The Radavist

I really, honestly have very little recollection of this roll. Rather than deleting a bunch of photos, I’m putting them all up. Sorry Crihs. With everyone in town for RideNStyle, Chas decided to have a party at the Messenger Mansion. As expected, a ton of people showed up for the band and the booze but stayed for the shenanigans. This included drawing all over poor Jerome and throwing water balloons as we downed a bottle of Bookers.

As the night got out of hand, Chas relocated the party to Dolores where a highschool prom had apparently ended. The rest of the night was spent convincing girls in sequined dresses to fly down a metal slide on a skateboard. Yeah, blurry night.

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It’s crazy to think that it’s been a year since Chas emailed me, asking me to post about Andrew Low‘s work, leading to a full queue for the SF-based frame builder. He’s been steady cranking away this year at frames, sending them worldwide.

In that time, he’s refined his shop, and over the past few weeks, he’s working on some frame refinements. Faced track ends and finished welds are just a few of the things Andrew’s been working on. I tell ya, if I raced at the track, I’d ride one of these bikes.

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Scraps imply they’re the last photos from the trip and that’s not the case here. I’ve got a few more posts coming in from my recent trip to SF, these are just the ones that have no immediate home. Enjoy and check out the previous posts below!

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These two kids are some of my favorite #FixieFamous celebs. Marc and Kelli are like a match made in Vice Magazine. When they’re not in sleeveless shirts, they’re kitted out in the hills of LA and SF. While Marc has been racing track (and looking for alleycats) the past few years, he’s just started branching off into road racing, which inspired Kelli to do the same. I caught up with these two, the day after a race and took some photos of them.

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I’m very excited for Mike and the entire Mash crew. In a year, their shop has become a destination for out of towners, a meet up for group rides and a bike shop that caters to track bikes. Mash is synonymous with track bikes in SF and the 1-Year Anniversary Alleycat celebrated that.

Unlike last year’s Twin Peaks Time Trail, this race was separated into two events: an alleycat qualifier and a Twin Peaks race. Only the top racers from the alleycat could race up to Twin Peaks. I hung around all day, chatted with racers and shot some photos.

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About a year ago, a man named Andrew Low came onto the track bike scene. Based in SF, Andrew builds handmade aluminum track frames in a small and tidy workshop in the Mission. San Francisco is widely responsible for the aluminum track bike hype and LOW has the made in the USA market cornered. When Massan caught wind of Andrew, he had to support a builder from his home town…

Just recently, Andrew completed a low pro model in a MUNI livery for Massan and I had the chance to photograph it in the Embarcadero on Saturday. With Massan’s recent induction into the Chrome Familia, this bike will be getting a lot of press-love, but for now, here’s my lens-love.

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After the spills and thrills from the 2012 Red Bull RideNStyle track race, the fixed freestyle competitors were ready to rip apart the ramps and rightfully so. The sport has progressed by leaps and bounds in the past year. The tricks are getting bigger, more clicked and are looking more fluid than ever. The good riders really can flow through a park setup now and since people have been spending time at Woodward, a lot of the riders had a new found confidence on big ramps. I feel like I heard rumors for the past few weeks about Josh Boothby’s plans for a backflip and, as we all know, he followed through…

Boothby’s solid runs landed him in first place.  Tyler Johnson’s big and smooth tech lines were more clicked than ever, landing him in second and Joe McKeag’s 540s, truck drivers and clicked 360’s pinned him down in third. Personally, I’m less interested in final rankings and more impressed at the overall caliber of riding that was present. Everyone gave it their all and no one was seriously hurt. But that helmet saved your ass Kenny!

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Today was my last full day in SF and I woke up to find my bike missing from the Messenger Mansion. I checked my phone to find a randsom from #FixieNinja, leading me to Bernal Heights. Crihs had been planning this “revenge” since I desecrated his bike last year, around this time. I got my bike, put the wheels back on and headed out for the day. After the Mash 1-Year Anniversary race (event coverage coming), we rolled to the park to soak in the sun. Nothing crazy, just a bit of people watching…

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