventure racing light boasting 600 lumens, and out back is Supernova’s Airstream, which is rated ‘German street legal’…. I don’t know what that means but it seems legit. Both of these lights are powered by a severely under-powered Shimano lx touring hub. I am currently saving my pennies for a far more efficient and powerful hub, the SP 8.

Frame – Wildwood Cycles (Custom Geo)
Fork – Norco Valence
Headset – Cane Creek 110
Bottom Bracket – Wheels Manufacturing

Bars – 3T Ergonova, 42 cm
Stem – Pro, 120 mm -10°
Shifters – SRAM Red

Seat – Sworks Toupe, 130 mm
Seatpost – Zipp SL

Cranks – SRAM Red, 170 mm
Chain rings -FSA Pro, 53/39
Chain – KMC 10.93
Cassette – Tiagra, 12-30

F Derailleur – SRAM Rival
R Derailleur – SRAM Force, Mid

Fenders – SKS
Tires – Schwalbe Durano, 25 mm
Rims – Mavic Open Pro
F Hub – Shimano LX Dynamo
R Hub – Shimano 600

Other – Garmin 810, Whiskey N.07 cages, Speedplay pedals, Ynot saddle bag