Randomness

category

Sending Love to Baphomet Bicycles

Radar

Sending Love to Baphomet Bicycles

Dillen from Baphomet Bicycles was *involved in an accident in Valdez* (edited 9.6.22), outside of Taos, New Mexico, yesterday, resulting in the loss of his foot. The authorities are still piecing the puzzle together, but Dillen is alive and recovering at a hospital in Albuquerque. We’ve had Dillen and his wife Jenn in our thoughts for the past 24 hours and will post any updates here… Please be safe out there today, folks.

If you want to help, hold tight, Jenn and Dillen are trying to wrap their heads around this situation. You can, however, leave Dillen some love on his Instagram.

*Edit: 9.6.22 – this is a complex story and one that we’ll unfortunately not know what really happened for some time. We’ll do our best to update/edit the post as events warrant.

Edit: 9.7.22 – Dillen and Jenn have a GoFundMe setup to assist with their medical expenses from this tragedy. Jenn annotated the GoFundMe site with the latest update to this complicated story as well. See it at Go Fund Me.

The Radavist’s 2021 Photographic Year In Review

Reportage

The Radavist’s 2021 Photographic Year In Review

There are about 52 weeks a year and every week, we post 5 full-resolution galleries, meaning there are around 260 Reportage galleries a year for you to enjoy. The intention behind this website has always been about documenting the outliers of cycling and inspiring you, the readership’s next build and bike ride. Over the years, we’ve tapped into a wonderful resource of talented raconteurs and photographers. Hosting their work is both a privilege and an honor we cherish.

With such a massive image database, these Photographic Year In Review posts provide reflection, aspiration, and motivation to continue, to push on, and keep doing what we do best: tell stories and share photos.

Read on below for a short synopsis of this year with a massive gallery of inspirational photos from the past twelve months…

Happy Holidays From The Radavist

Radar

Happy Holidays From The Radavist

From everyone who keeps the wheels rolling over here at The Radavist, we’d like to wish you all Happy Holidays. We’ll be back next week with plenty of content for ya and in the New Year, we’ll be rolling out our 2021 Year in Review posts so stay tuned. Until then, I hope you can get some good riding in and please be safe!

xo

Introducing the Love Where You Ride Project from Bikepacking Roots

Radar

Introducing the Love Where You Ride Project from Bikepacking Roots

Bikepacking Roots (BPR) is excited to share the Love Where You Ride project. Recognizing that bikepackers traverse landscapes from those with wilderness qualities to rural communities to urban areas, we have created a set of Positive Impact Bikepacking practices that riders can apply to travels and racing. We also partnered with the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics to adapt their standard Seven Principles specifically for bikepacking and adventure cycling.

Bike Laws Every State Should Adopt

Radar

Bike Laws Every State Should Adopt

Illustration by Josh Cochran

This past year, we’ve seen more and more people getting on bikes — to commute, to recreate, and to get some exercise. More people riding bikes is great, but it means more interactions with car traffic and city infrastructure. So what laws are in place that help make cyclists safer? Here’s a breakdown of some laws recently enacted in Colorado and elsewhere that aim to keep cyclists (and everyone else) safe. Also, here’s a great resource from The League of American Bicyclists that lists all bike laws by state.

Check out this full article at our parent company, The Pro’s Closet.

People for Bikes and Ride Spot Present: Ride for Gratitude – Silver Stallion Century

Radar

People for Bikes and Ride Spot Present: Ride for Gratitude – Silver Stallion Century

Our friends at Silver Stallion have a fundraiser going on right now with People for Bikes and Ride Spot:

“In celebration of Native American Heritage Month, we pledged to donate $10 for each of the first 500 riders who completed a Ride for Gratitude Challenge to Silver Stallion Bicycle and Coffee Works. Thanks to your outstanding participation, we hit our goal in the first week! With half of November still to go, our friends at SRAM generously offered to match our $5,000 donation if we can get 200 riders to ride 100 miles by the end of the month! That’s 100 miles total, not all at once. Silver Stallion is a small nonprofit bicycle recyclery based in Gallup, NM, serving Dinétah (the Navajo Nation) and the surrounding communities with a mission to empower and develop youth and young adult vocational skills in the bicycle repair and specialty coffee industries.”

Find out how you can help out at People for Bikes!

Shift Cycling Culture: Cycling Industry Climate Commitment

Radar

Shift Cycling Culture: Cycling Industry Climate Commitment

Shift Cycling Culture has a new initiative afloat I think you all will be pleased to read:

“Dear cycling industry colleagues,
As a group of business leaders from across the cycling industry, we have become acutely aware that climate change is not only a future risk, but a current one, which is accelerating before our eyes. We are proud that cycling plays an important part in decarbonizing our world, by enabling people to ride their bikes, enjoy the outdoors and make cities more liveable by taking cars off the streets. At the same time, the way in which we in the cycling industry make and sell products is also contributing to the problem. We need to change this, but we can’t do it on our own, which is why we’re making an urgent appeal to you, our partners and competitors across the wider industry.”

Read the full commitment and see which brands are spearheading this endeavor at Shift Cycling Culture.

