The Radavist

Golden Saddle Rides: DIRT Research Cross Bike – R.I.P Tom Teesdale
Photos and words by Kyle Kelley

This bike is rare, probably one of the rarest bikes to ever grace Golden Saddle Cyclery. It’s owner is one of our favorite customers to work with(a true lover of vintage mountain bikes), because of him we build some of the coolest bikes on the planet and this one is no exception.

This is 1 of 3 DIRT Research cyclocross bikes, these three bikes were built by the late Tom Teesdale, and when this frame/fork was brought to us it was NOS.

The pictures tell the story of the build, so I don’t need to talk about that really. The bike is a very period correct, fire-road crushing machine. But what really matters, is who it was built by. Mr. Teesdale was the ghost writer for a whole generation of American made mountain bikes. Tom recently passed away while doing the thing he loved, riding bikes.

T.E.T you’ll be missed.

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Follow Kyle on Instagram and visit Golden Saddle Cyclery in Silverlake, Los Angeles.

At this point, my Geekhouse Mudville is about as worn out as I am. It’s traveled the world multiple times and each trip to Australia, the build is slightly different.

Looking back, had I known this bike had clearances for up to a 42c tire, I would have ditched the 33c world a long time ago. For big, big rides, those 40c Nanos are the way to go. Surly’s Knard 41c looks like a great option as well, but I’ve yet to try them.

Over the past few years, this bike has proven itself to me time and time again. While there are a few characteristics that make a cross bike less-than-ideal for big tough dirt rides, I’d say it’s an all around, solid tool for the job. Even doing ‘road rides’ on a 40c ain’t as bad as you’d think.

Looking forward, I’m not sure what kind of bike I’d like to use for ‘dirt riding’ and travel. A road geometry with a slighly-slacker head tube angle is best suited for descending steep, rutted and sketchy fire roads, but the clearances for a larger tire make any rocky surface just kinda disappear, even on singletrack.

I’d love to make a bike with a road BB drop, a slightly slacker heat tube and enough room for a 40c tire but for now, this bike is ripping! Out of all of my bikes, it’s seen the most action and it shows, especially after a long ride like the two day Bush Blast (day 1 and day 2).

After that ride, I have had these photos on my desktop and figured I’d share them.

Yonder Journal‘s Brovets have both broken me and proved to be an ideal testing ground for products. Long, 200-400k rides will take their toll on equipment, especially when there’s dirt involved.

Ty is part-owner of Golden Saddle Cyclery, a shop in Los Angeles that was the starting point for Yonder’s Brovet 01. Back then, Raleigh didn’t have any real all-road options, but promised something ideal was on the way.

In 2014, Raleigh released the Tamland 2.0, an all-Reynolds 631 steel, disc-equipped “all-road” bike that comes stock with Shimano Ultegra. These bikes offer a burly, yet lively ride, loaded or unloaded.

When the road gets rough for long miles, Ty opted for the Ergon CF3 Pro Carbon seatpost to dampen the ride a bit and Bruce Gordon Rock n Road tires.

For the past few Brovets, Ty, Cole, Kelli, Daniel, Hahn and Moi all rode the Tamland 2.0 with a front SON Edelux upgrade. I like photographing bikes like this, because they show how a super simple upgrade can add a new level of functionality to a stock bike.

The 2014 All City Championship Weekend: Bandit Cross
Words and photos by Chris Lee

This was part one of three among the events for this year’s All City Championships.

At 6:30 pm racers gathered at a place called Hobo Camp in west Minneapolis.

Jeff Frane from All-City and his race team, Fulton Racing put together a great course ranging from a little mud section, spiraling pedestrian ramps, rail road track barriers, single track leading into a pump track section and a gnarly climb up. I’m calling it a climb up instead of a run up because racers literally had to climb up a mountain of dirt every lap!

At the end, Bandit Cross favorites Fulton racing took a podium sweep in both gender categories.

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Follow Chris on Instagram and at his Flickr account.

There’s something magical about waking up to the call of the Magpie, in a dingy hotel room, with holes in the walls (wall paper peeling off) and to the stench of post-parma flatulence mixed with dirty bib shorts. Now, I know that was grotesque, but it’ll paint a vivid picture for ya.

Personally, I was stoked on our accommodations. For $30 Aussie notes, we slept like logs on a windless summer night. The sunrise looked good and best of all: it wasn’t raining. At all. Yet.

After scarfing down a “scroll” – Australian for cinnamon roll, two tangerines, a pie (meat pie), another pie (meat pie) and a breakfast croissant (ham and cheese), we were ready for mediocre coffee and yellow-tinted water for our bidons. The sun was still shining, so we went off, rain jackets strapped to our bags.

The winter in Victoria can be unforgiving. One minute, it’ll be sunny and the next, a monsoon. After losing a 5D Mkiii body to the Roobaix (R.I.P. baby), I was hesitant to shoot in the rain, so a sunny morning meant more photos and more photos means more “recovery stops.” Even, in the end, that means for hurterer legs. Bugga!

Our day would be packed with hardpack. Lots of climbing, up steep hills, over the range and back down into Healesville. On paper, it looked easy, on the legs, not so much. 65ish miles and 7,000′ of almost all dirt meant we were in for a long day and even longer descents. BRAPPPPP!

Thankfully, the morning light and afternoon landscapes kept my mind off the lactic acid fermentation forming in my quads… See for yourself in the Gallery!

A while back, I featured Andre, my new intern’s Stoemper Cross. Well, since then, he got in a wreck and folded the top tube in half. He was pretty bummed, as you might imagine, but luckily for him, a friend who used to work at Co-Motion had this magenta Lucifer frameset sitting in his garage since the 2005 Interbike when he bought it…