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COG magazine is giving away three custom laser engraved Brooks Swallow to the winning team of their first annual COG invitational bike polo tournament.
It’s this weekend!!! June 5-7 in Milwaukee, WI USA
Why is it that everyone COG does is so dialed? Must be a Milwaukee thing!
Beautiful!
Custom bikes aren’t always about the bling; they’re about designing form for specific functions. For Dylan, his love of touring through the Australian outback pushed him to get a custom Meriwether Cycles longtail fat bike for touring. Read on for a dusty Readers’ Rides…
Gideon Tsang has spent the better part of his life admiring and collecting bicycles designed by Grant Petersen. From early Bridgestones to current Rivendells, the bicycles designed around Grant’s ethos of moving mindfully and enjoying the ride have always resonated with Gideon. Enjoy this firsthand account about a bicycle collection that came and went, and the story behind Gideon’s dream bike: a rare 26″ Rivendell Atlantis 2.
The story starts in 2007 – a full decade since I had last touched my Bontrager Race Lite. My friend Lee handed me an old Bridgestone catalog.
The first page I turned to featured Pineapple Bob eating a banana, wearing a cycling cap, riding his Bridgestone RB-T with a musette over his shoulder. In the same catalog, I found Bob tucked into an aero position on an orange XO-1 with mustache bars. I was smitten at first sight.
Over the next few years, I amassed an impressive Bridgestone collection, starting with an XO-1, which led to an RB-1, an MB-Zip, and, the hardest to hunt down at the time, Bob’s RB-T. By 2010 I had a solid Bridgestone stable. It was time to take the pilgrimage to visit Bridgestone’s offspring, Rivendell Bicycle Works.
I flew from Austin to California and hopped on a train from San Francisco to Walnut Creek, where I took my MB-Zip off the bike hook. As I mounted my Zip, a beautiful blue bike with a front basket and a large saddlebag zoomed past me. It was the wizard himself, Grant Petersen.
I finally caught up with the wizard as he arrived at his warehouse. Grant was kind and generous with his time. They were building a darkroom in the back of the Rivendell warehouse and he showed me around. He recognized my name from Flickr and gave me my first in-person photography critique: “I can’t tell if you’re a really good photographer or a really bad one.” Fair enough – like anyone starting out, my photography ratio was more bad than good.
He set me up on a Bombadil with a map secured to the stem with a magnet and told me to come back before they closed.
A couple of hours later, I returned with a big smile on my face, told him I loved his work, and proudly relayed that I owned four Bridgestones. With a mischievous smirk, he said, “Why? One Rivendell is better than four Bridgestones.”
I hopped back on my MB-Zip and headed to the train station. Am I a bad photographer or a good one? Is one Rivendell better than four Bridgestones?
Later that year, I bought my first Rivendell frameset – a custom-painted Rambouillet with S & S couplers.
That Rambouillet is the only bike I regret letting go of. I’ve been trying to find those Spécialités TA Carmina Cranks for the last five years.
In 2014, my Sam Hillborne was born. That was my gateway to the fine pairing of the legendary Campy 10-speed Ergopower with 8-speed Shimano hack.
In 2016 I acquired a Hunqapillar. I had desired such a bike since I felt the magic of the Bombadil six years earlier. My Hunq became my go-to touring and bikepacking horse.
In 2022, I sold my entire stable (gasp!) to travel the world. Upon returning, it was a no-brainer that if I had just one bike, it would be an Atlantis. I prefer the shorter chainstays of the earlier models and, in particular, wanted the 26” Atlantis 2 with the larger clearance. After quite a bit of searching, I finally found one in New Haven, CT.
As much as I love the Atlantis, the greenish-blue color of the inside of a Russian submarine wasn’t part of my earth-toned palette preference. I got in touch with Rick Stefani, a painter and friend of Rivendell in San Francisco, and had it painted a dark metallic brown. Sorry, Grant!
I worked with David Ross of Meteor Bikes in Austin to craft a build around a 1X Shimano XTR 950 crankset, which required a custom chainring made in Poland by Garbaruk, along with a NOS XTR HP-M900 headset that David magically sourced.
