The Radavist

The Norwegian city of Oslo recently played host to the Service Course Oslo‘s Bikes of Oslo Showcase, featuring a plethora of custom bikes during a weekend of riding and soaking in the summer sun. We’re honored to host the report here, at the Radavist, featuring the bicycle photography of Magnus Nordstrand and the riding/lifestyle shots from Herman Ottesen. Check out the bikes along with an interview with the Service Course’s Jonas Strømberg below…

Texas isn’t the flat, dusty desert that many believe it is. Well, some areas are exactly that, but there’s massive diversity here. Deep in the Heart of Texas, sandwiched between the Spring Breaker beaches and the deserted desert montañas, sits the Texas Hill Country. Austin perches itself right at the verge of the boundary between the stinging hills to the west and rolling farmland to the east. You’re darn tootin’, it’s one helluva place to be a cyclist. This motley of landscapes calls for a capable bike – fast, light, sturdy, comfy, and most importantly, right at home on all terrains. Enter David Ross’ Gunnar Hyper-X…

As I drive home to Barcelona from a photoshoot in the South of Spain, I dream about the next three days. They will be calm and tranquil while I worked from home. Then, my phone buzzes with a message from Mike, a friend and owner of a bed and breakfast in the Pyrenees Mountains in France. He needs help with a last-minute photoshoot further north in the Basque Country. By last minute, he means tomorrow. No time for a rest. I live for photoshoots. It’s my job. My passion. The lure of home will have to wait, as the car stays packed and continues northward toward France.

A few hours later I am in the French Basque Country, in the town of Saint Jean de la Luz. Mike has brought me to his friend, Julien’s house. It is like the rest of the neighborhood, an etxea, in typical Basque construction with white walls crossed by solid timber beams, covered with a clay terracotta roofs. And there in this iconic French village sits the subject for the day. It’s a fresh, stainless steel 2-11 Cycles. So fresh that it’s barely been out on the road yet.

This year was to be the first year Nao Tomii of Tomii Cycles was going to attend NAHBS. For a small builder like Nao, spending the kind of money it takes to pull a seat up to the table of the USA’s largest hand made bicycle show takes a lot of financial planning, so when NAHBS was postponed this year, Tomii Cycles wouldn’t be able to attend. Most builders display customer’s bikes at NAHBS and asking his clients to wait four more months for their bikes, especially during a pandemic was out of the question. I reached out to Nao and asked if we could display his bikes here at the Radavist, so we’re doing just that…

With NAHBS being delayed for the foreseeable future, we’re getting a lot of showcase builds sent to us to share. For framebuilders, shops, and companies, a lot of energy goes into NAHBS bikes each year, so not being able to show them off can be a huge hit to their plans. Luckily, we support NAHBS, framebuilders, and small brands, so this is a perfect fit for us. This round, we’re looking at these collaboration bikes from Search and State, Mosaic, and Black Oak Velo.

I love a sunburnt hardtail.

Influences come from many a place. A flicker, chirp or whiff that conveys a feeling and experience. Singlespeed’s have influenced my riding since the turn of the millennium. I knew I’d be forever broke as a bike messenger if it involved maintaining a geared drivetrain year-round through London’s woefully wet winters.

Words by Jack Watney, photos by Adam Gasson

Grinduro Frame Builder Event Format

The Bicycle Academy (TBA) put the Grinduro Scotland frame builder competition format together 3 years ago as a way of creating a platform for frame builders to showcase what they do. It’s an opportunity for builders to work to a tight brief, but at the same time to be playful and creative with bike design. They get to make their own idea of a perfect bike, to keep for themselves, something that doesn’t happen as often as you might think.

After spending close to a month in Tucson, I got a good handle on what the cycling community is like in that wonderful city. Well, in the winter anyway, summer is another story. One place I found myself stopping by frequently for events is Transit Cycles. With Spencer’s gallery being one of my favorite Shop Visits on this site, I didn’t feel it necessary to completely revisit Transit, photographically. While they did move to a new location since Spencer’s piece, many of the vignettes and textures are still relevant to Transit’s modus operandi. I did, however, feel compelled to check out their new space and hit some highlights, and as the title implies, to shoot the owner, Duncan’s, Black Cat All Road.

