Search Term – Change
Since we’re mostly stuck indoors these days, what better time to re-launch our Reader’s Rides series? Longtime readers will remember this feature, which we first launched in 2010. Read on below to see the conditions and how to get your bike up on these pages.
A few years back, we would post the bikes from the readers of this site, in a feature dubbed Readers’ Rides. Well, we’ve been getting a bunch of inquiries over the years as to if or when we’re bringing these posts back and the answer is yes! They will be cut and dry, down and dirty, cell phone style photos. As you can imagine, this will open the torrent of submissions, so hold tight until I can set up a new email address for this next week.
After yesterday’s OysterBar post, the designer of the bar shared his Moots and a little back story. I thought it was a perfect seque into relaunching this fun feature…
Our Radar Roundup compiles products and videos from the ‘net in an easy-to-digest format. Read on below for today’s findings…
Please see Part 01 here: Top 11 finalist for the 2021 “Lael Rides Alaska” Femme-Trans-Women’s Scholarship: Part 01
and Part 02 here: Top 11 finalist for the 2021 “Lael Rides Alaska” Femme-Trans-Women’s Scholarship: Part 02
and part 03 here: Top 11 finalist for the 2021 “Lael Rides Alaska” Femme-Trans-Women’s Scholarship: Part 03
Design a 1,000-mile route in Alaska, tell me your plan, about yourself and what you need to make it happen. We’ll supply the bike, gear and a travel stipend and then you get to go do it this summer.
I am blown away by the honesty and ambition of this year’s applicants. They told true, sometimes hard, stories and hopes for the future. This has been a difficult year for everyone and I am deeply inspired by all who applied and shared openly about their experiences and their drive for adventure and challenge.
With the help of Cari Carmean, Natsuko Hirose, Kailey Kornhauser and Abigale Wilson, we narrowed the 126 applicants down to 11 finalists. I am beyond excited to announce that Dorothy O’Donnell and Olivia Juarez are the two recipients of the 2021 “Lael Rides Alaska” Femme-Trans-Women’s Scholarship…
From the shadow of mount Tam to the coastal plains of Santa Barbara exists a quilt of broken earth. An underlying structure of torn apart geology transported hundreds of miles from where it was originally emplaced. A Mediterranean climate of warm summers and cool wet winters that becomes progressively drier towards the equator. A diverse floral assemblage stemming from the eroded remains of rocks past and present harboring condors, salmon and mountain lions. From North America’s largest estuary reflecting pastel sunrise to the sandstone peaks of the east/west transverse ranges gleaming pink and orange as the sun sets over the pacific.
The Readers Write is a short-form feature where readers can write about their local rides, submit photos, and course routes, lowering the barrier for entry with sharing stories here on the Radavist. It’s a new feature we’re implementing in 2020 but have yet to set up the infrastructure for submissions, so sit tight!
Convincing folks to do a group ride is difficult enough during daylight hours in nice weather conditions, but as the nights grow longer and colder, finding a crew to roll with becomes damn near impossible. Enter the New York Pizza and Dynamo Society (NYPDS): A group of cyclists dedicated to exploring some of our city’s finest eateries, exclusively by the light of kinetically-driven lamps.
Photo by Keirnan Monaghan
Although this bike is still a work in progress, I told Keirnan that I still wanted to post it. Rides like this are teetering on the verge of perfection and it’s not every day that you see such a stunning bicycle, built up with Campagnolo Corsa Record Pista. Wow.
On a side note, thanks for all the readers who are contributing this week. I’ve seen some gorgeous bikes!
This is so random but I needed to post it for the 90-100 year old readers on the site.
Photos by Guilherme Rosa
As you might have guessed, the Reader’s Rides posts are hard to stay on top of. I get so many emails from people showing me their latest rides and I can’t conceivably post them all (yet). For now, I’m relying on people like Guilherme who posses a great eye for composition, as well as a Beautiful Bicycle. His De Rosa SLX Professional caught my eye. Perhaps it’ll catch yours too.
Check out more below.
Man o man, what a crazy response my Reader’s Rides call for entries have been getting. Each week I get flooded with everything from pennyfarthings to pistas and while I continue to make sense of it all, sometimes a bike just pops! Strangely enough, I featured one of Gleb Ivaschenko‘s track bikes the last time I made a RR entry and this time around, his Takhion Sprint just stood out from the rest.
But that’s not the only bike featured in this week’s Reader’s Rides. Check out more below!
