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We’ve got Reportage on the way from this past weekend’s LA Tourist Race but I just wanted to personally thank everyone that turned up at 7am on a Saturday morning to race 80 miles and climb over 10k in elevation!
There was snow, beautiful weather, and lots of elevation to be had. Over 130 racers started with Kent winning yet again for the men and Erica Schwanke coming first place for the women.
Keep an eye here on the Radavist for the full report, written by Erin Lamb and Jen Whalen!
Last year’s LA Tourist Race brought challenging courses on familiar trails and this year’s event is looking to up, up, up the ante in the Angeles Crest!
This weekend (1.11.2020 at 7:30am) is the first round for 2020 and here are the details.
“Ok folks. These are your checkpoints. If you’re entering these into google, remove the N and W when searching. Start/Finish is @goldensaddlecyclery The points are numbered but you can do them in any order you want. This has also been emailed to all registered riders
Stock route is live on Strava .
If you live local and do not want to wait until Saturday morning to get your race plate, feel free to come by this week and pick it up @goldensaddlecyclery Starting Thursday morning. .
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If you have not registered online you can still race but you will need to fill out paperwork in person to receive your race plate. Videos of the books are in our stories & FB page. Good luck with your routes. And be aware there are down trees and snow. Weather seems to be staying sunny for us but it is cold and wet on the ground.”
You can register now at BikeReg and see the checkpoints at the LA Tourist Race Instagram!
At first glance, you might see this bike and think “sheesh, another $8,000 commuter bike made by someone in Portland.” Rightfully so! This is a clean bike but Alex spent $500 on this Miyata before adding some crucial details to keep him rolling safe and comfortable on the streets of Los Angeles, to and from work…
We got the keys to The Cub House 2.0 in June of 2017. We’d been at our original little shop in South Pasadena for a couple of years and I was extremely nervous about the move to much more “upscale” San Marino, even though it was only a few short blocks away. San Marino definitely has a reputation for being rigid, so The Cub House stands out here. Like REALLY stands out. Have you seen our spot? There aren’t too many multicolor service station turned Bike & Plant Stores in our area.
For those looking for some fresh threads from Team Dream this winter, wait no longer for their entire holiday drop is live on their webshop now, featuring jerseys, vests, base layers, tees, hats, caps, and more. Head on over to Team Dream to check it all out!
Our neighbors in Los Angeles have stocked up on a grip of branded goods, typically only available in-store, just in time for the holiday season. From the Sim Works x GSC Smog Cutter Bars to notebooks designed by Jared Harber and other staples, there’s something for everyone. Head to GSC for more!
The Nature Boy first launched in 2010 as a singlespeed ‘cross machine. Its popularity grew quickly due to it being All-City’s first off-road bike. This was pre-Macho King, pre-Spacehorse, and way before the Electric Queen. Back then, in 2010, All-City was primarily in the game of making urban bikes.
This year marked a big change for the Nature Boy, launching the A.C.E. model with a few updates.
The way I ride road bikes has evolved with the way the bikes are being built. As I have moved away from pack racing over the past 10 years, I have desired more variety in my daily rides. Most of my rides involve sections of steep LA county fire roads or linking hilly neighborhood climbs together by zigging and zagging through hidden dirt paths.
Photo by Brian Vernor
Caché, one of the Golden Saddle Cyclery homies, is a Guatemala native, who grew up in Los Angeles. In this Bike Mag online article, he goes over his past, present, and future of riding and painting. I highly recommend this piece as it points to the importance of accessibility of bikes for inner-city kids! As to why he paints chickens…
“I’d read a book by Carlos Castaneda called ‘The Teachings of Don Juan,’ and he talks about ‘energy vampires’ that feed off our human energy and awareness, saying we’re like chickens being reared for the consumption of others,” Caché explains. “When I first decided to paint the chickens, it was more of an observation of the human condition. We are in our own coops, controlled by worry and fear.”
Check out this article at Bike Mag!
The Cub House opened its doors at their 2510 Mission St address in San Marino two years ago and this weekend, they’re celebrating with a Ringtail Pop-Up and rides both Saturday and Sunday. If you’re in the area, make sure you swing by!
In news that no one has to be surprised at, Vice takes a look at the top 10 most dangerous cities for cycling in an interesting, yet terrifying article. As someone who calls Los Angeles home, I must say I’m not surprised, but like the article notes, cycling is the answer to helping save the environment we’re all aware of, yet we’ve got a long way to go to make streets safer…
“In 2019, more and more cities across America are encouraging their residents to commute by bicycle. Cycling, of course, is good for the environment in terms of reducing pollution from car-dominant streets, and it’s a healthier way to travel.
