The Evasion a.k.a. “The Satanic Rando”.
As its name “Evasion”, the bike is great for evading from all the bullshit in the city.
I really love riding this thing out to Tamagawa, which is my local gravel spot which is located on the edge of Setagaya ward.
The first time I saw this bike was when I was still very new in the BL team and one of the Senpai staff was building his own copper Evasion. He was one of those dudes that can do some gnarly tricks on fixed gear bikes, so his build was consisted of riser bars and BMX stems, so I first thought it was “that sort of bike”.
As time went by, I learned that the Evasion was more of an adventure bike, instead of a trick bike and I was starting to learn the joy of riding off-road and this thing called bikepacking.
Just as I was falling deeper into the world of bicycling, my colleagues invited me to go the Swift Campout 2022, right as the bluish gray Evasion arrived at the shop so I bought it without any second thoughts. (This is my forth bike btw)
(Look how stoked I look lol)
As I finished up the build and I took the bike off the bike rack, I was surprised by how heavy this chonker of a bike was.
I then remembered Kaneyan saying the fork on this bike was super heavy.
I’m not trying to say that it’s a bad thing to have a heavy duty fork. It means that it can support a huge load, which was perfect for my trip for Swift Campout. In addition to that, the low BB helps even more when bikepacking and the bike is not that slow despite its low BB (not saying it’s fast though). At one point in the Swift Campout, I was packing a six pack and some other groceries but I still felt super safe when riding.
With all the things being said about this bike being an adventure bike, it’s still a super fun bike to just ride around.
This bike makes me smile every time I hop on. I get a special feeling that I want to hop around and pop some wheelies on this thing, even thought I can’t. It was a similar feeling I get whenever I get on a skateboard and I think this is a little spell that Matt casted on to the frame, to not get bored when being on an adventure, as a BMX rider himself.
The top tube is rather short so I think it’s natural to have a drop bar, but I went with the Scycip Designs x Nitto JJJ bar, which has a small amount of sweep and rise, since I still wanted to commute with this bike.
“Everyday Bike” set up Evasion FTW!!
(This is my favorite BL built Evasion by Kaneyan btw)
