The Radavist

Flashback to July. I was in considerably good shape, coming off a lot of base miles in the early spring with China and Australia, back to back. After those two countries, I kept pushing myself to be a more fit cyclist. Why? Because I knew this Brovet was coming up and I had something to prove. Both to myself and my friends, who had heckled me incessantly since my bonking in Pittsburgh. Let’s just say, I was ready.

My equipment was dialed, my fitness was in-line and aside from a MTB wreck the week before, I was in tip top shape. The initial talks of the route had numbers like 250 miles and over 30,000′ of climbing. After we completed the route, it turned out to be around 235 miles and 18,000′. Still, no small feat.

Look, it was hot, tough and with around 10 people in our group, it was the largest Brovet ride yet. Was it fun? You bet your ass! It’s amazing how enjoyable rides like this can be when you’ve got the fitness. You’ve already read Yonder’s report, so here are my photos from the ride, in as accurate of an order as I can recall.

As cyclists, we look at roads, paths and tracks a little differently. We notice the nuances of undulation, the tipping point of turns and with each climb, we relish the descent. Some individuals can evoke emotions with a single photograph.

Instagram is great for many reasons, but one of which is sharing your environments with users all over the world. I travel quite frequently, but one man’s photographs always give me road envy. Known on the app as @RMDUB, Ryan Wilson is, by all means, a roadscape photographer.

Ryan works in Hollywood as a sound designer. He’s lived in Los Angeles for over 6 years and only recently ventured into the surrounding mountains, upon buying a road bike. For the past 3 years, he’s been exploring all the various veins of asphalt that trickle down the faces and flow into the valleys.

In August 2012, Ryan loaded his road bike into his car while on assignment and drove north to the Sierras, from that point on, he always travels with his bike and has been to some of the most majestic roadways on the west coast.

So what kind of camera does Ryan use to capture these breathtaking vignettes? The pocket-sized Sony RX100M2 with Carl Zeiss optics. Or his iPhone.

When Erik and I met at Eurobike last year, we talked about doing a ride to celebrate the Specialized AWOL release. Originally, we talked about Oregon, then LA, but after some research, we realized there were plenty of roads, tracks and trails literally in SF’s backyard.

With the help of Jared from Riv Bike, Erik began to think about a three day route from SF to the Diablo Range, Morgan Territory, Henry Coe and finally, into Morgan Hill where we’d share our story and watch the premier of the Transcontinental film. It seemed like an achievable goal. We’d pack for camping, which included cold nights and mornings and most importantly, we’d take our time.

Rather than actually planning our route, we decided to take trail maps and meander a bit off the beaten path. Digital maps don’t have all the trails marked and some of the current maps of the Diablo range revealed a path none of us had taken. We were set.

Unfortunately, as it tends to go, unexpected elements came into the equation and our plans changed. At first, I was pretty upset about it, seeing as how I was planning on pulling a few stories out of our ride, but after reviewing my photos, I decided it made for a good story…

Part of what the Specialized AWOL project represents is an escape, a desire to get out of your normal ride routine and try something new. Taking a chance if you will. While we didn’t complete our ride, we had fun and saw some incredible displays of color as Mother Nature impressed us all.

Seriously, the sunrise the second day rivals all in my past experiences…

Read on in the Gallery!

There’s more to come, including my review of the AWOL Transcontinental Limited Edition and a Beautiful Bicycle post on Erik’s own bike.

After looking back through all 800 photos I shot while on bicycle tour through China with Mission Workshop and Factory 5, I had a hard time breaking it down to a cohesive gallery show.

What I began to notice were themes in the photos, not apparent as I flipped through the files, but when I printed out a selection of photos, they began to tie in together. These themes represent not only my eye for cycling in urban environments, but also my background education and professional career as an architect.

China really changed my perspective on the world as a whole. I saw beautiful landscapes destroyed in the name of progress and capitalism. I witnessed a precious and old culture wiped out to assimilate with a preconceived notion of luxury. Everywhere I looked, I saw western civilization to blame.

Globalization, our desire to own and consume had changed China. Granted I had no benchmark for the status quo, I could only gather enough information through examining the landscapes.

The Chinese build for the sake of building. Supply and demand is a skewed balance, tilted in the former’s favor. This growth is unwarranted and most importantly, uncontrolled.

So where did this bike tour fall into place? It was, after all, Mission Workshop’s idea. While I was given no direction, no instructions, I did have really, complete freedom to do what I wanted.

We had an agenda: test out the new US-manufactured Acre clothing while riding a bicycle through some of the most polluted areas of China and document the trip for a gallery show. Was it successful? I’d say so…

Which brings me to this post: a selection of 50 photos, all shot with my Mamiya 7ii and Kodak Portra 400. These photos break down into illustrative observations, all of which are noted in the photo’s title. Some are obvious, others are not.

You’ll see the themes fairly easily and I’d like to hear what you have to say about them. Feel free to critique / comment, just be polite and constructive.

Many thanks to Mission Workshop / Acre, the Factory 5 crew and anyone that helped us on this journey.

Sean from Team Dream Bicycling Team is really living the dream. He lives at the top of the hill in Topanga Creek and can roll out of his front door, to find himself on a vast network of trails. Granted, it’s hotter than hell in the summer, but this time of year, it’s majestic. All the vegetation is golden, bone dry and the trails are fast and loose.

After zipping through a few trails in Topanga, we met up with the Pedalers Fork guys, who took us on an even more ripping ride through Calabasas. Now those guys have an even radder trail network.

The thing I love about riding in Southern California is the insane amount of elevation you get in each ride, all within a stone’s throw of the coast. So far, out of all the MTB trails I’ve been on in the Los Angeles area, these were my favorite.

We ended up around 30 miles and 3,800′ climbing. Had it not been for the meal at Pedalers Fork afterwards, my legs would have been dead the next day!