The Radavist

As you can imagine, the 2015 Cyclocross Nationals brought all kinds of custom frame eye candy to town. Hidden in the fleets of Rock Lobsters and Stoempers are these blue “Singlebarrel” Mosaic XSS-1 singlespeed cross bikes. Built from True Temper tubing with Chris King, Shimano and ENVE rims, it’s not hard to spot one in the crowd of buzzing freewheels.

I bumped into Aaron from Mosaic and managed to get a few photos of his bike before the massive SSCX race took place yesterday. These bikes are lightweight, precision race machines and you can find out more about them by visiting Mosaic Cycles.

You know the saying “good things come to those who wait?”, well, the original saying, which was shortened for public consumption was written by a cyclocross racer in Belgium back in the 1850’s. His text, which was later transcribed on his tombstone said “good things come to those who wait all ‘cross season…”

Here we are, at the end of the 2014 season, with all but two races left for the year, States and Nationals. Most of us are at our peak fitness, or maybe we’re already packing on the winter weight, but for whatever reason, suddenly I feel a lot stronger. Those parts that have been waiting for months suddenly have a home and my bike rack in the house, with that empty hook, finally has a mate. This is the peaceful twin, to the black metal steed, my Geekhouse Mudville.

When this project was first announced, I was honored to have Luis and Geoff from Mudfoot think of me to be involved. I can’t help but think Aaron Stinner may have had something to do with it as well. After a few email correspondences, Aaron agreed to ditch the “production geo” and go full custom. He asked which geometry I preferred and to be honest, I was completely satisfied with my Geekhouse, so we stuck to that for the most part, save for a half a º steeper head tube.

In the world of custom hardtail mountain bikes, there exist a few key factors that determine shredability. The most important, at least in my opinion, being the head tube angle. Next, is the rear chainstay length and both of which, affect wheelbase and thus how flickable the bike is. I knew I wanted Seth Rosko to build it…

Follow the key measurements, or increments with a solid build kit and you’ve got a hardtail that can behave like a trail bike, under the right rider of course…

The grass is good and dead here in Austin. That means cyclocross season is nigh. Jonathan recently relocated from Omaha to Austin, at the height of the summer heat, to replace the wrench of my buddy Chris at Mellow Johnny’s.

Even though it’s well over 100 degrees here, Jonathan’s Falconer cross bike scorches the ground it traverses. This thing is molten lava and the paint even matches the dried, dead grass. I think this might be one of my favorite bikes I’ve shot this year.

Accent points are the Chris King Mango bits, orange PAUL Minimoto brakes and a nice sparkle clear coat. My favorite detail however are the seat stays and Solid’s tapered head tube to match the ENVE fork.

I can’t wait to see this thing at the races this season!

I’ve learned a lot in the past two years and so has Ben at Argonaut Cycles. He looks at his made in the USA, fully custom carbon road bikes as a project that’s ever-evolving. With each frame, he learns more not only about his customers, but his own process. My Argonaut was perfection in my eyes and while I loved it, some things about it made it less than ideal for my lifestyle and by that I mean, I travel. A lot. At the time, Ben didn’t offer a traditional seat post, only an ISP…

At this year’s NAHBS, I knew something. Deep down inside, amidst all the insane custom bicycles, I know that Cielo was onto something with their new Road Racer Di2. The custom market is amazing, don’t get me wrong, but the domestic production market is far too overlooked.

Today, FYXO and I took the trip down to Geelong to visit Darren at Baum Cycles. After we toured the new Baum facilities, we ate some lunch at a local cafe and took to the You Yangs trail system.

The next few hours, I spent all my energy chasing after a neon streak in the bush. In fact, it became a point of fixation for me, as I struggled to keep up with the extremely fit rider pedaling this machine.

Ryan works at Baum and he rides a Baum. This bike is the fruit of his labor at Baum and it’s one of the company’s most famous rides. Or at least one of my favorite rides from the company.

SRAM XX1, ENVE, Chris King, you name it, it’s got it and then some. Like a bright chartreuse paint job with neon pink accents and a carbon Selle Italia saddle shell – leather saddle just get wrecked on a MTB anyway…

For me, the thing I brought away from this ride was seeing a Baum completely smash these trails. In an age where digital presentation is everything, I rarely see a Baum outside of the photo studio. It really brought the reason why Darren builds these machines to the forefront.

Baum makes MTBs fit for thrashing their local trails and that’s exactly what Ryan did. All afternoon… Stay tuned for more photos from my Shop Visit and MTB shred sess with Baum. For now, check out more photos of this rad bike!

Last year was a bad year for Jon from Skratch Labs. Not related to the company, which grew exponentially since the last year’s Tour of California. No, 2013 was a bad year for Jon personally.

First, he and his wife were in the Boston Marathon bombing, then he got hit by a car in July coming down Boulder canyon, leaving his MCL torn and surgeries followed, unable to ride for a while. Two life-threatening events that gave him some perspective.

As a “life reward”, post-accident, Jon contacted Kevin at Mosaic to build a custom titanium RT-1 road with ENVE and Ultegra Di2. The inverted 2013 serves as a reminder and motivator to Jon as he pedals his way into recovery.

Right now, this bike is setup to accomodate his injuries. The saddle is slightly tilted back and the steerer remains uncut, to make the riding position a little more upright. Jon’s intentions are to slowly progress back to his normal riding position, but with all things, it will take time.

Time that Jon’s more than happy to spend riding this machine, like to the top of Rock Store during the final stage of the Amgen Tour of California, where I had, literally 5 minutes to shoot this bike!

I wish the best to Jon, his family and Skratch in 2014. Thanks to Mosaic for being so kind to him as well. See you guys in Boulder!