The Radavist

2018 Philly Bike Expo: Sim Works Doppo Off Road Tourer
Photos by Jarrod Bunk, words by John Watson

At the Philly Bike Expo this year, Sim Works shared a booth space with Crust Bikes and Swift Industries. On display was this Doppo touring bike, set up for some lightweight off-road touring, thanks to the Swift Industries XPac Hinterland Ozette Randonneur Bag, Hinterland Zeitgeist Saddle Bag, and the Porcelain Rocket partial frame bag, made for Circles Japan. The Doppo is rolling on Thunder Burts, a White Industries R30 cranks, Chris King Hubs, Velocity rims, and Shimano drivetrain, with Sim Works Klampers. Shifting is provided by Gevenalle.

This bike is made from a healthy mix of US-made and Japan-made components, ready to tour all over the world!

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2018 Philly Bike Expo: Bishop Samson Lugged Road
Photos by Jarrod Bunk, words by John Watson

For Chris Bishop, his end products are often about the assemblage of pieces that are artistic elements on their own. Take for instance this classic, 32mm tire, OS road bike. He utilized a NOS Samson lug kit, complete with fastback seat stays, and an aero fork crown lug. Then, he pinged Mitch from MAP Cycles for his dropouts, which paired nicely with the lug set. All these pieces were assembled in a painstaking way to form this beautifully-lined road bike, designed to roll on 32mm tires with the direct mount EE Cycleworks brakes. The icing on the cake was Bryan Myers from Fresh Frame’s paint detailing over PPG Pearl white Prismatic.

The end result is unmistakenly Bishop, yet undeniably a combination of many talented artists’ handiwork.
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2017 Philly Bike Expo: 44 Bikes Titanium Marauder SSMTB
Photos by Jarrod Bunk, words by John Watson

Last year, we saw Kris from 44 Bikes‘ first super-boosted Ti Marauder SSMTB from our Philly Bike Expo coverage. This year, Kris brought a new Marauder to display, with some geometry tweaks, different components, and a slightly longer and slacker stance. The big difference this year is he used a super boost hub with a standard 73mm T47 bottom bracket mated with a custom 170mm i9 fatbike hub, built with a standard axle, wheras last year, he used a wider q-factor with a DH BB. Kris machined the bits needed to make this happen and the whole package results in a stiffer rear wheel.

Traditionally, single speed mountain bikes are heralded for their simplicity, yet this one has a lot going on!

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Wendy’s Silk Road Mountain Race Bike is Now a Badass Commuter
Photos and words by Morgan Taylor

Conversations began early this year around what eventually became the Kona Rove LTD you see here. For the past five or so years, our friend Wendy – an accomplished ultra runner in a former life – has applied her endurance racing experience to big solo bike rides. In that time she’s explored southern British Columbia, completed the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, ridden through much of the south-east US, and raced her first ultra bikepacking event, the 2017 Transcontinental.

This year Wendy set her sights on the inaugural Silk Road Mountain Race in Kyrgyzstan, and we began to talk about what kind of a bike she might want to ride. She wanted drop bars, she wanted discs, she wanted steel, and she wanted bigger tires than the traditional road bikes she’d ridden in the past. These conversations led to a bike based around wide 650b tires and Wendy got scheming on a build.

Grove Gathering: Grove Innovations Assault Team Bike
Photos and words by Jarrod Bunk

This assault was one of the first 10 assaults to roll out of production in Grove’s Pennsylvania factory and was ridden as a team race bike in the early 90s.  I can’t imagine if I were in attendance back then, my mind would’ve melted as a ten-year-old.  Just look at it! Fade, check, splatter, check, crackle, WHAT? This Grove has one of the wildest paint jobs I’ve seen on a bike. Sadly I’m told that this paint can’t be replicated because the chemicals don’t exist any longer.

Not only did Grove make frames, forks, stems, and handlebars, but perhaps the coolest of all of the Grove parts is the Hotrod cranks.  At the time square taper was everywhere, but Bill Grove and his team looked to military applications and came up with an asymmetrical polygon, very similar looking to the interface that E13 uses in their cranks today some 25 years later.  They thought if tanks used this design it should be strong enough for a bicycle application. These two-piece cranks used a row of four bearings (two per side) and some seals to keep the weather at bay. Aside from the cranks, this build features some pretty standard parts for a grove of the time, including the Hammerhead bar/stem, and some Shimano XT parts.

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Jack’s Ground Up Speed Shop Track Bike

Words and photos by Spencer Harding

At this year’s annual Fixed Gear Classic at the NSC velodrome near Minneapolis there was a whole field, literally, of the fastest, meanest, slickest bikes from all of our forgotten fixed gear dreams. Although, one truly shone out, like a beacon, and to say this bike sparkles is an understatement.  Jack Lindquist’s track bike is without comparison. 

Eric Baar of Ground Up Speed Shop is  known for his outlandish bikes combining multiple frame materials as well as exquisite pinstriping done by the man himself, and this bike does all his skills justice. After being introduced to Eric’s work by a fellow sprinter, Jack wound up crashing with Eric after a race in Colorado back in 2012. A few years later Jack was looking for a new bike and Eric was just the builder to call on for such a machine.  It needed to be the stiffest bike possible with geometry to give someone of Jack’s proportions a low position while sprinting.