This week’s Reader’s Rides comes all the way from Kiev, Ukraine. Gleb‘s Rychtarski low pro is covered in a bright neon pink-to white fade paint job and to compensate for the saddle to bar drop, some risers bars make it easier on the back.
Check out more from this week’s Reader’s Rides below!
Aloha! John Oliveira sent in his Samson track bike for this week’s Reader’s Rides. Coming in all the way from Hawaii, this gold-flaked beast is part of the TNR crew’s stable.
Check out some more photos from this week’s Reader’s Rides below!
This week’s Reader’s Rides comes all the way from Australia, actually Adelaide, South Australia. John Stamatakis sent in his Stratos track bike and the shear size of the frame alone merits a post. At a massive 60cm, this is one of the larger NJS bikes I’ve seen.
Check out more photos from this week’s Reader’s Rides below!
This week I’m doing a little something special for Reader’s Rides. First up is a super straight forward bike check of Honor Forte’s Velo Orange Polyvalent touring bike. I met Honor at the Philly Bike Expo where he was riding a yellow RB-1. Since then, he’s put together a rather unique Polyvalent build:
“I wanted to send you my new build since I haven’t seen many of them built up this way on the web. It’s a Velo Orange Polyvalent touring setup. I’ve spent a few years reading over Rivendell literature and have always been attracted to the way they approach what a bicycle should be used for, so I wanted to build something that would be at home on city streets, fire trails, bike camping trips, long tours, etc. An everything bike. I already had a 650B wheelset and a full touring parts group I was moving around between frames, but they’ve all found their home and best fit on this frame. It truly is a multipurpose bike. Something interesting I decided to try out though was the new VO Integrated Decaleur with the Ostrich handlebar bag.
It’s great. You’ll see in the pictures that the decaleur is bolted through the leather of the bag, and attaches directly to the rack, low to the wheel instead of high up on the bar. Combined with the low-trail fork, the bike handles as if nothing’s on it even with a full heavy load in the bag; I find that I can lean back on a long ride with no hands on the bar and it still glides straight as an arrow with no wobble. Last thing worth noting is my rear fender-line method, just because I havent seen this done elsewhere. I wanted the fender close enough to the tire to maintain consistent fender spacing, but need to move it forward when taking the rear wheel out (horizontal dropouts). My solution was to cut a thin strip of a used intertube, weave it around the fender and chainstay, and tie it off with a knot on the non-drive side chainstay. It’s a small detail but it solved a big problem for me.”
If you’re into this kinda stuff, check out a full parts list below.
I get a lot of email submissions for the Reader’s Rides entries that were clearly forwarded to every other damn blog out there. Now, if you know me, that’s not gonna get it posted. What’s the point then? Out of a dozen recent emails, Stephen Gutierrez’s stood out most to me. He included some background and introduced himself and that’s the kind of interactions I like to have. Now I know this is a little outta place and sorry for ranting but I wanna showcase your bike, not make it a reposted and thus, watered down entry.
If there’s one track bike that will stand the test of time, it’s the Schwinn Paramount P14. Made in the USA from the still-standing Waterford blood line, loud and boisterous and damn, do they ride nice! Stephen had his re-chromed, re-painted and he spent hours polishing all the components. Amazing.
Check out more photos of Stephen Gutierrez’s chwinn Paramount P14 below!
You guys thought I forgot about you didn’t ya? Nope! I’ve just been running in overdrive for the past few weeks and the Reader’s Rides entries got put on the back burner. Hell, I’ve got so many bikes to post up that next week, I’m gonna do something special with them. First though, I’ve got Agustin Cacciola’s amazing track bike. Agustin is from Buenos Aires, Argentina and his Géliano Super Vitus 980 pista is one Beautiful Bicycle.
Check out more photos below!
This week’s Reader’s Rides are hot hot hot. First up is Peter’s D.A.M.P. Mudburn CX. Love the color! Then we’ve got Daniel from Denmark’s 2010 Colnago Dream Dream pista. Daniel says there were only 2 made in this color. Damn fine bike. Last but not least is Dean Nixon‘s Pog Pista built for Team Canada in 1972. This one in particular is drool-worthy!
Check out more photos of Dean’s Pog below!
Photo by Billy Brandwein
It’s good to see some classic track bikes coming through the inbox as of late. Even in the snow, it’s easy to appreciate this 1988 Raleigh track. Billy’s got quite the bike and quite the lens I might add. Shooting with that Zeiss must be nice! But not as nice as ripping around on that bike!
Check out more detail photos below!
