The Radavist

Much like the road, cross and MTBs found at the 2014 NAHBS, this gallery has a 44mm headtube and is built from OS tubing. In fact, there’s so much packed into the gallery, that I had to give it hydro disc brakes, electronic shifting and through-axles. So descend into the rock garden of Galleries at your own risk…

This year, NAHBS was in my old stomping grounds of Charlotte, North Carolina. I went to architecture college there, slaved away for five years, got my degree and walked away, never looking back. Nothing against the city, because Charlotte has its rad moments, I just never found myself close enough to make the trip. So for me, NAHBS was kind of a homecoming. While I didn’t recognize a lot of the downtown or surrounding areas, that’s to be expected. It had been over 10 years…

I knew a few things were on the agenda: eat at Bojangles fried chicken and biscuits, try to shoot as many bikes outside of the convention as possible, chat with Chris Bishop (who wasn’t showing this year) and somehow, avoid getting wasted each night, because working 14 hour days with a hangover sucks.

Then I got sick. Sicker than I’ve been in some time. Musta been some bayou bug I caught down at Rouge Roubaix. Whatever it was, I could barely focus on anything, my head hurt, my throat was swollen and it was hard to stay indoors with the horrible lighting. So I lost a full day of work, didn’t get to chat to Chris Bishop (sorry dude!) and missed out on the late night shenanigans (thankfully).

What I did accomplish was a selection of bikes I felt were significant and a pretty ok Gallery, showcasing the highlights of the show (for me anyway). I also managed to catch a few friends meandering the aisles… See more in the Mega Huge Oversized Gallery!

As I sat down to scroll through all of the Beautiful Bicycles I photographed this year, I quickly realized how diverse PiNP has become. Previous year’s lists never had a MTB, much less two and even though the site has begun to embrace dirt riding more and more, there are still three track bikes in the rankings. Most of these bicycles were made in the USA by small frame builders, but two overseas-manufactured bikes made the cut.

This year for the Top 10 list, I looked at site metrics, social media ‘chatter’ and my own favorites (which were remarkably in-line). All of these bikes got at least 100 Facebook likes and over 20,000 visits within the first week of posting. The latter two requisites were necessary to bring it down to ten bikes, from the dozens of my personal favorites. Also, I omitted my own bikes from this list.

I like to think of PiNP as a showcase for Beautiful Bicycles and how they get put to use. See the full Prolly is Not Probably’s Top 10 Beautiful Bicycles of 2013, in no particular order, in the Gallery!

I think every cyclist goes through ups and downs when it comes to what they want in a bike. When I began talking to Ian at Icarus last year about my ViKING track bike, I wanted something more relaxed to ride on. We kept the geometry of the frame true track and went with a fork with a little more rake than normal, to make the ride more road-like. That way, I could just drop a 32mm track fork on the bike and have that “aggressive” ride associated with a track bike.

Well, after having the urge to ride a fast, nimble track bike on the streets, I contacted Ian about making a 32mm rake fork. Initially, we couldn’t find a Columbus MAX fork crown in 1 1/8″ so we went with a unicrown. At NAHBS, Chris Bishop told me he had a stainless 1 1/8″ MAX fork crown, so I bought it from him and sent the materials to Ian at his newly-located facilities in Ashville, NC.

A few weeks later and this baby arrived. I held off on painting it for now because I can’t afford to drop the cash at the moment and I want to work out the paint scheme. But with the Chris King polished stainless headset, I plan on polishing the crown to really set the bike off. Because Ian knew I’d be riding it raw, he torched it a bit, giving it a hippie tie-dye finish and then coated it with furniture polish to keep it from rusting.

The feather on the blade lets you know this bike means business. Beware of impostors, there is only one feather to rule them all.

Check out the Gallery by clicking the photo above, or click here to open a new tab.

