The Radavist

I hope you’re ready for a complete overload of awesome rides from this past weekend’s Grinduro event in Quincy, California. We’ll start this avalanche of unique bikes with Adam from Sklar Bikes‘ own singlespeed disc ‘cross. But before we dive in, let me put this out there: this was Adam’s first tig-welded bike and there’s a reason it’s his personal rig. The welds on anyone’s first tig bike ain’t gonna be pretty.

While the welds might not be delicately overlapped beads of perfection, I can’t get over how clean and elegant this frame is. Even with what Adam refers to as a “parts bin build” with mis-matched rotors, this singlespeed has so much character and yeah, he completed Grinduro on it.

Run what you brung…

Colby has one of the best jobs in the cycling industry. He works for ENVE, where he’s the liaison for frame builders. Basically, if you’re a builder, he sets up your account and ensures that you’ve got everything you need to get your latest project or show bike rolling.

When it was time for a disc cyclocross bike, Colby reached out to Aaron Stinner in Santa Barbara for an OD green and orange race-paint-inspired shred sled that would pack a fat tire and blast the surrounding dirt roads of Ogden, Utah with ease.

Naturally, this bike was Colby’s go-to for Grinduro…

One of the best qualities of steel is its ability to be resurrected from disaster.

In-home or in-workshop bicycle storage is essential and while many of the systems we use to hang our bikes might be bomb-proof, sometimes the building itself is a little janky. Last year, Garrett from Strawfoot‘s bike rack fell off the wall at his shop, crushing his beloved Hunter ‘Cross bike.

Devastated, he called up Rick Hunter and put the bike in queue for repair. A few weeks later (he and Garrett are best buds, hence the fast turnaround,) Garrett’s bike was ready for powder. The color he chose was fitting for this resurrected zombie bike: matte black.

This will be Garrett’s Grinduro bike, but with a 40mm WTB Nano setup tubeless, which coincidentally is what I rode and will be riding this weekend in Quincy.

If you’re rolling through this weekend, swing through the Strawfoot booth and say hey to Garrett!

I’m here in Portland, Oregon attending the Bike and Beer festival at HopWorks Urban Brewery. While I’ll be documenting many of the frames, I’ll also be capturing the general vibes. For now, let’s just check out some bikes!

“There are so many different ways to make shit look awesome on a bike…”
– Rudi from Black Magic Paint

When Megan Dean from Moth Attack was approached by a group of ladies from San Francisco, to build team frames for this season’s ‘cross races, she knew it’d be an undertaking. Sure enough, as making batches of anything at this scale, it wasn’t easy but the fruits of her labor paid off, especially after Rudi from Black Magic Paint got ahold of these frames for paint.

There were a lot of unique frames and paint jobs at the Bike and Beer Festival, yet I kept gravitating towards this one in particular. I wonder why? Look out for these bikes at local Bay Area ‘cross races this season.

Follow @BlackMagicPaint, @MothAttack and @MothAttackCX on Instagram.

Yesterday, Jonathan and I rode up to the blacktop in Griffith Park to catch the sunset. As we’re sitting there, talking about life and this transition I’m going through, up rolls Bryan and his son Alden in a Burley trailer, being drug up the crazy steep hill by an older Speedvagen team ‘cross bike. It literally happened in slow motion for me. Maybe it was the light, or the fact that a young human being is having the best introduction to cycling. Whatever it was, I was engaged.

Luckily, I had my camera on me from shooting a few photos of Jonathan for the #HotBoyzofCycling calendar, so I was able to capture this moment in the last seconds of sunlight. I love the logos, especially the EDGE logo which really dates this frame. The asymmetric Paul touring canti is a nice touch as well, but like with all Speedvagens, the paint was so good!

I’ve seen a lot of amazing stuff in Los Angeles, but this just made my day…

If you can’t tell, life has been complicated over here. All last week, I was packing up my belongings, selling or giving away the excess and planning for the final move from Austin to Los Angeles. Both the emotional and physical baggage I left Austin with is now in LA, still boxed up awaiting to be opened and placed in their home.

It’s been a busy, stressful, overwhelming few days and as a cyclist, that means I can only relax by pedaling my bike, preferably with friends and on some dirt. Luckily, there’s a lot of both in my new city.

We’ve seen photos from these trails before. Cherry Canyon is like a mini-Verdugos. It’s what can be best described as a cross-country park with fireroads going up the hills and singletrack offshoots bombing down. You pedal up for about 10 minutes and rip down for 5. When you realize that a trail system is a little boring on a mountain bike, you take out your cyclocross bike and try to go as fast as possible down… If you’re still losing interest, do so at night.

Night riding is part of life as a cyclist. Especially in Fall. My buddy Jack drove over with me in the moving truck to hang in LA, so we hit up Sean from Team Dream Team to take us on a spin.

I’ve been using the Bontrager Ion700t lights for trail riding, paired with the Bluetooth switch. One on the bars and one on the helmet. 700 lumens has proven to be more than enough to illuminate the trails in a city like LA, with its excessive light pollution. Expect a more thorough review soon.

Last night, Cherry Canyon provided a great sunset and a perfect way to reduce the overpowering and crippling stress of a move. Things will pick up full speed next week… thanks for your patience.

“Il Faut Toujours Souffrir.”

That’s what’s painted on the top tube of Barry’s Stinner disc all-road frame. Roughly translating to “we must always suffer,” this saying acts as not only a motivation for Barry on rides, but as a reminder as to what cycling means to him in relation to life. Nothing good comes easy.

Barry‘s an illustrator, a typographer, a graphic designer and in Los Angeles, that means freelance. It takes a certain soul to be a freelancer in LA. You’ve got to hustle, be on your game at all times and yes, sometimes suffer the ups and downs of the creative economy. That means some weeks, months, years, you’re on your game and others you’re not. It all takes sacrifice.

Something Different with Twin Six’s Titanium Rando
Photos and words by Kevin Sparrow

My quest for finding the perfect all-around bike began last summer just before cross season. Cyclocross bikes have always been my choice for an every-day bike. But the problem was I didn’t want to buy another cross bike that was designed for 60-minute dirt crits when most of my miles are spent commuting on pavement. I was in pursuit of something different.

Last year at Interbike, Twin Six surprised the industry with a whole line of “T6 Standard” steel bikes including a 29er, a rando, and a cross bike. On paper, the Standard Rando was exactly what I was looking for in both geometry and aesthetics. By the time winter came around, T6 went all-in and started offering a titanium fat bike and by spring, titanium versions of the 29er and cross bikes. It was also around this time that I started seeing hints of a Ti Rando popping up on T6 employee social feeds, and I was getting antsy for a new bike. I decided to reach out to Brent, T6 co-owner, and he explained that what I was seeing were Ti Rando prototypes. They had the same geometry as the steel rando except for a 44mm HT and a four water bottle mount option. Brent offered me a pre-release one-off and I excitedly accepted. Decision made, deposit down, and 6 weeks later I was and owner of a Twin Six Ti Rando.

Two months in and over 1500 miles commuted on it, and now I am ready share my initial stoke with this bike.