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Fall 2019 – We went, we raced, we watched, we ate… we slept, we drank, we rode…we photographed, videographed, we put some words in a series, and then we hit send. Or so we thought. So here’s your Tourist experience in fine motion picture form. You want more? You got it, you can see more of the story at www.touristsoncourse.com
Hello 2021
We liked this project so much we didn’t think it belonged in 2020. Seriously though, sometimes things are just out of your control and sometimes the things that are in your control take a back seat to other things in your control and those things take a back seat to the out of control things. And well, sometimes you just forget to hit send. That being said I am so happy to be sharing this project here on the Radavist because it’s where it all started. I wrote a little piece about how cool the Enduro Trophy of Nations would be–it was–and how excited I would be to be able to go race it–I did–so this is the story of that adventure.
We’re very stoked to kick off 2021 with this very unique build from Matt for our first Readers’ Rides of the year. Read on below for Matt’s words and a full build list!
Fires aren’t going anywhere in California. Soil Searching founder, Fanie Kok, shares this intimate profile of Dillon Osleger, a man building a conservation movement that has us all thinking about how to protect what we have now instead of rebuilding once it’s already gone.
In yesterday’s Reportage, featuring Kyle’s Falconer, a reader plugged this innovative and simple product. If you have a mountain bike with 148mm rear end (and a 1mm thread pitch – Syntace) and want to run a rack similar to the Tumbleweed T-Rack or the like, then check out this innovative Thru-Axle Rack Mount that Specialized has in their catalog. It’s hard to see but each end of the axle has threading for a bolt to secure your rear rack. This problem-solving device is only $30…
Specialized launched their new Stumpjumper EVO line today and with it, another banger of a product video.
For this week’s Readers’ Rides, our friend RJ Rabe shares his vintage Sequoia townie build in a high res gallery…
I don’t know much about this particular Sequoia before it came into my life. Beyond that, it lived in the rafters of my friend Austin Horse’s New York apartment before I brought it back to California some years ago. You can see the sticker from the shop that originally sold it on the seat tube, with the protective film somewhat intact.
Chuck Teixeira’s lifelong passion for riding is equaled only by what he has done to advance the sport. He embodies the ingenuity, craftsmanship, and dedication that we strive to achieve, and he has been instrumental in making cycling better for all of us.
And now Chuck needs our help; his home is gone. The CZU August Lightning Complex fire has ripped through the Santa Cruz mountains, destroying dozens of buildings, incinerating tens of thousands of acres and displacing tens of thousands of people. Chuck’s home was one of those that burned to the ground, only ashes remain. The sweat and blood he poured into building his mountain refuge is gone – reduced to smoke and embers. His scores of rare and vintage bicycles – a rolling museum of cycling’s evolution and a living archive of his inventions and innovations – reduced to melted metal and plastic. His hand-build hotrods – each representing thousands of hours of meditative hard work – charred beyond recognition. Beyond the tangible, and all the more devastating, Chuck and his wife Debbie lost the dream of spending the rest of their lives together in the sanctuary they built.
Today on Readers’ Rides, Jerry shares his Craigslist Stumpjumper build from Central Oregon.
Justin and Cory Williams from Legion of Los Angeles give the new Tarmac SL7 a rip.
Whatever you do in this life, do it with fucking passion and power.
Make sure the world knows it – Edward B. Gieda III
I’ve been so inspired by the voices, initiatives and attitudes from our bicycle community in the last year in general and especially in the last couple of weeks of unrest and calibration of who we are and what we’re doing to each other. The calling out of toxic elements and the demand for change has a snowballing effect that is nothing but refreshing. I believe in the bicycle as a tool for change and grassroots movements like the Cycling Industry Pledge by WTF Bikexplorers is just one powerful example of how to drive change and hold us all accountable for our actions, or the lack thereof. For some, the bicycle will always just be a toy or a piece of sporting equipment but for many others, it’s a tool that enables change, growth and freedom.
Remember Sarah’s SIQuoia flat bar? I like to think that builds like that prompted Specialized to experiment with their newly-launched Diverge line announced today. Nestled in the EVO line – the catalog reserved for experimentation – the new Diverge EVO joins the newest in Diverge tech with a flat bar package suitable for singletrack riding. This model retails for $2,600 and the EVO Comp model retails for $1,600. The only bummer is that these flat bar aluminum frame models lack the SWAT storage the carbon models use. Now the next question is, when will Specialized release an Aero-Bar build kit like Sarah’s?
