The Radavist

Kit builds aren’t Rick Hunter’s thing. You won’t find derailleur hangers ordered from a catalog in drawers, or your every day, run of the mill 44mm head tube waiting en queue for assemblage. Not at Hunter Cycles.

Rick Hunter is one of those builders that makes what I like to call utilitarian art. Utilitarian because each of his bikes are made to tackle one or many jobs efficiently and with a dash of fun. Or the other way around. Art because each bike is unique. Or rather, each run of production frames are unique. Be it a WoodRat, a Cyclo-Cross disc bike or a road frame. Rick will design, fabricate and finish his own cable stops, derailleur hangers and head tubes. There are a lotta hours put into each bike. More recently he’s been working on some feats of engineering and reverse practicality however with his completely insane Bushmaster bikes…

Cycling is an experience that should continue to mature overtime. I’m weary of people who stand firm in their ideologies, rest on laurels and refuse to embrace the “new,” especially when it comes to riding bikes. Look, it’s not that hard to have fun. Opinions can change with experience, its normal. Embrace it.

For the past two years, I’ve been planning both financially and functionally for this bike. Something I’d encourage everyone to do with a custom machine. Don’t just jump in head first without doing research and saving your money. The last thing you want to do is to take a financial hit once the final invoice comes in.

You see, I knew I wanted a Firefly. I kind of felt like that brand and my own brand have grown together over the years. When Jamie, Tyler and Kevin started the company, it had a breath of energy, creativity and their final products all expressed experimentation. Those guys can make anyone a dream bike but deciding what kind of bike is a challenge. Part of my apprehension was not only where I felt like cycling’s technology was heading, but where my own riding would be taking me over the next few years.

I gotta say, out of all the expo bikes at Grinduro, Todd from Black Cat‘s creation is most up my alley. Black bikes look mean, but then you add in a custom-machined lower headset cup, a beautiful stem, custom in-house gold paint details, those ENVE M‘s with RockNRoad tires and SRAM’s 10-42 rear cluster, resulting in one very dialed machine.

There’s nothing else to say, other than enjoy!

I also wanted to thank Todd from Black Cat for organizing the builder’s expo at Grinduro!

CommUtah – 421 Miles of Dirt from Salt Lake City to Moab
Photos by John Shafer and James Adamson with words by Kurt Gensheimer.

Two weeks ago, James Adamson, Justin Schwartz and Kurt Gensheimer – known as The Commute Crew – completed a historic eight-day, 421-mile trek with 45,000 feet of climbing on dirt from Salt Lake City to Moab in an adventure called CommUtah. According to several local backcountry guides, nobody has ever attempted such an adventure consisting of 95 percent dirt, nearly half of it on single track.

Grinduro was a weekend-long event, filled with music, food, booze and a killer ride (or race, depending on how you party) but one of my favorite features was the expo, which featured a series of California-based frame builders, all designing what would be the ultimate “Grinduro bike.”

The first one to be featured here on this site is a unique Retrotec “all-road” which was built using signature Inglis details like a double, curved top tube, a seat tube cluster gusset, a hotrod-inspired paint job and extra sexy thru-axle dropouts.

It’s easy to swoon over a bike with such curves, but once you look at the build kit, the practicality really shines through. By using SRAM’s massive 10-42 cluster cassette and the CX-1 long cage rear derailleur, this bike can tackle anything, including China Grade’s intimidating average grade.

For the client, a Whisky thru-axle fork and wheels topped off the build… Which he then took right off the display shelf and rode the next day. If only I had gotten a post-race portrait.

When Joe Parkin approached Giro’s Dain Zaffke about a new race format a few years back, the initial reaction the two had was more than a chuckle, rather than any degree of seriousness but the seed had been planted…

Why not make a new race format? Part gravel grind and part enduro. Grinduro. You get the best of both worlds, competition and socializing on bicycles. A few segments would be timed: a fire road climb, a fire road descent, a road time trail and a singletrack descent. The event would prove to bring about a rather interesting dialog: what is the most diverse bicycle in your stable?

Coming Together at the Trans Cascadia
Photos by Dylan VanWeelden, words by Kyle Von Hoetzendorff

“I love it when a plan comes together.” – Hannibal – Every single episode of the A-Team.

Picture this, you arrive at a parking lot just off the main road of very small town that is set alongside a river amidst vast stretches of timber covered mountains. Waiting for you is a series of off road ready shuttle vans. You load in your bike and gear then you’re whisked away to a remote, wifi-less, electronic less, civilization-less beautiful mountain lake. This is your idyllic base camp, and during the day you will be racing blind on little known trails where deep loam sits just ready for the shredding. Over four days and 21 stages you will gradually race your way back towards the better known trails of Oakridge, Oregon.

This was an interesting experience. It wasn’t part of the festival and it didn’t look like anything special at first. Matt’s commuter has the #4 serial from Kris at 44 Bikes. It’s a singlespeed made for zipping around town with three unique details: a Mike Flanigan fork with a custom 44 Bikes rack and a special cable hanger Kris machined and mounted to the Thomson stem.

