The Radavist

This one’s a bit off topic but I really wanted to share it anyway. While I don’t see PiNP covering content of this nature frequently, I do like to share it from time to time.

Over the years, I’ve met some truly inspiring individuals, especially since moving to Austin. The affordable living, great weather and creative energy harbors some incredible talent (but don’t move here). One of these minds that I’ve gotten to know is Maura Ambrose. I watched her go from working on a farm (literally), to taking a leap into self-employment, ultimately making a name for herself and her company, Folk Fibers.

She works right in her East Austin home and is quickly outgrowing her available space. Her hand-stitched quilts and pillows use natural dyes, drawn from native flora but you’d swear the colors and vibrancy were synthetic. Check out a few photos in the Gallery and see the latest offerings from Folk Fibers here.

Leica M7
Zeiss 28mm f2.8 T* ZM / Leica 50mm f2 Summicron
Ilford 3200 delta / Fuji Neopan / Fuji PRO 400h

Last week, I cleaned out one of my old computers and came across a bunch of my old 35mm photos from when I lived in Brooklyn. 99.999999% of it sucks. Hey, I’ll admit that but this one roll of film in particular made me very nostalgic. Call it #ThrowbackThursday or whatever, these were some of my last photos from when I lived in NYC and it make me miss that damn city. Except for the winters…

Since I’ve known Ian at Icarus Frames, he’s been tinkering on this motorcycle in between frame jobs. When Tracko was visiting, we swung by his shot in South Austin to catch up. Kyle wanted to shoot some photos and I had my camera, so I figured what the hell. I keep telling myself that I want to photograph this bike digitally and so I never shoot a full side profile of it with film. Kyle got a good shot of Ian riding it in his back yard and there’s a few older photos on my Flickr as well. One day I’ll go and do a proper photo shoot of this moto.

Until then, check out more in the Photoset and I even shot some of Chris’ new road frame before it went off to paint.

Leica M7
Leica Summicron 50mm f2
Fuji Neopan 400

“Yeah, I’ve got a route planned, but we might dip off and take this one trail”. No matter how organized you try to make a friendly, chill ride, sometimes the best thing you can do is take that trail. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes you end up walking a hobo path over a twelve foot drop onto limestone but more often than not, you can make due.

Most of the trails here in Austin are very cross-bike friendly. Some are not, but we avoid those for the most part. People say, “get a MTB”, but they’re also the ones driving their cars to do a piece of 5 mile singletrack. You don’t want to ride a MTB out 15 miles on the road, then up a 18% sealed climb before you bomb down a scenic descent. But a cross bike…

When Kyle was in town, I pulled together a little ride with some friends. We spent about 40% of the time on sealed road and 50% on gravel, singletrack or dirt. That missing 10% was on this one “oh shit” hiking trail we poached on a piece of government land. We made it out alive, save for Chris flipping over his bars and one flat tire. John even rode a stock Nature Boy up some very steep faces. It was impressive.

Beers were had and stories were made. Bottom line is, we had a fucking blast and all lived to tell the tale / Instagram it but no Strava for this route. I wanna keep some of it a secret. We ended up doing +/- 40 miles and about 3,500′.

It’s easy to come to Austin and just want to ride all day and a lot of the parks and sites are about 100 miles outside of town. Rather than ride out to them, Kyle and I just drove out to Enchanted Rock and Hamilton Pool. In doing so, we got to spend a lot of time at each. They’re beautiful parks and should not be missed if you ever find yourself in Austin. Oh and don’t miss the Knot in the Loop Saloon, in Willow City either.

This Recent Roll was shot with a Leica M7 / Zeiss 28mm f2.8 T* ZM and Acros 100 / Pro 400H.

While I try to ride everyday, it’s usually impossible. Believe it or not, it’s a lot of work to run this site but that’s why I’ve gotten in the habit of looking at riding as “coffee rides”. I usually kit up, hop on the cross bike and kick around on the local trails and roads, inevitably ending up at the best coffee bar in town, Frank for an Americano. The rides are never more than 20 miles or so and take about an hour and a half. Something even the busiest blogger can find time for.

When Kyle came to town last week (I already miss that little shit!), I took him on a coffee ride. We cross’d town and had a freaking blast, stopping at every jib spot we could find along the way until we got to the Hill of Life and the Greenbelt. Once there, we encountered a few falls, some sketchy, techy lines and a helmet-stealing dog. It was a lot of fun.