Ladies and gentlemen, I may not know if I’m a good or bad photographer, but I do know this: one Rivendell beats four Bridgestones any day. This is my Atlantis, photographed by Alex Roszko.
Build Spec:
A lovely build for a lovely human. Learn more about Rivendell at their website, and be sure to read Grant’s Blahg.
It’s spooky season, and while humans can’t return from the dead, bicycles can! Especially steel bikes. Longtime readers of The Radavist might recall John’s Geekhouse Woodville touring bike from 2013. Its history is sordid and includes theft, a recovery, some damage, and a brief hiatus. Well, thanks to a group of friends, John got it back, and the redux might be better than the original. Read on for the resurrection of this beloved and more beautiful than ever bicycle!
People talk a lot about the “quiver killer,” mostly in regards to a drop bar bike that can do road and mountain bike riding but Juniper’s “everything bike” is a bit more utilitarian than that…
What happens when a logo flip sticker becomes a sorta serious part-time hustle alongside a full-time hustle of slingin’ pots from the edge of the Great Basin Desert? You get Campandgoslow, a brand for which our readership needs no introduction. When Cari and John were meandering back to Santa Fe from the MADE Bike Show, they dropped into the Campandgoslow HQ. While there, John got a sneak peek at the new Campandgoslow Trout Bar Tape, released today, and some of Casey’s personal bikes. Check out this inside look into your favorite bar tape brand below…
Today we’ve got a special Readers’ Rides. While John was in Chico eating all of Travis’ vegan snacks at Paul Component Engineering, he documented Liz’s Alumalith, which Paul had just finished building. Liz is Paul’s partner, and she had her eye on a Ron’s Crust Bikes Alumalith. So Paul built her one, and it’s wild. Read on for some words by Paul himself about the bike…
The Trust Performance Message linkage fork was an expensive, extravagant, and flawed attempt to change how we think about mountain bike design. The brand ceased operations in the early days of the pandemic, but Travis had high hopes for Trust. He also still has the Message fork he reviewed in 2019. A recent bikepacking trip inspired him to give it a second life with some new bolts, washers, and tiny, tiny bearings.
This week’s reader’s ride comes from Ali Becker as she rides across the Great Northern Bike Route. She talks about her journey from overstuffing panniers to her current svelt bikepacking setup and entertains us with a poem about packing her rig up…
An important part of bike touring is self-care. And today, Travis takes that to a very intimate level with his praise for A+D Ointment, a diaper-rash remedy that isn’t just for babies.
Josh, Cari, and John were in Fairfax for a few days during the Camera Corner premiere, and before the Saturday screening, John shot Wende Cragg’s 1978 Breezer Series I, also known as #6, fresh off its world tour…
John and Cari are en route to the 2024 MADE Bike Show and stopped along the way to see the Paul Component Engineering fam in Chico, California. While there, we checked out Paul’s Meriwether Cycles touring fat bike. This collaboration bike with Oddity Cycles is a three-year project, but if you’re like us, you’ll agree it was well worth the wait. Let’s check it out!
MADE, the bicycle framebuilder showcase, returns to Portland this year on August 23 – 25th 2024, and the tickets are on sale today. Head over to MADE to purchase tickets and check out our 2023 MADE bike show coverage below…
Yann from Cycles Khelonys sent in the folding 27.5+ touring bike the team displayed at this year’s Concours de Machines, winning them third place. Let’s check out the process and final build below…
Braden from Outpost Richmond sent in his GT Tachyon for this week’s Readers’ Rides, along with a bunch of photos and an excellent write-up so let’s get to it!
There’s something special about a Rivendell. Everyone ought to own one at some point in their cycling journey. For Michael, his came after being hit by a car in Santa Cruz, California. Read on for his story!
Seeds of inspiration come from many places, people, and times in your life. Fyxo’s latest project was a trinity of such influences fused into one. Combining inspiration from Speedvagen, an old Shogun MTB, and MAD MAX to create his custom rusty Surly Krampus for Melburn Roobaix.
Photographer Conor Courtney recently moved to the UK and decided to set off on an unusual two-wheeled adventure: riding every street in London. This led to him meeting up with explorer Jonathan France. Read on for Conor’s account of what unfolded next…
