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TGIF Ride with Golden Saddle Cyclery in the Verdugo Mountains

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TGIF Ride with Golden Saddle Cyclery in the Verdugo Mountains

Since Golden Saddle Cyclery doesn’t open until noon on Fridays, when I’m in town, I like to get in a good ride with a few of the guys. This morning Mike, Kyle and I took to the local dirt roads and singletrack found in the Verdugo Mountains, just 8 miles from the shop. These climbs will put fire in your legs, without a doubt, but once up at the top, you’ve got nothing but ripping singletrack and dirt roads taking you down. If you’d like to add in a bonus trail, La Tuna Canyon trail is a rutted, steep good time with plenty of scenic vistas – particularly of the gridlock traffic as people commute in their cars to work…. #LASucksForCycling, right?

Check out some more photos below!

Fuck Yeah Olive Drab Speedvagen ‘Cross

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Fuck Yeah Olive Drab Speedvagen ‘Cross

Fuck yeah olive drab! I love OD green bikes. In fact, I love anything OD green. There’s something so utilitarian about it. Take something completely ordinary and then paint it OD for it to be even more bad-ass. Even a Speedvagen. Not that Speedvagens aren’t already made from bad-assery, but the paint doesn’t hurt.

This one came waltzing in Golden Saddle Cyclery a few weeks ago, begging to be photographed. Seemed the current owner bought it from someone who maybe rode it two or three times. It’s immaculate and thankfully, now it’s being ridden a lot on Los Angeles’ fine dirt roads and trails.

There’s something so timeless about canti brakes on a ‘cross bike, especially with that seat mast-puncturing cable!

The First Titanium Geekhouse

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The First Titanium Geekhouse

Sometimes you need a reboot and for the team at Geekhouse, that includes not only a new logo (designed by the Boston-based Monica Hargrove,) but a new material. Marty Walsh has been building with steel for what probably feels like an eternity for him and in that time, he’s made the point to express an interest in titanium frames to me. Needless to say, I wasn’t surprised when this bike rolled through my inbox yesterday…

This disc road was built for the New England Sram rep, Andy Ewas. Which is probably the reason for the extensive SRAM and Zipp kit. On this build, you’ll spot the new Sram Red eTap and Zipp 303 Wheels with a Zipp cockpit.

Paint design on the frame is from the one and only Jordan Low at Hot Tubes. It features a Metallic Graphite Grey to Raw Ti fade. This is overlapped with a Candy Red to Blue over Raw Ti, revealing the welds underneath the paint. I.e. it’s fire!

See more of this beautiful bicycle below and hopefully, we see more titanium coming out of Geekhouse in the near future!

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The 8Bar Bike Mitte Converts from a Road to an All-Road

Berlin’s 8Bar Bikes recently launched a Kickstarter for their new Mitte road bike. The Mitte is unlike anything offered before by the brand in that with a swap of the fork and adjustment of the slider dropouts, it can convert its head, seat angles and bb drop to essentially turn and tune itself from a road bike to an all-road bike. It’s an interesting approach to design, especially if you truly can only have one bike…

Foundry Cycles New Flyover Titanium ‘Cross Bike

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Foundry Cycles New Flyover Titanium ‘Cross Bike

This year, Foundry’s lineup of ‘cross and all-road bikes welcomes the Flyover titanium ‘cross bike. The Flyover was designed by using the Overland as a base, then adding internal cable routing, additional mud clearance, 3Al/2.5V titanium tubing and a 65mm bottom bracket drop. For fans of the Overland, who were looking for a more race-specific bike, the Flyover is for you. See more details at Foundry and more photos below. Also, as a side-note, the Overland‘s new olive drab paintjob looks great!

Riding in the Barcelona Hills with Legor Cicli

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Riding in the Barcelona Hills with Legor Cicli

Barcelona, at least as far as I’m concerned, is Los Angeles’ European sister city. Not so much in terms of its urbanism, or gracious public plazas, or the seemingly lack of vehicular congestion, but in terms of the riding. Mediterranean climates make for photogenic trails and even in the winter months, this city is a joy to ride in. When we arrived in Barcelona, I had no idea what to expect. Mattia from Legor Cicli and Ken from ENVE told us (meaning myself and photographer Jeff Curtis, who came along to document the trip for ENVE) we’d be riding dirt roads and trails all within the city limits.

Mattia’s Legor Cicli Porreca All Road

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Mattia’s Legor Cicli Porreca All Road

More and more people are tuning into the advantages of a road bike with bigger clearances. With brands like ENVE, designing forks like the GRD, specifically after frame builders requested it over and over again, it’s now easier than ever to tailor a custom bicycle to your own style of dirt riding.

Over the past few days, I’ve been riding in Barcelona with Mattia of Legor Cicli. He’s been thrashing this Porreca All Road model with ease as he shows us around his city. It’s a looker for sure but it’s got details to match its aesthetics. After all, looks ain’t everything.

