The Radavist

Big guys have big headtubes. How big? Bigger than a tallboy? Depends, but if you’re a Texan like Josh Hines, everything’s bigger there, so why stop with a bicycle?

Joking aside. Josh and I are buddies from Austin. He’s in Los Angeles this week to take on some mountains and break in his new Icarus Frames road bike. After being fed up with stock sizing and carbon fiber, he wanted something with more longevity so Josh turned to Ian Sutton to make him a special road bike… and special it is.

Ian’s not one to turn down a challenge. Well, that’s not true, I’m sure everyone has their limits but let’s just say Josh’s request piqued his interest. While Icarus has made carbon and steel bikes before, he hadn’t spent much time working with carbon seat tubes, which is what Josh wanted. Will Ian do it again? Probably not, as it turned into quite the challenge. Does it look rad? Of course!

Josh wanted a road bike for long days in the saddle. His full time job of being a chef doesn’t offer much free time, so when he has a day off, he wants to spend it all on the bike. He wanted the frame to be painted to match his older Beat the Clock Cycling kit, which has geometric patterns all over it and while the frame is about a month old, the parts were all bought used. Even those Bontrager Aeolus wheels! In fact, all he’s waiting on is a new stem, painted to match the Ben Falcon-paint job and he’ll clean up that steerer-area asap.

Til then, Josh has been enjoying Los Angeles’ killer road climbs. Yesterday he rode Mt. Wilson and we’re trying to convince him to take on Cloudburst… We’ll see! Even if he doesn’t, that bike will be happy regardless.

Oh yeah, how’s that new Will Bryant-designed Beat the Clock Cycling kit? So good!

Gunnar and its parent company Waterford don’t get a lot of attention in cycling media, unfortunately. In fact, I rarely see one here in California or if I do, it’s in passing and there’s no time to shoot photos of it. So when Pat rolled this beaut into Golden Saddle one afternoon, I wanted to do something special with it. I knew exactly what Pat was going for when I saw this bike. It has a body language, a certain air of confidence. It screams, “I can tackle Mt. Lowe on dirt and still be fun descending back down the smooth, paved curves of Highway 2.”

In Los Angeles, big tires and disc brakes can completely alter your everyday rides. We’ve got legit mountains here, breaking 10,000′ but between the ocean and these giants, there are tons of intermittent trails, some of which were cut by cyclists, or hikers, or hobos. These trails can offer more than enough entertainment right out of your front door if you can’t commit to a huge day in the mountains. That became the backdrop for where Pat and I would ride, shoot photos and eventually document this Waterford.

Initially, Pat didn’t want a Waterford. He wanted a Gunnar Grand Disc but after discussing all his add-ons and customization, they recommended he just get a Waterford. Their frames begin at $1,500 and go all the way up to however much accoutrement you’d like to add. Custom geo, check. Pump peg, check. 44mm head tube, check. Disc brakes, check. Custom paint, check. Clearance for a 40mm tire, check. When Pat gave them his list, the team at Waterford got to work and a few weeks later, the frame showed up, ready to rip Los Angeles and beyond.

The build kit is smart, without being flashy. An Ultegra long-cage wraps around the 32t cassette and White Industries VBC cranks make up the right amount of gear inches. King Hubs to HED Belgium + rims, fit with Teravail Cannonball tires keep the bike rolling and a Cambium atop an ENVE post offers some compliance on the saddle. A Thomson stem and 3T bars hold the Ultegra shifters. Yanco outfit this rig with some custom bags, including the DT stash pack and handlebar bag.

Now, Pat’s lived in LA his whole life, but only recently became interested in riding dirt. Perhaps you remember his bright LOW track bike? Yeah, he wanted something a little different than that for his new geared bike. As for his dirt riding, I think he’s got the hang of it.

Thanks for riding, shooting the shit and skidding around loose corners, Pat!

Nick’s Hub and Spoke Cycleworks Track
Photos by Kyle Kelley, words by John Watson

Just as news of the Southern California framebuilder and painter Brian Baylis’ passing made its way to Los Angeles, this bike rolled in through the doors of Golden Saddle Cyclery, immediately grabbing Kyle’s attention. Its owner, Nick Brock races for team Dos Llantas in the San Diego-area. When he wanted a custom frame to fit his obviously very tall stance, he contacted Hub and Spoke Cycleworks in National City who took the important measurements and got to work.

