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When a frame builder has access to an in-house graphics department and paint booth, great things happen. Thomas from Horse Cycles‘ partnership with Ben Falcon has really paid off. Ben’s paint mixed with Horse’s frame design and construction delivers show-stopping road bikes like this.
No matter how high tech the road bike gets, nothing beats the lines and elegance of a classic road bike. For this year’s NAHBS, Bryan of Royal H Cycles brought this beautifully-lugged road bike with equal parts practicality to functionality. At first, I didn’t even notice the Di2…
A few weeks back, around the time of the Giro x Radavist collection drop, Mosaic reached out, saying they had the perfect bike to display the goods with at NAHBS. I was into it, Giro was into it and I think you’ll be into it. This GT-2 build by the Colorado-based builder features a geometry more tuned for long day dirt rides and lightweight bikepacking, custom Spectrum-powdercoated decals with matching OD green King Kages, and a set of custom bikepacking bags from Colorado’s JPaks Bags. The beauty of the JPacks frame bag system is the nesting frame bag that fits under this partial frame bag, allowing you to either run bottle cages, or an additional bag for storage. You can see this bike for yourself at Houston’s Bicycle Speed Shop.
Breismeister Bicycles is a frame builder out of Queens, New York and for this year’s NAHBS, Doug, the owner brought along this beautiful 650b road bike made from Columbus Max and featuring a bi-lam head tube, Pacenti fork crown and a loud, vibrant paint job. The colors on this bike are just too good!
The latest from Brian Vernor checks all the boxes for those who either love this region already or hold a curiosity that could ignite a journey of their own…
“Three friends ride bicycles 192 miles through the California desert, from Badwater Basin to White Mt. Peak. Along the way they ascend over 24,000 vertical feet, and experience a 70 degrees shift in temperature. Before embarking the riders plan their ride carefully and leave food and water along the route in old ammunition canisters for later consumption. Unsupported from beginning to end, the riders carried small cameras and filmed themselves during the ride, capturing serendipitous moments like a dusk flyby of a group of owls and a desperate dive into a grungy bathroom to escape from the cold.”
Nicely done!
1000 Mile Tarmac Ride
Words by Lael Wilcox, photos by Rugile Kaladyte and Trevor Raab.
Laboring up Mount Lemmon this winter with roadies on light bikes with rim brakes, I started thinking, I want a road bike! It rarely rains in Tucson, almost never in the winter. In the sunshine, rim brakes on carbon rims work fine. But what really is the difference? I was riding around on a Specialized Diverge, a performance carbon gravel bike with disc brakes and 38mm tires. I love the Diverge. It rides great. But I still had questions. What would a true road bike feel like? How would it feel after 100 miles or 200 miles or 1,000 miles?
“Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road.” – Jack Kerouac, On the Road
We all have our favorite authors, our favorite books, and our favorite quotes. Many of these anecdotes for travel or life’s great lessons can be applied to cycling. For Mason, he was drawn to the writing of Jack Kerouac. Particularly, On the Road. This quote became his mantra for his new Stinner Gibraltar road bike. Mason selected one of Stinner’s “Vault” paint options, Paradise, and requested the Team Dream Team Chubby Bobcat to be added to the wild paint scheme. This little detail, along with his Kerouac quote really brought the whole build together. Not to mention the SRAM Red eTap, Boyd Wheels and Quarq power meter cranks. The whole package was assembled by Simon at the Cub House.
Straight up road bikes still do it for me, especially when they’re this clean, this light and this local. I love seeing all the Stinners on the roads of Los Angeles, both paved and unpaved.
Enjoy this bike, Mason!
For 2018, No 22 Bicycle Company has taken three of their ready-made models, the Great Divide road, the Great Divide disc road, and the Drifter all-road and gave them a graphic make-over. Each of these ready-made bikes have a 2-3 week lead time with the build as shown, the customer’s choice of finish and one of three cockpit (stem and fork) color options painted by Velocolour: black, navy, burgundy (as shown.) I must say, this is a damn fine looking bicycle. See more photos of the Drifter All Road below and all the information at No 22.
For the first time in four years, Time has released a new road bike, touting all the cycling adjectives of being lighter, faster and stiffer, with a nod to the famed climb, the Alpe d’Huez. See more information at Time.
With a road geometry, clearance for a 45mm tire, longer stays and the zippy, lightweight feel of titanium, the Routt 45 is a contender for one of my favorite, production drop bar bike on the market. Over the years, we’ve seen Moots make large leaps out of the traditional, doctor and lawyer marketplace of high-end performance road machines into more back-country oriented exploration vehicle market. That’s not a great surprise either, as even the automotive and motorcycle markets have seen a shift from speed-centered experiences to more “adventure-driven” vehicles. People want to get out more, away from the crowds and away from the confines of asphalt-driven transportation.
