The Radavist

It’s not every day that you see an Icarus in Los Angeles. Much less one that’s so minty fresh. As the sun poured into Golden Saddle Cyclery the other day, this beaut rolled through the doors, owner en tow, Chris King freehub buzzing along. Victor had contacted Ian at Icarus over two years ago to build him a ‘cross bike with cantis, a 1 1/8″ steerer and classic lines. Still, in a world of 44mm head tubes and disc brakes, this bike looks modern, yet still timeless.

The mint paint is offset by the bright red color hits provided by paint and Chris King. I’ll always feel a special connection to Icarus’ work and this bike makes it easy to see why…

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Visit Golden Saddle Cyclery in Silverlake, Los Angeles and follow them on Instagram.

Blending steel with stainless can yield marvelous results, especially when done so through the use of chevrons. To then carry those lines into a frame’s paint is whole ‘nother level of beauty. Ian Sutton of Icarus Frames‘ latest road machine was recently built up at Mellow Johnny’s.

The owner, Lucas, wanted a classic road with modern componentry and a 26.0 bar. Campagnolo Athena 11-speed with a Nitto M179 STI bar and a custom fillet stem delivered the perfect kit for this bike, resulting in an elegant road machine. White Industries T11 to H+Son Archetypes and Paul skewers offer one of the nicest wheelsets for those looking for a classic flair and modern tech.

There are so many details in this bike, that I might have gone overboard with the photos: Stainless stays, stainless fork blades, internal routing and that head tube cluster, all matched with a beautiful chevron design at the bottom bracket. Ben Falcon at the Horse Cycles delivered one hell of a paint job!

Enjoy this bike, Lucas!

Ian at Icarus has been making random frames when he has free time in standard stock sizes, ranging from road bikes to everyday commuters or light tourers like this bike. He then sells them on his site and lets the customer pick out a paint color. That way, they can skip the queue and they only have to wait for paint, not the entire frame building process.

Spencer pounced on this bike when it went up on Icarus’ Instagram and immediately knew what color he wanted: Forest Service Green.

From there, it went to Circle A for paint and was built up with mostly spare parts. I sold him some shifters, he had a spare Wolf Tooth ring, some old race wheels and other random (well loved) bits and pieces. He ordered the PAUL-specific Paragon cantilever posts to give the touring cantis some added stiffness.

Yesterday, he took it all over town, on trails, roads and various errands. We shot it in front of a new mural over here on the East Side of Austin and you know what? I really, really like this bike.

I think every cyclist goes through ups and downs when it comes to what they want in a bike. When I began talking to Ian at Icarus last year about my ViKING track bike, I wanted something more relaxed to ride on. We kept the geometry of the frame true track and went with a fork with a little more rake than normal, to make the ride more road-like. That way, I could just drop a 32mm track fork on the bike and have that “aggressive” ride associated with a track bike.

Well, after having the urge to ride a fast, nimble track bike on the streets, I contacted Ian about making a 32mm rake fork. Initially, we couldn’t find a Columbus MAX fork crown in 1 1/8″ so we went with a unicrown. At NAHBS, Chris Bishop told me he had a stainless 1 1/8″ MAX fork crown, so I bought it from him and sent the materials to Ian at his newly-located facilities in Ashville, NC.

A few weeks later and this baby arrived. I held off on painting it for now because I can’t afford to drop the cash at the moment and I want to work out the paint scheme. But with the Chris King polished stainless headset, I plan on polishing the crown to really set the bike off. Because Ian knew I’d be riding it raw, he torched it a bit, giving it a hippie tie-dye finish and then coated it with furniture polish to keep it from rusting.

The feather on the blade lets you know this bike means business. Beware of impostors, there is only one feather to rule them all.

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