Once the frame was complete, it was painted by Brian Powell, an owner of Hub and Spoke who also paints at Joe Bell’s paint shop. From there, Nick built it up with a Chub hubset on H+Son rims, with a Sugino crankset, FSA cockpit, seatpost and a Fizik Antares saddle.

With NAHBS coming up this week, a bike like this truly embodies what small-time frame and paint shops embody: creativity and customization. You can have all the flash without burning all your cash. Even though we lost Brian Baylis, his legacy lives on with every new builder or painter that pops up in Southern California. If you ever get the chance to see a Baylis in person, take some extra time examining it and you’ll see what I mean.

If you live in the National City area, make sure you swing through Hub and Spoke Cycleworks to check out their shop!

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Follow Kyle on Instagram, Nick on Instagram and Hub and Spoke Cycle Works on Instagram.

Eric Bones is an artist. One you may know of through his collaborations with Firefly Cycles in Boston. “The Bones Project” bikes featured a high-contrast black and white design which was almost entirely done with a paint brush and a sharpie. As I said, Eric is an artist and artists need creative outlets so Eric began OCEAN, a team of sorts, focusing heavily on expanding from Boston where Eric is based, to the US and beyond. It might not seem like much, but that’s the point. Not every “team” needs to boast about conquests, some just need to look really, really good.

The Ocean Kit is an eye catcher and when you pair it with this Circle-A painted Cervelo S2 road bike, you’re bound to turn heads.

People of Boston fly west for the winter and I found a whole flock of them this week. One evening while we watched the sun set, I grabbed a few photos of this unique bike against an ombré sky…

Like the lost city of Atlantis, Rivendell’s arguably most famous model carries a bit of mystique. They’re beautiful to look at but a dream to ride. So dreamy that it’s hard to figure out what makes the Atlantis so special.

Is it the wheel or tire size? Wheelbase? The tubing? What about the 1″ steerer? With the word “trail” being thrown around a lot in frame design, I’m going to default on it being the magical component in this equation. Even in the five minutes it took me to pedal this bike around the corner to photograph it, all I could think about was how wonderful it’d be to ride one in my size.

Hugh’s got a really special bike here, with a lot of really wonderful details, mostly stemming from the stem. Shellac’d bars and grips, a super upright riding position, one worn in Brooks and even a few love marks in the beautiful olive paint all show use and age. Something Grant Petersen came to call beausage…

Spencer Harding is true rad atavist. He’s always touring on his tallbike, or packrafting the LA river, and finding unique or interesting people to photograph. For the past few weeks, he’s been in Los Angeles, working on photo projects and riding extensively. For whatever reason, he and I yet to connect. It seems that while our paths were concurrent, they weren’t yet converging. Until last week when a text message ended with finite plans to ride.

Initially, we were going to ride Sunset Ridge, a ripping descent but I wanted to ride something a bit harder and more cross-country. Ty had already annihilated Chilao the day before, so we chose Strawberry Peak and its exposed singletrack.

For whatever reason, I thought Spencer always had a Surly ICT. I’d seen his tires before with their plump 4″ width, but never actually realized it was a Motobecane. You know, the BikesDirect.com in house model that seems awfully similar to Surly, down to the dropouts. We were joking as I was shooting photos: “that’s the most stock, cheap bike to ever be featured on the Radavist!” My mind raced to think of another example, yet came back empty after running through the database. Yes, this is a damn stock bike, save for the bell and Brooks saddle, but as Spencer has proven time and time again, it’s not the bike that makes the ride. This one’s all about the abeausage…

Enjoy these photos of some of Los Angeles’ most beautiful trails and give Spencer a follow on Instagram!

Shawn‘s lucky. He got out of the Northeast and landed in Los Angeles just in time to avoid all that pesky snow in NYC. A while back, the shop where he works, King Kog and Golden Saddle Cyclery here in LA worked out a swap of sorts. Shawn would come and work at GSC for a week this winter and later in the summer, one of the GSC employees would go work in Brooklyn at King Kog. Due to current events however, it seems like Shawn got real lucky with the weather and ultimately, the better deal!

While his home city is under snow, he’s been out riding in sunny SoCal on his titanium Serotta Concours ‘cross bike. While it’s a bit dated in terms of braking technology, this one broke plenty of technological advancements in its time. Serotta made lots of titanium bikes over the years and the Concourse was just one of them.