The frame started out as a tandem tube set, with the massive 3-piece seat mast acting as the backbone of the bike. The top tube is made from rare Easton Rad tubing, possibly the only appropriate tubing for such a frame.  The custom CNC machined Ti dropouts are permanently bonded to the bmx chainstays with a second set of mini chainstays just to make sure no efficiency is lost.  In the end, there is over 25 feet of welding stitching the frame together.

The finish is a combination layers upon layers of 13 colors of large flakes over a dark red base which was then covered by enough clear coat for 4 tandem frames. With the multiple layers of metal flake the bike gives the illusion that you could almost reach into the clear coat and stir the flakes around.  The logos and racing number were hand painted in gold leaf and 1 shot by Eric. 

It is amazing to see this much fun being had with the finish of such a purpose-built racing machine.  While the mechanics of the frame are purely and seriously speed-focused, the finish is flamboyant and ostentatious. To quote Eric, the frame is, “part weight lifting equipment, part race car, part welding challenge, party crazy custom paint challenge, and part social experiment.”

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Grove Gathering: Grove Innovations Prototype Hardcore
Photos and words by Jarrod Bunk

Earlier this year, Martin from Second Spin and Justin from Freeze Thaw Cycles schemed about an event that would let them share their mutual love for Grove Innovations and get together some Grove owners for a ride and party or shred-n-show if you will, that event was the first Grove Innovations Gathering.

Grove Innovations might not be a household name if you live outside of Pennsylvania, but Bill Grove and his team were innovators that tried some new things that many others wouldn’t dare for the sake of creating a bombproof bike. The oversized  2″ 4130 downtube and straight blade fork made for an extremely precise steering bike with a stiff bottom bracket junction that allowed the pilot to put power into the ground and control it over all types of terrain.  The hardcore, at its inception, was an east coast bike if there ever were one, playful, rugged and capable of hucking off a loading dock as well as ripping over log-laden single track.  With a 13.5″ bottom bracket, and integrated bash guard that even protected all 44 teeth on the big ring, the hardcore could make short work of the rugged rocky terrain of which this bike was born. Most of the builds done on groves of this vintage ran durable parts in favor of early 90s anodized bling. Each frameset came with a set of Hammerhead bars as well, and bottle cages painted to match, albeit this proto isn’t running the latter.  Proof of the concept in durability is that this prototype is still being ridden nearly 30 years later.

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When I began working with the team at Firefly on my first disc brake road bike back in 2014, I wanted it to be perfect. The problem was at the time, the industry was very imperfect when it came to disc brakes on road bikes and all the accompanying standards. That was three or four years ago. Flat mount wasn’t on the table, many road forks used a 15mm thru-axle, and SRAM’s 1x XD driver had just switched to the road market after a successful introduction into the MTB market years prior. Trying to figure out the specs on this bike took a lot of back and forth for both me and Firefly. I wanted this bike to be perfect… this is, after all, a dream bike!

Since getting the Rad Rod in 2015, I’ve had this bike built up a number of different ways, traveled the globe with it, toured on it, and came to the conclusion that I truly do love it. So when Tyler emailed me, asking what I’d think about sending it back for a retrofit, I was intrigued.

His proposal was a rear-end retrofit, with a new Firefly thru-axle dropout but most importantly, a new 3D-printed titanium yoke that would allow for a large tire and the use of a 2x drivetrain. By this point, I’d ridden a number of other drop bar “all road” bikes, but really wanted a straight up “chubby road,” or a disc brake, 650b, 2x road bike.

Named after a trail. Well, THE trail that dances along the Little Grand Canyon in the San Rafael Swell, Utah, the Goodwater is a completely capable and versatile hardtail from the team at Breadwinner Cycles in Portland, Oregon. We’ve seen a review on this bike from Gabe Tiller and now here’s Ethan from Breadwinner’s own bike. A massive XL frame with a saddle height so high that I had to use the dropper to get a leg over it, I was impressed with how damn good it looks at a particularly large scale. As a big dude myself, it’s not often I shoot a bike this large!

Spending time at the Breadwinner Cafe was a real highlight of my trip to Portland and maybe next time I can pull Ethan out on a ride. The last ride I had with Tony and Ira resulted in some of my favorite Portland MTB photos…

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Without showing any favoritism, out of all the bikes at Grinduro, this bike made by W.H. Bradford Designs was one of the most unique and the only hardtail in the whole grouping, discounting the Southpark ‘rigid’ with the Lauf fork. When I first saw this bike, I was partially blinded by the fluoro front end on it. But then the brushed purple rear triangle and the little angry mountain – a symbol from Grinduro, angry Mount Hough – caught my eye, all carefully executed by Eric from Color Works Paint. It’s those little details that make bikes fun and that’s what Grinduro is all about right, fun?

With matching Yanco Bags, a SRAM MTB kit, Industry Nine wheels, and its mean and rowdy stance, I might not be showing favoritism, but I feel like I saved the best for last. What was your favorite bike from Grinduro this year? See them all in our search string.

