The Radavist

This is the eighth layout of the Radavist 2015 Calendar, entitled “Los Padres”. The camera, film and location are noted on the bottom left of the document.

With the summer in Texas, comes unbearable heat and an instinctual behavior to retreat to the far western reaches of the United States for some Cali vibes. The Los Padres mountains are by no means “cool” this time of year, but I’ll take an extra 15º any day. With tonality like this and endless possibles for road and dirt excursions, maybe it’s time to relocate… permanently.

For a high-res JPG, suitable for print and desktop wallpaper*, right click and save link as – The Radavist 2015 Calendar – August. Please, this photo is for personal use only!

(*set background to white and center for optimal coverage)

Photos by Sean Talkington

Los Angeles is a lotta fun and these two photosets from Sean at Team Dream Team have me pining to get back over to the (further) west side. Check out both photosets at the TDT Flickr 01 and 02.

I once made a comment about having too many olive drab bikes, to which a good friend replied “better than too many purple bikes…” Touché.

Tools of the trade:
Leica M7
Zeiss 35mm f2
Portra 400

Austin, TX
Thursday, June 25th
10am rollout from Mellow Johnny’s
Roadie or Dirty ride options.

Hey Austin! We know the weather has been a bummer as of late and that means the trails have been unofficially off-limits. Well, it looks like this week will be a bit drier and hopefully Thursday we’ll have somewhat sunny skies.

The Radavist and Mellow Johnny’s have your #GetSickDay plans covered with two ride options: a Mellow’s roadie ride or the Radavist’s dirty ride.

The dirty will be arguably more, uh, interesting as we take you on a cutty, go nutty trail ride to some interesting, off-the-beaten-path routes. Expect lots of potential hiking, swimming, boozin’ and yes, shredding.

Cyclocross or mountain bikes are a necessity here.

Due to the nature of the trails, we’ll be navigating a lot of overgrown territory, so I’d err on the side of shorts and a t-shirt, rather than your favorite new kit. Unless you feel like ripping through lycra on a tree branch. It’ll be a chill pace, but we’ll be packing in some miles (around 50), so plan and dress accordingly. The bigger tire you can fit into your cross bike the better. Mountain bikes will be a bit overkill on this ride.

Bring two inner tubes, a pump and any tools you’d need. We ain’t fixing your flats for ya!

Some dirt, some coffee and summer solstice. The #SwiftCampout ride in Austin tomorrow is gonna be a blast. Check out some other rides happening across the globe at Swift Industries.

Photo by Kyle Kelley

So I can appreciate photos like this. The hotel life struggle is real, so have fun while you’re at it. There’s more to this story coming next week, including a review of the Niner Bikes Ros 9+ so stay tuned.

Photo by Kyle Kelley

Camo shorts, check. Disma shirt, check. Neon enduro MTB, check. Thanks for the throwback thursday, Tracko! It’s my birthday today, so I went on a bike ride and took a nap.

Sorry for the slow afternoon on the site…

Photo by Kyle Kelley

Tracko gave three of my favorite Instagram accounts some love with this photo. Spencer J Harding, Brian Vernor, and Tytanium are all worth the follow if you aren’t already. I need to get back to LA, asap!

With bikepacking coming on strong for the past few years, seeing photos and reading stories like this just shows how longstanding off-road touring truly is. Check out this story over at Brian Vernor’s blog:

“About a year ago my friend Jeff Traugott sent me these photos. They were all taken by a fellow Santa Cruzan, “Rat” aka Bob Landry. I held onto them while looking for the right time to share them and so when Bicycle Times Magazine asked me to photograph Jeff for their Issue 33 I figured now is as good a time as any. Jeff has an immense history on the bicycle, but if you read the article in Bicycle Times you will learn he is an incredible Luthier, making guitars one at a time for world renowned guitar players. Below is the contents of Jeff’s first email to me which included the photos, and then I decided to ask him a couple follow up questions…”

Read up more at Vernor and Photo!

This looks so good. I wish I could make it!

“On Tuesday, December 9th, the Rapha Cycle Club will be hosting a very special photo exhibition. Our friend Kevin Hatt shot some amazing images at the 1986 World Championship Road Race in Colorado Springs, Colorado. These photos have never been seen before, and they feature some great behind-the-scenes shots from a race event that did not get much coverage.”

See more at Rapha!

Today we’re leaving on a three day camping trip to some state parks around Austin. I’ll be back on Sunday night. Enjoy your weekend!

This always comes across as cheesy, but I really do want to thank the readers of this site. We work hard over here to keep things positive and we really try to do our best at representing what the Radavist means to us and most of all, the importance of having fun on your bike.

It’s easy to be negative in the comments and thankfully, most of you keep it civil with appropriate discourse. While it’s not always easy running things over here, it’s worth while and we’re all very grateful for the community that exists on the site.

So yeah, it’s cheesy but thank you!

Fender company Ass Savers is partnering with Rapha to bring Trackside ‘85 Photography Exhibit to Rapha Cycle Club Manchester as the exhibition’s final 2014 destination:

“Gothenburg, Sweden, 7 November, 2014 – After successful stops in Berlin, Barcelona and London, the Trackside ’85 photo exhibition presented by Ass Savers travels to the Rapha Manchester Cycle Club on November 18th for its final stop of the tour. Staffan Jofjell’s brilliantly captured photographs from the 1985 Berlin Six Day track race will be on display from November 18th to 23rd to coincide with the Six Days of Ghent…”