The Radavist

Pretty in Grimy Pink Stinner Roadie
Photos by Kyle Kelley, words by John Watson

Ride Jah Bike!

Custom frames aren’t to be babied, or coddled, no matter how pretty they may be. Pink bikes especially. Now, the common misconception about pink bikes is that they don’t get thrashed; they’re too delicate. Like a flower. Or an orchid. Or a rare flower orchid that only blooms once every 20 years like that one in Dennis the Menace. Andrew, (@Moon_Raccoon) doesn’t care about babying anything. He bought a custom road bike from Aaron Stinner because when the rowdiness is happening, he wants it to fit like a glove.

Built with the usual suspects round these parts: a casual mix of SRAM, Thomson, King, Brooks and some nice, hand built wheels. While you might think this bike is a fashion statement, I can assure you this one is all about thrashin.

Less fashion, more thrashin.

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Follow Kyle on Instagram and Andrew on Instagram.

Ok, mayyybe not forever, but at least a couple of generations.

Not everyone has the budget for a titanium road bike and not every titanium road bike needs to have thru-axles, discs, a 44mm headtube, internal Di2 wiring and other, what many would consider, modern essentials. For Zach, he desired the durability, liveliness and overall feel of titanium to tackle the climbs found in the hills and mountains of Los Angeles.

Originally, this bike had a garish paint job, with a LOOK fork and a mix of components, which Zach slowly replaced over time before stripping the paint to the frame’s bare metal. After ditching the fork, he swapped in a Chris King Ti headset and a Wound Up, one of the better riding 1 1/8″ carbon forks on the market.

This bike is a total sleeper. It’s got a little bit of flash where it matters and for a production bike from Litespeed, has a great deal of frame details including that seat tube cutout.

Titanium road bikes are beautiful, but Zach’s has a story and a process as evident in the final product.

The dog days of summer have landed in Los Angeles. After a completely amazing time in SF, I hopped on a plane and found myself in LA with an agenda unlike anything before: find a place to live and hopefully, an office to work out of. The stars aligned and my dirt sacrifices to the Necronomicog paid off. For the most part anyway. A new home base, somewhere to explore roads and uncover new experiences, or just spend time on the roads and trails with friends, old and new.

Los Angeles will be my new home town and this past trip was stunning on many levels. While this is by no means a story, it is a paraphrased visual showcase to just some of the rides we went on, many of which I’ll expand upon relocation to the west coast.

Coincidentally, because I can’t ever seem to leave for a ride without a camera, I managed to pull together some random photos, which make for a perfect distraction on a Friday afternoon.

Enjoy…

Jordan Hufnagel took a short sabbatical from bicycle frame building to take on his transcontinental motorcycle trip with West America partner James Crowe. Before taking off on the road, or dirt rather, he produced a run of porteur bikes. These bikes may look similar, clad in their matte black with gumwall 650b tires, but each one was specially tailored to his client’s needs and potential uses. Hufnagel has an aesthetic he likes to hit, ever-so precisely.

As I was flipping through Instagram, I noticed an newly-built olive-drab disc bike on Jordan’s Instagram. No less than a few minutes later, in rolls Jason with his Hufnagel.

Jason snagged one up as soon as he saw the pre-order go live and to be completely honest, it’s my favorite one I’ve seen. Having shot a few for the Radavist already, I was impressed with the detailing that went into Jason’s build: clean lines, custom fender brackets, custom racks, custom stem, matte black paint, clean generator routing and that awesome pannier…

See for yourself in the Gallery!

The Official Get Sick Day Worldwide Recap
Photos from a whole lotta folks and words by Sean Talkington

Think about what we use our personal or sick days for? Dumb stuff. Staying home sick (or if you have kids you stay home when they get sick), going to the doctor, going to the DMV, jury duty, visiting in-laws, funerals, etc. Question: What do all of these things have in common? The Answer: None of them are fun. Sure, you can schedule your vacation time around whatever events you want but what if you really just want or need a single day to get your head right? Can you just tell your boss “I think I am going to skip tomorrow and ride my bike locally all day with some buddies. Might do a little swimming too. Fuck it. Maybe even grab tacos after and watch the sunset.” Some of you have awesome bosses but the majority of us are afraid to take a day off for ourselves…