Kyle’s 650b Cosmic Stallion Road with Campagnolo Chorus 11
Photos by John Watson and words by Kyle Kelley
Editor’s intro. I love Kyle’s All-City Cosmic Stallion. For me, the interchangeability of these bikes from 700c to 650b open up a door for riders to experience the plush cush of a 47mm tubeless road tire on a readily-available, production frame. It’s my belief that these 650b / 27.5″ wheeled bikes will alter the “road” industry to a place that proves you don’t need 23mm tires and 110 PSI to enjoy “all the roads.”
A while back I found myself riding my road bike less and less and my cyclocross bike more and more. I just wanted to get further and further from the hustle and bustle of the big city and closer to the epicenter of the San Gabriel Mountains, but I also understood that I would always have at least 15 miles on pavement before reaching the service roads and single track found in the Angeles Forest. No matter how much riding I was doing in the mountains, I was guaranteed 30 miles on the actual road, and no matter how much dirt the middle of the ride promised, road geometry made the most sense for these longer rides.
Raise your hand if you have ridden an actual cyclocross bike over 100 miles in one sitting. It is not fun and I’m not talking about type 2 fun. A road bike just works better for on and off-road riding. Hence the gravel craze.
For me, it’s just a road bike, and that’s why it has road pedals. It’s ridden on roads, paved and dusty. It’s a road bike, and for me, no road bike should be built with anything but Campagnolo. Now, thanks to Paul Component Engineering and their Klampagnolo brakes, with a Campy-specific pull and Chorus‘ new, 32-tooth cassette, why would you use anything but Campy?
I know this build isn’t for everyone, but I guarantee it’s for way more of you disbelievers than you think. The bike rolls fast on the 47c slicks, doesn’t weigh much because of the carbon bits, and will go just about anywhere! Can’t argue with that, right? Well…of course, you can, and that’s OK because that’s your right to have an opinion. I’m just saying, someday give it a try and then let’s talk.
Fat bottomed bikes you make the ripping world go round!
____
Follow Kyle on Instagram and follow Golden Saddle Cyclery on Instagram.
Photo by Andy White
If you have an appetite for absurdly aesthetic cycling apparatus, do not miss this black and gold Speedvagen road, documented by FYXO.
Mike Cotty and the Col Collective have been looking in detail at a few of the climbs from the 2018 Tour schedule, including Stage 11’s route from Albertville to La Rosière and featuring the Cormet de Roselend…
All bikes are not created equal.
These days, it’s almost impossible to keep up with the worldwide framebuilding community’s recent works, but sometimes a bike build comes across my radar and I have to promptly share it. The newest from Saffron Frameworks is Danny’s road bike. It was built from a mix of Columbus Spirit, HSS, and Life tubing, with a Futura fork that allows for a 28mm tire clearance.
While the bike’s stance is on-par with the excellence that comes from Saffron, the paint design is something else. It’s inspired by Bridget Riley, the foremost exponents of optical art and was perfectly executed by Cole Coating. See more at the Saffron Frameworks Twiter.
Located in Sondrio and Brescia in northern Italy, the Passo del Mortirolo is the Giro’s version of the often snowy Passo di Gavia.
For many, a New Year means time for reflection, and time for prospectives. For cyclists, this often includes planning out a build for a planned ride or perhaps updating your favorite bike with new gear. Perhaps that’s the motivation for many of you to visit this site. For us at the Radavist, we look at all the data from the past year’s content and begin to understand more what you, the readers, love to see here on the site.
Every bicycle on this list should come as no surprise. It was one of the most difficult selections in the history of this site, as almost all of these Beautiful Bicycles delivered similar metrics. We pulled these from the archives based on traffic, social media chatter and commentary. They’re displayed in no particular order. Omitted are bicycle reviews and completely bone stock production models – like the Jim Merz Sequoia and All-City Cosmic Stallion.
Thrown in, making it a baker’s dozen, is our top 2017 NAHBS pick as well. Without further adieu, here’ the Lucky 13 Beautiful Bicycles of 2017!
People often refer to steel road bikes as “lifetime” bicycles. A few years back, Reilly was looking for just that, a lifetime road bike. He scoured the internet, looking at all the offerings before settling on Portland’s Breadwinner Cycles and their Lolo road bike. These frames are made in-house, at Breadwinner in Portland and can be configured with various options directly from their website. Reilly’s build is beautiful, without being flashy, relying on Shimano Ultegra’s longevity to keep the wheels and gears turning.
Little details really make the build, like his Yanco handlebar bag, Manual for Speed bar tape and Vittoria Corsa tires on Pacenti rims. Bikes like this are just so right…
