The Radavist

I’ve owned and sold a lot of very nice bikes, but my custom Condor Cycles Super Acciaio was my all-time favorite. My ride or die. Literally, and it did. It died when a car did an illegal left turn in front of me. The top tube and down tube folded like a paper solo cup.

In this episode of “Where Are They Now?” we catch up with the road bike Hubert D’Autremont fabricated for himself to see what it has been up to over the past several years since its last appearance on The Radavist. We even returned to the same photoshoot location.

The 80’s and 90’s were a wild time for track bikes as design teams competed for gains through technological innovation. Cinelli was right there in the melee shaving power loss through aerodynamic design in partnership with Columbus tubing. The resulting Cinelli Laser changed bicycle design forever, winning more track world championships and Olympic gold medals than any other bicycle in the history of the sport. Andrea Pesenti’s hand-hammered steel gussets curved elegantly between tube junctions producing a fluid, edgeless art that slid through the air and whose DNA can be seen in all of today’s curvy carbon racing machines. Antonio Colombo brought vision and fidelity to art in design. Paolo Erzegovesi brought revolutionary engineering through liberation from lugs telling him where tubing should intersect and at what angle. These customizations nudged riders over the finish line first and set off raging bike crushes on Lasers that some of us never recovered from.

It wouldn’t be Philly Bike Expo coverage without a Bishop Bikes gallery and for 2021, photographer Jarrod Bunk selected this beautiful Columbus tubing track bike.

Where do I even begin here? At first, I thought Chris brought back the 2013 NAHBS track bike I photographed, and then I thought it was his personal blue track bike, stripped raw since it has the same Drillium Revival stem. Upon closer examination, this is true-to-form Chris Bishop doing his thing with the simplest form of bicycle. I just got off the phone with Chris Bishop where we spent a good forty-five minutes discussing this bike. There’s a lot going on with this “simple” machine so let’s get to it!

Continuing our sporadic coverage of a few vintage gems uncovered at the Pro’s Closet during a recent visit is this cherry red Richard Sachs with a stunning Campagnolo 50th anniversary kit…

Bryan Hollingsworth from Royal H Bikes has attended every Philly Bike Expo since its inception to display his works of art under the Royal H brand. For the 10th anniversary, he knew he had to make something special, so with that goal in mind he built and displayed this beautiful lugged road bike. Some of the finer details include top-eyes with windows built-in and a very special bottom bracket, that was filed to perfection, but everywhere you look on this bike there’s something special going on.

With a build kit based around Campagnolo Chorus mostly, some nods to the past include the Stronglight Headset, quill stem, Turbo saddle, but Bryan chose to use White Industries hubs for a reliable handbuilt wheelset.  Check out more of the images above, and if you got any other questions for Bryan, drop them in the comments.

18 lbs? 17 lbs? 16 lbs? What is weight anyway? Weight doesn’t matter but it doesn’t hurt either. Especially when your golden locks and bronze tan lines float effortlessly across white gravel roads, coating the roadside flora in a light layer of sedimentary seasoning. Dust, baby. It’s good for you. Yes, Ronnie Romance knows how to build a bike from a fine assortment of vintage components, exotic, supple rubber, and a bit of suntan oil. Case in point, his Crust Bikes Lightning Bolt is lighter than a soft whisper.

Today is Labor Day in the US, so we’re taking the day easy, and catching up on life’s demands but we wanted to share this bike on Monday, because, you know, it’s Merckx Mondays. When I was at the Cub House a few weeks back, I met Jun, who was out on a ride with this bike. As you can imagine, this bike has quite the story…

Our buddy Cicli Pucci rolled into the shop the other day on this Holland Track Bike, and all of our jaws just dropped. Which is actually quite normal when Pucci rolls through. He’s been painting with Joe Bell for many years now and always has the most fly of bikes, always hand-painted by himself. You all probably remember his Azuki Pro that was featured here about a year ago.

Continuing our coverage from the third annual Cub House Bike Show and Swap…

Chuck is a lifelong cyclist. He runs and owns Velo-Retro but spent his life as a graphic designer who worked on many classic cycling logos, including the Eddy Merckx logo and others. That’s a whole different story altogether, hopefully, to be told another time. Right now let’s focus on this beautiful example of a pristine 1960’s Cinelli Super Corsa.

When All-City first developed the Mr. Pink, they wanted to deliver a classic steel road bike, made from Columbus ZONA tubing, with a Shimano kit for under $2,000. In fact, that number came in at $1,799. Last month, All-City lowered the MSRP on Mr. Pink completes to $1,499, with the framesets being reduced from $999 to $850, sparking me to finally shoot Mike’s “Kiwi Green” Mr. Pink with Campagnolo Chorus. This is not an advertisement, I just wanted to share the news and get you into your local shop to check one out.

When it comes to production steel road bikes, the Mr. Pink is one of the finer specimens. The model’s latest color grabbed Mike from Golden Saddle‘s attention, as it matched some components had had laying around including some green Chris King bits, as well as some PAUL skewers and a Turquoise King headset. The boys at the shop like to ride bikes that they sell, so when potential customers ask them questions, they can reply with honest answers.

The Ritchey Logic Road seems to be the obvious choice for those looking for a modern steel bike that utilizes rim brakes. Over the years, we’ve seen a number of these bikes, built up for various functions from all-day road rides to race bikes but there’s something about Victor‘s build that really grabbed my attention at the onset. The reason is obvious; Victor used Ritchey’s Heritage Paint option to get any of their frames painted a number of schemes, including “Commando” camo. Unfortunately, Ritchey discontinued this service, but before that happened, Victor got his Logic road frame painted by Rick Stefani of D&D cycles in this iconic finish.

He then built it with a combination of Sim Works, Ritchey, and Campagnolo Record Super Record 11. My favorite detail is the 100 Tacos sticker on the Sim Works Caroline stem!

When Jonny first rolled through the doors at Golden Saddle on this bike, I honed in on it. There was something familiar about the bike, yet I had never heard of the brand painted on the downtube. For some reason, it reminded me of an Eisentraut, or a Sachs. After talking to Jonny, he told me he works for Joe Bell, a literal living legend in the framebuilding world. Joe Bell, or JB as Jonny calls him, paints and has painted the frames of some of the most outstanding builders over the years.