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Godfather of POV Rides a Cinelli Hobo Across Africa – Plus Fresh Goods from Italy

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hobo adventures - a ride with dario toso

The Bootleg Hobo adventure bike is now at your LBS, and Cinelli has just released a new special edition line of artist and rider designed Bootleg Hobo apparel. Cinelli proved the bike’s mettle at last year’s Tour d’Afrique under the legs of alleycat and helmet cam legend Lucas Brunelle. He chronicled the adventure, and the lifestyle behind the new clothing link, in “Lucas Goes to Africa.”

How did a Boston courier handle riding off road from Namibia to South Africa? Find out after the break.

Cinelli Hobo Adventures Poster

Shortly after I started riding bikes in Boston 15 years ago, I became aware of a local legend named Lucas Brunelle. He was a courier, racer, and fist-in-your-eye cycling advocate who rode LOUD. Despite only having the briefest of encounters at a 24 hour MTB race, he had a tremendous influence on my riding and my mentality about bikes.  A voice of dissent on the MASSBIKE board, he rode in the “Lucas Lane,” as described in a 2004 Boston Globe interview, where his aggressive riding kept him safe from pathological Beantown drivers whom he terrified. More importantly, he pioneered the idea of strapping a camera to your head, doing something insane, and sticking it on the internet years before YouTube and GoPro. In the ensuing decade-and-a-half, his low-res videos of alleycat races and car chases have become legendary, and his filmmaking has progressed all the way to making a full length feature film.

Along with fellow Cinelli Bootleg Ambassadors Dario Toso and Chas Christiansen, Brunelle raced and chronicled the Tour d’Afrique. Brunelle opens the film saying, “I’ve never really  did strictly rural and nature, I’ve always done urban and city and cars and angst and aggression. Filming this was a complete paradigm change for me.” The video follows the crew as they slopestyle down a monstrous sand dunes and charge through Cape Town to the race finish, before Lucas takes off on his Bootleg Hobo for his own adventure. The bikes look well suited to the tour and Brunelle’s demanding style; for complete specs, check out our coverage at Interbike.

hobo-adventures-caphobo-adventures-cap (1)cinelli-hobo-volee-ribbon-bar-tape

Wanna look the part? Cinelli’s made available Hobo editions of some of their more popular cycling apparel and accessories. Learn the Hobo code while you ride in case you missed that episode of Mad Men.

Unrelated, Cinelli is also launching a new line from Jersey City based illustrator Ana Benaroya, the MASH Intergralter handlebar shirt, and the Lucas Brunelle cityscape cap. Check out the Winged Store for all their branded soft goods.

cinelli-snake-sock
Ana Benaroya X Cinelli Snake Sock is just one of the designs available. Cycling cap, too.

cinelli-rider-collection-cap-lucas-
What? The Lucas Brunelle cap does not include a camera mount?!?

CINELLI MASH INTEGRALTER SHIRT
Cinelli x MASH Intergralter t-shirt collaboration.

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Dan N.
Dan N.
9 years ago

This guy is the reason people think that cyclists shouldn’t belong on the road. What an ass.

Baz
Baz
9 years ago

Second that Dan. Off road section was cool. City stuff made the cyclist look bad. Oh and BTW that towers weren’t “nuclear”, that’s an old coal fired power station.

trinidad
trinidad
9 years ago

Cinelli used to be a respectable brand. Now it’s just a sad, sad, pandering brand.

AlanM
AlanM
9 years ago

What’s the point of riding in traffic like that, aside from pissing people off?

Mike A
Mike A
9 years ago

To be fair, these guys are messengers. Since when did they care what anyone thought about them? We don’t do the job to “follow rules”
Next you guys will be telling us how irresponsible alleycat racing is too?
This is a subculture video. It just happens to also be part of the bike subculture too. There are plenty of videos of people riding very safely on YouTube if that’s your thing.

scott
scott
9 years ago

Didn’t Lucas Brunelle quit his tech industry job to slum it with the messengers for street cred?

He is not even a sand bagger, he is a carpet bagger.

That dude Chas is tight doe.

MarkV
9 years ago

Boring and lame. Cinelli is trying so hard to appeal to this “sub-culture” audience, they end up alienating and turning off people who might actually buy their bikes.
Please bring back the historic and classy Cinelli of the past and let the extreme messenger crowd find a new “bike” utter to suck on.

Rico
Rico
9 years ago

You guys are a bunch of god damn eagle scouts. Lucas rocks! And he raced hard as hell and is fast. We come from the same area and lots of us who came up in Boston get this type of hate. For some reason there is a disconnect or misunderstanding. These are pure cyclists, not trendy hipsters.

Thomas Hirsch
9 years ago

Too stressed, but nice pictures.

nurse_pete
nurse_pete
9 years ago

Don’t worry about it…the cycling community in Boston laughs at these guys. No one and I mean NO ONE takes them seriously.

Rico
Rico
9 years ago

Hah I could name a few Boston “boutique” frame builders I used to spot at his alley races in the early 90s. Do you really want to go there? At that point they were nervous art students who seemed to barely ride. But most of the current crop in the city were like 9 or 10 years old back then.

What cycling community in Boston is this you speak of Nurse_Pete? ;lol Or are you talking about clubs that are outside the city?

nurse_pete
nurse_pete
9 years ago

early 90s is still late, sorry kiddo.

Daveo
Daveo
9 years ago

More importantly, how’s the bike?

nurse_pete
nurse_pete
9 years ago

Though so…;)

nurse_pete
nurse_pete
9 years ago

And…Alley Cats are for n00bs.

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