The Radavist

Photo by Khalil Najjar

This Merckx Mondays is from all over the globe, beginning with Sydney where Khalil spotted this Motorola outside a popular bakery. At first, I thought this was his Fyxo-acquired MXL, but alas, it’s another rider’s beaut.

Kinfolk posted up this baby blue road bike to their blog and I like what I see. The Brooks saddle is a great addition to this very classy build.

Macaframa did a video profile on Wolfpack‘s Don “Roadblock” Ward. Don’s one of the most genuinely nice people you’ll ever meet on a bike and I enjoyed watching this one. I need to make it out to WPH at some point. Damn, I miss LA!

I’ll admit, I saw neon and thought “oh pretty”, then I read up on Nicolai’s Argon road / touring / tracing frameset (yes, I have no idea how those geometries overlap). But the color, named “alarm dizzy camou”, is probably what caught Death Spray Custom‘s eye. As far as the bike is concerned, it’s Gates compatible and their description seems very, um, German:

“It has to be said that the Argon Road is not your conventional road bike. There are no smooth welds, no intricate lugs and no carbon tubes. However, you can not fail to be convinced by its superior stiffness to weight ratio. Indeed, both the torsional and the longitudinal stiffness of the Argon Road are almost unrivalled and it significantly outperforms carbon competitors in this respect. (Test EFBe Institute 2006) So how does a rider benefit from this? On long climbs in the mountains the Argon Road saves energy. On long Alpine descents the rigidity allows unparalleled tracking – it corners like it is on rails. After all, what is better when road-racing than being just that little bit faster? ”

I just like the paint.

Photos by Robin Nilssen

Yeah, go ahead and file this under “oh my fucking god”. So it seems that a plane, loaded with NOS Cinelli Lasers crash-landed in Stockholm many years ago. On an epic journey through the forests, in search of ancient runes, Sönkes came across the mangled vessel, only to find all of the bikes were destroyed, save for one. He took it home and found it to be in incredible, NOS condition. Knowing that the Italians (or that Aussie) would be on his tail, he took it to Robin’s studio for documentation.

Check out more shots of this Beautiful Bicycle below!

Don’t you? Disk-tabbed and ready to go.  Firefly is always a crowd pleaser.

Photo by Robin Nilssen / Larger here

Robin, aka Boon Photography sent this shot over of a friends completely NOS Cinelli Laser road bike. All I can think is DAMN. Where the hell was that hiding out in Stockholm? This is just one shot, more to come next week.

After Tyler’s Guest Gallery, I thought I’d had my fill of Firefly for the week. But alas…

I’ve been meaning to do a bit of exploring off the beaten paths of my typical hill loops. A few wrong turns and sneaking into gated communities proved to be a great way to spin off the day. I found a nice, 1-mile long path along mesquite trees and a few streams. What I intended to only be a 10 mile jaunt became a 38 mile, 3,200′ afternoon. What can I say? The weather is amazing in Austin right now…

Check the route on my Strava and share your Sunday rides in the comments!

Yesterday, I woke up rather early and went on a little ride with Ross. It wasn’t particularly long, nor were there many climbs, we just wanted to get a spin in before the weekend hit us. Austin’s great for many reasons, two of which are photos like this, taken from my Instagram. What I didn’t get photos of were the two pitt bull / mastiff mix dogs that chased Ross for a mile. The water bottle trick didn’t even phase those beasts.

I’m sure someone will note that there are a lot of people on the hoods here, rather than the drops for a race. Since I did it for you, can we just get down with this? Looks like a lot of fun and in São Paulo!

I have been salivating over the idea of a Profile Racing road / ‘cross hub since Christian first spun the cassette in the phone to me over a year ago. I like a loud hub and having ridden White Industry, Phil and Chris King, I’m very excited to try out the new Profile Elite RC hubs this coming ‘cross season. When the UPS delivery man dropped off the box today, I had to fry ’em up and see them glow.

Check out more below.

California really does have some of the most beautiful riding in the US. Here’s Strava‘s new commercial, “Shower”, featuring Tim Johnson, tackling Coleman Valley Rd up from HWY 1. Damn, I miss the Cali coast.

Ben Ingham does it once again for Rapha, premiering their Spring / Summer Pro Team Collection. Very creative and thanks for being helmet-savvy Dunn!