Search Term – Change
Eroica translates to the heroic in Italian and perhaps that was the intention when the Eroica California team designed the course for the forthcoming event in April. While the original event was born in the Italian countryside, on pristine strada bianche, the California event takes to the hills and mountains separating wine country from the beautiful coastline…
This year was a whirlwind. I think I traveled somewhere around 220 days, jumping the pond a few times and yes, spending lots of time in California. But what was the pinnacle of the year was the rebrand from PiNP to the Radavist. The pinnacle because it meant more contributors, more photos and ultimately, more, good content.
Without the contributors to this site, it wouldn’t have been such a successful year. Those guys really killed it.
Before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s start from Day 01…
The stick that held up the bikes in this Gallery…
I shot a lot of bikes this year. In fact, I shot more Galleries this year, than any other two years combined. From April 1st’s launch of the Radavist, until last week, the entire team worked hard on bringing a full photo gallery just about every weekday, sometimes twice. Pulling in those metrics took some time, but rather than limiting this year’s selection to just ten, I found the following bikes to be all within the same realm.
Some of these bikes never dropped a chain in terms of year-long momentum, still churning in pageviews and social media chatter to this very day. Surprisingly to me, a few were completely stock bikes. These were all chosen for their Facebook likes, social media engagement, comments and overall traffic. I feel like there were a lot of bikes that were flops as far as traffic was concerned, but I wanted to be fair in selecting the list.
Before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s back up a bit.
We began the year with a few big stories, all leading up to one of the busiest weekends of the year, NAHBS. After record-breaking traffic, the world of Beautiful Bicycles culminated in the 2014 NAHBS Drive Side Gallery. From there, it was onto traveling for stories and documenting Beautiful Bicycles along the way… We’ll start off in Prescott, Arizona for the Whiskey Off Road.
With the advent of the 1x drivetrain, be it SRAM (who arguably brought the technology to the cycling industry), Race Face, Wolf Tooth or the hundreds of other options, the ‘cross bike lost a bit of its versatility, when compared to having a 34t inner ring. For racing, a 40t front and 11-28t cassette may be fine, but add in a substantial amount of climbing, on dirt roads exceeding 12%, for miles, and you’ll find yourself a bit “knackered” as our British comrades say.
Geoff McFetridge is a longtime legend in my book. Growing up skateboarding in the 90’s, there were a handful of artists that always had their finger on the pulse. Everywhere you looked, he was doing illustrations, or projects with brands like Nike – those Vandals were my favorite. About 6 years ago, Geoff, along with some like-minded friends started a team in Los Angeles called Mudfoot.
Years later and the team has grown, racing and riding the roads, courses, tracks and paths of LA and beyond. The team, it turns out, is a highly successful brand as well, planning rides in Los Angeles and selling out instantly of any good or product they list on their site. All of which is designed by Geoff.
Last year, the team looked to Santa Barbara’s Stinner Frameworks to design and fabricate a run of team bikes. They were a smash hit and looked exceptionally good bunnyhopping barriers, or taking beer handups. So when this year’s season drew near, Geoff worked with Aaron once again on designing a new frame.
Even though these frames were completed towards the end of the race season, we all know a cross bike is just at home in a race as it is on dirt and trails. I’ve got a few more races here in Austin, as well as Nationals, all of which I’ll be breaking this beaut in. Once it’s built, I’ll give a full parts break down and a proper photoshoot.
Before it got built up however, I took a few minutes to photograph it in my office. See more in the Gallery!
Last year, I had the opportunity to photograph Keith Bontrager both at a Q&A session at Mission Workshop and his home in Santa Cruz. Between those two events, I was commissioned by Bontrager / Trek to document some of, as they described, Keith’s Relics.
Everything from early integrated bars to the first rolled rim, jerseys, musettes, hubs and yes, complete bikes. Normally, this would be a job any photo and bike geek would take their sweet time with, but my window was two hours, including studio calibration.
It was a blur but I got to spend some quality time with these products and I did my best to document their details and nuances. Remember, at this stage in the game, Keith was making these frames in a tiny garage in Santa Cruz…
Check out some of my favorite selections in the Gallery and please, feel free to add anything you’d like in the comments!
Jeremiah Kille is an artist in Santa Cruz, California and like John Caletti, he creates vibrant pieces of work, relying on geometry and color. This new titanium road was built to Jeremiah’s specifications, utilizing a plethora of chevrons, inspired both by the sunsets of Santa Cruz and classic surf culture of the 70’s.
Photographer Peter Thomsen took his time documenting this one. See a few more below and the full set at Peter’s portfolio site
Man, I feel like this collaboration has been in the works for ages. Two of my favorite artists, working together for one rad brand, the Athletic.
“Brian Vernor and Chris McNally teamed up to make these fantastic t-shirts. This isn’t the first time that these two have teamed up together, but it is something that they have been talking about for a while.
Aaron Bradford and Vernor set out to make this one at Wilder Ranch in Santa Cruz. Just as Brian and McNally did with their other shirt at Townsley Tunnel.
These are the spaces we ride all year round on cross bikes. In the North Cal. it is always cyclocross season, the terrain dictates it.”
See more at the Athletic’s web shop.
