The Radavist

Over the past few years, the crew at Geekhouse Bikes have slowly grown apart from their brightly-colored, low-pro, bent seat tube, triple triangle track bikes that they became so well known for. This slow and steady move towards class, with a bit of sass has culminated in their 2013 NAHBS offerings in Denver. New this year are the Brentwood Porteur and Hopedale Light Tourer. Both bikes would make ideal vehicles for a weekend camping trip, or around town jaunts. These models will be available in conjunction with Geekhouses’ already established models. Let me just say the brightly-colored Mudville singlespeed disk cross looks so dialed. Even the Adria Klora-designed graphics are top notch. Well done guys!

Check out some more photos, by the lovely Heather McGrath in the gallery!

“Yeah, I’ve got a route planned, but we might dip off and take this one trail”. No matter how organized you try to make a friendly, chill ride, sometimes the best thing you can do is take that trail. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes you end up walking a hobo path over a twelve foot drop onto limestone but more often than not, you can make due.

Most of the trails here in Austin are very cross-bike friendly. Some are not, but we avoid those for the most part. People say, “get a MTB”, but they’re also the ones driving their cars to do a piece of 5 mile singletrack. You don’t want to ride a MTB out 15 miles on the road, then up a 18% sealed climb before you bomb down a scenic descent. But a cross bike…

When Kyle was in town, I pulled together a little ride with some friends. We spent about 40% of the time on sealed road and 50% on gravel, singletrack or dirt. That missing 10% was on this one “oh shit” hiking trail we poached on a piece of government land. We made it out alive, save for Chris flipping over his bars and one flat tire. John even rode a stock Nature Boy up some very steep faces. It was impressive.

Beers were had and stories were made. Bottom line is, we had a fucking blast and all lived to tell the tale / Instagram it but no Strava for this route. I wanna keep some of it a secret. We ended up doing +/- 40 miles and about 3,500′.

If you follow @thevanillaworkshop on Instagram, chances are you’ve already seen this project unfolding. Over the years, Speedvagen has been working with ENVE on their Integrated Cross Stem. This stem’s unique integrated front brake routing replaces the traditional cable hanger and the associated flex, weight, chatter and unsightly lines that come with it. Personally, I kinda liked my Funky Monkey but I’ll go with the Speedvagen mantra on this one: “Take away everything that isn’t essential and refine what’s left”.

I just installed the CX Worlds 2013 Commemorative stem on my already dialed Geekhouse Mudville and it instantly feels more patriotic. Unfortunately, I won’t be attending the CX Worlds but at least I can ride the shit out of this stem. Although, I will be missing the bourbon!

Pick up one of the CX Worlds 2013 Commemorative Speedvagen Integrated Cross stems here and the standard Integrated Cross Stem here.

Check out the technical info below and more shots in the Gallery.

While I try to ride everyday, it’s usually impossible. Believe it or not, it’s a lot of work to run this site but that’s why I’ve gotten in the habit of looking at riding as “coffee rides”. I usually kit up, hop on the cross bike and kick around on the local trails and roads, inevitably ending up at the best coffee bar in town, Frank for an Americano. The rides are never more than 20 miles or so and take about an hour and a half. Something even the busiest blogger can find time for.

When Kyle came to town last week (I already miss that little shit!), I took him on a coffee ride. We cross’d town and had a freaking blast, stopping at every jib spot we could find along the way until we got to the Hill of Life and the Greenbelt. Once there, we encountered a few falls, some sketchy, techy lines and a helmet-stealing dog. It was a lot of fun.

In Kyle’s quest to ride American-made bicycles, he came across the late Santa Cruz Stigmata. The frame was very affordable, so he bought one and rode the shit out of it. A few months later, he ended up breaking it (went off a trail, nose-first), but was lucky enough to have Santa Cruz replace it with a new frame.

This bike is everything a race bike should be, it’s light, great components where they count and looks damn nice. His #Jahblessed Chris King headset and vintage Salsa Skewers are great accents and as always, he’s got a super rare Ramblin Roll carrying the essentials.

Since Kyle only races SSCX this became his travel bike. We both agree that a cross bike is the ideal bike to travel with, for various reasons and the Stigmata was a very affordable, made in the USA option. Unfortunately, these frames were eventually discontinued, as production moved entirely overseas.

On his last day here in Austin, I shot some photos of it at his favorite bar in town, the Yellow Jacket Social Club.