For starters, Mattia designed a custom Columbus tubeset for this bike and utilized those stylish Syntace dropouts to run his SRAM Red Hydro setup. This bike also features a t47bb (which I failed to get a good photo of!) by White Industries and that new n nifty GRD fork by ENVE. The production frames will fit a 43mm tire, offering plenty of cushioning for rough roads and trails.

I’ve had a lot of fun riding with this bike and a lotta fun photographing it! Thanks for being a great host, Mattia!

2016 NAHBS: W.H. Bradford All-Road

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2016 NAHBS: W.H. Bradford All-Road

Bikepacking isn’t limited to mountain bikes and this W.H. Bradford has some tricks up its sleeves… For starters, there’s a Thomson dropper trigger under the SRAM shifter, extra bottle bosses on the Ruckus Composites-altered Whiskey fork and plenty of triangle space for that splinter camo Porcelain Rocket bag. With clearance for Bruce Gordon’s Rock N Road tires, this bike can go just about anywhere and when it’s time to stealth camp, it’ll blend right into the woods. Just don’t let that Profile Racing freehub spin or you’ll blow your cover.

2016 NAHBS: Mars Cycles Trailside Companion 420 ‘Cross Bike

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2016 NAHBS: Mars Cycles Trailside Companion 420 ‘Cross Bike

420-friendly themes in cycling were abundant in the early years of mountain biking, yet I don’t recall ever seeing a bike actually become a pipe. Mars Cycles went there for NAHBS this year, making the Trailside Companion a functioning smoking device, carb and all. Personally, I think this is a brilliant use of a show bike…

Also, that spraypaint job is insane!

2016 NAHBS: Sklar Disc All Road

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2016 NAHBS: Sklar Disc All Road

Adam Sklar brought some heat with him from Montana. Having just turned 16, he’s the youngest builder at the show (just kidding, he’s 22) but that didn’t stop him from turning out some beautiful machines. As I sat in his booth looking at the mountain and fatbikes on display, I couldn’t help but pick out the curved, swoopy-tubed ‘cross or “all road” bike in the corner. Complete with Sycip-inspired quarter fork blade toppers and some slick Reynolds wheels, this puppy is ready to take on some Montana fire road action!

2016 NAHBS: Ritchey Snow Camo Swiss Cross

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2016 NAHBS: Ritchey Snow Camo Swiss Cross

When Ritchey comes to NAHBS, they bring Tom Ritchey-built bikes, including this Swiss Cross. This one’s painted by Rick at D&D Cycles, just like the classic Commandos were and was born in California, inside Tom’s shop. I’d say that’s a pretty fitting bike for NAHBS!

Cherry Bomb Stoemper ‘Cross Bike

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Cherry Bomb Stoemper ‘Cross Bike

The dusty and dry trails and roads in SoCal can quickly age any bike. From surprise slide-outs to caked up dirt, pretty soon even the newest bike can look weathered and well, loved. Now I don’t know the story behind this Stoemper ‘cross bike, other than it was brought into Golden Saddle for some TLC, but it’s easy to see that even a bright red cherry bomb frame like this can get plenty of action ’round these parts.

My favorite detail: the mis-matched PAUL Cantis!

Keep rolling, you perdy thing.

Cyclofunk Single Speed Rock Lobster Cyclocross – Kyle Kelley

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Cyclofunk Single Speed Rock Lobster Cyclocross – Kyle Kelley

Cyclofunk Single Speed Rock Lobster Cyclocross
Photos by Kyle Kelley, words by John Watson

Single speeds are by far the most elegant ‘cross bikes in my opinion and this Cyclofunk rig has tons of character built in.

Jake’s got style for days when it comes to his Rock Lobster SSCX bike. For starters, orange is the fastest color, especially when it matches the Giants’ livery. Then, the Campy Record and Chorus SS drivetrain and brake levers adds a bit of Italian componentry flair where it’s noticeable and finally, the PAUL “party” mullet brake combination of a Touring Canti with a MiniMoto provide ample stoppage. Black and orange make for great bike colors and I can’t keep my eyes off this one. The black Rock Lobster head tube logo is a perfect touch!

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Follow Kyle on Instagram and Jake on Instagram.

One Minty Fresh Icarus ‘Cross Bike

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One Minty Fresh Icarus ‘Cross Bike

It’s not every day that you see an Icarus in Los Angeles. Much less one that’s so minty fresh. As the sun poured into Golden Saddle Cyclery the other day, this beaut rolled through the doors, owner en tow, Chris King freehub buzzing along. Victor had contacted Ian at Icarus over two years ago to build him a ‘cross bike with cantis, a 1 1/8″ steerer and classic lines. Still, in a world of 44mm head tubes and disc brakes, this bike looks modern, yet still timeless.

The mint paint is offset by the bright red color hits provided by paint and Chris King. I’ll always feel a special connection to Icarus’ work and this bike makes it easy to see why…

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Visit Golden Saddle Cyclery in Silverlake, Los Angeles and follow them on Instagram.