The Radavist

Since the moment I arrived in Denver, Josh from Avery County Cycles has been an exceptional host. He picked me up from the airport, took me to a whiskey sipping night, then dinner and let me crash at his place. I’ve spent a lot of time around his shop and today, I took some film photos of him working. As we were having a beer tonight, he pulled out his cheater bar. Every shop has one, but few have a story like this.

Josh is a self-taught frame builder. Which, these days you rarely hear about. With dozens of frame building schools sprouting up all over the US, you don’t need to spend countless hours by yourself, figuring the ins and outs of brazing but he did anyway. This piece of tubing is where Josh learned how to use a torch.

Of course, there’s no easy way to venture into building bicycle frames. Just a lot of practice and patience. Over the past year, Avery County Cycles has built numerous frames for friends and even a single speed cross team with Pearl Velo. On Sunday, his hard work paid off, when he won Rookie of the Year at NAHBS (he even sold his car to pay for the show’s fees).

There’s more to come here on the site but I just wanted to congratulate Josh on his award!

Photo by Brenton Salo

Before this blog takes a nose dive into NAHBS, I wanted to share this portrait of Machew that Brenton Salo took on a sunny afternoon in Portland. Loving the tones here.

Photos and text by Jeremy Dunn

Ira Ryan should be somewhere between Portland and Denver at this very moment. In fact, if you follow Breadwinner Cycles on Twitter (@ridebreadwinner) & Instagram (@breadwinnercycles) , you might see that he has not only been broken into, but broken down along the roadside (nothing missing, no harm done) in the van containing their show bikes. This could be your first chance to get a glimpse of the Breadwinner bicycles (soon to launch) before they are fully revealed at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show this weekend. See if you can find him on the roadside… however, in all seriousness, if you do happen upon him out on the road, wish him well, as there is an undeniable amount of time that has been put into the production of those bicycles.

Both Ira and his business partner Tony Pereira (what? you say you recognize those names?) have done a pretty damn good job of keeping their partnership under wraps before this years show.

Stoked to finally see some of these photos. Brian’s work is always inspirational. Here’s some information from Argonaut:

“We invited Brian Vernor up to Portland a few months ago to turn his lens on Argonaut. The book captures the essence of the brand and as usual Brian did a fantastic job. We produced a very limited run of books which we will have on hand at NAHBS. We will be releasing the digital version on March 5th so everyone can enjoy the wonderful work that Brian and David from Wilderness put together for us.”

See more teasers below and once the digital book is live, I’ll link to it.

This weekend is NAHBS over here at PiNP but you can also watch the 2013 UCI Track Worlds on UCI’s Youtube channel, beginning February 20th – 24th.

To prepare for the 2013 NAHBS, I made a re-up of the popular Flag Hatchet stickers. Since there was extra room on the sheet of clear vinyl, Sticker Robot sneaked in these little 3/4″ Mini Vikings with the Stars and Stripes overlay. Each pack comes with (5) Flag Hatchets and (5) Mini Vikings.

SOLD OUT!

It is by shear coincidence that Aaron from Stinner Frameworks posted this video after I had scheduled his NAHBS feature last night. Coincidence aside, I love videos like this but I want to see more whiskey!

Usually when you see Campagnolo Pista hubs with drillium, chances are, they came from the Paramount facilities in the 70’s, complete with Paramount track bikes. Rumor has it that they misdrilled them too large for spoke holes and had to re-drill them, giving the flange a nice, light, facelift.*

While the technological advancements (i.e. weight) of hub designs have improved since then, there’s still that nostalgic allure of a classic Italian component with little circles cut out of it. As others have noted “nothing is lighter than a hole“. Drillium Revival are the minds behind this masterpiece hubset pictured here. Their holes were drilled intentionally and will be gracing one of Chris Bishop‘s 2013 NAHBS bikes.

Oh and they didn’t stop with the hubs. They kind of went all out! See more drilled, milled, profiled and polished Campagnolo Pista at the Bishop Flickr.

*source: Cicli Devotion

I’m one of those guys that loves a good collaboration, especially between two exceptional, made in the USA brands like Cielo and Tanner Goods. We saw some early bicycle portage work from Tanner at NAHBS last year and this year, Cielo will be presenting two special bicycles, both complete with handmade Tanner products. Choose either the Tanner Goods Edition Cross Classic or Sportif Classic and they will come loaded with a handlebar bag, saddle bag, frame bag, painted matching fenders and Tanner mud flaps.

Check out more photos here!

Stay tuned for more information, including pricing and availability, during NAHBS.

This is a beautiful photo of a beautiful stem, Mitch. I’m getting so pumped on NAHBS, I can smell the flux. Even if Map Cycles isn’t going to be in attendance, he’ll be there in spirit. Over the past few years, I’ve really come to admire Mitch’s work and his new digs in Chico seems to be working out quite nicely.

… well, you know. This is the kind of attention to detail that you’d normally see in a NAHBS showpiece but no, this is standard issue over at Coat. See the rest of this rad Speedvagen Cross build over at the SV Flickr.

I have no idea what’s going on here and my best guess is, that’s the point. Stinner Frameworks designs, fabricates and rides their bikes in Santa Barbara, California. They’re one of the builders I’m looking forward to seeing at NAHBS, especially if they’re into trippy shit like this.

I can’t get over how nice the Map Cycles Randonneur Project is coming along this year. See you at NAHBS, Mitch?

NAHBS bikes bring out the best in builders but like many of the greats, they never really have to do anything different. That’s the beauty of NAHBS. Little details like this one in particular really bring a bike to life… I can’t wait to see the Bishop offerings to the NAHBS gods.

Last year, at NAHBS, I met Jeremy and Neil from Cedar Cycling, a new cycling wear brand. Using high-end Australian merino wool blend fabric and local manufacturing in California, I knew Cedar was really doing something genuine and legit. Over a bottle of bourbon, we discussed working on a jersey. But since they had barely just launched their brand, we knew it would be some time before we’d have samples.

Earlier in the summer, I met up with them in SF to look at fabrics and discuss the jersey in detail. Then, a few weeks ago, I finally got my hands on one. I was really, really impressed. This is one of the nicest jerseys I’ve ever owned. We worked really hard getting everything right, especially the fit. It’s form-fitting, without being race cut. The sleeves sit just right and the front lies flat on your chest.

One of my biggest qualms with a lot of jerseys that I own is the pocket room. Especially during the winter. You end up stuffing arm warmers, a gillet and gloves into your pockets on the daily. Three generous open rear pockets hold all your ride essentials, plus two hidden zippered pockets to keep your valuables safe. The whole jersey is held in place by silicone gripper imported from Italy. The fit is true to size. I wear a large shirt and a large jersey.

It fits great and is incredibly comfortable. What I’m trying to say is, this is far from just a new “colorway”…

Pre-order one at the PiNP Web Shop today! These will be shipped on January 18th.

*One small note, our factory sewed up all of the jerseys with the rear pocket purple trim except for the mediums. Medium jerseys will have a grey pocket trim, matching the jersey. See this picture. Everything else is the same. Sorry!