The Radavist

Our Radar Roundup compiles products and videos from the ‘net in an easy-to-digest format. Read on below for today’s findings…

Vintage bikes have always had a home on The Radavist. From shooting Sky’s wonderful collection from Velo Cult, to showcasing stunners in Los Angeles, and basket bike/resto mod conversions in Austin, there’s something about these 26″ wheeled, friction shifting, hand-made beauts that have always caught my eye. Over the past year, there’s been an uptick in the number of vintage bikes we’ve showcased, in part because joining with The Pro’s Closet gave us access to TPC’s Museum bikes, a veritable treasure trove of exciting and influential builds to unpack. Each bike is an earmark in cycling history, each with its unique story to tell. Additionally, I have had the time and resources to work on such restoration projects for the first time in years.

This year, we’ve featured my 1982 Ritchey Tam and my 1984 Mountain Goat, representing what I love about the early 1980s mountain bike design. With flat top tubes, big tire clearance, friction shifting, and geometries still relevant today, the 1980s bikes were more geared toward exploration than the racing geometries the NORBA era brought about. I couldn’t buy one of these classics when I first started riding in the 90s (my first bike was a rigid Gary Fisher Tassajara), but I could always count of Mountain Bike Action and my local bike shop to keep the eye candy in steady supply. Since then, one elusive bike model has remained the apple of my eye: an early 90s Yo Eddy! When Mike Wilk wrote about TPC’s Grello Yo!, it made me nostalgic tailspin.

I casually reached out to Martin at Second Spin Cycles, who had just bought a big Fat Chance collection from out West. I asked if he had a Yo Eddy that would fit me and, as luck would have it, he did. But it needed some work…

The latest from Fat Chance beckons you to get off those busy paved roads and off onto some dirt. With two wheel size clearance options, a steel Yo Eddy or carbon fork option and plenty of paint choices to make this Chris Cross bike your own. See more at Fat Chance.

If you’re looking for a new steel road frameset, check out the latest offering from Fat Chance. These True Temper Slim Chance frames come with a number of configuration options. You can choose a steel fork, or an ENVE, color-matched ENVE stem, and even a color-matched Silca frame pump. You can even select if you want a cabled road groupset or SRAM Red eTap. The pricing starts at $2395 for a frame, fork and King headset, allowing you to tack on options as needed. This pre-order is a limited edition offering, and will close out on November 15th with a end of January 2017 delivery.

Head to Fat Chance for the skinny on the new Slim Chance.

Fat Chance looks back to its roots with these vintage “star” shirts. For a while, you could find these at swap meets in the north east, littered with grease stains and holes. Now you can put your own beausage on one! On sale now at Fat Chance for $20.

While Chris Chance and Fat City might be known best for their MTB, segmented forks and revolutionizing the tig-welding process for frame building, they also had a very successful road bike, dubbed the Slim Chance 2.0. Well, with the relaunch of the brand and its hardtail MTBs, Fat City has just announces their new Slim Chance frames… Check out these details and head over to Fat Chance to see more!

-Available as a frame, ENVE carbon fork and Chris King headset package for $2295.
-Segmented steel Yo Road Fork will be available as an option in the coming weeks.
-Painted stem upgrade options; Carbon (ENVE) for $355, Alloy for $250.
-Choice of mechanical or electronic shifting options at no extra charge.
-4 colors inspired some of our favorite Slim’s from the past; Blue, Pearl White, Pale Yellow and Red.
-Framesets ship in 4-6 weeks, complete bikes in 6-8 weeks.

(models shown are pre-production prototypes from 2015 NAHBS – changes were made to production models)

Fat Chance has a few extra frames from the 2015 pre-order up for sale with large / xlarge sizing in the 29’r and medium in the 27.5. Unfortunately there are no rigid forks in stock, but all the colors are available for now. Price is $1,699 and frames will ship mid February once the Kickstarter and pre-order frames are shipped. Head to Fat Chance now to see the 29’r and 27.5 hardtails.

Chris Chance is bringing back Fat Chance Bicycles. Making a killer bike back in the day wasn’t easy and bringing it back to life 15 years after closing down shop can’t be either. Chris will be speaking at Mission Workshop San Francisco Saturday August 15th.

Mission Workshop / Fat Chance Bicycles

Tonight at Mission Workshop in SF, I’ll be moderating a discussion with Chris Chance of Fat Chance Bicycles. Here’s the scoop:

“Chris Chance is bringing back Fat Chance Bicycles. Making a killer bike back in the day wasn’t easy and bringing it back to life 15 years after closing down shop can’t be either. Chris will be speaking at Mission Workshop San Francisco Saturday August 15th. John Watson will be leading the questions, but attendees are welcome to ask Chris what’s on their mind. The talk will be live streamed on TheRadavist.com so you can follow along from your garage, but if you’re local, email rsvp@missionworkshop.com to grab a seat. Beers start at 5pm, doors close at 6:30pm. Talk starts at 7pm.”

We hope to see you there!

You’re gonna be seeing a lot of Chris Chance and Fat Chance over the next few weeks:

“The Pro’s Closet caught up with Chris Chance at the “Mountain Bike Hall of Fame” in the spring of 2015. In this mini-doc, Chris describes the early days of Fat Chance, the forces that pulled him away from the bicycle world, and the passion that led him back!”

After debuting the two signature Yo Eddy hardtails at NAHBS this year, Fat Chance Bicycles has opened up their production run for pre-order. Since we last saw the bikes here on the Radavist, a few details have been tidied up. The 29’r now has a curved seat tube, which gave it more tire clearance while keeping the rear end rowdy. There are other improvements from the prototypes to production, which are all outlined at the below links. These frames are made in California and retail for $1,699 with a $699 deposit due upon pre-order.

Head over to Fat Chance Bicycles for more details and information on pre-ordering the Yo Eddy 29’r and Yo Eddy 27.5.

Dammit, these bikes look good!