The Radavist

Team Dream’s new Spring collection is going live on their new website today at 12 PST. To coincided with this launch, I figured I’d share our photoshoot images here on the site!

Home to the Owens River, bounded by the Inyo Mountains on the east, the Coso Range on the southeast, Sierra Nevada on the west and Chalfant Valley on the north, Owens Valley is one of the most geologically diverse areas in California, in my opinion anyway. It’s a veritable playground for the outdoors with Mount Whitney, the highest point in the lower 48 States, attracting hikers from all over the world. If you’re not into climbing a 14,505′ mountain, the Owens river is great for fishing and there are numerous other activities found surrounding the towns of Lone Pine, Big Pine and Independence, California.

I love Paul Sadoff’s creations. You know the ones. Rock Lobsters always grab my attention, especially special ones like this one. Max is special. In his own way and so when he decided he wanted another road bike, much less, another Rock Lobster, he contacted Paul to build him an S&S travel road bike that could fit a chubby tire. Since he’d be cramming this beaut into an S&S case, Max didn’t want to put anything super precious on the bike, so he went with a tried and true Sram Red 10-speed group that he had pulled off an old race bike of his, along with some alloy Zipp wheels. Ok, so maybe that’s not exactly the cheapest group for this bike, but what can I say? Roadies that race crits have all kinds of trick road gear just waiting to be bolted onto frames.

Max, thanks for being a good sport and for supporting a rad guy like Paul. I think it’s time you order another Rock Lobster… ;-)

This is a special Merckx Mondays treat. Sean from Team Dream recently acquired an Eddy Merckx Corsa Extra in the Motorola livery, laced with a beautiful NOS Dura Ace 25th Anniversary group. I’ve personally never seen this group on a bike, in person before, so it was a real pleasure photographing it. Sure, there are a few blemishes on the kit, like the insertion marks on the seat post, which were like that before Sean acquired it, but overall, this bike is a real gem.

Sean also has the case for the 25th group, which came with the fabled wrist watch. Once he replaces this group with a modern Campagnolo Athena kit, he’ll be displaying the 25th in its case at the Cub House, along with the bike itself. If you’re in the South Pasadena area, make sure you roll through the Cub House and check it out in person because no photos do this bike justice in real life!

Independence, California is the portal to Onion Valley road, one of the many climbs in the Lone Pine to Bishop corridor. Like Horseshoe Meadows and Whitney Portal, Onion Valley goes, straight up in the Eastern Sierra mountains. If you’d like to step back into the archives on the Radavist, Ryan Wilson has documented this area thoroughly. While shooting Team Dream’s new Spring apparel line, I took the time to document each of the road bikes the guys were riding. These are these rider’s own road bikes. They’re not props. Nor were they sent in from the companies for some web-time.

Danny Heeley works at the Cub House part time. He’s a track racing national champ – holla! – and loves British comedy. He bought this, Made in the USA CAAD5 from eBay a while back and built it up with a hodgepodge kit of Ultegra and Dura Ace. Then Sean gave him the Mavic wheels and viola, this beaut is on the road again.

We were staying around the corner from the famous Independence, California USPS and I couldn’t think of a better locale to shoot this bike.

So many blue bikes as of late here on the site, but maybe that’s a sign for the bluest of blue Spring skies. In the Eastern Sierra corridor last weekend, we had some pristine weather. Minimal cloud cover with snow-capped mountains and temperatures in the 80’s. It was the perfect backdrop for a photoshoot. One of the Team Dream models, Adam, has this drool-worthy Indy Fab Crown Jewel built with Campagnolo Chorus 11, Mavic Ksyrium wheels and White Industries VBC cranks. I know this bike looks clean, but trust me, it gets ridden plenty.

I love how this bike pops against the environment and how great it looks going fast!

Early spring is an ideal time to ride bikes in the Eastern Sierra corridor and Death Valley. The daytime temperatures aren’t scorching hot and even in the exposed, dry heat, there are nice cool breezes blowing off the surrounding mountains. Needless to say, in the spring, I like to leave the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles for some desert solitude. Now, “solitude” isn’t something easy to find in Death Valley, on a weekend, in one of the peak tourist times, but it’s remarkable how the park crowds thin out once you’re away from the stores and outposts sprinkled along highway 190.

Cari helped me on a photoshoot in the Eastern Sierra mountains on Saturday, so on Sunday we decided to drive over the Panamint Range in the Inyo National Forest and into Death Valley National Park to ride an easy, but breathtaking loop called Artist Drive. If you spent time in museums growing up as a kid, perhaps you remember “Astronaut Icecream?” Well, Artist Drive takes you through chunks of that stuff, only at the scale of mountains. The colors are other-worldly and since the road is freshly paved, it makes you feel as if you’re riding in a video game.

We parked on the side of the highway, put up window shades and began the morale-breaking 1000′ climb up to the first saddle. From there, it’s a rainbow rollercoaster through geologic formations and colors akin to broken easter eggs, with the occasional motorist driving past, looking at you with such disbelief that you can’t help but laugh.

Once you complete Artist Drive, it’s a 3.5 mile ride back uphill on the park road to your car and for Cari and I, a 3 hour drive back to our house in Independence, California. If you time it right, Mother Nature will put on a different display of colors… If you’re in Death Valley with a bike, I highly suggest this short, but scenic ride.

After the dust from the explosion of hydraulic disc brakes, electronic and wireless shifting settled over the bike industry and ultimately, NAHBS, I found myself tuned into the classic road bike offerings. There’s a misconception that steel is heavy, and perhaps many of the readers of this website aren’t privy to that, but plenty of conversations with cyclists prove this negative connotation exists.

This year at NAHBS, Carl Strong of Strong Frames looked to break that stigma, with a classic road bike, built with Dura Ace that weighed in at 16lbs. Carl described this bike as a throwback to the 7402-era race bikes. He even used Dura Ace hubs on the wheel build. It’s easy to get caught up in technology at NAHBS, but bikes like this just make me swoon.

Each year, Argonaut brings some very classy bikes to NAHBS and even though I loved the matte black and Olive Drab with King 40th build he brought, I couldn’t help myself and had to shoot this white beaut with SRAM Red eTap. Being a tall guy myself, I love seeing bigger bikes that still nail the proportions and aesthetics.

The best thing about Argonauts is they ride just as well as they look.

NAHBS isn’t just about $10k road bikes with wireless shifting and every year, there are still a good number of classic, rim-brake road bikes lining the convention center halls. This year, Mike DeSalvo brought one of my personal favorites. A Builder’s Special in gold and turquoise, built with Shimano Ultegra. These completes go for $4,300 as pictured, or $3,650 sans Chris King components.

It’s hard to beat that pricing, especially from a guy like Mike, who knows how to lay down some beautiful weld beads. If you’d like a Builder’s Special, holler at DeSalvo!

McGovern Cycles makes carbon bikes by hand in Nevada County, California. I don’t know why, but I can’t help think that a tequila sunrise was the inspiration for this John Slawta-painted McGovern Cycles road bike. That or a desert sunset.

Either way, this red, white and orange bike just popped out during NAHBS and I couldn’t wait to photograph it against the blacked-out background.

Oh, you like donuts? Do you like donuts a lot? Perhaps you have a stem cap or a bottle with a donut on it. In this world, there are people who are willing to commit to a donut on a t-shirt, and there are people who are so committed to donuts that they make their carbon fiber road bike one giant donut. This year at NAHBS, Appleman did just that.

How’s that for donut dedication?