American Classic Announces an Open Call for its Ambassador Program

Radar

American Classic Announces an Open Call for its Ambassador Program

American Classic recently relaunched as a tire company, offering a variety of sizes for road, gravel, and e-bikes at an approachable price point. Coinciding with the relaunch, American Classic has established an ambassador program and is currently seeking applicants.

All types of riders and racers are encouraged to complete the application form to be considered. American Classic will then follow up and provide tires to those selected in exchange for feedback, fun content, and the charge of spreading the joy of cycling.

Bikepacking Roots Announces the 630 Mile Western Lake Superior Northwoods Route

Radar

Bikepacking Roots Announces the 630 Mile Western Lake Superior Northwoods Route

Bikepacking Roots’ latest route – the Northwoods Route – is a ~600-mile-long circumnavigation of the western half of Lake Superior, primarily following gravel roads, relatively smooth two-tracks, rail trails, and short sections of pavement through thick forests and along countless lakes of all sizes. This loop has been created to be inviting to riders on both mountain or gravel bikes, and riders will find that resupply options are relatively frequent along the way. Singletrack alternates and trail networks along the way offer options for riders looking for more technical riding opportunities – loaded or unloaded – and to experience the many unique trail systems built near communities along the way.

Head to Bikepacking Roots for the full breakdown of this epic route!

We’d Like to Welcome Josh Weinberg to The Radavist’s Editorial Team

Radar

We’d Like to Welcome Josh Weinberg to The Radavist’s Editorial Team

Perhaps you read our announcement last month about The Radavist merging with The Pro’s Closet?

These are exciting times, and we’re excited about many new initiatives. One of those includes hiring an editor to help take some workload off my shoulders.

After running this platform solo for 15+ years, I think it’s safe to say it’s time for a right-hand editor to help out. Well, we put out a call for applications for this position, had some great interviews, and were pleasantly surprised to find one of our endemic contributors fit the role perfectly.

Josh Weinberg has penned and photographed some wonderful pieces for The Radavist over the years and his contributions will help with our vision for 2022 and beyond. For the past few years, he’s spent his time working for Arizona State University where he used SEO and other web tactics to grow its online degree programs. We’ll be tapping into Josh’s knowledge for growing The Radavist while leaning heavily on his photography and organizational skills to continue our pursuit of documenting cycling’s Radical Atavists.

We compiled a list of some of the stories Josh has shared with The Radavist over the years below in our Related Archives, so take a few minutes to check those out!

I’d like to personally thank Josh for being such a solid companion over the years and look forward to seeing him grow his role here at The Radavist! I might add, he’s got a stellar eye for medium format photography, so be sure to give him a follow on Instagram!

– John Watson, founder, and director at The Radavist

Introducing Bikepacking Roots’ New Executive Director, Ally Johnson

Radar

Introducing Bikepacking Roots’ New Executive Director, Ally Johnson

Bikepacking Roots has been searching for a new Executive Director all year and today the announcement came that Ally Johnson will be taking over the organization from its co-founder Kurt Refsnider. To introduce Ally, BPR has a great interview with her, so head on over to give it a read!

We really value Bikepacking Roots’ community-driven, across-the-aisle collaborations over the years and are excited to see where Ally will be taking the organization and how The Radavist can continue to support the company’s efforts.

NM Bikepacking Summit: Mike from Broken Spoke’s O’Leary Built Minimal Rack

Radar

NM Bikepacking Summit: Mike from Broken Spoke’s O’Leary Built Minimal Rack

One of the things that caught my eye at this weekend’s NM Bikepacking Summit was Mike, the owner of Broken Spoke in Santa Fe’s custom-built O’Leary rack for his Karate Monkey. Mike really wanted a better way of carrying his essentials, rather than a bikepacking saddle pack. His goal for the rack was to have it be multi-purpose, both designed to carry traditional panniers or as a framework to strap Nalgene bottles to, while allowing for a bedroll or tent to be strapped to the rack’s platform. Depending on how you’re traveling, this opens up the use of a dropper post as well.

Mike went to O’Leary, a custom builder here in Santa Fe, to hash out the design and he whipped it up in a matter of hours. Minimal racks like this offer a simple solution to a very common problem and I thought the readership would be intrigued by this. Check out a few more photos below!

Archive Re-Up: Escaping Black Friday with Bicycle Camping, Bourbon, and Black Coffee

Radar

Archive Re-Up: Escaping Black Friday with Bicycle Camping, Bourbon, and Black Coffee

When we lost our image bucket from 2014-2015 a few years back, a bunch of really great content went blank. Over the years, I’ve been slowly re-upping our archives when I want to add a back-link to a current post or story. That happened last week when writing about the Buckhorn Bags Panniers. I remembered our “Escaping Black Friday” Reportage and tracked down the film scans, allowing me to re-up the fun. I also added the RideWithGPS route to the archive as well. If you’re in the Austin, Texas area and are looking for a good (and difficult) road tour, don’t miss this one!

Archive Re-Up: Escaping Black Friday with Bicycle Camping, Bourbon, and Black Coffee

If there’s a story you remember and really would like to see re-posted, drop it in the comments!