The Radavist

I have been unfortunate enough to surround myself with a group of people who are fantastic rhetoricians, crafty wordsmiths who deploy their absurd logic with the impunity of conversational tyrants. Whats more the majority of these word sorcerers are so crafty in their discourse that when facts are checked and tallied their formulas pencil out. One of these special souls is Charlie Sponsel.

Once again the trials and trails of Provence don’t disappoint. While the weather at this years TP is a blessing the 3 hour hike-a-bikes and the pummeling descents are certainly not easy. Have a look at day two. These men and women have a long week ahead!

Come on! As the season turns and leafs give up their perch the men and women on the Trans Provence race to the coast and the promise of long topless hours on the French Riviera. Radavist favorite and all around shred master Mr. Ty “Wide Smile” Hathaway is abroad and on board his Bronson, finishing 18th after the first day of racing.

He is up against some fast competition with Jerome Clementz back to his winning ways after missing the majority of the enduro season with an injury. Unfortunatley the peoples champion,  “Silverback” Sven Martin, took a digger on day one that has taken himself out of the race. Looks like he will be spending the rest of his time sampling the terroir rather then the terrian, as we are sure he will make time to refresh his knowledge of the fine local French wines.

Chris King’s Gourmet Centuries are a delicious combination of gourmet food and a well supported group ride. Each event draws notable chefs to create high quality meals that to compliment a long day of riding. This year Chris King has extended their Gourmet Century offerings outside of Portland and they still have a few tickets available for the Sonoma Gourmet Century this October. Feast your eyes on the video recap to get a taste of what you are in for, tickets available here, at Chris King

In 1976 Chris King manufactured the first Chris King headset. It was built to medical grade tolerances and set the standard for what a quality bicycle component should be. Since that time bicycles have changed significantly, from 6-speed road bikes and 45-pound fully ridged mountain bikes to sub 10-pound road bikes and 35-pound dowhnill bikes, the design of today’s modern bicycles has kept pace with the development and style of riders. As riders we want our bikes to perform with out hassle so we can get the most out of our riding experience and it was with an eye on the changes in capabilities and material of todays most advanced bicycles that we developed GripLock™ the next generation of our legendary headsets.

GripLock™ has been in use on Chris King’s headsets for quite sometime and has been featured on our InSet family of headsets since their introduction. Also all 1-1/8″ NoThreadSets have been equipped with GripLock™ since 2010. Our press introduction comes about after we were awarded a patent for this advanced system prior to receiving the patent we wanted to keep our messaging about GripLock™ light now that we have patent security we are thrilled to share this feature with the world.

Chris King’s GripLock™ headset retention device uses an isolated wedge system to separate headset bearing adjustment from steerer tube location thus eliminating loose headsets on long travel mountain bikes while simultaneously removing any chance of headset inflicted fatigue on the lightweight carbon steerer tubes found on modern road forks.

GripLock comes stock on all InSets and 1-1/8″ NoThreadSets. GripLock upgrades are available for 1-1/8″ NoThreadSets currently with out a GripLock bearing cap.”

Learn more at Chris King

There are a lot of motion capture riding segments out there. Like a lot a lot. Mostly it dudes on bikes either working really hard at riding their bikes or putting it all on the line for something completely out of the average riders range. Impressive as some of these edits maybe their formulaic approach coupled with the shear amount of them makes for an experience that is ultimately forgettable.

Enter humor. Kirt Voreis has been infusing VTT with levity and slapstick for as long as I have been reading magazines and in this edit he roped two other Bend, OR super shredders Jamie Goldman and Carson Storch into an hilarious self-discovery cum adventure short that really takes you somewhere. That somewhere is the MTB Mecca, a little place called Whistler. Do it, watch the thing.

UNREAL! The speed here is just unreal. There is no substitute for full-on-blasting and Josh Bryceland does just that, take a helmet top seat for Josh’s race run from last weekends race in Mont Saint Anne. Up at the first split Josh would eventually end up in second place. What is amazing is how smooth and effortless this entire run is, there are almost no impacts, stalls, or hard hits. This is so hard to believe onces you have taken a look at the track from other vantage points. Its as if they created the course by shelling a swath of land with mortar fire and then taped off a thin section of it down the side of the mountain. Impressive.

There is no denying it, Steve Peat is rad. He has been racing at the top of the sport and along the way he has helped along countless juniors, continue to shows up to support his local scene, and can still party.

Back to back beautiful slideshows from the crew at Vital MTB. The French still do Enduro best, from the way they govern their races – riders have to ride the same bike throughout the duration of the race and changes or repairs cause a time deduction -, to the feral enormity of their terrain the set the chocolate croissant standard of Enduro racing. You don’t have to take my word for it, just pop on over to Vital MTB and check out their race coverage. SO GOOD. Day 1 & Day 2.

As a manufacturer of products built on the belief that quality is of the utmost importance, Chris King is always eager to learn about other like-minded manufacturers. One such business is Portland manufacturer Grovemade, makers of modern and sophisticated wood based office supplies and personal electronic accessories. See photos at Chris King!

All you need to know about how to look professional while preparing for a world cup downhill is right here in this easy to follow guide. Read up at PinkBike!

Every year in the months of May and September Chris King challenges his employees to commute to work by bike. Though the majority of our staff bike to work year-round we have a number of folks who happen to live too far away to make a daily bike commute plausible, but during our bike to work challenge months they find a way. Riders are tempted by their ability to earn two extra paid days off per month and are coaxed along by workmates.

Say what you will about Peter Sagan.

I am going to say that guy rips on a bicycle. While out riding with crowd favorite Marco “I like sandwiches and partying” Fontana, Sagan demonstrates an immortal level of bike control and skill. Some of you might be thinking, “what if he gets hurt, tweaks his wrist or skins his knee? ” I would argue that the mentality behind that sentiment has as much to do with the reason why we are sitting clicking buttons and looking at screens while Sagan is out sprinting the worlds best in his day job while casually nose manualing a tight switchback on the weekend.

~ Ride Fast, Take Chances.

“When one carries out an action, that reaches a bad result, then one repeats the same action several times, expecting a better result– one is a little-insane monkey, no?” – Voltaire

Sometimes you need to change how you do things to put yourself on the top step of the podium.

Eddie Masters does just that.

Sweet As.