Seven different bikes from five different brands in less than three years. That is what I had gone through by the Fall of 2018. Mountain biking had cemented itself as my go-to form of recreation, exercise, and adventure, but I found myself searching for the bike(s) that really meshed with what my riding syle and values. Bikes new and used, in a variety of types and setups, came and went with brand names like Rocky Mountain, Santa Cruz, Evil, Nukeproof, and Transition. Nothing at all against those brands but nothing really stuck or felt right long term.
Earlier in 2018, my wife was wanting a new bike and, after researching and testing, we got her a Fezzari Cascade Peak, a mid travel alloy frame trail bike. I’d heard of Utah-based Fezzari Bicycles (now Ari Bikes as of March 2024) before but had never paid much attention to them, but their low cost for the quality of components and frame geometry, as well as the bonus of supporting a local brand, prompted us to go that route for my wife’s bike (six years later she still has and loves that Cascade Peak). Later that year, Fezzari made a big move with the release of the first generation La Sal Peak, an all-around capable aggresive trail and enduro long travel machine with cutting edge geometry for the time. My attention was caught, and I pulled the trigger on one only about a month after releaseā¦and the rest, as they say, was history!
That first grey colored La Sal Peak proved to be an amazing fit for my varied riding. A few months after getting it, the opportunity came to apply to be a brand ambassador for Fezzari. Being an ambassador provided not only the position to give back to and promote the brand, but also to ride a variety of their bikes. Over the last five years now of working with and representing Fezzari, I have had the opportunity to have and ride that grey first generation La Sal, a second black raw carbon La Sal that got over 3,000 miles on in about 2-1/2 years, the older version of the Kings Peak fat bike while helping to influence the design of the new Kings Peak which I have now, and the Wasatch Peak alloy hardtail.
In 2022 the second generation La Sal released with longer travel and even more burliness. After romping around on a demo for a couple weeks, I retired my old black La Sal and ugraded to the new one! Then in 2023, in anticipation of trying my hand at endurance racing, I added the short travel Signal Peak to my little fleet. My current three Ari (Fezzari) bikes are my La Sal Peak, Signal Peak, and Kings Peak. My wife now has both her Cascade Peak and the Wire Peak e-bike. Several opportunities for trips and riding destinations have come thanks to the association with the brand and fellow ambassadors and athletes. So many incredible and unforgettable places have been gone to and experiences have been had on and with these bikes!
Of course, I would not want to ride for or represent a brand who’s quality wasn’t good, but that is definitely not a problem as all the bikes have proven to be more than capable of handling whatever I threw at them. As a direct-to-consumer brand, Ari bikes are pretty much the best bang-for-your-buck you can get in the industry with high spec builds and modern geometry coming in at significantly lower price points than similar bikes from other brands. And their customer experience and business model is top notch. Even if I was not an offical ambassador for them, Ari has never given me a reason to look elsewhere for higher quality or better riding bikes. And there is a lot to say for supporting a local Utah company. Ari has grown in leaps and bounds the past several years since the release of that first generation La Sal Peak, continuing with the re-branding and evolution from Fezzari to Ari in 2024, and it’s a honor and a blessing to have been at least some small part of it.
Keep digging up new places to ride and adventure in the great outdoors, under your own power is always the best!
-MinerBiker