The Radavist

This week, Knog announced the newest addition to their line: the Party Combo lock. These 620mm long combination locks are meant to keep your bike from walking away at a cafe, not for long-term use, unless you live in Japan…

See more below!

This is making the rounds today and for good reason!

“Ruckus Composites is a Portland Oregon based Carbon Fiber repair business, repairing thousands of bikes a year for customers, bike shops and frame manufacturers. Every so often a bike never gets picked up, and ends up in the dead pile. For several years we have been wondering what to do with these lost souls, this year we cracked the code. Working with local and national non profit organizations as well as grass roots cycling teams, Ruckus will repair and custom paint these bikes and raffle/auction them off to raise money and awareness for causes that we believe in. The proceeds from these frames will go directly to organizations in need, the bikes will go to the lucky winners of the raffles.

The first two frames will be raffled in support of Presented By Let’s Race Bikes (PBLRB). PBLRB is a Oregon based project dedicated to supporting and enabling elite female cyclists to compete on a national level. They are breaking down the financial barriers associated with professional cycling by offering support to female athletes through crowd sourced initiatives. PBLRB has raised money to date with support from The Athletic and Sellwood Cycles in Portland OR. We are excited to work with them and proud to support their efforts in cycling. ”

I love everything about this grouping – the water bottle, not the bourbon! – well, I love the bourbon too, but this is about the bottle. Man, my brain is rattled today…

WTF Kits has these three bottles available as a pack, with a Whiskey, Foxtrot and Tango theme. Personally, I couldn’t let this go without posting the Molteni Whiskey bottle for Merckx Mondays. Head over to WTF Kits to pick up the whole set.

Also, that Old Blowhard is the best bourbon I’ve had in a long time. Read up on it! The short story: it’s made from long-lost 26 year old Van Winkle barrels found on the Stitzel-Weller distillery property.

It’s damn good and you can actually buy it… unlike Van Winkle.

Has me missing it! This day was so incredible on so many levels. I was excited to be riding new roads and we ended up rescuing a Wedgetail Eagle. These photos are from a lost roll of film I just found from Australia. Read up more on this ride, right here.

Look, I already feel a bit self-conscious about how much PiNP encourages our consumer habits but it’s a part of life and I’d rather direct you to some legitimate holiday goods, then have you read some bogus list elsewhere. Most of these products on this list are in my personal collection and have become staples in my day to day life.

Some notes: Buy local if you can, your local bike shop probably sells gift certificates, so support them first and foremost. Most of these products are more “lifestyle” than cycling-related but there’s more to life than bike shit, right? Finally, most of these products are made in the USA!

Check out a few choice products you could buy this holiday season below!

Over the years, some of these guys have become good friends of mine and I’ve enjoyed watching their lives change in the time that the Rapha Continental has been around. Since its inception, the Continental not only influenced the lives of the members, but undoubtably cycling as a whole.

Watching this video from the 2013 Pacific Northwest Rapha Continental ride, all I can think about is doing something similar with a group of close friends. The PNW really is gorgeous.

See more incredible photos at the Rapha Flickr and read Jeremy Dunn’s thoughts on the ride at Rapha.

If you’ve been following me on Instagram, you’ve probably figured out that we made it. It was tough, but fun. For such a large group to finish the ride without any major issues made it even more enjoyable.

The State of Jefferson, at least what we saw of it, truly is mythical. We ended up totaling 233 miles and over 17,000′. In true Brovet spirit, we stopped a lot, swam in rivers, streams, waterfalls and dirt napped when necessary. We flew down frontage roads, chattered our teeth on ruts, lost water bottles, found water bottles, avoided rattle snakes and drank lots of water…

More to come, but for now, catch up on some more photos on my Instagram, where I’ve linked to all the accounts who were also on the ride.

In 2012, PiNP’s content was like a pinball machine. It seemed like every other month, I’d find myself in another city. Some familiar, some new, but I traveled everywhere with my bike and camera in hand, ready to see what was out there. Throughout these travels, I formed a lot of strong friendships with a lot of incredible people. Some of which have become my best of friends. We rode hard, we partied harder and somehow, I managed to keep the year in focus.

Here’s the PiNP 2012: A Year in 55 Photos…

The Bike Valet takes a nod from the notion that bike storage doesn’t have to be strictly utilitarian. Design can be found even in the most mundane places. Here’s what the kick-starter campaign says:

“Storage for us, like many, is a problem. We live in a small downtown apartment, and if we happen to be dense enough to leave our bikes outside they wouldn’t last more than a few days, even with the priciest lock around. We lost a beautiful, vintage, hand-made Kleine in just such a way a couple years ago. So we bring our bikes inside. Given our storage issues, this makes navigating the entry hall difficult. I personally have tripped over or snagged a pair of dress pants on an awkwardly placed bicycle more than once. The solution?

