The Radavist

After a two-year hiatus and a mission to find a new event location, Ruta Del Jefe relocated from Appleton-Whittell Research Ranch in Arizona, US, to Cuena Los Ojos in Sonora, México. The 2024 event was nestled in the hills of Cuenca Los Ojos conservation ranch just south of the Arizona border, straddling the line between biomes, states, and countries.

While the event was, of course, a weekend full of riding bikes across beautiful terrain, it was also infused with workshops, informative presentations, bird walks, dancing, coffee, chocolate, and incredible local food.

With its redoubled focus on advocacy, community, and stewardship, Ruta Del Jefe stands out among the myriad cycling events these days as a singular experience. Make sure to check out our mega gallery and multiple perspectives from this impactful event below in both Spanish and English…

John was in Los Angeles recently for a long weekend and spent some time catching up with Jimmy at Fabrica De Rosas, a new bicycle studio in Aliso Village. Read on for a message from Jimmy to his community and a full Shop Visit from John below…

Everyone loves dogs and bikes so of course hauling them together just seems right. Spencer Harding recently documented Jesse’s classy vintage Stumpjumper frame, equipped with a Crust Bikes Clydesdale fork, and full cantilever brakes that’s an adept doggo transporter and so much more. Let’s dive into all the fun details and gawk at a cute pupper below!

Our favorite posts each week come from you, the readers of this website! Back in 2011 we launched our Readers’ Rides feature and every year, we like to look back at twelve months of submissions and see what resonated with people the most. Well, this year we saw a huge uptick in vintage restomods being submitted and it says something that the number one entry on this list was just posted a few weeks ago! Let’s get to it…

We’ve got over 17 years of Beautiful Bicycles in our archives and each year we like to look back at the previous twelve months of coverage and decipher what you, the audience, liked the most. To do this, we look at the page views for each and every Beautiful Bicycles gallery. Then we look at comments and internet chatter. Once we cull all this data, we’re left with a solid list of bikes. We love compiling this data as it helps us determine what bikes you like to see the most and thus, informs what bikes we document in the future.

Without further ado, let’s get to it!

“It’s just a bike.” The late Bruce Gordon built bicycle frames to enhance his customers’ lives. Through all my interactions over the years, up until his passing in June of 2019, he would take praise for his work, but would always end the conversation with: “It’s just a bike.”

To talk about this bike in particular, you first have to know Bruce. Who he was, his ethos, the mythos, and what he brought to the “g” word: gravel. Bruce was making fat-tire road bikes for a long time. Long before many. He developed tires, toe clips, and helped foster an entire movement of makers in the Petaluma, California area and beyond.

But just like that, he was gone, and he left behind a legacy…

Before we jump in, let’s take a look back: This has been such a fun process to undertake over the course of the past nine months. For those who are just tuning in, I bought a frame from Martin, owner of Second Spin Cycles, last year after he had acquired a substantial Fat City Cycles collection. Among his lucky haul was this Yo Eddy! in the team lavender livery with rack mounts, a pump peg, and some frame damage.

While the bike was in Rick’s care at D&D for some repairs and a paint respray, I began collecting period-correct parts from various sources. After re-finishing some of them and getting the bike back, I just finished the build this week. Monday night was the maiden voyage of the new and improved Yo Eddy! and I took some glamour shots here in Santa Fe, so let’s check this beaut out below!

I found this Bridgestone MB-2 as a complete on Marketplace in December of 2021. It’s January of 2023 and I’ve just wrapped up the build. The time in between was spent having some frame modifications made, aging the frame, making custom head badges and acquiring various components. Once I had my parts, the build should have only taken about a day but stretched into a week as I inched along with minor changes. The final outcome, though, is better than I could have hoped!

We’d like to think we’re pretty alright at photographing bikes over here at The Radavist. The steeds we choose to document reflect our audience’s preferences and capture distinct trends in bicycle design. Yet, each year as we reflect on all the builds that have rolled through this cyber showroom, we’re always surprised to see what the Top Ten list reveals. This year, we’ve got a good mix of bikes, outfitted with flat and droopy bars, running rubber across the size spectrum, and made of steel, aluminum and yes, even carbon. Let’s get to it!