The Radavist

In one of the most creative trip reports to grace this site, Vaughn Dice shares the story of acquiring a 1985 Airone x Cinelli Rampichino, the first Italian mountain bike, then taking the bike back to Italy for a tour on its original proving grounds. Read on for Vaughn’s lively retelling of his time retracing this bike’s origin story through the Piemonte Alps.

We’d like to think we’re pretty alright at photographing bikes over here at The Radavist. The steeds we choose to document reflect our audience’s preferences and capture distinct trends in bicycle design. Yet, each year as we reflect on all the builds that have rolled through this cyber showroom, we’re always surprised to see what the Top Ten list reveals. This year, we’ve got a good mix of bikes, outfitted with flat and droopy bars, running rubber across the size spectrum, and made of steel, aluminum and yes, even carbon. Let’s get to it!

Earlier this year Amy Danger blew us away with the story of her intricately restored and documented dumpster find Cinelli Laser Rivoluzione Prototype. Today she’s back with another stunning historic track bike from her personal collection, a Custom Gianni Motta Personal 2001r low-pro track bike with Mondrian-inspired color scheme and Columbus Air tubing. Let’s check it out in detail below!

The artist Russ Pope is a west coaster-turned-New England émigré. Growing up as a skateboarder and an artist, he brought his two passions together at a young age. Creativity has been intertwined with all his outdoor pursuits since, with a portfolio that boasts many skating and cycling collaborations. Hailey Moore recently had the opportunity to sit down with Russ to talk about it all—Read on for a rundown about his life of skating, arting and bikes and to learn more about a Russ Pope drawing giveaway! Thanks Russ!

The 80’s and 90’s were a wild time for track bikes as design teams competed for gains through technological innovation. Cinelli was right there in the melee shaving power loss through aerodynamic design in partnership with Columbus tubing. The resulting Cinelli Laser changed bicycle design forever, winning more track world championships and Olympic gold medals than any other bicycle in the history of the sport. Andrea Pesenti’s hand-hammered steel gussets curved elegantly between tube junctions producing a fluid, edgeless art that slid through the air and whose DNA can be seen in all of today’s curvy carbon racing machines. Antonio Colombo brought vision and fidelity to art in design. Paolo Erzegovesi brought revolutionary engineering through liberation from lugs telling him where tubing should intersect and at what angle. These customizations nudged riders over the finish line first and set off raging bike crushes on Lasers that some of us never recovered from.

It wouldn’t be Philly Bike Expo coverage without a Bishop Bikes gallery and for 2021, photographer Jarrod Bunk selected this beautiful Columbus tubing track bike.

Where do I even begin here? At first, I thought Chris brought back the 2013 NAHBS track bike I photographed, and then I thought it was his personal blue track bike, stripped raw since it has the same Drillium Revival stem. Upon closer examination, this is true-to-form Chris Bishop doing his thing with the simplest form of bicycle. I just got off the phone with Chris Bishop where we spent a good forty-five minutes discussing this bike. There’s a lot going on with this “simple” machine so let’s get to it!

Continuing our coverage from the third annual Cub House Bike Show and Swap…

Chuck is a lifelong cyclist. He runs and owns Velo-Retro but spent his life as a graphic designer who worked on many classic cycling logos, including the Eddy Merckx logo and others. That’s a whole different story altogether, hopefully, to be told another time. Right now let’s focus on this beautiful example of a pristine 1960’s Cinelli Super Corsa.

Is it still a work bike, if you don’t spend your work days riding it around delivering packages? What about riding to the bar? Or errands? Or even hitting some singletrack after work and finishing off a beer. Even a 32oz. The latest Golden Saddle Rides is a Mash Cinelli Work frame that has been powder coated clear red and built with around-town functionality in mind. Here in Los Angeles, even around town means you can ride some dirt on the way. Wide Answer bars, and Continental TravelContact tires should have given that away. While these framesets come with cantilever bosses, this build is set up brakeless with a fixed drivetrain. The front bosses were utlized however, to mount a Nitto rack, which holds a Wald basket and one of those nifty Monkey Wrench Cycles bags.

The Arundel Looney Bins are great and make for interesting prop placement in this photoshoot…

____

If you want a custom build like this and live in Los Angeles, hit up Golden Saddle Cyclery.

Golden Saddle Rides: Golden Saddle Rides: Cinelli White Collar Work Bike
Photos by Kyle Kelley, words by John Watson

While the success of the Cinelli and San Francisco-based brand Mash may lie in their Histogram and other aluminum frame collaborations, the Work frameset was the first frameset that really plucked a heart string with me. When a frame rolled its way through the doors of Golden Saddle Cyclery, it hit hard with co-owner Kyle Kelley, who insisted we feature it on the site.

What’s not to love about these machines? Raw, clear-coated steel with red-inlayed machining, options to run it as a fixed gear or SSCX bike (or a FGCX bike!) with canti brakes, internal routing and a nice, level top tube.

Cinelli and Mash have done a lot of great things over the years, but I’ll always remember this bike…

____

Follow Kyle on Instagram and visit Golden Saddle Cyclery in Silverlake, Los Angeles.