My favorite thing about bikes like this is the amount of use it has seen…

Yesterday, Jonathan and I rode up to the blacktop in Griffith Park to catch the sunset. As we’re sitting there, talking about life and this transition I’m going through, up rolls Bryan and his son Alden in a Burley trailer, being drug up the crazy steep hill by an older Speedvagen team ‘cross bike. It literally happened in slow motion for me. Maybe it was the light, or the fact that a young human being is having the best introduction to cycling. Whatever it was, I was engaged.

Luckily, I had my camera on me from shooting a few photos of Jonathan for the #HotBoyzofCycling calendar, so I was able to capture this moment in the last seconds of sunlight. I love the logos, especially the EDGE logo which really dates this frame. The asymmetric Paul touring canti is a nice touch as well, but like with all Speedvagens, the paint was so good!

I’ve seen a lot of amazing stuff in Los Angeles, but this just made my day…

You don’t necessarily need a custom frame to compete in PBP. In fact, you don’t even need a true randonneuring frame. James started that way, with a Trek touring bike which he converted to a 650b wheel size. After that didn’t work out as planned, he sought out an affordable 650b frameset before finally landing on the Soma GR v1, which he promptly stripped it of its logos and repainted.

Now that he had a frame, he wanted to make the build something unique. You see, he has a penchant for customizing otherwise overlooked details with his bikes. Logos stripped, levers and derailleurs polished. In fact, one of the only logos visible on his bike are the Rene Herse cranks.

This year James competed in PBP and after he landed back stateside, he reassembled his bike and promptly dropped it off at Golden Saddle Cyclery, where the guys fixed an issue with his rear Powertap hub.

My favorite details on this bike happen to be the brake dust swirls on the tires and the dented fenders. This bike has been through the shit, for sure.

Part commuter, part touring bike, beautiful functionality with that Icarus flair.

Chris wanted a bike that did all of the above. Having already commissioned Ian to build him a matte black road bike, he knew exactly what he wanted in a commuter. Tubus titanium racks, SON hub, Edelux lamp, Chris King, Paul components, custom painted Berthoud fenders, Swift Industries panniers, Jack Brown Blues and White Industries cranks, all being operated by SRAM’s XO long cage rear derailleur and barcons.

A lot of the parts selection was informed by my Geekhouse when Chris was selecting his kit. Dependability was the most important issue yet as we said earlier, it needed to be beautifully functional.

Maybe he’ll have time to get out on a tour? Or maybe it’ll just serve him as it has for the past year as a commuter for Austin, TX.

The poll is in and we have a winner… Get Ian from Icarus Frames to build you a winner by contacting him.

It’s happened. The locals of Austin, Texas have embraced Lauren from Saila, the woman who welded for Seven Cycles in Boston for years, laying down tight weld lines over even tighter mitres.

Saila makes performance steel and titanium bikes ranging from “all-road” to cross and road. This bike in particular is a perfect example of a guy who wanted something special, yet didn’t want to splurge on componentry. Rather than dropping a couple grand on new parts, he built this race bike up with old parts left over from previous bikes.

Titanium is a medium that yields classic beauty without the need of expensive paint, or even expensive parts. Holler at Lauren if you’d like her to create a piece of work like this!

Chas’ Zipp Firecrest 404 Track Wheels
Photos by Kyle Kelley, words by John Watson

When Zipp announced their Firecrest track wheels in both the 404 (58mm deep) and an 808 (82mm deep) model, it was very apparent they were making wheels specific to the track criterium crowd, not the velodrome crowd. Track racers who invest in a set of Zipp’s would opt for the Firecrest 404 or 808 tubulars. The clincher Firecrests are clearly designed for the street use.

These new 404 Firecrest track wheels come in a 28h front / rear 2x lacing pattern, use a single-sided fixed asymmetric rear hub with a non-proprietary lock ring and rather than go for a 15mm bolt, Zipp chose a 6mm allen.

Chas has been racing on these wheels, which found their way onto the Cinelli Work frameset. A steel singlespeed frame that can be ran as a fixed crit bike, work bike or even a singlespeed ‘cross machine. Kyle caught up with Chas at the Wolf Pack Hustle Civic Center crit a few weeks back and loved the look of these wheels.

With the Red Hook Crit Barcelona underway this weekend, Chas, his bike and those wheels will go through a thorough amount of work and personally, I like how this bike is looking.

Zipp Firecrest 404:
58mm deep
1,655g wheelset weight
$950 front and $1,150 rear

Zipp Firecrest 808:
82mm deep
1,805g wheelset weight
$1,100 front and $1,300 rear

In stock now at Zipp.

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Follow Kyle on Instagram and Chas on Instagram.

Brooklyn’s Deluxe Cycles
Words by Wilis Johnson and photos by Cooper Ray (unless noted otherwise)

Deluxe was born from the experience of the mechanics and riders who work in the shop. The business itself is built around building deeper, more intimate relationships with the customers, the suppliers, and everyone down the line. Every bit of the shop has more effort and thought put into it: The focus here is quality over quantity. Being confined to a studio space improves the quality of the work and attention to detail of what is being produced – this is possible without the distraction of the storefront and what that entails. You walk into Deluxe and you realize how intimate the space is. Located in Bed-Stuy in Brooklyn, the lofty studio feels more like someones living room than a traditional bike shop.