The Radavist

Without showing any favoritism, out of all the bikes at Grinduro, this bike made by W.H. Bradford Designs was one of the most unique and the only hardtail in the whole grouping, discounting the Southpark ‘rigid’ with the Lauf fork. When I first saw this bike, I was partially blinded by the fluoro front end on it. But then the brushed purple rear triangle and the little angry mountain – a symbol from Grinduro, angry Mount Hough – caught my eye, all carefully executed by Eric from Color Works Paint. It’s those little details that make bikes fun and that’s what Grinduro is all about right, fun?

With matching Yanco Bags, a SRAM MTB kit, Industry Nine wheels, and its mean and rowdy stance, I might not be showing favoritism, but I feel like I saved the best for last. What was your favorite bike from Grinduro this year? See them all in our search string.

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Wow. Just wow. Robert from Blue Collar Bikes brought my favorite bike to the 2018 Grinduro Town Hall. Painted to match his iconic van, this Nigel 650G featured components from PAUL, 3T, WTB, White Industries, SRAM, and a Fabric saddle. There are so many NorCal brands on this bike, all within a short trip from Sacramento where Blue Collar is based.

There’s not much else to note about this bike, as it’s a prime example of a bike that tells its own story. My only regret was not taking this photo as well!

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Technology. Sometimes it gets a bad rep but when you consider the possibilities for makers, it can be a powerful tool to wield. Take Taylorsville’s Dana Fenimore and his brand Southpark. 10 years ago and he would have spent painstaking hours carving these lugs, or paying top dollar for a laser cutter to cut out these elaborate logos and designs. Now he just runs the lugs through a CNC machine and Voila! a work of art.

Dana’s handwork stopped the show at the 2018 Grinduro Town Hall, with curious enthusiasts querying how he was able to deliver such fine lugwork on this Lauf fork-equipped mountain bike. Did I mention that Dana built the CNC machine too? Yeah, he’s got some skills!

What do you think? Does the fact that a CNC machine made these lugs undermine the craft, or enhance it? Unfortunately, I cannot find Dana’s website or social media links, so if you have those, drop them in the comments.

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One bike that I was very stoked to see on display at this year’s Grinduro Town Hall was this beautiful aluminum Rock Lobster All Road. Built with SRAM Red eTap as a 1x, Zipp wheels, and a beautiful purple and green paint job, this bike grabbed the attention of many attendees of this equally fun as challenging event. Part of that has to do with the paint, which was laid down by Black Magic in Portland!

Sometimes simplicity is the name of the game and that’s one game Rock Lobster knows how to win! Check out Spokesman’s website or Instagram.

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Another super clean flat bar all-road, or “hybrid” bike on display at Grinduro was this steel Caletti Scrambler, painted in a beautiful silver, adorned with the California Grizzly geometric graphic, topped off with purple anodized bits. Bikes like this really make sense for an event like Grinduro, where the washboarded roads can provide a challenging grip for drop bars, which are prone to slipping. It might be a matter of preference, but flat bar ‘cross and all-road bikes really look mean!

If you’d like to know more about the Caletti Scrambler, check out our review from last year!

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Man! What a year for the Town Hall bikes at Grinduro. There were nine bikes from builders on display, all the result of their ideal Grinduro rigs, and many of the brands took it as an opportunity to release some balleur builds. Take for instance this Breadwinner Cycles B Road, blinged out with custom Andrew the Maker bags made from Burberry fabric.

The result is one of my favorite Breadwinners to date, especially when you look at the complete build from a distance. It has panache!

E D D Y M E R K I N!

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The GR2 is the latest bike from Bend, Oregon’s Argonaut Cycles. After years of design, development, and testing, Ben and his team are finally rolling these capable models out the door. With a racing geometry, lightweight layup, and in-house paint, the GR2 is a veritable dream bike.

For Grinduro this year, Argonaut displayed this beautiful build with SRAM Red eTap, Zipp, and WTB 38mm tires.

