The Radavist

A Special Edition Team Dream Bicycling Team Cielo Base Racer
Photos by Kyle Kelley and words by John Watson

Chris King’s 40th anniversary is this year and with that, a whole queue of celebratory events, products and collaborations have taken place. From that coveted olive drab kit, to an Open House tomorrow (details pending) and even working with Team Dream Bicycling Team on a kit design, with a corresponding Cielo Base Racer frame.

Team Dream’s Sean Talkington was asked to design a kit for Chris King, using some of his signature colors and designs. Known for their brightly-colored apparel and unique use of stripes, the resulting design featured a red, white and blue paint job, with stripes that look like torn masking edges.

The accompanying kit has been in stock at both party’s web shops but this Base Racer has been kept under wraps for a bit, so enjoy! Thanks to the team at Golden Saddle for the build and look for this bike going up for auction shortly!

____

Follow Kyle on Instagram, Team Dream on Instagram and Chris King on Instagram.

There doesn’t have to be a fire to have our mountains scorched all summer here in Los Angeles. “June Gloom” didn’t come this year, not in June, nor in July and come August, the overbearing warmth cast from afar by our sun has certainly required our vegetation to abstain from hydrating.

It is however the desert. We’re just lucky enough to have the ocean to cool everything down each night. Yet, the lush green mountain tops we had all winter have certainly changed their hue. Yellow flowers made way to yellow plants and those intense purples and greens we had shifted to red, leaving our tracks and trails lined with red, yellow and green. Now if you look out across the landscape, it looks like everything has been anodized Rasta like some MTB skewers from the 90’s.

When Sean from Team Dream found out what the route was for this year’s Tour of California stop in LA, he began scheming about how we could welcome the race with a KOM party… The thing about partying on top of a mountain is it takes a bit of planning. Sure, you could pull a grill, a cooler and food up a 5,500′ climb in a Bob Trailer but you’d end up being too pooped to party at the end of it. This left Sean with a decent plan: he’d shuttle his VW van, dubbed “the Brick” up to the top of Upper Big T at HWY 2, filled with all the necessary goods to throw down one hell of a hangout on the course. We’d wait for the peloton, grill hot dogs, drink beer and when the race came through, erupt with unrivaled support for the racers. Sounds like a good time, right?

As I was herding people from Golden Saddle, Sean was shuttling his van up to the KOM, barely arriving back to South Pasadena in time to begin the group ride. We went up Highway 2, one of the most scenic road rides in California. All 40 of us. With bikepacking bags loaded with food, water and camera equipment, I took off with the group on my rigid 29’r and sneakers. Believe me, doing a “road ride” on a loaded down MTB isn’t all that fun, but I was stoked to see Adam doing the same… and yeah, it made for some playful jibs along the way.

Check out the story in the Gallery!

Being nestled in between the Pacific Ocean and giant mountains is the only reason why Los Angeles isn’t a complete desert. The moisture that rolls in off the water gets trapped by the San Gabriel mountains and that’s where the predictability ends. Those mountains, in their old age, have developed a bit of a temperament when it comes to weather. It’ll be warm and sunny at sea level, only to be completely socked in at elevation. As we’ve seen numerous times in the past, this makes for really interesting photographs as those of us who inhabit Southern California rarely get to witness weather patterns, usually native to North California.

A few weeks back, just about everyday the ANF was encased in a foreboding sky, with big, thick, black clouds looking like they were going to descend upon us all, delivering much-needed water. But they didn’t. They just sat there, keeping us from riding our bikes up to them for fear of being literally washed down the mountain, alongside chunks of decomposed granite. Been there, done that, it’s not fun. Just ask Sean and Hans!

However, Sean asked me to shoot Team Dream’s new kit which as we’ve seen is high vis yellow. I put logic aside, grabbed my camera and a model willing to brave the weather (hey, Californians don’t bide well in cold.)

On days like this, you end up with a lot of shots, but these 12 were my favorite, omitting the obvious product detail shots. Enjoy!

A few months back, Sean from Team Dream Team and Ringtail quickly realized he’d outgrown his home office in South Pasadena, prompting him to look for rental space in the neighborhood. Now, rent isn’t exactly cheap in South Pas. It’s a nice neighborhood with a lot of pedestrian traffic and that usually means high pricing. Well, that didn’t stop Sean. He already had a good idea of where to go…