The Radavist

One of the hardest things about reporting on frame builders and their shops is doing their operations justice. I’m still buzzing from my trip to Colorado to hang out with the crew at Moots and ride the Steamboat Ramble Ride. Spending a few solid days literally living amidst the operations, riding with the fabricators, talking and photographing everyone behind the scenes brought such great joy that I’m literally gushing as I write this intro. The 23 people that make this company tick are all great people who truly love their job and love cycling, at many capacities. Capturing that in photos and then writing about it is not easy!

Moots began in 1981, from the shop of Kent Eriksen, called Sore Saddle Cyclery, which technically opened in 1980, but the operations of Moots didn’t get rolling for a whole year. Kent began the brand with the help of many others, and eventually sold it off to begin his own company, Eriksen Cycles. Meanwhile, Moots began to permutate into their current state as one of the largest framebuilding operations in the USA. I can’t compare their shop to anyone else, other than Seven in the Boston-area. In terms of scale and organization.

When the Ramble Ride popped onto the horizon in my late summer travel and photo shoot plans, the guys at Moots offered up one of their prized models, the Baxter, for me to ride. Out of all their bikes in what I would consider a stout lineup, the Baxter is one that always stood out to me as the most versatile. The beauty about this bike platform is the Baxter is what you want it to be, although it’s designed to essentially be a drop bar 29’r. How you build it is up to you and there are options like with a suspension fork, or with a rigid fork, with or without a dropper post, and everything in between. Di2 or cable, double crankset or 1x, and now with the updated boosted rear spacing, compatibility with your “other” mountain bike wheelsets. The guys at Moots are great at constructing these frames, it’s just up to you to make them roll…

Greg’s Lone Wulf Blaze Bicycles Bikepacking Rig!
Photos and words by Kyle Kelley

Greg Turner the store manager at Bike Fiend and Pierre from Blaze Bicycles really wanted to turn heads at the 2017 NAHBS and by collaborating with local Moab artist Salley Hodges on this bike, I’m pretty sure they did! I personally wasn’t at the 2017 NAHBS, but how could this paint not turn heads!?!

Saffron Frameworks’ Bulleit Beauty Won the Bespoked 2018 Best in Show
Words by Matthew Sowter

We were approached by Bulleit to work on a project with the aim of celebrating the alliance between two craft companies. The idea was to produce a bicycle that would reflect them as a brand (bourbon), and Saffron’s style.

Bulleit is a clean and smooth Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey, first produced in 1830. It was exciting to be chosen for such a project, and to be given total freedom with the design. We decided upon a gravel bike, and created a contemporary frame, by mixing old-school methods and materials with more modern approaches. The idea was to align with Bulleit’s traditional distilling process.

You can tell a lot about a cycling brand based on what the owner or proprietor rides. In this case, we take a look at Mosaic Cycles‘ owner and builder, Aaron Barcheck’s own RT1 disc road built with ENVE, Zipp, and SRAM. This weekend, the brand is coming to Los Angeles, to kick-off the Cub House as being a new dealer for Mosaic and with it, Aaron himself, along with his bike will be here to ride in the endless summer heat.

Speaking of heat, will you just look at that thing! Propped up against the backdrop that is the San Gabriel mountains, surrounded by Chaparral, with its Spectrum powder coat glistening in the sun, and raw titanium “braggers triangle” showing off its frame material. Bikes like this need very little description since they stand on their own.

Stay tuned for details of the Cub House party this weekend!

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Follow Mosaic on Instagram and follow the Cub House on Instagram.

Subverting adages is something Carl Strong has made a career from. Take the classic quote by Keith Bontrager: “Light, Cheap, and Strong, pick two.” That old saying need not apply here, because a Strong Frame is light and cheap when you consider “knowledge is wealth” and when you buy a Strong Frame, you’re buying some of that knowledge earned through a lifetime of building bikes.

Carl Strong began to tinker with making bicycle frames in the late 80’s, before setting up shop in his grandma’s garage in the early 90’s. Now, over 3,000 frames later, he is smashing yet another adage: “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” Not that Carl is a dog but you get the idea. This year, Carl had a big announcement for the industry. He has built another brand, all within the walls of his small, yet efficient shop in Bozeman, Montana: Pursuit Cycles.

Last Sunday brought about the LA Handmade Bike Show and in attendance was LA’s newest frame builder, Carlos from Dark Moon Fab. Along with a hardtail similar to Jimmy’s, and a few road bikes was this all-road featuring the Fox AX “all road” fork. The aluminum frame’s geometry is tuned to run the AX fork, which will offer more compliance when the going gets rough and eat up some of the stiffness aluminum tubesets provide. Stiffness that might be desirable on a road or track racing machine, but might beat you up a bit on rough and rugged roads.

The paint is in actuality cerakote, a ceramic coating that goes on much like paint, but offers a more durable finish than a matte, flat, or semi-gloss wetpaint. Carlos masked off a desert landscape as well as Dark Moon’s branding in the material, making for one slick bike.

Have you ridden the AX fork? What are your thoughts? Share them in the comments!

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Follow Dark Moon Fab on Instagram.