Founded in 2016 by Jon Yazzie and Nadine Johnson, DziłTa’ah Adventures runs bike and packraft tours from their home base in the town of Kayenta inside the Navajo Nation. While we’ve documented multiple experiences with the nascent outfitter – including Hunt’s Mesa, John’s Canyon, Yellow Dirt routes, and others – getting the business off the ground hasn’t been easy for John and Nadine. Last winter, Josh Weinberg reconnected with Jon, along with a group of photographers including Chris Burkard, Jeremy Bishop, and Murray Smith for an unforgettable tour along one of DziłTa’ah Adventures’ most popular routes to learn about what’s next for their guiding operation…

For the final installment of our coverage documenting the Forgotten Coast Route – a bikerafting trip connecting all of Iceland’s southern coast – expedition photographer Ryan Hill writes a series of short stories recounting some memorable moments from the media team’s point of view. Follow along with Ryan and the rest of the team which includes videographers Bryan “Bobcat” Davis, Jeremy Bishop, and Icelander Sigurdur “Sigi’ Petur.

A year ago, I was sitting in a cubicle, drawing lines and shapes that would ultimately become bridges. A tedious job that encouraged daydreaming, so I spent a lot of my time distracting myself with podcasts, audiobooks and YouTube videos. I remember watching a series of videos called The Impossible Route and feeling like, “They’re out there living, I’m in here… not”. Now, don’t get me wrong, working a desk job in an industry that betters society can be incredibly rewarding, but I wasn’t having fun. I wasn’t living the life that was right for me, which in my mind was filled with cycling, adventure, and photography.

Fast forward a year and some change, and I find myself on a three-hour Zoom call with Jeremiah Bishop discussing routes and logistics for Season 2, Episode 1 of The Impossible Route. The journey of how I got here can be saved for another time, but here I was, on the cusp of living. This is The Impossible Route from my perspective.

Ever since first reviewing the All-City Mr. Pink and then the lavender Speedvagen OG1, I really wanted a steel road bike again. After some finagling, I managed to buy an OG1 frameset, along with a few painted-to-match parts from the Vanilla Workshop. Now, since the OG1 is a ready-made, off-the-shelf geometry, it’s not as pricey as the other Speedvagen frames. I also didn’t feel the need to go custom for this frameset, since the OG1’s stock geometry fit me pretty well. All I needed was a spacer under the stem to get the same reach and extension as my Argonaut road bike.

For me, a road bike is the simplest tool in my quiver. There are no rack mounts, no disc brakes, it’s just a straight-forward road machine.

Futurism and the Specialized Enduro Expert Carbon 29
Words by Kyle Von Hoetzendorff, photos by Ethan Furniss

Before we begin let me give you a little background about who I am and how I found myself writing this review. I grew up in Bishop, CA. I raced mountain bikes there as a kid. Then I stopped, the reason is a tired story, and one that you have most likely heard before, it has to do with hormones, cars, beers, and girls. When I moved to Santa Barbara, CA to attend college and I started working at a shop called Velo Pro. This is where I started riding downhill bikes. Then I stopped, did some rock climbing, school, babe chasing, etc. A decade ago I moved to Portland, OR and once again I found myself at a shop, working at the Fat Tire Farm and riding downhill bikes. This is where it gets interesting. First came seat droppers and with it a yearn to explore more trails. I started riding trail bikes, then picked up riding road bikes and cross bikes. For the past three years I worked for Chris King, and my job gave me the chance to ride a wide variety of bikes. Through mutual friends and shared adventures John and I became friends and I have been lucky to post a couple rides and adventurers all the while sharing with him some of my favorite MTB videos and articles from around the web. It turned out that John needed a bike reviewed, so here I am. Lets get started.

Reviewing bikes like the Cielo Road Racer is easy. Well, sort of. Isn’t the whole idea about a bike review to critically assess its potential for the market? That means looking and discussing honestly the strengths and the weaknesses.

Luckily, for Cielo, these were apparent after the first ride and continued to hold strong throughout the several weeks that the Road Racer Di2 was in my possession. Some of my critiques are merely aesthetic or tied in with the build kit on this particular bike.

Whatever my thoughts are, I can tell you, it’s gonna be tough to send her home.