The Radavist

I feel like I’ve known Martina and Jason from Swift Industries since the brand’s inception. It must have been the 2010 Philly Bike Expo where we first met. Later, I bought an Ozette bag for my Geekhouse touring bike in 2011, and for a number of years, we’ve stayed in close contact. Both the Radavist and Swift Industries grew at parallel trajectories. It’s now 2021 and I realized I’ve never interviewed Martina about the Swift Campout, so today we’re pleased to host a quick interview to stoke the flames for the 2021 Swift Campout, which is coming up fast, on June 19th-20th! So read on below for some insight into this wonderful event!

Wow! What a year it’s been. In the past twelve months, we’ve shot roughly 300 bikes. From gravel races, to NAHBS, the Philly Bike Expo and our normal travels, we really captured some unique builds and we’ve got a good handle on the bikes the readers of the Radavist enjoy checking out based on some key metrics.

Every year we try to do our best to sort through twelve months of archives to narrow down to this list. The first filter is the comment count, which we start at 50 comments. Then comes page views, with the minimum number being 20,000 views. Finally, we look at the social media chatter; including Instagram comments and how many times was the post shared across various platforms.

What we end up with is a list that is filled with a plethora of interesting, versatile, and quirky bikes. The only editorial decision I myself made was to omit reviews of stock bikes. So no Santa Cruz Stigmata or Cannondale Topstone this round!

Check out the full Top Ten Beautiful Bicycles of 2019 below, in no particular order…

We shoot a lot of bikes here on the Radavist. A lot. From my estimates, including tradeshows, and events like the Chris King Open House, or the Moots’ Employee Bikes, and even the Speedvagen Build Off, we shot 220 or so bikes in 2018. That’s a lot of bikes. A lot of details. A lot of component selection, build styles, and uses. From road, to mountain, and everything in between, noting the permutations that exist in this ever-so-special era in the cycling industry, I really feel like we’ve shown you just about everything you could see this year.

Out of those 220 bikes, I looked at the data in the form of traffic metrics, social chatter, and comments to pick the Top 10 Beautiful Bicycles of 2018. While many bikes had a lot of comments, some had higher traffic or social media shares. Compiling all the numbers, a very compelling list was formed. Not included in this lot are bike reviews, of which Morgan’s review of the Midnight Special and Kyle’s review of his Chubby Cosmic Stallion took the highest metrics from all others on this list. I guess they’re in a league of their own!

At any rate, check out the complete Top 10 Beautiful Bicycles of 2018, in no particular order, below!

Over the years, we’ve all really strived to make the content and the characters here on the Radavist unique. It’s been a slow process, but as I’ve just spent a week sifting through the site’s archives from 2016, I can honestly say this has been our best year yet. These year-end recaps are always a joy to collate, as it allows everyone here at the site, as well as the readers to look back and relive some our favorite moments.

2016 was busy. Very busy. In fact, the archives are almost twice as long as the previous year’s, which were almost twice as long as the year’s prior, making editing the site’s content into a digestible post challenging. We’ve omitted bicycle reviews and Beautiful Bicycles for obvious reasons, leaving only ride, travel and shop visit Reportage as the meat of the gallery and storyline. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did and I’d like to thank everyone for making this site, well, rad! That includes you, the readers and the commenters. I couldn’t ask for a better community.

Before things get too sappy, read on below for the Radavist’s 2016 Year in Review.

It’s been a while since I’ve shot a bike from Mark Majaco‘s shop here in Austin. Four years if I count correctly. In that time, we’ve both finely tuned our art. Well, I can speak for Mark anyway. This True Temper road bike is heading to the Philly Bike Expo and is a prime example of what Mark describes as a straight-forward, fillet brazed road frameset.

Built, painted and assembled in Austin, TX, these frames run under $2,000. Paired with Ultegra and you’ve got one solid machine…

I’ve been spending the past few days going through my “Year in Review” content and I stumbled upon these photos from the 2012 Philly Bike Expo that never made it up on the site. If you’ve spent any amount of time in Philly on your bike, chances are you’ve seen this bike zipping around town. Jorge’s Bilenky track has seen plenty of street time in its day. Prior to Jorge owning it, this green machine was owned by Roland at REload. Made by Bilenky in Philly, complete with S&S couplers, this is the ideal travel bike. I even hear there’s an S&S REload bag to match. More people need to make S&S bags!

It’s kind of sad to see fewer and fewer frame builders showcasing track bikes and fixed gears at shows like the Philly Bike Expo. There’s nothing more elegant than a cleanly-proportioned bike meant to travel around the city and this Royal H Cycles fixed gear is exactly that. The colors just pop in these photos. Check out more below.

If my Geekhouse Team Mudville was a little too subdued for your taste, maybe Brad’s team bike is more up your alley. Brad’s bike was the only one in the Geekhouse Philly Bike Expo stable but the bright purple powder attracted crowds all weekend.

This purple race machine has yet to see the mud but if you follow Geekhouse on Instagram (@GeekhouseBikes), you’ll see it covered next weekend. Til then, check out more photos below.

One of my favorite bikes at the Philly Bike Expo was this Chapman Cycles townie. At first glance, it may look like a pretty standard parts build but when you look closely, you’ll notice a lot of vintage parts in a dark black anodized finish. Brian Chapman really took his time with this one and it shows. The custom anodized Honjo fenders did it for me but don’t overlook all the frame details!

Bryan Myers of Fresh Frame has painted two of my bikes, my Icarus MAX track and my Bishop road. He’s a master masker and the designs that leave his shop are, well, incredible. While Fresh Frame didn’t have a booth at the Philly Bike Expo, he did lead a seminar on painting and for an in-progress project example, he brought this partially finished Icarus road. This frame is stunning! I can’t wait to see it built up. Check out more below.

Each year, the guys at Landlords always come to the Philly Bike Expo bearing vintage bikes, parts and chill dub vibes. This year, they set up a shrine to the cycling gods and demigods of yesteryear. Check it out!

The 2012 Philly Bike Expo is approaching fast and one of my favorite bikes from last year’s show wasn’t on the floor in a booth, it was outside being ridden by Alan of Cycling WMD. This Hail Satan Porteur rack caused quite the stir and it wasn’t just its fluoro pink powder. Check out the HED 3 disk conversion! Alan’s always got something sneaky up his sleeve. Hopefully I’ll see him in Philly! Check out more of this Photoset Re-Up in the Gallery.