The Radavist

This past weekend, some buddies and I went on a little camping trip. Some of us had to be back in town the following day, while others went on through Monday. The lucky bastards… One of the early returnees, along with me, was Jonathan. It was his first camping trip here in Austin, since recently relocating from Omaha, so we wanted it to be a good one.

There’s more to come on the ride itself (oh and it was a good one), but I thought I’d take a minute to feature his rather unique Surly Disc Trucker…

The Rouge Roubaix exceeded mine and Ben from Argonaut‘s expectations. I don’t think anyone involved with that trip knew how that race would unfold. Backtrack to a few months prior, team Argonaut had the idea to pull Brian Vernor in to do a video and bring me down to shoot the race and document the new Disc Racers.

We spent the two days prior to the race testing out the bikes and looking for key vantage points to photograph the event. While Vernor got his video footage, I took some photos of the bikes and (part of the) team River City / Rapha. These photos are to be used on the Argonaut website…

Check them out in the Gallery and see the bike in person at the Aether NYC event this Friday!

I finally had the chance to actually ride bikes with Todd from Black Cat this week, rather than just talk about them at a trade show. There’s something to be said about a frame builder who makes time to ride his own bikes and Todd definitely does that.

Two of my favorite bikes that I’ve featured on the site came from Todd’s workshop at Black Cat Bicycles – and they just so happen to be owned by two great people. There’s something about Brian Vernor’s Hardtail MTB and Eric’s MAX disc road that just do it for me.

Watching a frame builder rip on his own bike is something else and midway through our ride yesterday, I had to take the time to shoot his bike.

Funny side story: Todd was inspired to build this bike by the titanium Campagnolo seat post he came across after seeing what they fetch on eBay… He couldn’t just sell it, he needed a new bike for it!

Each year at NAHBS, I love how much Geekhouse steps their game up. From brightly-colored fixed gears and track bikes to classic tourers and race-ready cross bike. This year, Geekhouse is unveiling their new Hopedale Disc. By partnering with SRAM, Vittoria and Selle Italia to lace out the builds.

Since it is the North American Handmade Bicycle Show, Geekhouse chose 100% made in the USA tubing, with a mix of True Temper’s S3 and OX Platinum, along with Paragon Machine Works “Low Mount” disc dropouts.

For me, the most notable detail on the bikes are the paint jobs. The paint uses a two-step process. All three show-bikes have a powder-coated base, and then Jordan Low masterfully applied wet paint in geometric patterns. The artwork, done by Adria Klora, was inspired by the Geekhouse HQ (yellow), dazzle camo (blue), and the Zakim Bridge in Boston (red).

The yellow Hopedale Disc will be heading to the owner of Cooks Paint Works in Japan, via Blue Lug Bicycle Shop after the show. The red Hopedale Disc belongs to Kyle B., in Texas, which he gave as a 30th present to himself. The blue Mudville is an extra special bike though, aside from the paint and HED wheels, SRAM Force, and Thomson components, this machine is going to someone close to Geekhouse.

View these bikes this weekend – Geekhouse Bikes is exhibiting at the North American Handmade Bike Show at booth #400.

For those who won’t be in attendance at NAHBS, each bike is highlighted in details through the lens of Heather McGrath. See all three of Geekhouse’s offerings in the Gallery!

When Ben from Argonaut Cycles designed and developed his first road frame, he was content, but that didn’t mean his desire to create the best made in the USA carbon fiber road frame was sated. Ben knew the market was changing and wanted to have even more options for his customers to select when purchasing a custom bike.

With the popularity of gravel / dirt rides and races, he knew that his current racing geometry would need some finessing and with the increasing demand for disc brakes, the opportunity arose to adapt.

A bike suited for off-road riding has a few tweaks to the geometry. The rear end will be slightly longer, the bottom bracket, just slightly lower and the head tube loses around half a degree. This enables the bike to still handle fast on sealed roads, but really be at home on dirt. Tire clearances are important as well. These bikes fit a 28mm tubeless road tire with ease, which is all you need for gravel. Remember, this isn’t a cross bike.

The Argonaut Disc Road bikes that the Rapha / River City Bicycles team rode during the Rouge Roubaix were developed for off-road conditions, while staying true to their race machine pedigree.

For those familiar with the Di2 hydro system, you’ll note the front plate of the shifters were painted black. Other than that, it’s pretty straight forward. 140mm disc rotors, Argonaut Made in the USA frameset, ENVE bars, ENVE stem, ENVE wheels with custom decals and dripping with Chris King’s precision components.

Tim from the team has the first production model. After an afternoon of shooting photos and video of the bike in action, I took it out for some portrait photos.

This bike ripped apart the dirt and stood out from the pack at the Rouge Roubaix. See more in the Gallery!

Being the brand manager for a company like All-City certainly has its perks. One of which being you get to cook up ideas for new bikes, ride said bikes and have your buddies Instagram and photograph these bikes. My job, although the later is already understood, was to make said bike plenty dirty for the photo shoot.

Since Jeff from All-City got into town for the Keep Cross Weird race, we’ve been riding everyday and aside from one MTB session, it’s all been on the local roads, trails and tracks here in Austin. Rocks, mud, river crossings, sand, limestone and more, the whole time Jeff was so stoked to be riding this bike. Why? Because it’s unlike anything All-City has cooked up before.

Hydraulic disc brakes, courtesy of SRAM, a disc Whisky parts fork, Reynolds 853 tubing and a mix of other spare parts Jeff had lying around, certainly put this bike in the well used category. When I asked if Jeff wanted to wait for his new cranks, seatpost and saddle to come in prior to shooting the bike, he replied “this is how I ride my bikes!”. Honesty that matters.

The All City 853 Macho King is a prototype and whether it goes to production or not, depends on the people’s demands. If you like this bike and want to see it go to production, holler at Jeff in the comments!

Check out more #lightbro shots in the Gallery!