The Radavist

Photo by Kyle Kelley

It’s been real fun hanging out with Jeff from All-City. We raced together, we partied together and even got sick together. Jeff knows how to live the life as the manager of a party brand. But sometimes it gets too much for him to handle. We were supposed to go touring but the urban #campvibes got the best of him.

Don’t worry Salsa, this is an urban adventure. Thanks to Grandpasaurus Rex for the photo.

I don’t like posting video submissions to contests (mostly because I don’t like being flooded with other submissions) but Erinn from Frontage Roads is a rad dude and I’d like to see him win this Salsa competition. Errin, you should be doing the Mt. Wilson fire road, not Griffith!

I’ll admit it. I’ve been a bad owner to this bike. For the past three months, it’s sat in my quiver with no handlebars and flat tires. When I got my Woodville, I kinda stopped riding the Orange One around as much as I should have but now with cross season rearing its ugly head, I scrambled to convert this ambiguous road bike into a dirt machine. Since there isn’t a whole lot of mud at the Dirt Derby here in town, I figured why not? Granted, this build isn’t up to par yet…

Check out more below!

To ease my recent anxiety about this trip, I decided to pack my Geekhouse Woodville up with everything I’ll be bringing with me and riding it down to the Town Lake trails. I really just wanted to feel how she rode before I began to overhaul the bike tomorrow. As it sits there, is how I’ll be riding it, minus the clipless pedals of course. The addition of the Salsa Bell Laps, Sram XO and 12-36 cassette were the last changes I had to make. Everything’s dialed in and ready to roll!

Now I have to break it down and pack it up before Thursday morning. I arrive in Portland on the 18th, do a little project with Embrocation and roll out of town on the 22nd. From there, I’ve got till September 6th to make it to SF for my flight back to Austin. Wish me luck!

The Low track frames are definitely unique looking. While they’re in no way the first aluminum low-pro, Andrew is continuing the tradition of the SF hill-bomber track bike. I took a few photos of Marc’s Low while I was in SF and like a lot of the SF builds, it contains a lotta build faux pas.

Check out more below!

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!

Liam’s Samurai Cycles track frame was at the 2011 NAHBS and somehow I missed it. How do you miss a copper-plated track frame at NAHBS? I have no idea but I did. Samurai is run by Koh Annouraa, a 17-year pro Keirin racer and he’s based in Houston Texas. Which is where Liam rode his track bike from to Austin for SxSW. The trip was about 182 miles and he did it in 19 hours, including a 3-hour power nap. Madness!

I met up with Liam and took some photos of his copper-plated Samurai Cycles track bike. Check out more photos 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.

When I first saw the Colossi Cycles Double Dog stem, I salivated, even though I was unsure of the structural stability of its design. Sure, I’ve seen similar stems before, but always with the slot at the top of the stem, never on the sides. A few days after I posted it up, I got an email from Colossi asking me if I’d like to try one out. Not knowing immediately what I’d use it for, I asked for a quill stem. Then a few days later, a new project came up so I specified a 110mm 1 /8″ threadless at 73°, the classic angle used by Cinelli for their 1a road stems*.

Check out more photos below!

The Nitto Crystemblue stem is one of the most beautiful aheadset quills out there and that’s coming from a sworn Salsa fiend! These stems are pretty hard to come by and when they do pop up, the fetch a pretty penny. Right now on eBay there’s a Crystemblue stem and matching ADB X bar combo for auction. I wonder what it’ll fetch? Too bad those bars are always too narrow for me and the stem is too short or I’d bid on it.

After I wrote my original review of the Nature Boy, I got a lot of emails asking why I had chosen to set a singlespeed cross bike up as a townie. Initially I felt like I had good reason then after putting on a Nitto Campee rack, my once-light cross bike was rather heavy and bulky. Then I bent a fender and I felt like it was time to ride this thing how it was intended to be ridden.

Check out more photos below.

When I first saw the All-City Nature Boy last year, I got all kindsa excited. For a while now, I’ve been looking for a good single-speed cross bike. All I want are canti brakes, fender mounts and clearance for big tires. Sure, there are other options out there but small and simple details make the bike.

Check out more photos and more of my review below.

NYC. This is an All-Points-Bulletin. Find Jeff from Continuum‘s bike that was stolen tonight!

The build list is as follows:

-Black grips
-Black paul lever
-Black paul canti front brake
-Brown Fizik saddle
-Grey MOOTS TI Seatpost
-Lots of stickers on the frame
-Silver thomson stem
-Black oversize SALSA Carbon risers
-Cane creek black S-2 headset
-Black Level hubs laced to silver open pros
-Brown Fyxation tires with white walls
-Time attack clipless pedals
-Sugino 75 cranks silver
-Purple jelli bell on the bar
-and a clamp for iphone on the stem

A friend of mine is looking to sell his Miyata touring bike. Full specs and details are below. He’s asking $1000. It will be shipped from Affinity Cycles in Brooklyn.

Miyata 1000 (1985) frame and fork, 57 ST, 56.5 TT great condition, read about it here
Wheels: handbuilt Mavic A719 to 36 hole Shimano XT hubs 3cross
Drivetrain: Sugino XD triple cranks
Front Der: Suntour
Rear Der: Shimano XT
Cassette: Shimano XT 9 speed 12-32
Shifter: Dura Ace 9 speed barcons
HS: Chris King grip nut
Stem/bars: Salsa 105deg w/26.0 clamp and Nitto Randoneur bars 44cm width
Brakes: Front Paul neo Retro Canti, Rear Avid Shorty 6
Rack: Tubus Cargo
Seatpost and seat: 26.8 Thomson with a Brooks Champion Flyer Sprung saddle
Saddle bag: Carradice