The Radavist

The Swift Campout is a global call to go bike-camping on June 19th and 20th, 2021. For the seventh year in a row thousands of adventurous spirits will load camping gear on their bikes for a weekend adventure. In the words of Martina Brimmer, Swift Industries head honcho and the visionary behind Swift Campout, “Here at Swift, we believe that there’s little better than spending the longest day of the year on a bicycle and the shortest night of the year sleeping under the stars. The entire Swift crew, from our stitchers to our coin-counters, is driven to delight our communities toward bicycle adventure.

This year’s featured artist is none other than bike industry mainstay Chris McNally, whose signature watercolor style conjures a dreamscape of fantasy environments with cuddly critters to explore on two wheels. The scavenger hunt theme of the new Campout microsite invites digital exploration, too! Campers are encouraged to lose themselves in Chris’s wonderland, discovering fun and informative hidden gems as they “pedal” through. In its 7th year, the Campout recipe of partnering with like-minded outdoor brands to amplify the encouragement for cyclists of all experience levels and abilities to take to the trails for a weekend of bike-camping is a timely and relevant invitation to re-engage with the community in cherished outdoor spaces. Swift continues to push the envelope as a gear brand that has put roots in a unique space between the cycling and outdoor industries–two marketplaces whose cultures did not overlap when Swift Industries entered the arena in 2008.

Swift keeps nurturing their culture by gathering a unique blend of cycling and outdoor brands such as Bedrock Sandals, Black Coffee Roasters, Kitsbow, Nocs Provisions, Ombraz, The Radavist, Rapha, Reyr Gear, Six Moon Designs, Snow Peak, and Swift Adventure Co.

Head to Swift Campout to read all the details!

Photo by Nathan Burnside

Update! See our coverage here:
–Wind, Chile, Chonk, and the Monumental Loop: the 2021 Dangerbird in Las Cruces
–Scenes from the 2021 New Mexico Bikepacking Summit and the Dangerbird Grand Depart Rider and Bike Portaits

If you don’t follow Monumental Loop on Instagram, then you might have missed the details for this fall’s Dangerbird race/ride. We’ll be there in attendance to ride/tour the Full Bird. Check out all the details from Matt below and don’t miss the Bikes or Death Podcast interview with him too!

In its first year, Dead Man Gravel is the newest race to join the gravel racing circuit. Today, the DMG registration is open for women and BIPOC participants – and general registration opening on March 23rd for everyone else. The event is scheduled for July 31, 2021 in Nederland, Colorado. This unique event strives to be both inclusive – as organizers believe everyone should feel welcome, regardless of experience, race, gender, or sexual identity/orientation – and challenging – as very few other races have as much climbing, technical sections, and sustained elevation.

To strike a balance between challenging and inclusive, Dead Man Gravel will feature three courses: the 66 mile Tungsten loop, the 41 mile Gold loop, and the 25 mile Silver loop, providing three distinct experiences for riders of all levels. 

DMG is also partnering with Ride for Racial Justice and Shark Tooth Cycling, two non-profits doing incredible work in bringing new, and typically disadvantaged, athletes into the sport by helping to increase awareness and reduce barriers to entry.

Register today if you’re BIPOC, or female at Dead Man Gravel.

Banking on the idea that the pandemic numbers will continue to drop, organizers have announced a 50-person capped Grand Depart for this self-supported ~350 mile Odyssey of the VOG bikepacking event in the Oregon Coast mountain range. All the details can be found here:

-Event Website: https://odysseyvog.com/
-Instagram: @odysseyvog
-Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/odysseyvog

Head on over to odysseyvog.com and register for the first annual Odyssey of the VOG on May 29th, 2021.  While you’re there, consider purchasing an apparel item at registration – all proceeds from apparel purchases benefit the Oregon Timber Trail Alliance.

Wait wait wait? Don’t worry! The Mid South isn’t asking you to come to Stillwater, Oklahoma during a pandemic. We all know that bike racing during a pandemic is problematic. No, instead Bobby and the team at District Bicycles would like you to partake in a socially distanced event with a twist…

“We want you to go ride or run (or both!) outside, just like you had planned, but you don’t have to pack up and travel to Stillwater. We are partnering with several bicycle shops in cities and states where many of you live. We are working with each shop to create comparable 100-mile, 50-mile and 50K routes in that area.  Ride With GPS will facilitate a challenge board, which any registered rider or runner can join. We will share the links for each challenge (100, 50, 50K) in March.  If you’re registered for The Mid South and have at least a free account with Ride With GPS, you’re good to go. You must have an account with Ride With GPS to participate in the challenges.”

See more at the Mid South!

Last week members of the Colorado cycling industry, including retailers, government agencies, and journalists, attended the first Trinidad-Las Animas County Off-Road Cycling Symposium hosted by the City of Trinidad and Trinidad State Jr. College. It was a chance to share and learn more about the emerging southern Front Range cycling scene. Attendees heard from speakers like Troy Rarick and Paul Aieta of Over the Edge Sports in Fruita and Tony Boone of Timberline TrailCraft, and myself discussing gravel+mountain bike destination development in the region. Fueling the two days of discussion was the new Fisher Peak State Park and TSJC Trail Maintenance and Construction program. Most agreed that Trinidad’s historic setting on the tail end of the old west provides a unique platform to discuss the future of sustainable bike destination town development. A number of innovative ideas were shared around transportation, hospitality, and what a gravel+mountain bike destination could look like in SE Colorado and NE New Mexico. Many are already looking forward to continuing the conversation at next year’s symposium.