The Bike Valet. It is made from 1/8″ cold steel initially designed in Sketchup and later transferred to CAD. Its elegant shape is cut using a laser cutter. It is heated and bent by hand to the appropriate spec’s and then powder coated for a durable long-lasting finish in red, blue, black, cream white, pale green or grey. You have your choice of either a leather or neoprene pad to rest your bike on. We think any combo of the six colors and two pads looks pretty spectacular! “

They have 66 hours to go to reach their goal of $10,000 and are only $600 away. If you’re into this, head over to the Kick-Starter page.

This is pretty rad. I’ll always support Made in the USA products and when it comes to BMX manufacturing, Dave Harrison has been in the scene for longer than most of us have been riding bikes. He has been building BMX frames since the 90’s, most recently, for FBM and now he’s starting his own company. This video introduces his newest endeavor, the Kool Thing BMX frame.

“When I grew up riding BMX in the 80’s, the sport was very popular and it seemed like the BMX industry would never stop growing. Then in the early 90’s, the interest in our sport just seemed to fizzle. Bike companies started going under, magazines promoting the sport stopped being printed, and riders lost their sponsors. During this time, the people who were truly passionate about the sport stepped up and started to rebuild BMX. People like Mat Hoffman started doing their own contests and others followed his lead. At this time, BMX riders started to make their own videos, print their own magazines, and even started to build the BMX frames themselves. This time is called the rebirth of BMX and is my inspiration for this project. Much like those companies involved in the rebirth of BMX, Pedal Driven Cycles is being founded to create an avenue for people and their friends to enjoy the thrill of riding a bike.”

Check out more at the Kick-Starter page. Best of luck Dave! He’s so close to his goal, anything will help him out.

I don’t know why but that Bishop show-stopping MS track bike never gets old. Is it the Mavic headset? Or the Fresh Frame paint job. Maybe it’s the slick custom stem. I’ve got no clue but at any rate, I’d uploaded a big gallery of random Philly Bike Expo coverage to my Flickr.

Check out a slideshow below!

“Astral Blood” off Celestial Lineage

Ok, so it’s been a while but what a perfect album to bring about the return of Tuesday Teardown!

I’m a hypocrite. When Oregon-based Wolves In the Throne Room released Black Cascade, their homage to the Cascade Mountains of their home state, I sang praises for weeks about it. Then I started to really listen to the album and after putting it on heavy rotation, I lost interest. Why? I still don’t know. Maybe because there were much better black metal releases that year, or because I felt like they were getting too much praise for too little work. Years later, I’m back into Black Cascade but I’ve yet to warm up to their Two Hunters EP. Again, I’m not exactly sure why.

This year, the whole metal industry has been salivating for the release of Celestial Lineage, the new Wolves album. People wondered what they’d cook up for this release and me being the cynical fuck that I tend to be when it comes to overhyped music, already had an idea what it would be like. Was I right? Kind of. Wolves makes such an effort to break up their music with angelic singing and other sounds, focusing on the composition more so, at least in my opinion, than on their actual music. Celestial Lineage has, in many ways, lived up to my preconceived opinion.

“Thuja Magus Imperium” begins with windchimes and a harmony sung by a women, straight out of Lord of the Rings. This creates a contrast that in my opinion, muddles the album as it morphs from this introduction to Wolves’ signature tremelo picking and distortion. And it’s like a beast escaped from a cage. This is a whole new Wolves. The writing has improved immensely, the drums, guitars and basslines are fucking sharp and before you know it, it’s a jam fest. Now if only this momentum would continue.

Check out more below!

So this is way, way past due. I was planning on posting my post-tour thoughts immediately after my tour. Makes sense right? Well, after getting over salmonella poisoning and then Interbike, I finally have time to sit down and post about it.

My head was racing before I left. I must have sat all my equipment out on the ground and put half of it aside at least a dozen times. Traveling minimally is not my forte and neither was touring at the time. I had done a series of centuries and have done countless road rides but an unsupported and solo tour was foreign to me.

After a few weeks, I’m ready to share with you what exactly I learned from this trip. What to take, what not to take and how much this all cost me.

Check it out below!

Losing a button sucks. Especially one like this. I picked up a Save the Track Bike! button two years ago at NAHBS from Kyle. Two months ago, I thought I lost it. I looked everywhere. Surely my bag had caught hold of it and ripped it from the chest pocket of my denim jacket. As I was cleaning out my bike room today, I found it stuffed under my dresser. I reworked the pin so it would stay this time and here it will stay.

If you slept on getting one of the first batches, Tracko has more for sale in his web shop. Grab one up!