A Matte Sand Breadwinner G-Road at Grinduro
Photos by Kyle Kelley, words by John Watson

For Grinduro this year, many framebuilders brought their baddest rigs out to get coated in the infamous Quincy dust. In the mix was Breadwinner Cycles from Portland and in tow was this very special version of the Limited Edtion G-Road, painted in Matte Sand and built with an emphasis on made in the USA componentry. This includes a kit based around the 27.5″ wheel and tire platform, perfect for packin’ in plenty of rubber to absorb the rough and rocky terrain, while relying on Chris King for the BB, HS and hubs, White Industries G30 Cranks, Velocity Cliffhanger rims in 27.5″, Thomson stem and seatpost, Paul Klamper brakes, Silca Impero Frame Pump and last but not least, trusty King Cages. Top off this stellar build with an Igleheart fork with cargo cage mounts and you’ve got one trusty and capable shred sled.

Bikes that look this good need very little introduction and at this point, everything Breadwinner has been putting out over the past few years has been enticingly shreddy! If you’re interested in one, holler at Breadwinner!

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Follow Kyle on Instagram and Breadwinner Cycles on Instagram and look for more Grinduro coverage coming next week!

My Celestial All City Spacehorse Disc – Jarrod bunk
Photos and words by Jarrod Bunk

All City’s Spacehorse Disc ticks a lot of boxes for me, I fell in love with my canti version two years ago, since then I probably spent the most time on that bike of all of them. It just felt right, the geometry was fun and it climbed, descended and shredded so well.  Fast forward to Saddle Drive last August, I happened to check out the new Spacehorse Disc, it solved one of the only issues I had with the canti version, the braking.  I ordered up a frame, but my mind wandered and I decided to add a few small things to the build, based on what I wished the canti bike had, warranty be damned. I had Maestro Frameworks braze on a third bottle, pump peg, and add some internal wiring for my rear tail light.

Since the bike was getting the paint stripped off for the frame work I had Wanderlust Paint make something special for me. I printed a picture of All City’s geo chart and broke out my markers, I’ve always had something for brown on bikes, so that’s where I started.  I think that paint can make a bike, so I even had my Simworks stem painted to match.  Years ago my friend Jesse turned me onto Pass and Stow racks, I always wanted one, and since then have been waiting for the right bike, this was that bike.  I knew I would be using a dynamo system on my Spacehorse and loved that I could run wiring through the rack for a cleaner look.

I used a little Newbaums tape to cover the wiring safely and protect the powder coat on the rack.  I think this worked out well.  Aside from those details, I’m running a Chris King rear hub, SON front, and Supernova lights.  Other parts include a CK40 headset, Silca frame pump, White Industries cranks, Chris King bottom bracket, and Velocity Cliffhanger rims.  I build custom bikes 6 days a week and breaking bike parts should be my job, so I built this bike with the most bombproof parts I could. Enough about the build, I’ve got to spend a bit of time on this commuting and riding, and its as good as the old canti bike, just a little bit better for my needs. For whatever reason the disc fork feels a good bit stiffer, which is real nice for front loading, and adds some confidence under hard fast braking descents.

Swift Campout was a blast this year thanks to the Spacehorse which handled the muddy, slick, steep terrain perfectly, hence the dirt on it.  I can’t say enough about just how damn fun the Spacehorse Disc is, the versatility of the bike is out of this world, from commuting, to touring, to just shredding gravel I love this bike. It didn’t take much but I turned a stock frame into my dream bike, one I will have for a lifetime.  If you haven’t ridden one I recommend checking one out at your local dealer, you won’t be sorry.

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Follow Jarrod on Instagram, Follow All City on Instagram .

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.