The Radavist

Last week, before the SxSW shit storm settled in on Austin, I had some friends in town from New York. Wilis and Josh from King Kog wanted to get out on some trails, see the sites and eat some BBQ, so I arranged just that. For what felt like every single day, Wilis and I were out hitting my normal trail loops I’ve worked out, while still finding time to stop for some rope swing action.

We ended the week with some Austin BBQ and as the guys packed their bikes up in my living room, I could tell they were a little bummed to be leaving… Can you blame ’em?

Since this Recent Roll is almost 36 exposures, I narrated the photos.

Yashica t4
Pro 400H

Detroit has a long tradition of US manufacturing and it’s this very tradition that Shinola is looking to continue with their brand. The company began with watches, a common, everyday object that hasn’t been mass produced in the United States for decades. But Shinola knew that in order to bring that industry back to Detroit, they’d have to enlist in the help of true craftsmen. Ronda AG, a Lausen, Switzerland-based movement manufacturer is working with Shinola on their Argonite 1069 watch movement assemblage and that’s only the beginning.

Similarly, when Shinola began to design their bicycles, they looked to Wisconsin and the Waterford facilities for fabrication. Inspired by French porteurs and light tourers, the Shinola Runwell is an ideal city bike and you don’t need any fancy Swiss movement to get these bikes rolling. An 11-speed Alfine hub effortlessly shifts this mid-trail bike through your city or countryside. Load up the front rack with groceries, post office runs, beer, or what have you and just go! If you need to stop on a dime, the mechanical disk brakes will do the trick.

The Runwell has details. Waterford’s simple and classy lugwork, along with a bright Cherokee red paint job (it’s really bright!) really compliments the mostly chrome components. Even the gusset on the non-drive fork leg resolves any stress riser issue you might have with disk tabs on a mid-trail ride. Shinola went the extra mile with their branded saddle and grips and the 32c Continental Contact tires will roll without getting flats from thorns or glass.

Check out more below.

“Yeah, I’ve got a route planned, but we might dip off and take this one trail”. No matter how organized you try to make a friendly, chill ride, sometimes the best thing you can do is take that trail. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes you end up walking a hobo path over a twelve foot drop onto limestone but more often than not, you can make due.

Most of the trails here in Austin are very cross-bike friendly. Some are not, but we avoid those for the most part. People say, “get a MTB”, but they’re also the ones driving their cars to do a piece of 5 mile singletrack. You don’t want to ride a MTB out 15 miles on the road, then up a 18% sealed climb before you bomb down a scenic descent. But a cross bike…

When Kyle was in town, I pulled together a little ride with some friends. We spent about 40% of the time on sealed road and 50% on gravel, singletrack or dirt. That missing 10% was on this one “oh shit” hiking trail we poached on a piece of government land. We made it out alive, save for Chris flipping over his bars and one flat tire. John even rode a stock Nature Boy up some very steep faces. It was impressive.

Beers were had and stories were made. Bottom line is, we had a fucking blast and all lived to tell the tale / Instagram it but no Strava for this route. I wanna keep some of it a secret. We ended up doing +/- 40 miles and about 3,500′.

While I try to ride everyday, it’s usually impossible. Believe it or not, it’s a lot of work to run this site but that’s why I’ve gotten in the habit of looking at riding as “coffee rides”. I usually kit up, hop on the cross bike and kick around on the local trails and roads, inevitably ending up at the best coffee bar in town, Frank for an Americano. The rides are never more than 20 miles or so and take about an hour and a half. Something even the busiest blogger can find time for.

When Kyle came to town last week (I already miss that little shit!), I took him on a coffee ride. We cross’d town and had a freaking blast, stopping at every jib spot we could find along the way until we got to the Hill of Life and the Greenbelt. Once there, we encountered a few falls, some sketchy, techy lines and a helmet-stealing dog. It was a lot of fun.

