The Radavist

I wish I could be everywhere at once, especially with all these great events approaching in the coming weeks. The Rapha Continental undeniably changed cycling in the USA. As part of their First Thursday Rapha Exhibition series, Rapha will be presenting select pieces from the Continental, as well as a group ride on Friday:

First Thursday Rapha Exhibition – Exploring The Road Less Traveled
The exhibition will feature photographs, films, journals, the riders themselves and their individually handmade steel bicycles.
Thursday June 6th
6-9 PM
Nossa Familia Coffee
1319 NW Johnson Street
Portland, OR 97209

Lunch Ride With The Rapha Continental
On Friday June 7th, Rapha North America will host a group ride with the riders of The Rapha Continental at 12:30 PM. The ride will depart from and finish at the Rapha North America offices at 1915 NW Kearney Street in Northwest Portland. The ride will be approximately 35 miles and will include Skyline Road, Rock Creek Road and Old Germantown Road. All levels welcome, the ride will take place rain or shine.

See more information below!

Let’s see, brightly-colored, capable of holding water and made in Australia. Yep. That’s a FYXO Bidon. Swoop here. Oh and check out his new sticker packs while you’re at it.

“Le Petite Cannibal”

I have a ton of Merckx Mondays content coming from Australia over these next few weeks but today I’ve got one piece of radness to share. This year, all my friends seem to be having kids and it’s no secret that FYXO‘s a daddy now. Hence the mini Molteni Baby Skinsuit.

$40 and guaranteed to make your offspring faster. Or something. Made to order, bespoke baby wear and ends this week, so get on it. This is one example when it’s acceptable to buy upgrades…

Scoop at FYXO

Depending on how light you travel by bike, these two bags could very well hold everything you need for a week-long bicycle tour or camping trip and the best thing is, you don’t need rack mounts or any additional provisions. Just a seat post, saddle rails and handlebars. The frame, bar and saddle bags that are coming out of Porcelain Rocket’s shop in Calgary are strikingly beautiful.

This isn’t your traditional waxed canvas and leather saddle bags used by randonneurs. These bags are made from Dimension Polyant VX21, HDPE and clasp together with Rock Lockster buckles. They can be customized to any number of color combinations and patterns (see above). Used primarily by MTBrs, these packs will fit on just about any bicycle frame.

I’ve never used a Porcelain Rocket bag, but I had great luck with my  Viscacha saddle bag by Revelate Designs, which looks similar. I’m heading out to Asia in a few weeks and then to Australia, where I’ll be using my Viscacha yet again. I would be picking up a set from Scott if he didn’t have such a long lead-time.

You’ll have to wait about 10-12 weeks for your Porcelain Rocket bag but they look like they’re worth the wait. Check out the full line at Porcelain Rocket and see more of Scott’s creations on his Flickr.

Last year, at NAHBS, I met Jeremy and Neil from Cedar Cycling, a new cycling wear brand. Using high-end Australian merino wool blend fabric and local manufacturing in California, I knew Cedar was really doing something genuine and legit. Over a bottle of bourbon, we discussed working on a jersey. But since they had barely just launched their brand, we knew it would be some time before we’d have samples.

Earlier in the summer, I met up with them in SF to look at fabrics and discuss the jersey in detail. Then, a few weeks ago, I finally got my hands on one. I was really, really impressed. This is one of the nicest jerseys I’ve ever owned. We worked really hard getting everything right, especially the fit. It’s form-fitting, without being race cut. The sleeves sit just right and the front lies flat on your chest.

One of my biggest qualms with a lot of jerseys that I own is the pocket room. Especially during the winter. You end up stuffing arm warmers, a gillet and gloves into your pockets on the daily. Three generous open rear pockets hold all your ride essentials, plus two hidden zippered pockets to keep your valuables safe. The whole jersey is held in place by silicone gripper imported from Italy. The fit is true to size. I wear a large shirt and a large jersey.

It fits great and is incredibly comfortable. What I’m trying to say is, this is far from just a new “colorway”…

Pre-order one at the PiNP Web Shop today! These will be shipped on January 18th.

*One small note, our factory sewed up all of the jerseys with the rear pocket purple trim except for the mediums. Medium jerseys will have a grey pocket trim, matching the jersey. See this picture. Everything else is the same. Sorry!

