The Radavist

For those of us who are taken by steel frames and appreciate their ride feel and longevity, the idea of a “lifetime” bike is a familiar one. In practice, however, the idea that a bike could last a lifetime is often just that – an idea – and for some reason or another bikes don’t always stay with us as long as we’d initially envisioned. Not so with Karen’s Merckx.

Karen bought her Eddy Merckx brand new when she was living in Edmonton, AB, in the ’80s. It was originally equipped with a mix of Dura-Ace AX and Campy Record, 6-speed downtube of course. She rode it for a number of years before hanging up the road bike in favor of mountain bikes in the mid ’90s.

Now based in Kelowna, BC, Karen and her husband Chris run a full service repair shop for vintage and modern European cars, with a focus on the details that those machines deserve. Chris took this attention to detail to Meshkat at The Lions Cyclery in the form of a restoration project, and Karen was inspired to dust off the Merckx.

To retain the bike’s classic aesthetic, a silver Campagnolo Veloce group was installed from front to back. The tan sidewall Strada LGGs look perfect on the polished Weinmann rims. The stem, bar, and headset are all that’s left of the original build; with its bombproof new groupset, Karen’s Merckx is ready for its next 30 years.

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Words by Morgan Taylor, photos by Scott Haraldson.

No matter how you slice it, our little corner of the world is out of the way to get to. We are surrounded by wilderness in all directions, which presents both opportunities and challenges. The two major east-west highways in BC diverge around us in order to traverse the four chains of glacially carved mountains toward the continental divide, and relatively few people find reason to come through this neck of the woods.

Photos and words by Morgan Taylor.

Since we moved up into the mountains – nearly two years ago, time flies – we have made our way back down to the coast to visit every few months. One of our regular stops is to see the guys at Mighty Riders for fit work and general bullshitting. On a number of these infrequent visits over the past year, this beautiful Dekerf was in the shop, each time becoming one step closer to perfection.

Before we drove down last month, Mighty put me in touch with Jeff to arrange shooting the Dekerf. Jeff and I spoke on the phone, and he was super excited to lay out all of the details in the build. What began as a conversation around Ed at Mighty’s freshly built Salsa Colossal quickly snowballed. Knowing Jeff had an eye for detail and the desire to be involved in the design process, Ed introduced him to Chris Dekerf.

The bike came together under a number of precedents and design constraints. First, Jeff wanted to accomplish a “zip tie free build”, which meant internal routing for hydraulic brake lines and Di2 cables. Second, he wanted a fit that would require zero spacers. In the rear end, he wanted one of Dekerf’s signature wishbone seat stays, with a silhouette influenced by the truncated Hellenic stays of his previous road bike, a BMC SLR01.

The end result is stunning, and a testament to the value one can find in working directly with a custom builder. Once Dekerf was finished with the frame, the rest of the build was handed off to Ed and Pat at Mighty to bring Jeff’s vision to life. As much as possible, Jeff wanted to avoid black components unless they were carbon. In sticking to the zip-tie-free requirement, they tapped the bottom of the K-Edge Garmin mount to attach the Di2 control box.

Beyond that, the bike has seen incremental changes to bring the build toward the ideal. There really isn’t much more that can be done with this bike, short of upgrading to a Dura-Ace drivetrain, which Jeff isn’t really concerned about. Now he just gets to ride it.

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Words and photos by Morgan Taylor.

Swift Industries has been making bicycle bags by hand in Seattle for eight years now. The first four of those years were spent in Martina and Jason’s basement, laying the foundation for a company that to this day produces each of its products in-house. When orders kept coming in, and they needed to hire help, Swift Industries moved to the space you see here, in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood.

Words and photos by Morgan Taylor.

For the five or so years I’ve known him, Darrel has been obsessed with achieving slam with his bikes. Personally, I’ve never had the flexibility for it, so I live vicariously through those who are willing to cut their steerer tubes within millimetres of being rendered useless. The single 3mm spacer has become Darrel’s hallmark, though he’s given up on 17º stems for commuting.

Darrel’s Foundry Cycles Auger was originally built with Campagnolo Record a few years back. After two seasons racing cross, and a move toward regular year-round commuting in Vancouver, it was time for a refresh. In its current state with Super Record, SON dynamo, and Reynolds carbon rims, Darrel clocks an average of 40 km a day taking the quick way to work and the long way home.

Do you need carbon rims to commute? Is it sensible to run open tubulars and latex tubes on a bike that gets ridden year round in an urban environment? When you’re spending 8 hours a week in the saddle getting to and from work, these questions matter not. You do what you want.

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