The Radavist

Over the years, we’ve all really strived to make the content and the characters here on the Radavist unique. It’s been a slow process, but as I’ve just spent a week sifting through the site’s archives from 2016, I can honestly say this has been our best year yet. These year-end recaps are always a joy to collate, as it allows everyone here at the site, as well as the readers to look back and relive some our favorite moments.

2016 was busy. Very busy. In fact, the archives are almost twice as long as the previous year’s, which were almost twice as long as the year’s prior, making editing the site’s content into a digestible post challenging. We’ve omitted bicycle reviews and Beautiful Bicycles for obvious reasons, leaving only ride, travel and shop visit Reportage as the meat of the gallery and storyline. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did and I’d like to thank everyone for making this site, well, rad! That includes you, the readers and the commenters. I couldn’t ask for a better community.

Before things get too sappy, read on below for the Radavist’s 2016 Year in Review.

Ever since first reviewing the All-City Mr. Pink and then the lavender Speedvagen OG1, I really wanted a steel road bike again. After some finagling, I managed to buy an OG1 frameset, along with a few painted-to-match parts from the Vanilla Workshop. Now, since the OG1 is a ready-made, off-the-shelf geometry, it’s not as pricey as the other Speedvagen frames. I also didn’t feel the need to go custom for this frameset, since the OG1’s stock geometry fit me pretty well. All I needed was a spacer under the stem to get the same reach and extension as my Argonaut road bike.

For me, a road bike is the simplest tool in my quiver. There are no rack mounts, no disc brakes, it’s just a straight-forward road machine.

The HIA Velo Co-Founder’s Personal Founder Road
Photos by Bryan Clifton, words by John Watson

Doug Zell is best known for his success with the coffee brand Intelligentsia Coffee, but as a lifelong cyclist, Doug has recently invested in a company that has made recent headlines with their new, US-made, production, carbon road bikes. HIA Velo was co-founded by Tony Karklins and Doug Zell. The two wanted to bring full-on production of carbon fiber back to the US, resulting in a $3,000 USD frameset, painted in-house with a variety of color choices. These bikes use the highest quality materials and are manufactured by using the same technology as you’d find in the pro peloton bikes. All from their facilities in Arkansas.

Photographer Bryan Clifton met up with Doug Zell on a recent trip to HIA Velo and shot his Lucky Charm Founder road bikes. It’s built with SRAM eTap with Carbon Quarq Power ReadyCranks, Ksyrium Pro Carbon SL C wheels, EE Cycleworks brakes, Cane Creek Forty headset, and Fizik parts. These bikes have all the flash, without the excessive branding. In my personal opinion, there’s no need for heavily-branded bikes let the frameset and its detailing do the talking…

Follow HIA Velo‘s story at their website and stay tuned to the Radavist for future projects involving the brand.

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Follow HIA Velo on Instagram.

On Saturday, I received a DM on Instagram from a kid named Zach who had just built up a new VYNL road bike. It was the first VYNL to use masked decals, not stickers and from what I could see, looked to be a slick build. I told Zach to come by GSC and I’d love to shoot photos of it. Little did I know Zach would roll through at mile 70 during his ride, in the complete opposite direction he needed to be going. That’s what “new bike day” does to you though…

As mentioned earlier, VYNL is now offering masked decals, straight from the paint booth. Zach’s is built up with Ultegra and Ritchey components and is very no-nonsensical. After riding various carbon bikes over the years, he missed the way aluminum road bikes felt and started looking. VYNL was at the top of his list, so he placed an order and waited.

The end result is what many would consider a damn beautiful bicycle and clearly, Zach is loving it!

