The Radavist

At this point, I shouldn’t have to legitimize Instagram, especially to the readers of this site. Aside from the visual stimulus, it’s a great resource for the local routes and spots our fellow riders find themselves facing on the daily. When I scroll through my feed, there are a few people who I look forward to checking out. Some are cyclists, others are artists, or just really damn good at the lovely square composition. Whatever their walk of life may be, these people make me envious of their surroundings.

Not that I like “rules”, I will say that all of these users stick strictly to their iPhones. Something even I don’t bother adhering to!

Check out my top picks below.

If you follow me on Instagram, you’ve seen that I’m back in LA. I’ll be here for two weeks, kicking around, going on rides and shooting photos. If you’ve got something you think would be a good fit for the site, hit me up! Email, comment, etc. You know me, I love meeting readers and seeing their rides…

Technically Top 10 posts are supposed to come before the New Year but I had so much content to sift through that it took a little while to compose this list. As with the previous Top 10 lists, these are compiled strictly through Facebook “likes” and Tweets, excluding the posts already covered (Beautiful Bicycles and Fixed Freestyle Videos). From jokes to heart-breaking news, 2011 provided some interesting events this year and I never would have guessed what made it to this Top 10 list!

Check out my Top 10 Posts of 2011 below!

This morning, I pulled myself out of bed mid-day and headed out on a road ride with Jonathan. I haven’t been on the road bike in at least two weeks and man, it felt like it. The Texas Hill Country headwinds are no joke this time of year but we made the best of it and that’s what riding is all about. Get out on your bike(s) this year and have fun. I’ll keep doing what I’m doing on this end and let’s roll into 2012 with some momentum.

I want to thank everyone for making this year the best ever for the site. From the advertisers, to the readers, shops, builders, brands and riders, I couldn’t have done it without you. I strongly encourage everyone to keep a positive tone and contribute discourse in the comments. I’ve enjoyed getting to know some of you and I’d like to extend that network even more.

Coming up, I’ve got a new site coming, new features and I’ll be spending all of February Down Under in Sydney and Melbourne, so expect more radness!

Ride / Relax.

Photo by Andy White

Andy is a true cyclist. Someone who harbors the notion of “bicycle culture” with ease. His yearly Great(est) Victorial Bike Ride supplies his readers with glimpses into what it takes to be a one-man cyclo-tourist. He rides without support and through some of the most beautiful terrain southern Australia has to offer. His last day took him on a 9 hour long trek as he covered 124 miles and climbed 16,873 feet. Check out his inspiring photo set and all the details here at FYXO!

Grass roots blogging at its finest. Andy, I gotta come with you the next time you do this.

On Thursday, I met up with Joe, an architecture student studying here in Melbourne. I’ve featured Joe’s Nagasawa in a Reader’s Ride entry a few weeks back and when I randomly bumped into him at the beginning of last week, I knew I had to shoot photos of his Watsonia track bike. For one, Watson is my last name and it’s the colorway of the OG viking logo!

Check out more photos of Joe’s Watsonia track below!

Sometimes when I’m on the road, I slack on my weekly posts. Merckx Mondays, Reader’s Rides and Tuesday Teardowns all suffer equally. Luckily, I’ve got readers who constantly send me their bikes and others who do recon work for me on the side. How else could Tracko afford to open a bike shop?

First up is Tracko’s photo of the Eddy Merckx plate that’s made its way into each of the Rapha Cycle Clubs. Tracko shot this in the SF shop, which has spectacular lighting compared to the NYC shop. Here’s a photo I took last year of the same plate.

Check out more Merckx Mondays below!

Photo by Anthony Saffery

This Merckx Mondays post was submitted by Anthony Saffery as part of a Reader’s Rides feature but I had to use it today! You might recognize this frame from a post a few weeks ago. Well, Anthony did an awesome job on the build and sent me over some photos.

Check out more Merckx Mondays below!

Today I pulled a prank on my readers. Not only did I fib about my bike getting stolen, but I carried a cynical tone in all my posts. While it’s true that Macaframa uses a lot of time-lapse, I still thoroughly enjoy their videos. Did you see JSN get thrown out of the party at the end? Good stuff. I’m also super pumped for Cardiel. His online shop looks pretty bad ass and of course I still get worked up over sexy track frames. NJS or not. Go support Cardiel and Break Free Customs. Milltag‘s jerseys are awesome. Some of my favorites in the industry and these new ones are a great way to show your GB pride.

