The Radavist

Nature is so metal…

While you’re reading this, I’m most likely sleeping, recovering from a long day trip down to the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, Australia. Hey, driving all day really takes it out of ya. Apologies for the slow weekend, it’s my last few days in Melbourne and I’m trying to squeeze in some riding time. I’ll catch up on Monday with more Photosets…

For now, check out more photos at my Flickr and get out on your bike today!

Photos by Andy White

Look, I don’t deal well with foul weather. Not anymore, anyway. The years of living in NYC have dwindled away as far as my body is concerned. Now, I’ve adapted to desert life in Texas. So when spring rains come, the trees are blooming and it’s grey outside, I succumb to all kinds of allergies and moody blues.

Maybe that’s why when Andy from FYXO mentioned doing 160k today in the rainy, muddy hills of Kinglake, I opted out for a shorter, more manageable ride. Or maybe, as destiny would have it, I’d be content with 100k. For whatever reason, my “man cold” was a perfect excuse to opt out of one of Fyxo’s fabled tough rides.

We began heading out to the familiar hillside, before approaching what I’m calling “cuntbuster”, or in the native tongue “Pine Ridge Road”. The first hundred meters or so was totally rideable, but we scaled 300 meters in elevation in just under 3k (1,200′ in 1.2 miles). Basically, we hiked up the 30+ degree, rutted, nasty “road”.

At the top, we quickly descended into a glorious stretch of gravel aptly named Watson’s Rd, got lost and then saw a very rare site…

From there, the ride became an animal rescue mission. Head over to FYXO for the full scoop on how we saved a rare Wedgetail Eagle and check out numbers and such on my Strava.

If you spend any amount of time outdoors, or in the ‘wood, then you know nature is pretty fuckin’ metal. When I began thinking of the next Necronomicog design, I mentioned an idea I had to artist Kyler Martz. We went back and forth a bit until his sent me this design.

Now, this is probably one of the best shirt designs I’ll ever sell. BUT I won’t be getting them printed until November. Until then, why don’t you tell me what you’d like? Pocket tee? Black? White? Sweatshirt? Front graphic?

My inclination is always pocket t, so let me know what you want to see and I’ll print them up in the next few weeks.

Thanks to Kyler for taking this design to the next level.

Man. It feels great to be back in Melbourne. After a hellish flight out of China, I got picked up by Andy from FYXO. Less than an hour later, we were out on a ride up frontage roads less than 3 miles from his home. Talk about detox! Steep dirt climbs, fast gravel descents and even a dead snake.

Melb’in is heaven. See a few more random shots below and don’t worry there will tons of radness on the way.

Red and yellow, kill a fellow, red and black, venom lack. Growing up in Southeastern North Carolina (what snake hunters call the tin fields) and spending a lot of time collecting pet snakes, you quickly became familiarized with this saying. While the exact wording differs from place to place, the message is clear. If a snake has red bands, touching yellow bands, steer clear.

I didn’t have much of an option to “steer” anywhere last week on the Greenbelt. Instead, I hopped off my bike like my excited 15 year old self would have done and contemplated picking up this gorgeous Texas Coral snake. Instead, I pulled out my Yashica and took this photo. Handling venomous snakes isn’t anything new to me but disturbing the wildlife on a trail is something I try to avoid, even if it’s a beautiful creature like this.

The Texas Coral is closely related to the Eastern Coral, the snake that I grew up catching in NC and these rear-fanged snakes pack a powerful neurotoxin, akin to cobra venom. Corals are nocturnal hunters who usually feed on other snakes like earth or worm snakes (it’s very rare to see one during the day). They’ll also feed on lizards, frogs and even baby Coral Snakes. There hasn’t been a reported death from a Coral Snake bike in the US for over 100 years, but there are dozens of bites reported.

Unfortunately, the rest of my riding buddies weren’t as enthralled with “that fucking snake” as I was, so I let it be.