The Radavist

A while back, I posted about Ian Sutton of Icarus Frames trying to sell this prototype track machine here in Austin. Turns out, my buddy – and part time intern – Andre picked it up. Rather than go with a classy, wet coat, he got it painted dark black with a clear sparkle top coat. Something that neither Ian nor myself saw coming…

I’ll admit, both of us were apprehensive, but when I saw the bike in person, I knew exactly what Andre was going for and Circle A killed it!

Andre built the bike up with all Zipp components: seatpost, bars, bartape and stem. For wheels, he went PAUL track hubs to H+Son Archetypes and SRAM Omnium cranks. It’s a standard, classy build on a very unique frameset. Since he works at Mellow Johnny’s he had the mechanics dial everything in.

The Cervelo fork and its tight clearances are right at home with this frame, that barely squeezes in a 23c tire. It’s a mean steed with a bit of sassy sparkles.

Ride safe Andre!

During the Amgen Tour of California, I spent eight hours in Santa Barbara with Aaron Stinner. His framebuilding company, Stinner Frameworks has been on fire lately. From building the Mudfoot Elite cross bikes, to speaking at Mission Workshop and unveiling his newest model: the Fundero MTB.

Available in both 27.5 and 29’r these semi-custom frames are meant to take you to the trail and home again in (mostly) one piece, depending on how much you enjoy ripping. For this build, Aaron went with SRAM XO, Stan’s wheels, XT brakes and a White Brothers Loop 120mm fork but build kits are available in any group.

These frames are lightweight, come with a powdercoat, replaceable derailleur hanger and a tapered head tube. If you’re looking for a straight up, made in the USA shred sled, holler at Aaron!

After I shot photos of his workshop, I grabbed Aaron and his 29’r Fundero for a quick photoshoot at a trailhead down the block from his house… Next time, I need to actually shred this thing!

The Cinelli XCR embodies the ideologies representing the brand’s history of making performance steel racing bicycles. Much like the modern big brother to the Supercorsa, the XCR is made in Italy, individually, by hand.

It just so happens that every one of these frames is made to order. Custom if you will, because each frame is welded after an order is placed, which, to me, is pretty rad.

For people like Garrett Chow, the man responsible for many of MASH’s designs, the XCR was exactly what he was looking for after riding strictly carbon for years. He wanted some compliance with a livelier stride…

When the crew at Cinelli / Columbus offered to build him a bike, he gladly obliged and requested a white paint job with Mash insignia added in. Garrett spared no expense on the bike, building with with Campagnolo Record 11, 3T and Fulcrum Racing Lite XLR race wheels. Basically, everything on this bike is made in Italy, minus the Chris King headset and LOOK pedals.

I shoot a lot of nice bicycles, but this one made me nervous as we propped it up on the side of Diablo… See more in the Gallery and thanks to Garrett for thinking of me when it came to shooting this bike!

I’ve been looking forward to this stage since the first time Rapha North America and I discussed doing the Tour of California again. Why? Because Stage 05 ends in Santa Barbara, home to one of my favorite dudes / frame builders, Aaron of Stinner Frameworks.

Our plan was to get into town super early and hit a quick road ride before waiting at the KOM for the Hot Boyz of PRO Cycling to crest. Well, when you’ve been on the road for around a week, plans get shuffled around a bit.

We got to town late, like four hours late, but we quickly assessed the race via the ATOC app and figured we could hammer it up Old San Marcos road to the KOM in time.

Side note: I was over shooting frame builders in their studio, so it was nice getting Aaron out onto a bike. If only I could do this for every “shop visit”…

After literally hammering it up to the top, the breakaway group summited, then the peloton and eventually, the stragglers. The temps were up in the high 90’s and it was hot, hot, hot.

20 miles and 2800′ elevation later and we were ready to hit the road…

Read more in the captions!

Joshua Bryant is a frame builder out of Portland (who looks an lot like this dude Franco650b on Instagram). He specializes in road / touring / randonneur / dirt tourers and coincidentally builds out of the old Hufnagel studios off Burnside.

This frame in particular, dubbed the Fatrob, is a special bird. Built as part of a collaboration with Matt from Folly, it’s a 650b, tubeless, neon pink, SON-powered “get rad machine” – although I didn’t see Joshua get rad on it during this ride. We’ll have to follow up at a later date.

Why do I like this frame? How could you not? It’s pink and a playful mix of old and new school components. Oh and with the Plug, Joshua can keep his iPhone charged to get the ‘gram mid-ride…

I saw so many LOW track bikes at the first stage of the 2014 Amgen Tour of California – but only had time to shoot one: Benny’s. Looking at this bike, I could tell this dude takes riding and racing at least somewhat seriously. The setup was dialed.

Turns out, the owner, Benny, races for a BMW development team on the road and works at Mike’s Bikes in SF. He’s also a super nice dude, kinda like his bike, super nice…

Back in the early 2000’s, here in Austin, a guy named Whitney Moyer headed to a mecca of hopeful framebuilders in the US, UBI. Upon returning with all the experience needed to build frames, he was looking to commission a local project. This was that frame. Moyer’s first…