Cranksgiving, the food-raising fun ride, is going to be a bit different this year with Covid-19. Yet, many cities have figured out a no-contact, socially-distanced version that still benefits communities in need during this holiday season. We’ve got Santa Fe’s information below but we’d love to have you post the details for your cities in the comments. Read on below…

It’s been a long time coming but DK’s parent company, Life Time Athletic Events, finally announced what the controversial race’s name will be changed to, effective immediately. The new event takes place June 3-6th, 2021. Read the full press release below for Unbound Gravel…

Ronnie and Namz from Ronsbikes.com have just announced the details for the Nor’Easter 2020. How does one throw an event in a Pandemic? Well… they have that figured out:

“This year is a hard one for more reasons than the human brain can comprehend— therefore, the way we will be conducting this event is a little different from years past.
First and foremost we seek to avoid any sort of large group congregation in any place that might funnel folks together. Our plan to prevent this is to have no specific event space as we have in the past; and sadly no Pizza truck from Fire in the Kitchen. You wanna eat food, you gotta bring it and make it yourself. You wanna drink beer—- same thing. You wanna poop—- dig a hole in the woods and have at it, etc.”

Head to Ronsbikes.com to RSVP for the event and read more about this event!

Logo by Sam Scipio

While it was the most violent in Illinois history, the Chicago Race Riot of 1919 still remains widely unknown to many. The Chicago Race Riot of 1919 Route Campaign honors the centennial of the riot in 2019 and is a collaboration between PeopleForBikes, Ride Spot, Newberry Library . The CRR1919 Commemoration Project to educate riders about a bitter piece of Chicago’s past while supporting a better future through Blackstone Bicycle Works’ efforts with youth on Chicago’s South Side.

-The goal is to inspire 300 riders to complete the CRR1919 route before Oct 31.
-If we succeed in activating riders and sell all of the CRR1919 Guidebooks, we will raise $7500 for Blackstone Bicycle Works, a non-profit program to expanding the educational and vocational opportunities of BIPOC youth on Chicago’s South Side and contribute to the CRR1919 Public Art Commemoration Project.

This year, riders can follow that same route thanks to Ride Spot. By downloading the mobile app and joining the Chicago Race Riot of 1919 Route challenge, riders will be guided by turn-by-turn directions to each stop along the route.

They can also download or stream an audio tour or purchase a limited edition  1919 CRR Route Guidebook for $10 with 100% of the proceeds donated to Blackstone Bicycle Works and The CRR1919 Commemoration Public Art Project.

To learn more, see the route and access the companion guides, visit CRR1919.COM.

Swift Industries is proud to announce Black In The Saddle, an online panel discussion moderated by Devin Cowens exploring the Black cycling experience, as told by featured panelists Lydia Moore, Kaiden Nia-Ali, William Lloyd, Duncan Benning, and Erick Cedeño.

This virtual event takes place on Thursday, September 3rd, at 5:30 pm PST / 8:30pmEST, and is free and open to the public.

Expect a lively conversation around the panelists’ cycling origin stories, their most memorable adventures, and how they’ve been handling this tumultuous year. You won’t want to miss this! The culture-shaping events of 2020 have awakened the Cycling and Outdoor industries to the existence of the many BIPOC communities whose incredible stories and experiences for too long they’ve ignored. Black In The Saddle is Swift’s effort in helping to amplify these important perspectives. This project invites the brand’s fast-growing audience to get to know amazing personalities and athletes core to our adventure-cycling community. Fans can set a reminder and/or tune-in for the live-streamed virtual event by visiting the YouTube event page.

Meet the panelists below!

2020 has certainly put the damper on group ride events like the Melburn Roobaix, which takes people around the city of Melbourne via a network of pavé roads, visiting local eateries, breweries, and other local sights. The name of the game is dress-up! Since numbers are on the rise again in Victoria, the Melburn Roobaix organizers have opted to throw the event as solo-exploration while still offering up a deal for $10:

-2020 Melburn Roobaix Ticket. We’ve put together a GREATEST HITS of PAVE sectors from every year for you to create your own unique ride with your mates – whenever it suits you.
-2020 Spoke card.
-HALO – Emergency bike light holder from Towards Zero.
-Each ticket is also an entry into the Monthly PRIZE RAFFLE.
-2020 riders will be guaranteed entry for the 2021 Melburn Roobaix if they register in the first week.

Support grassroots events and pick up a ticket at Melburn Roobaix. Check out this article from the Age and our coverage from the 2014 Melburn Roobaix.

Our friends at Swift Industries are putting on a fall equinox campout this year in lieu of the normal summer solstice campout. This year, they’re offering dozens of overnighter routes, all over the globe and are like always, pairing this outing with lots of information and product. Due to the Covid19 pandemic, Swift Industries is encouraging everyone to take care when bicycle touring. Check out WTF BX for 8 guidelines to consider.

Head to Swift Industries to learn more!

The pandemic has caused a huge ripple in our day to day lives and in the bike industry, it’s left event organizers scrambling to adapt to these trying times. Last year’s ENVE Builder Round-Up was a lot of fun and I was sad to have to miss out on shooting all those bikes this year. Luckily, for all of us, ENVE is holding a virtual show. See the details below…

I think we can all say that we might as well cancel all bike racing in 2020. People need to STAY HOME, wear masks when they leave their house, and ride in small groups until this pandemic subsides. Remember, bike racing during a pandemic is not socially conscious. Check out the press-release on why Grinduro California is postponed until September 18, 2021. Bike racing can wait…

As the only media outlet to cover every single Grinduro California race, I’d say it’s safe to say we’re the official Grinduro coverage website! The proof is in the pudding. With that said, we’re stoked to announce that the 2020 registration for the Mt. Shasta event on September 12th is open tonight at 7pm PDT, with 210 registration spots saved for FTW (femme, trans, women) riders. We can’t wait to provide our exceptional coverage this year, yet again! Especially with this recent announcement. Read the entire press release below…