The Radavist

2018 Philly Bike Expo: Bishop Samson Lugged Road
Photos by Jarrod Bunk, words by John Watson

For Chris Bishop, his end products are often about the assemblage of pieces that are artistic elements on their own. Take for instance this classic, 32mm tire, OS road bike. He utilized a NOS Samson lug kit, complete with fastback seat stays, and an aero fork crown lug. Then, he pinged Mitch from MAP Cycles for his dropouts, which paired nicely with the lug set. All these pieces were assembled in a painstaking way to form this beautifully-lined road bike, designed to roll on 32mm tires with the direct mount EE Cycleworks brakes. The icing on the cake was Bryan Myers from Fresh Frame’s paint detailing over PPG Pearl white Prismatic.

The end result is unmistakenly Bishop, yet undeniably a combination of many talented artists’ handiwork.
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Follow Jarrod on Instagram, and Bishop Bikes on Instagram

It’s no secret that California is home to some exceptional bike riding. It doesn’t matter if you’re a roadie, a gravel grinder, or a mountain bike park rat, there’s something for everyone in the Golden State. My romping grounds of choice happen to be a quick, three-hour drive from my home in Los Angeles. After catching up on work Thursday morning, I left my home and headed north on the 395 to Lone Pine, California where I’d spend the next two days riding my newly retrofit Firefly. Kyle and I rode these roads last year and I spent the whole summer planning a return.

We’ve lost a lot of celebrities in the past few years but none shook me as much as the passing of Dario Pegoretti. The man was a legend. A true auteur. A builder that didn’t just weld bikes together, he created moving art. After the news settled of his death, I felt like I hadn’t paid my respects. That is until this bike rolled past me at Chris King the other day.

This weekend is the Chris King Open House, and to commemorate Pegoretti, Above Category shipped CKPC out this Love 3 aluminum road bike. Handmade and hand painted by the man himself. Aluminum you say? Yes! Dario made a small run of these bikes from Columbus’ XLR8 tubesets. He machined his own dropouts with replaceable hangers, used 30mm OS chainstays, a 31.6 seatpost for extra stiffness, and a threaded BB for worry-free rides. After his final fun of Love 3 frames, he continued his practice in steel.

Above Category built this bike up, as part of their permanent collection, so I had to show my respects to Pegoretti and give it some extra special love on the shop floor at Chris King, where the bottom bracket, headset, and hubs were machined.

Ride in Peace, Dario.

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Follow Pegoretti Cycles on Instagram.

Grinduro is here! Beginning today in Quincy, California, smack dab in the Lost Sierra, the Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship and Giro bring the fun to backroads and mountaintop singletrack in the Plumas National Forest. At the Town Hall, in the Quincy Fairgrounds, a selection of frame builders will display their work, as a collaboration with SRAM and Zipp. On the list is Portland’s Speedvagen, who brought along some extra eye candy, including this Surprise Me Road, with a striking, autumn-inspired paint job.

Built with Force 1 road, EE Cycleworks brakes, and ENVE, the rest of the details are there for you to see in this gallery, so enjoy!

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Follow Speedvagen on Instagram and Grinduro on Instagram.

The beauty of a capable all-road bike is it can transport you from the inner city to more rural areas with ease and depending on the bike’s capabilities, you can ride everything from dirt roads to rugged Forest Service roads and even singletrack. In a city like Los Angeles, we’ve got a good mix of everything, and it wasn’t until I moved here that I realized this importance in a bike. For me and the kind of riding I enjoy, I prefer to be able to pedal out to the dirt from my front door.

Over the years, bikes that had only previously been available as a special order from a custom frame builder are slowly making their way into mainstream bike company’s catalogs. In that time, I’ve noticed a rather acute phenomenon, and most companies aren’t listening.

They’re not listening to what real, everyday cyclists are asking for. Who are they designing for? Who do they expect to buy their bikes? I’m not sure because I’ve seen a number of well-designed frames leave out crucial details that would make the bike from Brand X be the ultimate all-road bike, turned bikepacking bike, turned quiver killer.

