Grand Loop Ultra Race Bikes: Katie & Andrew Strempke
Chumba Team riders Katie and Andrew Strempke are taking on the Grand Loop this weekend! The rugged offroad 365mi course traverses the Kokopelli, Paradox, and Tabeguache trails through CO and UT.
Andrew lines up this year with his trusty Sendero Titanium, the same bike that he rode to secure the Triple Crown Singlespeed World Record! Set up this time 32x20T with a whole new Dispersed Bikepacking bagset.
Andrew’s kit centralizes the weight with food and water storage in the frame bag, snacks galore in the TT, and guessing a modest sleep kit is hiding in that tiny saddle bag. It looks like he doesn’t aim to sleep much and the first day of racing seems to confirm that!
Katie’s Sendero Ti is set up here for her first race on it! Katie had raced countless miles on her Sendero steel and this year, we planned a custom geo titanium frame to lighten her setup and increase her frame-bag clearance.
Katie is running gears this year, pushing herself in a new way! The course has loads of elevation and it looks like she opted for a 30T chainring paired to a 12speed 10-51T cassette. She also has weight really centralized on the bike but has likely her sleep system on the bars. That Dispersed bar bag is super light and really secure. Their bags have a waterproof liner bag that the contents can be packed into then slid on the bar bag. We’ve been using one here and have been very impressed.
Shout out to Max Lasky, Jason Christiansen and Matthew Turner also out on course with their Chumba hardtails!!