I hit up Jimmy about his Fabrica de Rosas built Crust Malocchio that he rode for Mid-South, and holy shit did he take his sweet ass time. LOL, I’m playing with you Slim…read below for his Malocchio story.

The race to finish my Malocchio for Mid South 2023!

Best way to recount this experience is by starting with the moment I saw Pucci ( the person who designed the paint )and Lorenzos ( the Italian stallion of inspiration for the paint ) Malocchio builds a few months before the race. Once I laid eyes on them I knew it’d be the perfect minimalistic, lightweight, and comfy steel tubed machine to ride 100 miles of gravel roads. I hit up LA PODEROSA PATRONA CHEECH and told her I needed to ride one at Midsouth. She sent it over to Pucci who was willing to have a very reputable friend move up the rear brake bridge for optimal tire clearance and as most customizations with bikes it took a little longer than expected and by the time I picked it we were a week away from Midsouth. The good thing was I did have a Crust tracklocross prototype as my back up plan but none the less I was trying my hardest to build this bike in time.

Luckily I had a Chris King 2nut, Crust Shaka Bar, Sram brake levers, custom stem, Natural Brooks B17 saddle, & Sim Works Beatnik seat post BUT I was left without a wheel set or drivetrain and with the race coming up real quick it wasn’t looking good… Then the day before my flight BOSSMAN MATEO called and said “Jaime, you need to bring that thing over even if that means we’re finishing the build in Oklahoma!” At that point I knew I’d have to canibalize some of my other bikes for the sake of enjoying and trusting the parts I were to throw onto this thing. So I pulled some wheels off my Hufnagel cycloroad bike and took the 1x drivetrain off my Crust Enve Bombora. The last piece of the puzzle was some brake calipers, in the event I couldn’t find any I packed both bikes and headed to Stillwater OK!

Expo day I rolled into District bicycles (after Matt pushed me all the way into town) and lo and behold they happened to have just the long reach calipers I was looking for. They graciously lent me a stand, some tools, and I threw them tings on there! Rode back to the airbnb got my bike ready for the next day and by the skin of my teeth had a working Malocchio for race day! The verdict?!?! It was an absolute dream riding this bike on all those gravel roads, the perfect mix of snappiness and comfortability. 10 out of 10!.. Would do it again. Also want to give a huge shoutout to Crust, the Crust Team, and all the people helping run the show! Thank you so much for providing us the opportunity and experience that is Midsouth! Also appreciate the human ball of energy that is BOBBY! Everyone deserves a hug from Bobby!