tag
We’re here in Portland, covering the 2023 MADE Bike Show, looking for bikes that we thought you, the readers of The Radavist would appreciate. Josh and John have been scouring the halls of the show for bikes to document, and we’ve got Part 01 of our coverage for you to enjoy…
Thanks to 1-Up USA for sponsoring our continued 2023 MADE Bike Show coverage!
This week’s Readers’ Rides comes from Ben, aka Bushtrucker here on the site, from down in Australia. He shared with us his custom Larkin Cycles “Nightmare,” the opposite of his Larkin/Crust “Dreamer” tourer. Let’s check out the bike and build kit below!
Each year I like to look at our content in its entirety and reflect back on bikes that took you, the readers of this website, by storm. Back in the mid to late 2000’s it was all fixed gears, then came the gravel bikes, the tourers, the MTBs, and the kooky, eccentric builds you’ve come to enjoy checking out in full-res detail. We’ve got some incredibly talented individuals contributing to this site and their hard work is something I cannot express my gratitude for enough. Going back through the 2020 content here at the Radavist, I am amazed at what we were able to accomplish all things considered.
For this year’s Top Beautiful Bicycles of 2020, we have compiled a great list of ten bikes, ranging from rim brakes to fixed gears, basket bikes, and more. This list is based on web traffic, commentary, and social media chatter, and each of these builds really brought something unique to our content. We omitted bike reviews here but included production bikes. Oh and I hope you like baskets!
Let’s jump right in!
“Where’s your Dreamer?” “What happened to the green Dreamer?” “Do you ever ride your Dreamer?”
Since posting up the gallery of my Crust Bikes Dreamer, it’s been the bike people email me about the most. I get various questions, ranging from the ones I listed above, to questions on the Microshift and how I like the Dreamer platform. When I first got the bike, Crust Bikes and Darren Larkin, the builder of the Dreamer frames, were working on a few details. What I ended up with was a bike that was in-between versions and a few things weren’t working out so well. This prompted me and Darren to talk about the bike in detail and him offering to take it back to update and fix a few things. Read on below to find out what happened between these two models.
We had quite the coverage of mini velos last year, beginning with this dude’s personal bike. Isao’s Falconer was one of my personal favorites to hit these pages in 2019 because it really embodied the notion of deep custom and something we don’t address a whole lot here on the Radavist; this idea that when you get a wacky, 100% custom bike, you’re essentially getting a working prototype.
Matt’s Crust Bikes What-Would-Weigle-Do
Photos and words by Jarrod Bunk
Matt’s brain – the owner/operator/designer for Crust Bikes – always has rats spinning on a hamster wheel. His affinity for the modern randonneur is apparent in a lot of the bikes he designs. What does a person who could essentially develop any conceivable bicycle that their hearts do, well they start with a simple question? What would Weigle do? Call it an homage or a cap nod to the Concours de Machines that Peter Weigle made a few years ago, the top tube and downtube are cut from longer butted tubes and only the thin-walled center section is used. Matt is a lighter rider so he can afford to run this type of tube set without worry. Fabricated by Darrin Larkin in LA, this is one of one and it’s a beautiful example of pushing the custom bike limit especially when built around a smaller rider.
The build kit is compiled of a lot of René Herse, Compass and of course Honjo fenders, as well as a Chris King Hub/Headset, Ti Record Post and a Berthoud saddle. Yeah, the bike is really light, of course, and there are ways to make it even lighter. Your eyes don’t deceive you there are no bolts in the rear posts, that’s cause the posts are flared. Does anyone have any guesses on the weight?
____