“Come to Montana this summer, it doesn’t get too hot, there are no mosquitos, and the mountain biking is awesome!” At least one of those was true and luckily, that’s all that matters at the end of the day. This was Adam Sklar’s invite to a handful of frame builders and makers, welcoming us to ride bikes in Bozeman for a week in an event initially dubbed “Sklar Camp” but later was turned to “Builder’s Camp.” This idea stemmed from the disdain of trade shows and convention centers and a love of riding bikes, something many frame builders just don’t have a lot of free time for. It happens every year at NAHBS, usually Saturday evening after the show has closed and people get a few drinks in them. A lamentation of epic proportions take hold as someone blurps out “Why don’t we just skip NAHBS next year and ride bikes instead?” A few more drinks and a roundtable discussion ensues, resulting in “Ok, yeah we need to go to NAHBS, but let’s make plans to ride bikes this year!”

As a big rider, I commend when a big bike can look so balanced. Perhaps that’s what drew me to this De Salvo All-Road the guys at GSC recently built up for a customer. It just looks so balanced. Part of my attraction to this machine is also due to Mike DeSalvo being such a stand-up guy and capable frame builder, but it’s not every day that you see a big bike like this have such a pleasant stance.

The formula is simple, the components to the equation began with a custom titanium frame. Custom in its fit, not necessarily its use. Mike DeSalvo builds lots of disc road bikes for his clients and while the others might not have a pump peg or a third bottle cage on the downtube, they’re two easy details Mike can add to his beautifully-fabricated titanium frames.

For a build kit, the client chose SRAM Red eTap, Boyd Wheels, Fizik, White Industries, and a Parlee Fork. Staple brands void of ostentatious flashiness. Why distract from such pristine titanium construction? Mike DeSalvo’s work is impeccable and this build came out so clean that I’m stoked to be able to share it here. Check out more at DeSalvo Cycles.

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If you want a custom build like this and live in Los Angeles, hit up Golden Saddle Cyclery.

Jimmy. Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy. How do you have such sick bikes?!

Since he began working at Golden Saddle Cyclery, Jimmy has come up on some pretty sweet bikes, in a kinda serendipitous manner. Take his latest bike for example. Our buddy Carlos has been spending the past few months setting up his shop, since leaving the head fabrication position at Stinner Frameworks. Carlos wanted to make frames for his own brand and after some time, he was ready to get some out and under his friends. Jimmy smelled the opportunity and jumped on it, selling his hardtail to fund a deposit to Carlos.

The result is the first complete Dark Moon Fabrication 27.5+ hardtail. Carlos has made a few mountain bike frames, but mostly to test out details, not to ride. After working out the geometry with Jimmy, he got to work on a bike with a 65º head angle, 150mm fork, and a 75º seat tube angle. After I saw the geo and signed off on it, Carlos got to work. The frame utilizes a symmetrical yoke plate at the bottom bracket cluster, a wishbone seat stay, and clearance for a 3″ tire with a 34t ring. Jimmy’s bike is official and boy did he go with all the right components on this bike, all chosen to accentuate the sparkle paint job on the bike.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen Jimmy more stoked to ride a bike. In fact, he rode things he had previously deemed off-limits with such fervent energy and it shows in the riding photos. New bike day stoke is real!

If you’d like a Dark Moon Fab frameset, holler at Carlos on his Instagram. He builds road, track, all-road, touring, and mountain bike frames right here in Los Angeles. A bike like Jimmy’s sells for $1,650 for the frame and paint.

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If you want a custom build like this and live in Los Angeles, hit up Golden Saddle Cyclery.

It’d been a while since the last time I had been to Portland. 2015 or so, if I recall correctly. In that time, a lot has changed in the city, and over at our friends at the Vanilla Workshop.

While I was in Portland at the Workshop Buildoff, I did my best at documenting the space, a few people, and the party scene from the kickoff. Portland’s got a deep cycling culture, and seeing it come out for this party was a great way to spend a Friday night. Feeling the frenetic buzz leading up to the event, only to be released with the first can of beer opening was a real treat and one that I enjoyed watching unfold.

Richard Pool’s Allied Alfa Disc Allroad with Hypercolor!
Photos by Bob Huff, words by John Watson

How do you make a special bike extra special? For Richard Pool, aka Bicycle Crumbs, he was sold on the Allied Alfa Allroad but wanted to jazz it up a bit. Richard works at the Vanilla Workshop – in case you were wondering who is doing all those snazzy new graphics! – so he consulted Lucas Strain, one of the painters at Coat, Vanilla’s in-house paint shop, on what to do with this frame to make it extra, extra special.

The result is the by-product of including Thermocramatic paint, over a raw Alfa. What this paint does is react with temperature and the easiest way to see this is by either putting the frame in a freezer, or rubbing an ice cube over it, but when Richard pinged Bob Huff, Vanilla’s photographer, he suggested cold water, sprayed from a hose on a hot day. Luckily they found normal garden hose water on a hot, hot summer day in Portland did the trick.

Is is gimmicky? You bet but does it look awesome, you bet! Coupled with this awesome bike, I think it turned out great. If you’d like a more in-depth look at the Alfa, check out our review!

Richard built it up with Turquoise King bits, ENVE Ar 4.5 rims, a Zip post and cockpit, SRAM eTAP WiFli and a Fabric ALM saddle.

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Follow Richard on Instagram, Lucas on Instagram, Allied on Instagram, and follow Bob Huff on Instagram.