The Radavist

Oregon’s Big Country and the Steens Mountain
Photos and words by Gabe Tiller

Nick had never been to the Steens. It’s not his fault — they’re closer to Boise than anywhere that anyone’s actually heard of in Oregon. They’re technically just one weird mountain, not a range. Steens Mountain is one of the ten highest summits in Oregon but you can drive to the top. It stretches for 50 miles north to south, but the snow dusted eastern flank drops 5,000 dramatic feet to the contrasting Alvord desert lake bed, known for its hot springs and land yacht races…

The allure of the eBay score is strong, especially after so many Landsharks have been recently featured here on the site. Such temptation was too great for Andre. After looking on eBay for a few months, he finally scored this Road Shark with Shimano 600 for $400. It came as shown, minus some dry-rotted tires and no saddle, which were easily replaced. It’s in ok overall condition, just don’t look too closely at the bar tape!

The future of this bike is uncertain. There’s been talk of long-reach calipers, 650b conversion with porteur bars, or a modern 10-speed group, and my vote goes to keeping it as-is, just overhaul the damn thing a bit. For now, Slawta’s crazy personal touches shine regardless as to how much patina is present. My favorite detail is the chomping shark mouth on the internal cable routing exit…

Vacation. Holiday. 3-day weekends. From Memorial Day until Labor Day, the road is wide open and the sun is putting in overtime. Taking advantage of those days is key to sucking the last drop from life and its possibilities.

Last summer, I bought a 4 banger Tacoma pickup in Portland and it kickstarted a whole series of road trips. Most of which centered around cycling-related themes or events but it was the interstitial spaces and moments that I remember vividly. Sunsets, sunrises, rain, fog, wind. All of these had a specific scent and sensation. Most of which were captured visually throughout those long summer months.

I carried my Mamiya 7ii with me on every trip, loaded with Portra 400 220 film. It wasn’t until recently that I finally sat and dug through it all, compiling a Gallery of these moments and vignettes. They’re mostly in the correct order, beginning in Portland and traveling down south.

A lot of these spots are well-known, others not so much but they all serve one purpose: to inspire you to travel to the West Coast and see what you’re missing. Pardon the succinct nature of this intro, but there’s not much to say. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.

One of my favorite trails in Los Angeles recently became the backdrop to a photoshoot for a brand that I’m very excited about. Ringtail is a new company, started by Sean Talkington from Team Dream and Kyle Kelley from Golden Saddle Cyclery. Their intent is to make great fitting, practical cycling apparel and accessories in the USA. As of now, everything is made in the Los Angeles area, which is an added plus for the dudes, seeing as though they like being a part in the production process.

Slack and low, with bigger tire clearances this time. That’s the main difference between this bike and its predecessor. As noted in the previous bike’s gallery, the first version of this bike wasn’t what I wanted. Luckily, Seth Rosko is a good friend of mine and a very capable frame builder. He’s also human and humans make mistakes. What makes a human a great human and a great framebuilder is their ability to rectify those mistakes.

We had a miscommunication, and there was a fabrication error that resulted in a frame with clearance for 2.0 29’r tire in the rear. It’s something that happens from time to time. Framebuilders make mistakes. Chainring clearances, missing or incorrect cable stops, off-square rear triangles. You’re getting a functional piece of art and art has character. Right? Maybe not so much. It needs to function, above all.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s move onto what I’m calling my “Agave Slapper” hardtail. This version clears a 2.4 Ardent on the rear, has a 69º head tube angle, a mid-range BB drop and an option for a 2x or 3x front ring. It’s easy to get it low through corners and in Texas, that means the occasional run in with the blue agave plant, where its color was inspired.

Fluoro and functionality. That’s what caught my eye when I first saw Justin‘s Serotta T Max mountain bike. That and the big ol’ Columbus Max OR sticker (I have a crush on that tubeset). Justin took what many would consider an obsolete 26″ frame, added mustache bars to it, a rack with a Wald basket and flat pedals, resuscitating it back to daily use. Of course it still shreds dirt, but it also shreds to and from work. Now we gotta find you a front derailleur dude.

Bum tracks, fire roads, singletrack beware, this Serotta T Max is looking for lunch!

Taking on the #FlowShiv
Photos and words by Chris Riekert

Here in the hallowed halls of the big red ‘S’; you know, the Death Star of the cycling world… you might be surprised to see there are some real people roaming around. Real people that are, first and foremost, big fans of bikes.

People like my buddy John Friedrich, the only man I know who would happily talk about the different weights of DOT brake fluid and what they offer to the rider, literally, until you’d choose water boarding over continuing the conversation… Or like our mechanic Patrick “Tree” Miller who seems like someone delivered to earth in one of those rescue pods shot through space as the planet Krypton went through nuclear collapse. Patrick is the NICEST most willing to help person I’ve ever met… and yes, he is a bicycle mechanic! How about that?

In Los Angeles, if you don’t have a cross bike, you’re fuckin’ up. Seriously. There are so many dirt roads and tracks to explore, all within the city limits that you’ll quickly realize your road bike or mountain bike’s limitations.

