The Radavist

This poor bike. It’s been embarrassed numerous times on this blog. It went from that goofy stem to the goofier bar and lever setup. I look back at those photos with shame. What the hell was I thinking? My only guess is that this bike was never a real necessity. I had my Merckx and so I barely rode the MKE. When I sold my Merckx to fund the Bishop, the MKE became my only road bike. I’ve been putting in miles on it and even with the SRAM Apex and FSA cranks, this bike rides and handles a lot better than any other road bike I’ve owned.

Check out more below.

It’s crazy, I thought I had hit a plateau with riding the hills here. Climbing isn’t my forte but I still enjoy it, yet when I decided to sell my MX-Leader and just ride my Milwaukee Orange One as my primary road bike, I thought I’d plummet into slower times. So this week, I cleaned all the mud and crud off the drivetrain, put my Phil Wood wheels on it and took it out to the hills. The first day, I smashed a lot of my best times and then yesterday, I did the same again.

My Merckx had a mix of Red and Force and the MKE has Apex with FSA Gossimer cranks. The bikes weighed about the same, it’s not like one is 10 lbs lighter or heavier than the other, which leads me to believe that it’s gotta be a combination of many things, not just one prevalent factor.

Whatever it is, I was worried that the Orange One wouldn’t treat me as well as the Merckx but it seems to be handling quite well. This set up, is far from expensive. Other than the wheels, the bike’s pretty standard. I’d highly recommend it to anyone looking for a first road bike.

Made in the USA, affordable and quite versatile.

Two weeks ago, before the holidays, Mark and Tina came to Austin en route back to LA. It’d been a while since we’d hung out with them so AJ came up from San Marcos. I took everyone to the Greenbelt to do some fixed off-roading and afterwards, we realized that we had four of the six 29’r 135mm rear Bruiser prototypes in the same place.

I took the bikes, placed them on my back fence and shot some photos. Check out more below, especially Mark and Tina’s bikes with their 135mm custom Phil Wood fixed hubs.

I swear, putting a modern group on a bike that previously had 8-speed Dura Ace STi on it is like getting a brand new machine. I loved the “period correctness” of the last build but man, riding 52/46 with an 11-24t cassette up 5,000+ feet of elevation sucks! So when I came across a deal on my Phil Wood road wheels, SRAM Force shifters and RED Black cranks, I pounced. I really, really, needed to upgrade. But didn’t Merckx once say, “don’t buy upgrades, ride upgrades”? Or something to that effect.

Check out more Merckx Mondays below!

Interbike was a blast this year. Once the dust settled and I could look through all my photos, it dawned on me: fixed gears and track bikes have really changed the face of the cycling industry. I know that’s a bit ambitious to say but I really do think that track bikes made it “cool” to ride bicycles and the trickle down effect has taken hold of the cycling industry.

Check out more photos below, along with a complete listing of all my coverage from Interbike 2011!

Photos by James Reilly

I’ve featured the work of Armando Quiros before and today, I’m featuring a reader’s custom Quiros frameset. Sean first contacted me about a year ago, stoked to have just received his first custom bicycle. It took him all year to build it up and he just sent me James Reilly’s photos of this blue touring bike.

Check out more below!

One of the points some reader’s brought up in email and in the comments section of my recent call for improvements post was that I needed to post more fixed products. But not just the high-end “bling” parts. People want to see inexpensive parts for classy and simple budget bikes. That’s where Velo Orange comes in. Can’t afford those nice Phil Wood hubs but want some drillium action that’s comparable to the early Bayliss-Wiley hubs? Check out the Velo Orange Gran Cru fixed hubs. With the rear priced at $75 and the front priced at $65, they will fit any budget.

Paired with the Gran Cru headset, these will take any frame up a few notches on the classy scale!

Man o man, what a crazy response my Reader’s Rides call for entries have been getting. Each week I get flooded with everything from pennyfarthings to pistas and while I continue to make sense of it all, sometimes a bike just pops! Strangely enough, I featured one of Gleb Ivaschenko‘s track bikes the last time I made a RR entry and this time around, his Takhion Sprint just stood out from the rest.

But that’s not the only bike featured in this week’s Reader’s Rides. Check out more below!

This Bianchi Super Pista was locked outside Bird’s Barbershop today when I rode by and I think it’s the best build I’ve seen for one of these. Seriously legit! Stoker hood, front brake, water bottle, perforated Turbo and more great parts.

I just love black Phil Wood hubs! I had a bit more ‘Viking on bike action‘ so head over to my Flickr to check out the rest of my photos.

The Slumworm guys have been riding these female front hubs on their Specialized PFix bikes for a little while now and they’re confident that these are the answer, not 14mm bolts. A female front hub is similar to the system that Phil Wood, Profile and Paul use, but just in a beefier version. What do you guys think?

While you’re over at Slumworm, make sure you scope out the new size medium PFix prototype. That looks like a lotta fun. Solid build for sure.

Seasonal ambiguity is really messing with me right now. My typical behavior this time of year is hang the road bike up, put knobbies on the Bruiser and wait for a dry day to crank out the miles. I typically don’t really clean my bikes a whole lot, leaving that for spring time. This recent move to Austin has made me actually want to clean my bikes in the middle of winter. Now, this review is from the heart. I went out and bought these products because they’re legit and I’ve been using them for a while now. White Lightning makes some solid lubricants and cleaners and today I put some to work!

Check out some more photos below.

The Affinity Cycles & Kenzo Minami Digitizer track bike is now up for sale at Affinity Cycles. For $5,000 you get:

• Affinity x Kenzo Minami = Digitizer
• Special Edition of 20
• Custom Designed by Kenzo Minami
• Affinity Kissena frame set
• 88mm carbon tubular rims hand laced to Phil Wood Hubs
• Sugino 75 cranks
• Thomson seat post and stem
• Fizik Arione saddle
• Deda Pista bar
• Tufo tubular tires
• Each bike comes with Digitizer limited DVD by Cinecycle

Nutty!

I linked to some photos on the Geekhouse Flickr before of this bike and you probably saw some photos of it in my last A Day in 10 Photos entry. It’s Brad from Geekhouse’s first bicycle build: his own Rockcity track. I’ve spent a lotta time hanging with Brad this week and he’s a super rad guy, which is evident in this classy build!

Check out some more photos below.

It’s been a while since I last posted a [FRAME] Chapter. I always forget to put them up for some reason and I almost forgot about this one until I saw it on Tracko just now. The latest from Flwrder brings us the one and only Phil Wood. Garrett Enright talks about his 15 years with the company and what’s to come from them in 2011.

Don’t miss this one!

There were a lotta ladies who ride in Austin. All of which had outrageous personalities and awesome outlooks on life. One of those ladies is Ericka. She can heckle with the best of them and has a mouth as sassy as her bike. I met Ericka one night at Dirty Bills after the ladies-only ride. She’s part of the Fast Folks family and should be approached with caution! (just kidding).

Check out more photos of her on her purple Leader below.

After I showed a photo of Natalie from Fast Folk‘s (@FastFolks) Kazane track bike in the Shop Visit entry, I got a few emails asking for a bike-check. When I say a few, I mean about a dozen or so. What can I say? People like seeing nice track bikes. Last Friday I set up Natalie’s bike and took a few photos of it. There’s nothing nicer than a clean and sensibly-built track bike. Especially when it gets ridden distances.

Check out some more photos below!