Bike Check
David Martinous
Photography by Kai Caddy
David Martinous
Ready For Anything
Martinous’ adventure machine and a meaningful kit.
HOMETOWN: Little Rock
OCCUPATION: Funeral Director
THE BIKE: Canyon Grizl AL
THE HANDLEBARS: I’ve switched out to a Redshift Kitchen Sink handlebar. It’s got the little aero loop out front. On those flat straights and certain areas, certain gravel days, you can get down and use that, it just gives you tons and tons of hand positions and the drops are super flared out in a good way that it’s just very balanced. It definitely works well on a singletrack.
THE GEARING: Complete 1x 11-speed Shimano GRX. It was a 2x for the first two years of its life and then I destroyed the drivetrain at Rule of $3.99 in January — it was just brutal out there. So, I switched to a 1x to simplify things. It’s 40 tooth in the front and 11-46 in the rear. I think that for Despair/Doom I’m going to do an individual time trial maybe in the fall, and I would probably run at 36 teeth up front and that would be the only thing I’d change.
THE TIRES: Schwalbe G-One Ultrabites, these are 2.0s. This is their knobbiest gravel tire. I run Schwalbe tires on all my bikes. I’m a big Schwalbe fan. They have a lot of value and they’re slightly less expensive than the really top-end tires. And they pretty much run just as well.
THE BAGS: All ORR bags. I’ve got the handlebar bag, top tube and the frame bag. I’m really impressed with them. They fit really well and waterproofing on them is really great.
THE FORK: It’s got a Rock Shox Rudy fork up front with 30 millimeters of travel. It’s not the Ultimate XPLR, it’s just the solo air version with no lockout, but honestly, I don’t really notice it. I don’t feel like it bounces and takes away speed when I’m on gravel roads.
THE BOTTLES: I’ve got my Spokes bottles. Spokes has been super supportive of me and helped feed me and taken really good care of all of my demands over the last few years. They’ve really helped me grow as a cyclist. So they’re part of Team Jagger.
THE POWER METER: I’ve got a Stages power meter. So I do have power coming from the left crank. That’s very helpful to have that information instead of just riding some of these events on feel.
THE BIKE COMPUTER: I do run a Karoo Hammerhead computer. I really like the dual band aspect and the intuitiveness of that computer.
THE HEADLIGHT: This is an Outbound Lighting Detour light. It’s a brand that people aren’t super familiar with, they’re kind of newer. It is like a cut-off headlight. It is like a car headlight. They are probably some of the best bikepacking and mountain biking lights.
THE KIT: Team Jagger is my privateer, one-man cycling team. It’s in memory of my son, David Jagger. He was born in October 2017 and lived for three days. Mamie’s Poppy Plates’ support for us began moments after he passed in my arms. They train staffs at hospitals to capture hand and foot prints in those moments and those are used on the plates Mamie’s makes for families. Besides the plates, Mamie’s creates a community for families experiencing loss. It began in Little Rock in 2010 and now serves hospitals in more than 20 states.
Team Jagger rides to raise funds and awareness for Mamie’s and in memory of Jagger and Malin Opitz. I have done three Rides for Jagger over the past three years and raised close to $20,000 for Mamie’s from those rides.
On the left side of the kit, I have Jagger’s name on my left arm and left leg. And then on the right side of the body, we’ve got Malin. She was an 8-year-old little girl who passed away from brain cancer last year, who’s my very good friend’s child.
I’ve got “Daddy loves you” on the back collar as a reminder of what we’re riding for.