For Yanco, he wanted a frame from a California pedigree. He had put a deposit down with Hunter Cycles a while back, way before the second year of Mudfoot Stinners popped up. So when his spot in the Hunter queue finally came up, he contacted Geoff McFetridge and Aaron about setting him up with a Mudfoot-painted ENVE fork for his Hunter.

At first, no one was sure how it’d look, but after Rick posted a photo of the grey frame with blue logos, we all knew it’d look incredible. Matched with mango Chris King, some Paul skewers and a little sumpin’ sumpin’ locked into the downtube bottle bosses, this bike has some real style…

Then it fell over and I felt horrible! Sorry Yanco! Hopefully it’s not the last time this bike goes #RubberSideUp…

It might snow, there might be rain, the temperature is dropping tonight.

Still wanna ride? Of course. While the whole adoration of the inevitable clusterfuck or yard-shitting makes for interesting stories, sometimes just appreciating the spectacle that is mother nature’s mood swings merits documentation, regardless of how ethereal tales told on the internet tend to be.

Four hours. We had four hours to ride before the day’s responsibilities would set in for us. Kyle from Golden Saddle and Brian from Brian Vernor Making Blog (heh) wanted to ride Strawberry Peak in the Angeles National Forest. I’ve never been, but was promised picturesque San Gabriel shredding. While Strawberry Peak is strictly XC riding, there are plenty of places for unbalanced placement potentially resulting in catastrophe or consequence. I.e. exposure and lots of rocks.

It’s not everyday that you see a cyclocross bike with Campagnolo Chorus 11 speed. I suppose it’s not too common to see a Geoff McFetridge-designed bike either, unless you’re in Los Angeles, which is Mudfoot territory.

Jason, like a lot of us, likes to use his cyclocross bike for road rides, dirt rides, trail rides and even a bit of ‘cross racing. These days, he’s got road wheels on his bike for heading into the hills and mountains surrounding LA. Yesterday, he took a leisurely spin up Griffith Park en route to getting a bite to eat.

I’ve seen countless Stinner Frameworks x Mudfoot bikes, but his was set up differently than others. Things I like about this bike: the white housing, GSC Steal Your Shop stem cap, the Prologo saddle, juxtaposed by the white bar tape. Things I don’t like about this bike: that it’s not dirty enough! Get out and ride that damn thing more Jason…

The Samuel Hillborne is Rivendell’s self-proclaimed “Country Bike”, meaning while it’ll do just fine around town it’s best at home touring the countryside. Actually, that’s not true at all. Not that bikes need rules, or stigmas for that matter, but the Hillborne is one of the most beautiful bicycles to be included in the Rivendell lineup. A veritable “do it all” bike. Road rides? Sure. MTB singletrack? Yep. Touring? You bet. It’ll do all the above with an uncanny elegance.

So elegant that you really can’t photograph this bike in a cityscape. It needs the sunbleached, parched rolling landscape as a backdrop. Whether its Walnut Creek’s rolling hills, or in this case the terrain of Los Angeles where it currently resides.

As far as the build is concerned it’s very Riv-esque with shellac’d Nitto Albastache bars, Schwalbe Little Big Ben tires, Nitto M1 rack, the IRD quill stem shifter mount and a brand new Brooks saddle.

Built originally for a rider who later determined it was a bit too long for him (hence the short stem), this bike is now at Golden Saddle Cyclery in Silverlake, Los Angeles with a price tag of $2,200 as shown. If you ride a 58cm and want a killer deal on a like-new complete, holler at the shop. Otherwise, just ogle this Beautiful Bicycle in the Gallery.

Vintage mountain bikes can provide just as much excitement as modern mountain bikes on your local trails. Sure, modern tech trumps clapped out forks and squishy brakes, but any trail shaman will show you the way to the wakkiness if you know how to summon your inner Tomac.

Not that DJ is going hucking anytime soon on his Dirt Shark frame, but in the meantime, it’s making a meal of his local one-track. Even if it’s hobo trails lined with syringes and scratch tickets, there’s still a good amount of dirt to be found in between Long Beach and Los Angeles for jibbin’.

Duder picked this bike up for a song and with that Kooka Stem and blue Sid fork, it’s one that I’d tune my ears to hear. With that paint, those components and the vintage fit philosophy, this bike will offer a truly unique experience on the trails. One that even your lightest 1x setup would have a hard time to rival.

You see, it’s not always about smashing KOM’s or blasting berms, sometimes it’s about just making it down in one piece… Keep her pretty DJ, but let her rip!

Paul Sadoff has been getting a lot of love here on the Radavist as of late and surprisingly, a lot of the recent the bikes featured have been steel. These days, I feel like Paul is doing more aluminum frames, so when I catch sight of a steel road bike like Mat‘s 2010 Rock Lobster with Dura Ace and Chris King, in a bright blue I have to shoot photos of it.

Mat went with the pewter head badge upgrade, orange nipples, orange Salsa skewers and used his trusted Concor saddle for the finishing touches on what otherwise is a relatively straight forward build.

Steel road bikes will always have a place in this world and bikes like this are perfect examples of aesthetic balance and function.