Then there’s the Trek Checkpoint, which checks all the boxes, and I must say I was surprised when I saw it. After riding it on and off over the past few months, I’m finally ready to talk about this unique bike.

The Driftless
Photos and words by Kevin Sparrow

When people hear of the Midwest, they typically think of farmland and prairie. Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, and Iowa have a rich history of glaciation that smoothed out a lot of the land we typically think of and gouged out lakes and terrain. Southeastern Minnesota, northeastern Iowa and western Wisconsin and Northern Illinois, known as The Driftless Region, is a unique area virtually untouched by glacial sculpting. As a result, this landscape greatly contrasts what one would typically think of the Midwest. Its narrow valleys, high bluffs, forested hillsides and beautifully sculpted topography is a real treat for cyclists in the region.

If there’s one route people ask me to show them when they’re visiting Los Angeles with a road bike, it’s how to get to the Hollywood Sign. It turns out, cyclists can fall victim to iconic destinations just as commonly as non-cyclists. That’s what you do when you come to LA right? The one thing that separates this spot from other tourist destinations like the Chinese Theater or the Walk of Stars is you’ve really got to work to get up close and personal to the Hollywood Sign.

There’s an old joke in Hollywood, stemming from a conversation between Johnny Carson and Bette Davis. Carson asked Davis for advice on “the best way an aspiring starlet could get into Hollywood,” Ms. Davis replied without hesitation, “Take Fountain!”

Fountain Ave is a bicycle-friendly connector between Silver Lake and West Hollywood. It runs east to west and is parallel to Sunset Boulevard and Santa Monica Boulevard, two very congested arteries and very dangerous to ride bicycles on, especially during rush hour. By contrast, Fountain takes you past cafes, farmer’s markets and while the beginning is a two-lane road, it widens up once you reach Hollywood. There are “sharrows” the whole way, reminding motorists to share the road with cyclists but don’t be surprised when a Maserati goes 80mph past you, tailpipes brapping.

You can tell a lot about a cycling brand based on what the owner or proprietor rides. In this case, we take a look at Mosaic Cycles‘ owner and builder, Aaron Barcheck’s own RT1 disc road built with ENVE, Zipp, and SRAM. This weekend, the brand is coming to Los Angeles, to kick-off the Cub House as being a new dealer for Mosaic and with it, Aaron himself, along with his bike will be here to ride in the endless summer heat.

Speaking of heat, will you just look at that thing! Propped up against the backdrop that is the San Gabriel mountains, surrounded by Chaparral, with its Spectrum powder coat glistening in the sun, and raw titanium “braggers triangle” showing off its frame material. Bikes like this need very little description since they stand on their own.

Stay tuned for details of the Cub House party this weekend!

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Follow Mosaic on Instagram and follow the Cub House on Instagram.

Richard Pool’s Allied Alfa Disc Allroad with Hypercolor!
Photos by Bob Huff, words by John Watson

How do you make a special bike extra special? For Richard Pool, aka Bicycle Crumbs, he was sold on the Allied Alfa Allroad but wanted to jazz it up a bit. Richard works at the Vanilla Workshop – in case you were wondering who is doing all those snazzy new graphics! – so he consulted Lucas Strain, one of the painters at Coat, Vanilla’s in-house paint shop, on what to do with this frame to make it extra, extra special.

The result is the by-product of including Thermocramatic paint, over a raw Alfa. What this paint does is react with temperature and the easiest way to see this is by either putting the frame in a freezer, or rubbing an ice cube over it, but when Richard pinged Bob Huff, Vanilla’s photographer, he suggested cold water, sprayed from a hose on a hot day. Luckily they found normal garden hose water on a hot, hot summer day in Portland did the trick.

Is is gimmicky? You bet but does it look awesome, you bet! Coupled with this awesome bike, I think it turned out great. If you’d like a more in-depth look at the Alfa, check out our review!

Richard built it up with Turquoise King bits, ENVE Ar 4.5 rims, a Zip post and cockpit, SRAM eTAP WiFli and a Fabric ALM saddle.

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Follow Richard on Instagram, Lucas on Instagram, Allied on Instagram, and follow Bob Huff on Instagram.