If you haven’t heard of Advocate Cycles, don’t feel bad. The company is less than a year old, founded last January in Minnesota by Tim Krueger and his wife Odia. But Advocate isn’t just another new bike company. They employ a unique and innovative business model built on upholding a promise towards social betterment, rather than simply making money.
In the case of Advocate Cycles, they put 100% of profits from the sale of their bikes towards bicycle advocacy efforts. Half of that money goes towards already-existing organizations such as the International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA) and People for Bikes. The other half goes toward running their own bicycle advocacy programs, such as educating non-cyclists and kids on the joys of cycling for pleasure and transportation, teaching bicycle safety and maintenance, lobbying for the rights of cyclists, helping various trail organizations, and more. When you buy a bike online, you can even choose which of Advocate’s partners you’d like the profits from your purchase to go to.
Check out the Advocate Cycles website for more specific information on this unique business model, known as a Specific Benefit Corporation (SBC), and for more background on the company, take a look at this article by Walter Rhein from earlier this summer on how Advocate Cycles will change the bike industry.
But anyway, back to the bikes. 
Advocate Cycles is currently offering three different models–a hardtail, road/gravel bike, and a fat bike. The Hayduke is the incredibly-versatile hardtail, available in either chromoly or titanium. What makes it so versatile? It can be run with 29 or 27.5-inch wheels, as a singlespeed or geared bike, fully rigid, or with a suspension fork, and with a 142mm or 148mm rear hub. It’s one bike for many different riding styles. The Lorax is the road bike, designed for anything from city streets to middle-of-nowhere gravel grinding. And last but most certainly not least, we come to the Watchman fat bike, which I am currently reviewing.
Watchman
The Watchman is designed as a do-it-all fat bike, a ride that is comfortable on sand, in snow and mud, as well as singletrack. I’m a big proponent for riding a fat bike year-round, though I do not actually own one (yet), and so far, it seems like this is a great bike for every season. Short chainstays combined with slack angles offer the best of both worlds. It’s relatively nimble while still being stable, able to roll over and through anything without feeling cumbersome, and while it’s surely not the lightest fat bike out there, it makes up for that in fun-factor.
The Watchman frame is available in either Reynolds 725 heat-treated, double-butted chromoly steel or 3/2.5 double-butted titanium, though complete bikes are only built around the chromoly frame.
Complete bikes are set up 11-speed, with a SRAM GX1 10-42t drivetrain. They come stock with a RockShox Bluto 100mm-travel fork, but are also designed to be set up rigid if the rider so prefers. Brakes are Shimano SLX, with a 180mm front rotor and 160mm rear. The stem, handlebars, and seatpost are all Raceface Ride. The bike is equipped with Formula hubs (150mm in the front and 177mm in the rear), and Schwalbe Jumbo Jim 4″ tires are mounted on Alex Blizzerk 90 rims to complete the fat package. Check out the full spec sheet here.
The bike I’ve received for testing, however, is not the stock version. It’s been blinged-up with Hope hydraulic disk brakes, Industry Nine hubs, carbon bars, and a Thompson stem and seatpost. The Jumbo Jims have been swapped for a Surly Nate up front and 45NRTH Escalator in the rear. It’s certainly a super nice ride, and it’s pretty nice-looking to boot. The purple components offset the teal frame to make one sexy machine.
But, of course, looks aren’t everything. Does this bike perform as well as it looks?
So far, the answer is yes. I’ve only ridden it a few times, but to be honest, I’m already falling in love. I’m really excited to take my new bicycle best friend on some winter adventures, including some beach riding and cold, snowy overnight bikepacking trips. Stay tuned for ride reports and my final review!
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