Check out the full lineup at Specialized.
Specs:
-E5 Aluminum frame
-Future Shock 2.0 with an adjustable hydraulic damper offering 20mm of travel
-Shimano XT 1×12
-Magura MT4 brakes.
-X-Fusion Manic dropper
-Rhombus 42mm gravel tires
-DT Swiss G540 alloy wheels.
MTB shoes don’t have to look like 1990’s era skate shoes. Case in point is Specialized’s Recon shoes, the pinnacle of the brand’s MTB footwear. The Recon utilizes a Body Geometry sole and footbed for comfort and power transfer. These shoes have a stiffness index of 10, thanks to the Carbon STRIDE toe-flex technology and the fully-welded upper body reduces seams, so you don’t have to worry as much about blisters. The Recon 2 ($160.00) features one BOA closure, while the Recon 3 ($225.00) features two. See more at Specialized.
Specialized’s new Down Under Collection looks to the fauna Down Under, specifically the Australian Budgie. As 500 million animals have been affected by the massive bushfires, Specialized is donating $100,000 USD to WIRES, the Australian Wildlife Rescue Organization. You can now buy product from the Down Under Collection, to show your support or if you’d prefer to donate yourself, do so at WIRES’ emergency fund.
Wow! What a year it’s been. In the past twelve months, we’ve shot roughly 300 bikes. From gravel races, to NAHBS, the Philly Bike Expo and our normal travels, we really captured some unique builds and we’ve got a good handle on the bikes the readers of the Radavist enjoy checking out based on some key metrics.
Every year we try to do our best to sort through twelve months of archives to narrow down to this list. The first filter is the comment count, which we start at 50 comments. Then comes page views, with the minimum number being 20,000 views. Finally, we look at the social media chatter; including Instagram comments and how many times was the post shared across various platforms.
What we end up with is a list that is filled with a plethora of interesting, versatile, and quirky bikes. The only editorial decision I myself made was to omit reviews of stock bikes. So no Santa Cruz Stigmata or Cannondale Topstone this round!
Check out the full Top Ten Beautiful Bicycles of 2019 below, in no particular order…
Behold. A steel bicycle that lasts a lifetime and pushes through the trends, accepting new builds and uses with ease, with finesse, and most importantly, with style. Do you remember Erik’s Di2 Alfine 11 Peacock Nuke AWOL? That photoset was fire back in 2014 when we originally posted it. While propped up on a hillside in Bernal Heights, an incredibly scenic neighborhood in the US’ most scenic city, Erik and I lamented how this whole “adventure” stuff was going to take off, big time. The AWOL was the first bike Erik designed for Specialized, which is raced the Transcontinental Race on and little did he know that just five years later, the brand would put a bullet in this peacock project.
When we lost our image server bucket from 2014-2016, it was a devastating blow to the visual catalog of bike portraits, rides, events, and other cycling ephemera. I felt like a piece of my own body was taken away since so much time, energy, and in this case, physical effort was put into making that content.
That era, even though it was only a few years back, was a unique time in cycling. Instagram hadn’t quite caught on yet, not at the capacity it carries today. The whole gravel and bikepacking trend was just ramping up.
Erik Nohlin was working on the now-defunct Specialized Adventure lineup, including the AWOL – he was riding the “secret” Poler edition prototype at the time – and I was just beginning to fine-tune my abilities as both an athlete and photographer. I will admit, resurrecting stories like this is painful, partially because I feel like as a website, we’ve grown to present more refined ride Reportage, and also because it was a different time in my personal life. Yet, so many people request that these galleries get a re-up, so here we are on a Throwback Thursday post, digging up old content and re-presenting it. Rather than just re-inserting the images themselves, I culled the selection down and compiled all three ride reports into one. Enjoy!
Santa Cruz has no shortage of bike shops. This sleepy little beach town might be known for its surfing and pesky vampires, but the road and mountain riding is exceptional. With a myriad of dirt and paved roads snaking their way through coastal redwoods, and dusty, steep mountain bike trails, any cyclist can spend days upon days exploring the terrain. Spokesman Bicycles is one of the powerhouse shops in Santa Cruz and just recently opened up what they’re calling Outpost on the West Side of town, right next to their friends Sawyer and Co, a surfing lifestyle shop.