From Clouds to Cacti: Three Southern California Ranges in Three Days
Photos by John Watson, words by David Bangor with notes by John Watson

Intro: I’ll just jump into this before I let David do his thing. The idea of a multi-day road tour hasn’t popped into my head in years. These days, I want to be away from cars and people, on dirt roads, hauling my own shit. What was proposed to us with this ride was very different. We’d be taking on a lot of climbing and distance each day on road bikes but because we’d be in the mountains, we’d have to carry our food, clothing in case of inclement weather, and all necessities like tools or spare tubes. Our duffel bags, containing clothes, laptops and other on-the-road necessities would be shuttled from day’s end to day’s end. We’d stay at a hotel, a friend’s mountain top cabin, and ultimately in Palm Springs at our friend’s Air B&B listing for a few days of post-ride R and R. I have been riding road a lot lately, mostly because it’s easy to get out and get back in a few hours, but was I ready for this kind of ride? Much less, was I fit enough to document the whole damn thing with a camera and a few lenses? Check back in after David’s words and read on in the captions…

Ever since I moved back to Southern California, I have been scheming to take on a mini mountainous ride across all the Transverse Ranges of the glorious classical terrain encompassing the Los Angeles and Inland Empire basins. With all my maps and possible routes planned out, it was just a matter time until I found some like-minded people to take on such a journey. Finally, at the end of September I got a call from Sean Talkington from Team Dream, expressing a need for the exact route I had been planning out in my head for months. He put out the word and we soon had rough plan of three days in the saddle and a solid group of eight cyclists, all willing to take on a solid amount of elevation and miles.

A few years ago, Todd from Black Cat Bicycles was on a road ride with a friend of his when they were both struck by a car, exceeding the speed limit on the narrow, remote road they were on. It was a terrifying experience as Todd fought to save his friend’s life, while working through his own sustained injuries. At the end of the ordeal, both of them survived, yet with some serious injuries. Luckily no one died and both cyclists can still ride. Ok, something died: Todd’s love for road cycling. Ok, maybe “died” is a bit extreme, but after an experience like that, I can’t say I’d be stoked to kit up and hit the road again.

Road bikes. They’re still a lot of fun, especially when you can fit a chubby tire like the Rivendell Ruffy Tuffy in them. Garrett from Strawfoot wanted a new road bike when his daughter Olive was born, thinking it’d be a fun and easy way to get in a ride between daddy duties. A while back, he bought a fork from Rick Hunter and contacted Cameron from Falconer to build a road frame around the fork, resulting in one of the slickest and most subtle road bikes I’ve seen. Painted in creamsicle Orange – or Molteni orange if you prefer sausages to ice cream snacks – this beaut was built with Sram Force 22, DT Swiss to H+Son Archetype wheels and Sim Works parts.

Living in the hills of Santa Cruz means easy access to beautiful road riding. It’s easy to drop everything and hit the road for an hour. Unfortunately, all this bike really ended up seeing was the rollers. Garrett didn’t have a lot of time to actually ride the thing when Olive was born, so while she was napping, he’d hop on the rollers and sweat it out for an hour or two.

As a small business owner however, sometimes projects need to be sold to make way for other, more important purchases. Strawfoot is in constant need of materials, machines and extra revenue, so Garrett is selling this beaut for $3,000 shipped anywhere in the continental USA. As is. Complete. The size is 55cm top tube and 54 seat tube. Center to center. Just to sweeten the pot, if you purchase this bike, I’ll throw in a Radavist Sage Jersey… just mention this post in your email. Holler at Garrett for more information. SOLD!

After owning a tri bike for years, Jesse finally decided to treat herself to a new road bike. It’d been a while since she had made a new bike purchase and after a lot of internet research, she decided on an Argonaut.

The frame selection, like the parts, came only after a lot of thought. Jesse went with Shimano Di2 hydro to make braking easier on long descents or steep canyon roads, King R45 Disc hubs laced to the super solid H+Son Archetype rims ensure her wheels will be solid and new 3T components offer a sleek look to this beautiful bicycle.

Since Argonaut is doing paint in house now, they can do just about anything you’d want, yet Jesse decided on a few color hits in the inside of the stays and fork leg. Since Golden Saddle is an Argonaut dealer, they made everything painless, from the ordering process to the final build.

Yes, bikes like this are easy to nerd out on, but even easier to ride. Oh and they’re terrifying to photograph on a windy day!

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If you want a custom build like this and live in Los Angeles, hit up Golden Saddle Cyclery.