Man, it’s a Red Hook Crit morning. Here’s a video showcasing Neil Bezdek and his Rider Cap:
“Neil Bezdek is a bike racer, advocate, commuter, and writer based in New York City. Neil grew up mountain biking on singletrack outside of Denver, Colorado before falling in love with road cycling while attending college in scenic Santa Barbara, California.
After a year-long stint as a bike messenger in New York City, Neil took up road racing and competed professionally for three seasons. Now pursuing a “grown up” career in NYC’s Department of Transportation’s Bike Share Program, Neil still finds time to moonlight as a semi-professional at races across the US while also contributing regularly to Bicycling magazine.
Neil is a four-time winner of the Red Hook Criterium, which we considers his all-time favorite cycling event.”
Pick up a cap at the Cinelli Winged Store.
Over at Giro, when they need bikes for their tradeshow booths, they simply look to the local builders in Santa Cruz. This year, when Eric Horton, the creative director at Giro wanted a new road bike for himself, along with a booth bike, he contacted John at Caletti Cycles.
The project was simple: make a pair of Columbus tubing, hydro disc brake, all-road, Di2 bikes that would tackle the surrounding hills and fire roads, all while matching the color palette of the Giro New Road line.
As many bicycles designed throughout history, Eric looked to classic sports cars for the paint-inspiration. His car of choice: the Singer Porsche.
See more below, as Eric explains these bikes in detail…
Ride Along: Garrett Kautz from Strawfoot
Words and photos by John Watson
Strawfoot is one of those companies that has gained a lot of momentum over the past year in the cycling industry because of social media and word of mouth. While Strawfoot is a bag company, they’re most known for their socks. I was first introduced to Garrett from Brian Vernor last year, when I visited his small shop in Santa Cruz.
Over the past few months, Strawfoot has grown. They’ve moved to a bigger shop, are sponsoring a cross team and yes, he’s continued making socks, which sell out almost immediately…
Photo by Spencer J Harding
As both a “journalist” and a consumer, I get really excited when I see something new coming from a brand, especially one with a history like Blackburn. In recent months, I’ve gotten to know the brand a bit better, both through their Meet the Rangers program and from a product perspective. I’ve seen a few of their forthcoming products, many of which I think you’ll be stoked on but before those roll out, I thought you’d appreciate a little Q&A with the brand.
To give the readers of the Radavist some insight into Blackburn’s modus operandi, I reached out to brand manager, Robin Sansom for an interview.
Read on below!
Well, we’re here in Los Angeles, after four days of pedal to the metal driving down Highway 1 from Portland to Los Angeles. The Pacific Coast Highway is one of the nation’s most popular bicycle touring routes and unfortunately, that also means it’s one of the most popular RV / Camper / no-clue how to drive windy road tourist destinations.
Navigating the Lost in the French Maritime Alps – Ty Hathaway
Words by John Watson photos by Ty Hathaway
The French Maritime Alps are riddled with the remnants of man’s conflict of bygone eras. With the most recent being the Italian invasion of France in WWII. The Battle of France took Italian troops over these very mountains as they lay claim to Benito Mussolini’s demands for a ‘surplus population’. Or, in short, simply expanding the Italian empire.
As it goes with war, many souls are lost, leaving nothing but the roads, paths and man’s ruin…
Dain from Giro was the key player in the Easton Dream Bike give-aways and now, he’s put together one of his own. Being good friends with Todd from Black Cat and a resident of sunny Santa Cruz, he knew where to go with his idea: a carbon and steel constructed road bike.
See more below!
I spend a lot of time on the road, with my bike and over the past few months, I’ve dialed in just how many kits I need in that time. Say, for instance, I’m going to Santa Cruz for four days. I’ll bring one kit and never have to wear it dirty because of this one trick I’ve learned over the years of life on the road.
Check out the details below!
Seek and Diverge, Deux North’s Hunt 4 in California
Photos by Andy Bokanev and words by Dylan Nord
In the months leading up to the trip, Deux North’s Hunt 4, we were all focused on miles. Like most of us, I’d done a few big days on the bike before, 8+ hours in the Rapha Gentleman’s Ride or a trip upstate, but never back-to-back-to-back. None of us knew exactly what to expect on the third day, when we would all line up to race the King Ridge Grasshopper Adventure Series.
Photos by Kyle Kelley
After passing away a few weeks back, Ezra Caldwell‘s work keeps popping up all over, miles away from his home studio in New York City. In fact, this bike was first built up by Golden Saddle Cyclery years back for Sean, a loyal customer living in Santa Barbara.
A singlespeed commuter is really all most people need. 650b tires provide a smooth ride and for medium sized frames, they look well-balanced proportionately. Exra had a way of proclaiming his approach with frame design by not really saying anything. While this bike may seem very straight-forward, the details in the metalwork are what first caught my eye.
The chainguard is attached by two 5mm bolts that actually pass through the down and seat tubes. Then the guard itself is incredibly elegant, especially when matched with the White Industries ENO cranks.
Stainless lugs and raw steel tubes make up the frame’s materials, with a good amount of patina forming on the steel. It must be the salt in the air. Santa Barbara is coastal, you know. The rear rack is custom, with wooden planks, which even out the overall build, especially when compared to Ezra’s signature wooden handlebars.
In a lot of ways, this bike is void of ostentation, yet meticulously detailed. Something that seemed to spill over from Ezra’s personality onto everything he touched.
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Follow Kyle on Instagram and visit Golden Saddle Cyclery in Silverlake, Los Angeles.
