RIVAL BUDDY: EMILY + CHRIS
Squid Bikes co-founders take Rival eTap AXS bike packing
Rival eTap AXS is all about experiencing a better bike ride, and there's no better way to enhance that experience than with a buddy by your side. We asked a handful of our SRAMbassadors to equip a best friend with a Rival eTap AXS group and share their stories as part of our Rival Buddy series. Next up: Squid Bikes co-founders Emily Kachorek and Chris Namba, and their 1x Rival eTap AXS Gravtrons.
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Photos by Zack Cunningham
How did you become buddies?
Chris and I have known each other for about 10 years now. We first met through the local cyclocross scene at free weeknight pick-up style races. Chris started coming out to help set up the course and became increasingly more involved. I was racing road full time and just starting to race cyclocross more seriously. Chris was working as a shop mechanic and wanted to gain more experience as a race mechanic. He offered to help me out, and we started traveling to races together a bit. Shortly after that first year racing UCI cyclocross, we co-founded Squid Bikes together.
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How do you like Rival eTap AXS on your new Gravtrons?
We both love the look and feel of the new group. The hoods feel amazing and the subtle all-black is fantastic. SRAM knocked this one out of the park.
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Where did you decide to test it out?
We planned a four-day bike packing trip in the Sierra Nevada mountains on the new bikes (roughly 350 kilometers and 2,600 meters of climbing). The Gravtron is designed for a large range of off-road uses...gravel, CX, and bike packing.
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Bikes make us both happy. They have been the instrument that has taken us around the world and helped foster so many unforgettable life experiences.
–Emily
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Emily and Chris bike packed from Reno to Sacramento on their Squid Gravtrons with Rival eTap AXS 1x setups. They used 10-36 cassettes and 40T Rival 1 Wide cranksets to complete the trip. Check out their full builds below.
See their bikes in action below, and read all of the Rival Buddy stories here.