The Radavist

The Mavic 125ans Project came about to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the company. After the release of the Ksyrium 125 wheel in France earlier this spring, Chad Moore of Mavic USA reached out to a select group of frame builders who they felt were standouts in the industry.

Argonaut Cycles – working with designer Garrett Chow, Lynskey Performance, Mosaic Cycles – working with designer Zach Lee on their paint design, Ritte Cycles and Seven Cycles were contacted directly by Mavic.

Each builder was given a timeline and other than that, full artistic reign over their project bike. Looking to the Ksyrium 125 wheel for inspiration, each builder approached this unique collaboration in a way that represented what Mavic means to them and their brands.

These bikes will be released at Mavic’s brand communications center and Service Course in Los Angeles on 10 July, but I got a special sneak peek at the bikes yesterday, as I shot each in detail within the Mavic mechanics area. Both the Ritte and the Seven 125ans bikes will be auctioned off at the Pros Closet later this fall.

See this project in its entirety in the Gallery and there will be more to come, including interviews from some of the builders and an extensive look at Garrett Chow’s inspiration for the Argonaut Cycles road.

At this year’s NAHBS, I knew something. Deep down inside, amidst all the insane custom bicycles, I know that Cielo was onto something with their new Road Racer Di2. The custom market is amazing, don’t get me wrong, but the domestic production market is far too overlooked.

I’ve been to Baum Cycles before, a few years back, but in that time, both Darren and I made a few big moves. While Baum is still expanding, it’s fun to see what the future holds for the Geelong-based frame builder.

Llewellyn is one of Australia’s best kept, not-so secrets. Those who know, know, leaving the rest of the world coveting frames from Eisentraut (1959), Moulton (1957), Weigle (1977), Sachs (1975), etc.

Granted, Llewellyn has only been building since 1979, and the others, as stated above, have been around only slightly longer. Darrell Llewellyn makes steel bikes and steel bikes alone. He’s built for numerous Australian national athletes, was an Olympic mechanic and had a hand in the early days of NAHBS.

I love seeing frame builders gain notoriety through supporting grassroots cycling teams. Not to say that Aaron Stinner wouldn’t be as popular today without building the Mudfoot racing cyclocross frames, but it certainly helped.

During my visit to Santa Barbara during the ATOC, Jeremy Dunn and I spent the afternoon with Aaron, riding bikes, photographing bikes and making a mess at his house.

Aaron is lucky enough to have a decent sized workspace set up in his garage and he’s even luckier to have a great ride just seconds from his front door. As his queue stacks up, Aaron continues to crank out road, cross and MTB frames for customers, who happen to be mostly from California. Many of which are looking to race on a steel frame, made in their home state, rather than buy overseas production.

Stinner Frameworks is still new in the grand scheme of things, but if Aaron continues at the current momentum, he could vary well be the next big thing…

I’ve been looking forward to this stage since the first time Rapha North America and I discussed doing the Tour of California again. Why? Because Stage 05 ends in Santa Barbara, home to one of my favorite dudes / frame builders, Aaron of Stinner Frameworks.

Our plan was to get into town super early and hit a quick road ride before waiting at the KOM for the Hot Boyz of PRO Cycling to crest. Well, when you’ve been on the road for around a week, plans get shuffled around a bit.

We got to town late, like four hours late, but we quickly assessed the race via the ATOC app and figured we could hammer it up Old San Marcos road to the KOM in time.

Side note: I was over shooting frame builders in their studio, so it was nice getting Aaron out onto a bike. If only I could do this for every “shop visit”…

After literally hammering it up to the top, the breakaway group summited, then the peloton and eventually, the stragglers. The temps were up in the high 90’s and it was hot, hot, hot.

20 miles and 2800′ elevation later and we were ready to hit the road…

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Back in the early 2000’s, here in Austin, a guy named Whitney Moyer headed to a mecca of hopeful framebuilders in the US, UBI. Upon returning with all the experience needed to build frames, he was looking to commission a local project. This was that frame. Moyer’s first…