In 2012, PiNP’s content was like a pinball machine. It seemed like every other month, I’d find myself in another city. Some familiar, some new, but I traveled everywhere with my bike and camera in hand, ready to see what was out there. Throughout these travels, I formed a lot of strong friendships with a lot of incredible people. Some of which have become my best of friends. We rode hard, we partied harder and somehow, I managed to keep the year in focus.

Here’s the PiNP 2012: A Year in 55 Photos…

I really wish I could have visited KUMO Cycles when I was in Australia. Especially after seeing this Chassichrome track frame. I can identify with large frames and this 60cm Columbus Life beauty was made with Llewellyn lugs, sports a hand carved Kumo BB shell cutout and keeps it classy with a chrome fork and rear triangle. Check out more details at KUMO. Thanks for sharing Harry!

All Photos by Andy White

Andy from Fyxomatosis and I did something a little different this time around. He’s posting my photos and dictating over them and I, his. We loosely are calling this the Dueling Banjos. So here’s my side of the saddle:

When I found out I would be returning to Australia, Andy asked if I wanted to go on one of he and Dan from Shifter Bike‘s “epic” rides out through Woods Point. I’ve been following Fyxomatosis, since forever, so I knew what that meant. This was a man’s ride. A no holds-barred, dirt and hurt ride. Since doing my tour, I have stayed in the saddle. I had the base miles underneath me but did I have the ability to keep up with Dan and Andy? Nervously, I accepted the invite and the day before we left, Dan took my Milwaukee Orange One into Shifter Bikes for a cleaning.

We left that morning and met Andy in Lilydale. We rode along the Warburton Rail Trail, through flea markets and eventually stopped in Warburton for breakfast. Canadian pancakes, a long black, fresh juice and some pastries. As we were leaving the cafe, I thanked Dan for cleaning my bike, to which he replied “thank me in 30 minutes”…

Today I had the unfortunate experience of having to spend the entire day indoors waiting on Qantas to deliver my luggage. I showed up in Sydney after our plane sat on the tarmac at LAX for four hours prior to departing, only to find that all my clothes and my bike was “lost”. What made matters worse was that it was Australia Day today and I had to mope around inside until 5pm.

Once they dropped off my bags, I headed out to walk around Surry Hills and Newtown, searching for classy bikes, cars and everything in between. Check out some more at my Flickr.

This poor bike. It’s been embarrassed numerous times on this blog. It went from that goofy stem to the goofier bar and lever setup. I look back at those photos with shame. What the hell was I thinking? My only guess is that this bike was never a real necessity. I had my Merckx and so I barely rode the MKE. When I sold my Merckx to fund the Bishop, the MKE became my only road bike. I’ve been putting in miles on it and even with the SRAM Apex and FSA cranks, this bike rides and handles a lot better than any other road bike I’ve owned.

Check out more below.

Well, I hope you all had a great New Year. I’m assuming most of you are back to work now and probably have some time to kill today during your lunch break so I invite you to check out a year in review. 2011 brought about a lot of traveling for me and like the increase in frequent flier miles, the site’s content continues to rack up. International, cross-continental and bi-coastal travels brought me to shops, events and in front of Beautiful Bicycles.

Check out Prolly is Not Probably’s Year in Review below!

This year, more so than years past, I got to document Beautiful Bicycles around the world. From Melbourne, to SF and NYC, track bikes, road bikes and even fixed freestyle bikes found their way to the other side of my lens. When I decided to make my top 10 list this year, I knew I had to find an unbiased way of judging from my posts. After looking at them all, I decided Facebook “likes”, Tweets and comments were the best way to judge. Each of these bikes were broken down on a spreadsheet and I can say with confidence, they’re by far some of my favorite bikes of the year.

Without further ado, here’s my Top 10 Beautiful Bicycles of 2011!

In surprising news, Velocity has announced via a press release that all of their rims will be manufactured in the States come 2012. They will be closing their Brisbane facilities and moving production to Florida. Now, people are rejoicing but I’m kinda bummed for the Brisbane community and they’re going to have to change their logo. But at least shifting from AUS to USA only requires changing a few letters around. Now, I wish other manufacturers would move back to the States!

Check out the PR below.