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Adam Sklar wants to shake the negative connotations with the word “hybrid.” You see, Adam likes flat bar ‘cross bikes. He likes how shreddy they are and he always jokes about how people cringe at the word “hybrid.” For Grinduro this year, he brought a titanium bike, which I’m calling the Hybrid Moments. Partially because, well, it’s a hybrid and also because he’s never heard the song by the Misfits. Millennials!

Built with SRAM cah caw Eagle XX1, Zipp wheels, and those nifty new Paul Klamper Flat Mounts. What about that fork? Shhhhh!

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Grinduro is here! Beginning today in Quincy, California, smack dab in the Lost Sierra, the Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship and Giro bring the fun to backroads and mountaintop singletrack in the Plumas National Forest. At the Town Hall, in the Quincy Fairgrounds, a selection of frame builders will display their work, as a collaboration with SRAM and Zipp. On the list is Portland’s Speedvagen, who brought along some extra eye candy, including this Surprise Me Road, with a striking, autumn-inspired paint job.

Built with Force 1 road, EE Cycleworks brakes, and ENVE, the rest of the details are there for you to see in this gallery, so enjoy!

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Grinduro is my favorite cycling event of the year and when you include it in the Sierra Buttes Triple Crown, alongside Lost and Found, as well as Downieville, you’re in for a hell of a weekend. In its fourth year, you could tell the event is dialed but that’s mostly due to the amazing venue that is the Quincy Fairgrounds, Giro, the volunteers, the sponsors, and the Sierra Buttes’ impeccable ability to show everyone a great time!

Editor’s note 3/11/2022: This bike is now for sale over at our parent company, The Pro’s Closet.

And so it goes…

Mike DeSalvo is a friend of mine. I’m a fan of his work (I own a bike from him) and I believe he’s a fan of my work. We’ve done a few projects over the years now. Each one always rooting itself in some sort of nostalgia as the inspiration. Be it our shared love of the Raleigh Team Ti scheme and 80s skateboard graphics. Or his love with Volkswagens, somehow we always, naturally zero in on the thing that inspires both of us.

We’ve had a busy year at the Radavist and it wasn’t until I combed through each month individually that I could finally realize all the hard work everyone put in over here for the past twelve months. While much of the site is focused on gear in the form of products and bike portraits, my favorite pieces are always photojournals from rides, tours, and trips. There’s something wonderful about peering through the lens of a cyclist and hitching a ride along with them while they pedal along their route.

Compiled in this gallery is a photographic sample from 12 months of content, in somewhat chronological order. It’s trippy to flip through the gallery and see all the unique perspectives. In many cases, a photo is worth a thousand words!

There’s also a list below of the top posts from the site this year, running the gamut from riding in the desert to the WTF Bikexplorers Summit, exploring Crete, mixing snakes and divas in Puerto Rico and much more. They’re in chronological order, so if you haven’t read these articles, you really should!

Big Pedal at the Trans Cascadia 2018
Words by Jeremy Dunn, photos from Chris Hornbecker, Daniel Sharp, Dylan VanWeelden, Joshua Lawton as noted.

Trans Cascadia starts off just how one might think. Like, any other bike race really. An unloading and loading up of vans. A makeshift parking lot or an empty field filled with characters and their bicycles. There is the usual building of bikes and swapping of tires all while eating gas station egg sandwiches and drinking the dregs of coffee on the go. From an uninitiated perspective everything seems to be going as planned, it is a controlled chaos sure, but everyone is working towards the same goal. Making it to camp. “That’s going to mean we’re going to need everyone to take their one bag and load up into the vans lined up alongside the road.” Alex Gardner is simultaneously pointing out vans for people to get into and handing out donuts from a stack of blue and yellow Heavenly Donuts boxes.

“These are the legit donuts in Portland, just FYI” Nick Gibson says to someone over his shoulder before grabbing two maple bars and helping someone load their bike into the back of a rental van. Nick and Alex are two thirds of the crew behind all this and they will be involved in nearly ever single thing that happens over the course of the weekend. From donut logistics to running point on a tricky medic situation on the mountain. Tommy rounds out the trio, but we’ll meet him, and his mom Becky a bit later.