But cities gaining new cyclists are quickly, tragically finding that they do not have the proper infrastructure to keep them safe. Cyclist fatalities have gone up 25 percent across the U.S. since 2010, and up 10 percent in 2018 itself, while all other traffic fatalities have decreased.”
Read on at Vice.
I absolutely loved the aluminum Cannondale Topstone for what it was: a nicely spec’d, well-riding, off-the-shelf all-road bike that has Cannondale’s DNA with build options ranging from $1,050 to $2,100. It was a great bike at a solid price that didn’t skimp on the build kit or frame design. So when Cannondale launched the Carbon Topstone, with new passive suspension design, I was interested in seeing how the bike would ride. To come out with such an evolved design from the original Topstone, it had to be worth it, right? Well… it’s complicated.
We’ve been working on a late summer, early fall launch since what feels like a year or so and have finally pushed the button to get these into production. We’ve got three color combinations, in both road and this active jersey, perfect for gravel, MTB, running, backpacking, or other outdoor activities. With an active SPF built into the fabric, the long sleeves protect your arms from the sun’s harmful UV rays, while keeping you cool by wicking the sweat off your body. I’ve been wearing this jersey all summer, to test out how well it performs in the 100º Southern California heat. The material itself doesn’t get as stinky as fast like other fabrics I’ve been testing and the fit is more relaxed, with a longer drop back and extended sleeve cuffs.
ENDO Customs is currently making these in downtown Los Angeles and they should be for sale in the next few weeks. There are three color options, based on the tonality and colors of the desert (pictured), the forest, and plains. Stay tuned for more information here in the next few weeks and check out more teasers below.
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…
Over the years, I’ve had the honor to throw my leg over many bikes, try them out, write a review, and then send them back. While the bikes return to their companies, the experience stays with me, and in the time I’ve been running this website, I’ve developed my own belief for what the perfect geometry for a hardtail mountain bike is. About a year ago, I began talking with Adam Sklar and Colin Frazer, who were about to launch a new production, US-made frame company called Mystic. We wanted to test the waters with a Radavist edition frame, dubbed the Alluvium. After chatting about numbers and branding, we felt like we were getting closer to releasing this frame. Then the reality of such an undertaking took hold and we killed the project.
What do you get when Bené, aka Ultra Romance, aka Ronnie McFly, aka Glistening Gandolf coerces an XC/roadie racer boi into embracing the long and slow lifestyle? Well, you’re about to find out. While Benedict and Sean from Team Dream were working closely on those nifty merino wool bib shorts, Benedict convinced Sean with his silver tongue to build up a dream bike. A veritable ex-roadie 2.0 cruiser, complete with all the iconic componentry of MTB and randonneuring’s heyday, which pinch me if I’m wrong, is always the present time. What you see here is the result of much toodlin’ and many man hours spent scrounging for parts. All aboard a Crust Bikes Lightning Bolt.
It’s not every day you’re presented with an opportunity to step out of the routines of daily life and to reconnect with a couple of old friends in a beautiful, fairly isolated environment; and to get to fully experience that place from the saddle of your bicycle. When a couple of my oldest friends, Josh and Alex, invited me on a bikepacking adventure – and asked me to assist with a video they planned to produce about the trip – help with logistics, carry some gear, etc. – I gave an enthusiastic and immediate, “I’m all in.” Josh and Alex had secured a generous grant from Kitsbow to capture our time on camera, in hopes that our experience would inspire and motivate others to get outside, unplug from life a bit, reconnect with old friends, and explore an exciting and accessible environment within a reasonable window of time. What cyclist wouldn’t want to throw their bike in a travel bag, fly down to Los Angeles for a 3 day weekend, and spend the bulk of that time pedaling around on Santa Catalina Island with a duo of old friends?
The thing about Instagram is while sometimes you end up with these great one-off shots, that have very little story behind them, they end up living on this low-res platform which most people interact with solely on a cell phone screen. Last Saturday, Kyle, Caché, and I headed down to the LA River to take a photo Caché had previously shot with his cell phone. I wanted to get a nice, high res, professional photo because Caché’s eye for urban lines have resulted in many awe-inspiring takes on what it means to ride a MTB within the Los Angeles city limits. The resulting photos made quite the splash on our Instagram but I wanted to share them here as well.
For Caché, he looks at the MTB as a tool for exploration within and on the outskirts of this sprawling mega-metropolis. In the newest print-edition of Bike Mag, Caché gets a full spread of his riding and art as a mural painter with graffiti roots in LA’s scene.
Give him a follow on Instagram and check out some more randoms from our morning in the LA River drainage network. The last shot is my favorite. Which is yours?
