The Radavist

Los Angeles’ cycling culture is full of people who value California-made bicycles. During a week hanging out at The Cub House, I ogled a few bikes that were just too good not too show off as in-depth feature galleries here. My favorite of the bunch was very likely this custom Sycip disc road, built with Campagnolo Ekar, the Italian brand’s official “gravel” groupset. Sycips are super clean bikes, and this one has a beautifully scalloped, segmented seat stay, so let’s check it out in detail below…

Up at the crack of dawn, we start our ride through the bustling streets of Bangkok. As the sun struggles to break through the dense smog that engulfs the city, we wrestle and weave through the maddening metropolis. People flood the streets. Market stalls pop up around us, and woks roar as they fire up and perfume the air with an explosion of rich Thai aromas. For once we won’t stop. We’re on a mission, we tell ourselves as we ignore the pull of the pad thai, and arrive at our destination: Bicycle Boys Clubhouse (BBCH).

Tucked away on Charoen Krung – the first road ever built in Thailand – Bicycle Boys Clubhouse is a breath of fresh air. A bike and coffee shop specializing in fixed/track bikes, high-end components, and kick-ass food. Surrounded by an array of artisans, specialty coffee hideouts, and a lowkey vinyl record store, the space exudes a sense of style. But BBCH is more than just a trendy bike shop: it’s a statement and a community.

Aside from pristine days of riding, the GiRodeo was also a semi-nomadic bike show. The Service Course has long-term collaborative relationships with a number of builders, working together to pair builders and customers appropriately. I say “semi-nomadic” because the majority of builders rode their bikes, but also because the bikes that were not being ridden magically popped up in restaurants and breweries or wherever else events were held as part of the show. This is a rundown of my favorite bikes, many of which were part of the GiRodeo, and others were part of The Service Course’s furniture.

This coming Wednesday, June 15th, The Service Course is throwing a film premiere of its latest project, which follows its mechanic Diederik Deelen as he takes on The Traka 360, Girona’s premier gravel race. The screening takes place at Hors Categorie Girona and is free and open to the public. On display at the event will be this custom-painted OPEN bike, fitted with ENVE components and a hydro-dipped paint job, marvelously created by Sergio Vergel Escribano. We got an exclusive first look at this bike and are pleased to share it with you below!

When bike events promote inclusivity and welcome all sorts of riders, not just racers, wonderful things happen. If it seems like I’m still glowing from this weekend’s Mid South, well, it’s the truth. Those few days completely recharged over two years of dreary times and meeting Keith re-centered my own struggles by putting them in perspective. In a serendipitous way – ok, I was stalking him – I happened to catch him rolling into the expo area at Mid South on his Scissortail Cycles cargo bike. There’s so much going on with this one so let’s get to it…

In an ongoing series of beautiful bicycle builds coming out of The Cub House in San Marino, CA, Abbie Bender walks us through her custom Stinner Frameworks Gibraltar road bike build with supporting photography from Sean Talkington…

For the past five years, we’ve hosted in-depth documentation of the annual Chris King Open House and for the second year in a row, this showcase has gone virtual. Yet, don’t fret, because we have a beautiful showcase of some incredibly talented, international builders for you today. With a catalog spanning the globe, ranging from Australia to Italy, Spain, and France, we’re bringing gravel offerings from Baum, Bixxis, Legor, Prova, and Victoire to the web for you to enjoy from the comfort of your home or office. These bikes feature an extremely limited run of grey and turquoise Chris King bits which won’t be available to the public but have informed the paint designs for each of these noble steeds.

I hope you’re ready for some delicious gravel bikes! Let’s jump right in…

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…

I shoot as many bikes as I could at the ENVE Builder Round Up in a relatively small timeframe and while I wish I could have gotten to them all, there’s only so much one can do in ten hours. Still, I feel like these last five builders represent the kinds of bikes the readership here at the Radavist enjoys. There are some real gems in this last gallery. Without further adieu, here’s an in-depth look at Weiss, Breadwinner, Moots, a new brand called Pine, and Mosaic…

We’ve got a few more galleries to go through from this weekend’s ENVE Builder Round Up and today we’re featuring the wonderful work of 22 Bicycle Co, Ritte, Speedvagen, Alliance, and Utah’s own, Salt Air. Enjoy!

Continuing on with our 2021 ENVE Builder Round Up coverage – we posted the first Gallery on Friday – today we’re featuring the show-stopping work of Prova Cycles, Naked Bicycles, 44 Bikes, Spooky, Retrotec, and Argonaut Cycles. Each of these builders brought something special to the showcase and a few raised the bar considerably in various ways. There’s a lot to go over here so let’s get to it!

It’s that time of year again! ENVE’s Open House, aka the Builder Round-Up and Grodeo event is this weekend in Ogden, Utah, so I packed up my bike portrait kit and drove up through beautiful summer monsoons to document a selection of bikes from this year’s event. Check out a thoroughly documented stable from the Round Up below, beginning with Chumba, Falconer, Firefly, Mariposa, Scarab, Sklar, and Tomii…

I don’t know about you all but personally, I miss seeing off-the-wall crazy custom bikes at the various tradeshows. With the pandemic canceling the 2020 and most likely 2021 dates for various open houses and NAHBS, I’ve just accepted the fact that those balleur bicycle gallery shoots will have to wait. That said, when projects like this fall into my lap, I’m more than excited to take some extra time documenting them.

ENVE launched their Foundation Gravel wheels last week and in a perfect world, a press-camp was supposed to happen in Arizona to test out those wheels. ENVE planned on pinging various builders to fabricate the chassis for their full gravel lineup. One of those builders was Retrotec and Curtis went overboard for the event, building a handful of titanium frames alongside Oscar Camarena of Simple Bike Company. When the press camp wasn’t happening, Curtis decided he’d send this bike out for me to document. He needed photos for his website and I won’t say no to content like this…

With Covid-19 throwing a wrench in the spokes of the traditional tradeshow schedule, even open houses have had to switch to an online, or virtual, format. We saw this earlier in the year with ENVE and now, the 2020 Chris King Open House. While it wasn’t safe to travel to Portland to document the bikes, Chris King’s in-house photographer Jacob Olsen did a stellar job at documenting all ten bikes, while videography team Modify Content knocked out some great, in-depth video profiles of these handmade marvels. We’ve got part two today, featuring Pursuit, Rock Lobster, Sage, Speedvagen, and Sycip, so let’s jump right in…

With Covid-19 throwing a wrench in the spokes of the traditional tradeshow schedule, even open houses have had to switch to an online, or virtual, format. We saw this earlier in the year with ENVE and now, the 2020 Chris King Open House. While it wasn’t safe to travel to Portland to document the bikes, Chris King’s in-house photographer Jacob Olsen did a stellar job at documenting all ten bikes, while videography team Modify Content knocked out some great, in-depth video profiles of these handmade marvels. We’ve got part one today, featuring Bingham, Breadwinner, Caletti, DeSalvo, and Mosaic, so let’s jump right in…