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For the past few years, Chris King has opened their doors to the public as part of an entire weekend of events dubbed the Chris King Open House. This event’s intent is to be coordinated with a product launch of their new colors for the year, as well as to showcase what makes their operations tick, and to display a selection of custom bikes, built by some of their best builder customers.

the two new colors for this year: matte turqoise and matte mango.

This year, they sent out an open invite to 30 of their best builder accounts, offering up discounted pricing to them to build a bike for the show, passing on the discount to their customers. Out of those 30 builders, 17 showed up, and they were displayed alongside a Pegoretti bike, which we looked at on Friday. These bikes lined the halls of the Chris King factory, where visitors could look at their features in great detail, chat with the builders about their process, and if they were so inclined, purchase their dream bike.

I was invited up to the Open House to document these bikes for the builders and for Chris King, as well as offering up an ultimate dream bike gallery for you, the readers of this website. Please enjoy! Which bike do you like the best and why? Oh and if you’re interested in one of the bikes showcased here, be sure to reach out to the builders, who are linked in the bike descriptions below.

We’ve lost a lot of celebrities in the past few years but none shook me as much as the passing of Dario Pegoretti. The man was a legend. A true auteur. A builder that didn’t just weld bikes together, he created moving art. After the news settled of his death, I felt like I hadn’t paid my respects. That is until this bike rolled past me at Chris King the other day.

This weekend is the Chris King Open House, and to commemorate Pegoretti, Above Category shipped CKPC out this Love 3 aluminum road bike. Handmade and hand painted by the man himself. Aluminum you say? Yes! Dario made a small run of these bikes from Columbus’ XLR8 tubesets. He machined his own dropouts with replaceable hangers, used 30mm OS chainstays, a 31.6 seatpost for extra stiffness, and a threaded BB for worry-free rides. After his final fun of Love 3 frames, he continued his practice in steel.

Above Category built this bike up, as part of their permanent collection, so I had to show my respects to Pegoretti and give it some extra special love on the shop floor at Chris King, where the bottom bracket, headset, and hubs were machined.

Ride in Peace, Dario.

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Beyond Mountain Bikes with the Rocky Mountain Solo 70 – Morgan Taylor
Photos and words by Morgan Taylor

When you think Rocky Mountain, you think mountain bikes. That’s where their focus lies and for that reason you may not even be aware that they’ve made a handful of drop bar bikes over their nearly 40 years in business.

The Solo has been in the BC-based brand’s lineup a long time – as both a cyclocross and a road race platform – but this most recent iteration skews more toward fat tires, cargo carrying, and, well, slotting a bike into the current hot niche in the drop bar world. It’s a step that, in my opinion, aligns this bike more with the others in the current Rocky Mountain lineup.

Wow. Just wow. Robert from Blue Collar Bikes brought my favorite bike to the 2018 Grinduro Town Hall. Painted to match his iconic van, this Nigel 650G featured components from PAUL, 3T, WTB, White Industries, SRAM, and a Fabric saddle. There are so many NorCal brands on this bike, all within a short trip from Sacramento where Blue Collar is based.

There’s not much else to note about this bike, as it’s a prime example of a bike that tells its own story. My only regret was not taking this photo as well!

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Technology. Sometimes it gets a bad rep but when you consider the possibilities for makers, it can be a powerful tool to wield. Take Taylorsville’s Dana Fenimore and his brand Southpark. 10 years ago and he would have spent painstaking hours carving these lugs, or paying top dollar for a laser cutter to cut out these elaborate logos and designs. Now he just runs the lugs through a CNC machine and Voila! a work of art.

Dana’s handwork stopped the show at the 2018 Grinduro Town Hall, with curious enthusiasts querying how he was able to deliver such fine lugwork on this Lauf fork-equipped mountain bike. Did I mention that Dana built the CNC machine too? Yeah, he’s got some skills!

What do you think? Does the fact that a CNC machine made these lugs undermine the craft, or enhance it? Unfortunately, I cannot find Dana’s website or social media links, so if you have those, drop them in the comments.

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One bike that I was very stoked to see on display at this year’s Grinduro Town Hall was this beautiful aluminum Rock Lobster All Road. Built with SRAM Red eTap as a 1x, Zipp wheels, and a beautiful purple and green paint job, this bike grabbed the attention of many attendees of this equally fun as challenging event. Part of that has to do with the paint, which was laid down by Black Magic in Portland!

Sometimes simplicity is the name of the game and that’s one game Rock Lobster knows how to win! Check out Spokesman’s website or Instagram.

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Another super clean flat bar all-road, or “hybrid” bike on display at Grinduro was this steel Caletti Scrambler, painted in a beautiful silver, adorned with the California Grizzly geometric graphic, topped off with purple anodized bits. Bikes like this really make sense for an event like Grinduro, where the washboarded roads can provide a challenging grip for drop bars, which are prone to slipping. It might be a matter of preference, but flat bar ‘cross and all-road bikes really look mean!

If you’d like to know more about the Caletti Scrambler, check out our review from last year!

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