No trip to Los Angeles is complete without at least one night ride with the Golden Saddle Cyclery guys. During my last visit, Dave, Kyle, Ty, Ace, Jeff from All City and I went out on a Griffith ride, through the hills and up to the Hollywood sign for some beverages. At that point in the trip, we were all toast, especially Jeff, who had just come off a 24 hour flu. At least he got some more photos to use for the #partybrand that is All-City…

As “hoody hooooo” echoed through the night, we rolled home along the bike path.

I’ve been trying to type out a few introductory sentences for this bike for the past few minutes and honestly, I have no idea where to begin. So let’s start out by me saying that it is by no means the first carbon fiber bike I have been offered but it was the first that had a compelling story attached with it, something I’m always intrigued by and will ultimately make for a better piece of journalism.

For the past year or so, I’ve been watching Ben at Argonaut Cycles reinvent his modus operandi. He made the shift from building steel bikes to developing a new fabrication system with a local carbon manufacturer. Unlike anything else currently being manufactured domestically, or overseas, the new face of Argonaut is focused on the future of bicycle design. But that’s not to say that Argonaut’s steel past had been cast aside.

Before he even began to sketch out his design, he met with the carbon engineers, who reverse-engineered some of his favorite steel tubesets, and improved upon their weaknesses. Ben wanted his bikes to have the same ride characteristics of his steel bikes, just more technologically advanced. He came to loosely call this “steel 2.0” but you should take that with a grain of salt because let’s face it, carbon fiber is not steel.

This bike is however a by-product of domestic engineering and fabrication. The carbon weave is from the States. It’s cut to shape, moulded by a proprietary process, assembled and finished all within an hour drive from Portland. The process used produces very little waste. There’s no hodgepodge assemblage, no messy resin and it’s 100% custom. Basically, it’s a streamlined process that utilizes technologies that allow each frame to be engineered to a customer’s specific needs.

That’s what had me intrigued in Argonaut and so I agreed to come on board. Soon, I started to hear the echos of “steel is real” in the back of my head, however. I knew my Bishop is as perfect as a steel bike could be. The geometry is dialed and I’ve never ridden anything like it. So I approached Ben with the idea to make the exact same bicycle, just with his new carbon manufacturing process.

Dimensions, trail, geometry, were all the same, just the profile changed a bit to a racier silhouette. Even the tube’s proprietary layup were influenced by the same steel that my Bishop is built from. Bottom line is, I wanted to be able to subjectively compare the two materials.

After I filled out my ride journal, had numerous talks with Ben and designed the paint, the bike was done. Last week, I arrived in Portland and immediately got to check it out. First thing I noticed was how much of a stellar job Keith Anderson did on the paint. The build wasn’t bad either! Rotor cranks, SRAM Red group, ENVE tapered fork, ENVE bars, Thomson stem, Fizik Kurve saddle, Chris King hubs to H+Son Archetype rims (built by none other than Sugar Wheel Works), Chris King PF30 ceramic BB and that special I8 Chris King headset. It was a dream build.

But what about the ride? The first day, we did a nice 25 mile ride up Saltzman, then Saturday, we headed out towards Mt. Hood for 75 miles (then Billy broke a spoke and we had to call it quits). My initial reaction is very optimistic. The ride is what I can only call “light and responsive”. It handles like my Bishop but even better. Descents are faster and it climbs with little or no qualms. There’s no jarring feel when I hit rough terrain. Everything feels dampened and smooth.

My previous experiences with carbon rental bikes like Cervelo, Specialized and other brands were always harsh. The bikes were stiff and I didn’t enjoy the ride. I’m not a racer, I don’t need a bike engineered to race. I need a bike that rides how I want it to, when I want it to and that’s what Argonaut produced for me. It really is like steel 2.0… So what about my Bishop? There’s nothing on this planet that would make me stop riding it. That’s a fact. Steel is still, real but this new experience has been loads of fun. As for the bike itself, it’s very easy on the eyes.

The bike weighs 15.5 lbs as seen here (minus bottles). With middle-grade LOOK pedals, 32h wheels and 28c tires, that’s not bad at all.

See more photos in the gallery!