Come on now, of course the Rapha rope is a joke. But I’m glad some of you guys picked up on the awesome copy they created to promote it. And I wish I had a spare Hasselblad lens. Don’t worry, there are more legit Reader’s Rides coming up.

Yes, my Merckx is fine and yes, it was a mean prank but thanks to everyone who came to my assistance and posted about it. Hey, at least it wasn’t as cruel as last year’s 26″ fixed prank I pulled!

Photo by Pekka Pönkänen

Yeah yeah yeah. I know, we already saw a Reader’s Rides post today but I couldn’t pass up these photos Niko sent me. He can’t help if he got them in a little late, he lives in Finland. The current temperature there is around -13°F. Wow. Niko’s probably not riding much these days but at least he’s got Finland’s only fixed gear forum Yksivaihde.net to keep him entertained!

Check out some more photos of Nike’s Cannondale track below!

Thomas, the man behind that black metal Viking logo and that killer GT track bike has a new poster out. From the looks of the bike, I’d say this is a self-portrait! If you want one of these, he’s more than willing to ship worldwide, just contact him via his email listed here!

Photo by Eric Baumann

Last week when I put up the Reader’s Rides entry, Bryan from Royal H. Cycles posted this gorgeous cross bike photos to his blog. Since I couldn’t figure out how to get the images off the funky slideshow he had set up, he hit me off with Eric Baumann‘s photos. Man, what a great bike for this week’s weather. It seems like almost all of the country is under a white layer of powdery snow. I bet everyone’s wishing they had a nice snow machine like this!

Check out more photos below!

For the Fall 2010 D.A.R.T. look book, Mishka reached out to Takuya Sakamoto to shoot photos of some of the D.A.R.T. riders while they rode around on a Sunday afternoon. This season, D.A.R.T. revamped a few of their classic silhouttes and introduced new ones. Along with new tees, the entire collection is available to readers of this blog at a discounted rate.

Check out the rest of the look book and find out what the discount code is below.

I get so many emails from readers and from now on, when I get a re-occurring question, I’m going to address it in a post. In recent weeks, I must have answered this one question countless times:

“What’s a good beginner sfixed freestyle bike? I need a bike that can take a little bit of tricking and not break the bank.”

To which I’ve replied, each time to check out the Gran Royale Lurker, pictured above…

and the Subrosa Malum (pictured here) for complete street fixed builds under $600. If you’re looking to spend a little more, there’s also the Bens Cycle Bruiser economy builds for $900. All three offer super solid rides and can handle beginner-tricking. There’s no sense in dropping over a grand on a bike designed to withstand BMX tricks unless you’re sure that’s what you want. I always recommend people try something out first before investing a ton of money. For the longest time, my bike of choice for beginners was the Surly Steamroller. Now, with unicrown forks more common, it makes more sense to go with one of the three aforementioned builds.

Edit: A reader brought to my attention the Redline Urbis as another bike in the under $600 pricepoint. Solid build for sure. Disk-brake front too. Can you think of other options? Send them my way!

Hopefully this answers a few questions. Got something else you’d like to ask me? Feel free to email me!

Previously:
Gran Royale Lurker
Subrosa Fixed?

If you’ve been reading this blog long enough, you’ll notice that I don’t really post a lot of “hot girls on bikes” here. It’s mostly because a lot of the bikes aren’t really my thing and I don’t want to alienate any female readers. I’m not trying to be preachy, but there’s a tastefulness that needs to go into shooting bicycles and when women are involved, I like that same tastefulness to apply. I’m not the only one who feels that way either!

Andy at Fyxomatosis just finds that delicate line and time after time, he delivers. You remember Daisy right? How could you forget her and the bike she modeled on? Knowing the popularity of Daisy and the rarity of Chargers in Oz, he put up a nice homage to the quirky mimicry that happens in the land down under. Check it out! Oh and if you like photos like this, you’ll be able to buy prints at Shifter Bikes soon enough!

Previously:
Daisy Duke Rides Again
Daisy Duke