The Radavist

During our ride to Philly from Brooklyn, I had the pleasure of staring down this beauty. My friend Harry Swartzman is close friends with Jamie Swan, a frame builder residing on Long Island, NY. Jamie’s work is very precise, clean, classy and yet, Harry’s bike falls into his atypical character.

Harry wanted a light tourer, with modern lines. A long, slammed stem, with a sloping top tube and fits much more like a road bike than a tourer. Just look at the drive-side elevation. It’s mean! Jamie often prefers more traditional road, randonneur and tourers but I think this frame is exquisite.

Bryan Myers of Fresh Frame has painted two of my bikes, my Icarus MAX track and my Bishop road. He’s a master masker and the designs that leave his shop are, well, incredible. While Fresh Frame didn’t have a booth at the Philly Bike Expo, he did lead a seminar on painting and for an in-progress project example, he brought this partially finished Icarus road. This frame is stunning! I can’t wait to see it built up. Check out more below.

Let me just preface this post by saying I wish I could show you more photos from the Giro New Road photo shoot. Even getting clearance for posting up these took a little bit of eye-batting and begging. But man, am I ever glad I got to share them.

Day 03 began as Ty, Jordan and I took off for the hills adjacent to our ranch. Super steep gravel climbs and windy singletrack was no challenge for Ty and Jordan as the sunlight broke through the trees. They just flowed through the rocky gravel as videographers and photographers tried to capture the essence of New Road. Later on, the afternoon was spent out on HWY 1 at the mouth of the Navarro River. Climbing up and down the hills, before grabbing lunch, and finally dinner.

Some of the photos shown here give you an idea of what Giro is going for in the New Road. But keep in mind, the details that make this line different from any other will be under wraps for now. Till then, enjoy these photos and don’t miss Ty’s crossie wall ride sequence!

I’m back in Austin, after a completely incredible weekend of filming and photographing Giro’s new clothing line, New Road. One of the things that made this photo shoot different than a lot of previous ones were the people involved. There was an ex 7-Eleven racer, a magazine editor, the co-founder of kickstarter, a bike shop owner, a race organizer, myself and a few Giro employees.

One of those employees was Eric Richter, a key figure in Giro‘s helmet and cycling shoe division. Eric’s responsible for many of the rad new products that Giro has been pushing over the years, as well as their involvement in various events like the Red Hook Crit. I’ve gotten to know him from chatting at Interbike and other events but I really enjoyed getting to spend some saddle time with him on his new Black Cat disk road bike in the hills of NorCal.

Columbus MAX doesn’t make this the lightest bike ever but the bent stays, disc brakes, Dura Ace and Easton parts set this bike apart from any other MAX road bike I’ve seen. When Eric pulled this beauty out of his car, I had no idea what to even say. I was stunned. See for yourself below!

We started our day at a reasonable hour and after breakfast, the team got an intro to Giro‘s new cycling apparel line, the New Road. I can’t say a whole lot about it but what I will say is this is far from “commuter wear” and a completely different approach to your typical road wear.  The most appealing aspect of the line is that it’s all made in the USA.

Our day began leaving the ranch where we’re staying, down a gravel road and out, along the 128 to the 1. At mile 45, we stopped for lunch and to my surprise, had only climbed around 1,000’. Then, jokingly Mark said “oh, there’s a climb”, a Cat 2 trek awaited us off the 1 and it hurt but the 1,000′ descent in 3 miles was exhilarating. At mile 70, we tacked in around 5,000′. Once back at the ranch, we soaked in the waining sunlight, drank some beer and sat in the hot tub, ready to tackle another day on the bike…

Expect a little more riding photos tomorrow, as well as some more teaser shots of the New Road line.

Since moving to Austin and meeting Ross, all he’s been talking about was his 2012 Speedvagen build that he was ever so patiently waiting for. In the time he was sitting on the list, he began collecting parts. The Campagnolo group was a no-brainer, but the Clavicula cranks, Praxis rings, EE Cycle Works brake calipers and Alchemy hubs were above and beyond a standard kit, even for Ross. I have to say, I see a lot of balleur road bikes these days but this one is by far a favorite. See for yourself below!

One of my favorite booths at Interbike this year was Dario Pegoretti‘s. Every time I walked past it, people were swarming to see the hand made steel masterpieces from Italy, rendering it almost impossible to get a clear photo of any of the frames. Since he had the only booth with hand-made track bikes in it, I had to get up close and personal with them.

While describing what makes Pegoretti Cicli’s work different from American builders, I overheard the rep say something to the effect of this: “Dario is from a long line of Italian frame builders. People who found a way to mix production with perfection. None of these American builders are capable of producing the quality and quantity as Dario…”

Arrogant? Sure. But hey, they’re Italian and with these bikes, it’s hard to argue otherwise.

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For 2013, Parlee introduces their new Z0 road model, the pinnacle of their US-made carbon fiber frames. While the standard road caliper model was stunning, their new Z0 disk road caught my eye. With its proprietary, Parlee-made, tapered carbon fiber disk fork, the Z0 has plenty of stiffness up front to counteract the disk stopping power. Seen here in an early prototype, the Z0 road will be available in 2013. See more photos below and I’ll post more details as events warrant.

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Year after year, photographing Interbike goes from being an overwhelming and daunting task to me just knowing what people want to see. That and after I get over shooting in the horrible lighting, the yearly tradeshow’s bounty of Beautiful Bicycles just comes easy. This year, Cinelli packed a few punches, starting with the new single speed CX frame, designed by MASH. But the main surprise was the custom carbon Laser road. Wow.

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