Shawn’s built it up with a mix of Force 10-speed shifters, a soon to the market AARN CX 1x chainring, an inverted King headset and Paul Motolite brakes on a Wound Up fork with some older Zipp 101 wheels and a Thomson cockpit. This bike has just the right amount of beausage and in an age where ‘cross bikes have almost entirely gone to disc brakes, it’s great seeing a timeless frameset like this getting some miles. Especially in the warm and sunny SoCal winter. Enjoy the weather while you can, Shawn!

The 2016 Cyclocross National Championships

Words by Amanda Schaper, photos by Jordan Clark Haggard

For cyclocross racers, the National Championships is our biggest and best party of the year. You travel to a new place and spend a week filled with amazing racing, lots of great people, and—of course—even a little debauchery. This is cyclocross after all.

This year’s event was hosted in Asheville, North Carolina, at the Biltmore Estate. This is a stunningly beautiful 8,000-acre property that has been family owned since 1895, and it features the largest privately owned house in the U.S. Seriously—it’s a 178,926 square foot mansion with absolutely incredible architecture. Riding through the Estate grounds reveals sprawling gardens, forested areas, creeks, waterfalls, a winery, intricate stone walls, and farm animals grazing through open fields. Everything about the Biltmore screams luxury, and it made for an amazing location to host the Cyclocross National Championships.

Over the years, I’ve developed a bit of a phobia for being social during celebrated holidays. It’s not an anti-social behavior because I enjoy the company of friends. It’s the waves of party-goers, long lines, and crowded parties that pushes me out to the vast landscapes. Since moving to Los Angeles, this has only been heightened. I cannot sit inside this plane of tarmac, so my go-to escape during said events has been the wilderness. This year, Halloween, Christmas, and New Years were spent car camping. You know that thing where you can bring a bunch of shit that you normally can’t tow during bicycle camping outings. Now, I know this is a cycling blog and I’m a cyclist but I’ve learned in my years of riding non-stop all year that time off the bike is great for both your mind, body, and chamois contact spot. Everyone needs a couple of days off, so why not spend them hiking, and enjoying the outdoors?

Los Angeles is warm and sunny all the time. Los Angeles is not warm and sunny all the time. Both statements are half-truths, the problem is one half can swing against your favor in an instant. That instant being when you head into the Angeles National Forest, chasing sunsets. Ted King is an east coaster. Granted, he’s raced all over the world but his home is the east coast. So when he made a trip out to California recently, he was surprised at how warm it was in the city. I warned him though, once we start climbing up into the mountains, it’ll be freezing. Guess what? It was cold. We were cold. Then the sun set and it was even colder. Luckily, warmth was just around that last bend coming back down Highway 2.

Enough environment… Our agenda was pretty clear and it should be obvious to you all: shoot photos of Ted to announce his new partnership with Velocio, an apparel company specializing in high-tech, race-fit apparel without super flashy graphics and gimmicks. You see, once you retire from professional cycling, you can’t just walk away from the sport. Ted loves to ride bikes and he wants to partner with like-minded companies who make products that he wants to use full-time. Assignments aside, I was just stoked to spend some time with Ted and show him some local rides. His bike was really dialed, his attitude, even more and don’t let Ted fool ya, he’s still fast as ever. Or maybe it was just my 30lb camera bag causing me to lag behind. Yeah, that’s it…

Velocio has an in-depth feature on Ted at their site, which you are more than welcomed to go read. In fact, you should because yes, while it is marketing, it’s true-to-form, real life Ted King. Head to Velocio to check it out and see more photos in the Gallery.

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Follow Ted on Instagram and follow Velocio on Instagram.

Titanium makes for a great off-road material. The tubing diameters are oftentimes larger than steel resulting in a ride quality that’s unprecedented. For Santa Barbara’s Stinner Frameworks, titanium was the next logical material to learn how to tig weld. Their shop now offers titanium road, touring, road and mountain bikes, with Matt’s being one of the recent beasts to be born.

Keeping the Tunnel 29’r frame raw, it’s offset by the razzle-painted Rock Shox Pike fork, Jones wheels, SRAM 1x drivetrain, internally-routed Reverb dropper and a Thomson cockpit.

Matt grew up riding MTBs in Topanga and Calabasas as a kid but hadn’t touched one in over 14 years. This bike will be the catalyst to get him back on the trails in Santa Barbara and hopefully he’ll be shredding with us when he comes home to Los Angeles over the holidays.

For those of you unfamiliar with Matt’s work, he’s the photographer for Stinner Frameworks and goes by the handle @HazardousTaste on Instagram. I highly suggest you give him a follow!