The Radavist

Drew at Milwaukee has been saying for years “we need to make a road version of the Orange One” and I always agreed with him. But where do you get it made? Taiwan? Sure, you could. It’d be cheap and you’d be able to sell them in bulk. But that’s not always the answer. With Milwaukee’s relationship with Waterford, they decided to go local. Waterford already makes Milwaukee’s Cream City so going with a road model was painless.

I received my frameset a few weeks ago and finally got around to building it up yesterday at Fast Folks. Check out more photos of my Milwaukee Bicycle Co. Orange One road below!

I’m an advocate for re-appropriating bicycles to do things they weren’t designed to do. Hell, we all started doing BMX-inspired tricks on fixed gears. So when someone says they wanna tour on a cross-bike, rather than say that it’s not engineered for that, I tip my hat to them. Cole hit me back up in January, saying he was going to be touring from Baton Rouge to San Diego and heading through Austin at some point. What kind of bike was he going to ride on? A touring bike? Nope. An old Giant cross bike. Was it designed for touring? Nope. Did that stop Cole? Nope. You see what I’m getting at?

Well, he left for his tour in early March and made it from Baton Rouge to Austin in about a week. Friday night he rolled into town and we spent the weekend hanging out during SxSW. Sunday morning came and he had to be set off on his route so I rolled with him for a few miles until we found a spot to shoot photos of his bike.

Check out more photos of Cole’s Fully-Loaded Giant Cross Bike below!

I tried my hardest to document the process of getting fit for my Geekhouse Woodville but unfortunately, the veil of the “show bike” took over. Usually Marty and the crew cover each bike’s process extensively, offering up the client photos of their bike. Now whether or not this is key in the client > builder relationship is debatable. Does it help assure the client? Is the builder looking for approval? Does it muddy the process? These are just a few questions that’s raised by documenting a custom bicycle’s fabrication. But that’s not why I’m raising those points. What I’m trying to do is walk you guys through out process, to make the often overwhelming process of getting a custom bike more attainable.

Check out more below.

When Marty and the Geekhouse crew refused to send me any kind of teaser of my Woodville touring bike during the fabrication process, I knew it’d be good. Sure enough, I showed up at the 2011 NAHBS at their booth while they were prepping everything and was greeted with Marty saying “Your bike took me longer than any other to build”. I replied “For this show?” and he said “No, EVER.”

God is in the details and that holds true here with my Geekhouse Woodville. For a tig-welded frame, there’s a ton going on and you can see more below.

Last year, at the NAHBS in Richmond, Marty from Geekhouse approached me about doing a custom Woodville touring bike for the NAHBS this year. After kicking around ideas all week, last night we sat down and sized me for a bike and began to work out some details. My freakishly-long inseam and long arms but short torso is usually a problem for me to find a good fit on a production bike which is one of the reasons I am so stoked on getting a custom!

So far, most of our ideas will have to remain a bit of a secret but let’s just say it’s gonna be an interesting bike that screams my personality and Geekhouse’s flair. I cannot wait to see how it turns out. I’ll post future updates as events warrant.

The 2010 Bicycle Film Festival is touring around the country and next up is LA. Don’t miss this action packed weekend, beginning tomorrow night! Check out the full schedule and fliers below!

A few weeks ago, I posted up about Poler stuff and surprisingly, people weren’t stoked on the weight of the Man Tent. Since you’ve made it obvious that 4lb tents have no place in bicycle touring, may I present to you Poler’s clothing line. I’m really digging the Poler products and I’m thinking most of you do too but I have to warn you, these trucker hats weigh twice that of cycling caps and cotton tees aren’t applicable for “real touring”.

;-)

Adventure Cycling Association, the nation’s largest nonprofit membership bicycling association and the reason many of our staff got into bicycle touring for the first place, is proud to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Northern Tier Route, one of the organization’s most iconic and beloved routes…

You might not expect the co-owner of Crust Bikes to have oftentimes preferred a moto for solo touring over a bicycle but it’s true. Matt from Crust Bikes is a longtime lover of mini motos and often found himself on them when he was touring around the world. One bike in particular always met his fancy; the Postie bike. Although, he preferred the bike not only for its whopping 7 horsepower but its step-through design, which inspired the new Evasion Trail 140. Matt gave us a sneak peek at this new all steel chassis tourer, so let’s check out the forthcoming Evasion Trail 140 below…

We’re a little late to the congratulatory party but we want to congratulate writer, filmmaker, endurance-rider, and Radavist contributor, McKenzie Barney on the completion of her Cycle the World Project! McKenzie has shared several stories from her 18,000-mile journey that spanned five continents, and four years, and we can’t wait to see more stories from this impressive journey.

In a world where traditional bicycle touring setups are seemingly overtaking strap-on bikepacking bags, micro or mini panniers make a lot of sense. If you have a rear or front rack, why not run a pannier over a lashed, structureless bag? Panniers are great for many reasons, mainly their ease of loading and stability. They don’t flop all over or rub your tires on smaller frames like bikepacking bags tend to, and if they’re packed and mounted right, they stay out of your way during the inevitable hike-a-bike. Plus, depending on how you load your rear rack, you can still use a dropper post. 

John recently took the new Revelate Nano Panniers ($250/pair) out on the Northern New Mexico CDT for four days of navigating deadfall, battling cow shit, and being trounced by Southwestern Monsoons, i.e., the true test of a pannier’s reliability!

Read on for his well-used review!

Our Radar Roundup compiles products and videos from the ‘net in an easy-to-digest format. Read on below for today’s findings…