The Radavist

Readers of this website might know of Strawfoot Handmade‘s bike-related products. Garrett and Vince make saddle bags, musettes, and other on or off-the-bike portage solutions. In recent years, Strawfoot has pivoted to make more than just bike bags, or bags in general. With the growing popularity of Sprinter van buildouts and other forms of mini-RVs, Garrett began making insultated window shades for the various van models, allowing the owners to not only reflect heat but offer a bit of privacy from the outside world. As you can imagine with the increased popularity of van buildouts, Strawfoot is very busy. When I was in Santa Cruz before the Sea Otter Classic, I checked in with Strawfoot, who had just moved into Rock Lobster’s old space…

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!

As fate, or at least the press circuit would have it, I’m back in Santa Cruz for the Blackburn Ranger Camp. I drove up from Los Angeles a night early and crashed with my friend Garrett, from Strawfoot Handmade.

The last time I was in town, I got to spend a lot of time with him, photographing his shop, his bikes and even he and his daughter Olive’s daily routine.

This round, time was precious, but I managed to get a few photos of his new bikes, the first being this Team Fresh Air Hunter Cycles ‘cross with a carbon seat tube. Garrett built this bike up as a strictly race machine. SRAM Force CX1 and PAUL Mini Motos with a DT / Pacenti wheelset will deliver all the reliability needed for racing in Santa Cruz, while a Sim Works’ cockpit and WTB saddle on a Sim Works post top the build off.

Balance is key for a ‘cross bike and this bike has it, both aesthetically and in terms of weight. Oh and I love the Fresh Air Cycles blue!

Mornings with a two year old begin bright and early. For Garrett from Strawfoot and his wife, their schedules allow them to split the weekdays with their daughter Olive. For Garrett, that usually means breakfast duties around 6 or 7am, followed by a quick jaunt in their Frances Cycles cargo bike to Companion Bakeshop to “get sconed.”

I’m lucky to know so many makers. People who take a raw material and manipulate it to fit a specific use and aesthetic. Like frame builders, bag makers are able to look at a table full of parts and visualize the whole.

Garrett and Vince are Strawfoot Handmade. They’re two guys working out of a garage in Santa Cruz making everything from Dopp bags to totes for everyday use and kit bags, riding wallets or saddle bags for cycling. It seems like an obvious or easy job for someone who can sew but there’s a lot to the production process and that’s not even counting the development of new goods.

One of the best qualities of steel is its ability to be resurrected from disaster.

In-home or in-workshop bicycle storage is essential and while many of the systems we use to hang our bikes might be bomb-proof, sometimes the building itself is a little janky. Last year, Garrett from Strawfoot‘s bike rack fell off the wall at his shop, crushing his beloved Hunter ‘Cross bike.

Devastated, he called up Rick Hunter and put the bike in queue for repair. A few weeks later (he and Garrett are best buds, hence the fast turnaround,) Garrett’s bike was ready for powder. The color he chose was fitting for this resurrected zombie bike: matte black.

This will be Garrett’s Grinduro bike, but with a 40mm WTB Nano setup tubeless, which coincidentally is what I rode and will be riding this weekend in Quincy.

If you’re rolling through this weekend, swing through the Strawfoot booth and say hey to Garrett!