The Radavist

Longtime readers of this website will know Tom La Marche, primarily due to his fame during the popularity of fixed gear riding in the early 2000s. More recently, Tom has pursued his love of framebuilding under the banner of La Marche Bicycle Co part-time while working as a stunt man for various Hollywood movies and TV shows. For the past few years, he’s been working on getting his workshop dialed in and making bikes for a select clientele. While in town for the Philly Bike Expo last year, I caught up with Tom at his new shop space and photographed his personal Town & Country gravel bike. Let’s take a look below!

Here in the Quaker City of Philadelphia, we’re blessed with a number of reliable shops in just about every corner of town. Shops for very serious racers, shops for mountain bikers, shops just for anyone in the neighborhood in need of help getting around on two wheels. We’ve got ‘em all and plenty of ‘em. Keystone is one of Philly’s newest shops catering to all kinds of bikes with an emphasis on everything rando, touring, and bikepacking.

Racin’ Bikes in a Junkyard: the Bilenky Junkyard Cross Race
Photos and interview by Chris Lee

For many of the cyclocross racers in the Northeast, December means its finally time to hang up the ‘cross bike and start putting down base miles for road season. Another group however gets geared up for what they consider the most fun on a bike they’ll have all year. Yes, its time for the infamous Bilenky Junkyard Cross race.

Year after year, one race promises a good time and delivers. The SSCXWC is often riddled with controversy and inclement weather, luckily this year, the latter only applied. After a successful qualifier at the Bilenky Junkyard Cross course, the racers took to the main event at another location. This year’s course was part taped, part off-road through hobo trails and singletrack. To top it off, it started snowing at the onset of the chaos. Out came the kegs, the grills and the party hats. When the dust settled, two champions reigned supreme, Adam Craig and Vicki Barclay. That’s two in a row for Craig…

Chris King’s Dylan VanWeelden is quite handy with his camera. From shooting for the Chris King blog and various products, to covering events, Dylan has his lens tuned into the Buzz. Check out a selection of his photos in the Gallery!

Year after year, Bilenky‘s Junkyard Cross brings in a varying crowd of cyclists from the party-racers to the pros. This year however, Steve and the gang played their cards a little differently, embracing the SSCXWC in Philly and throwing Junkyard Cross as the qualifier for the main event. Things got weird for sure…

Photographer Chris Lee was on the scene with his 35mm SLR and DSLR to catch all the action. Check out some selects in the Gallery!

I’ve been spending the past few days going through my “Year in Review” content and I stumbled upon these photos from the 2012 Philly Bike Expo that never made it up on the site. If you’ve spent any amount of time in Philly on your bike, chances are you’ve seen this bike zipping around town. Jorge’s Bilenky track has seen plenty of street time in its day. Prior to Jorge owning it, this green machine was owned by Roland at REload. Made by Bilenky in Philly, complete with S&S couplers, this is the ideal travel bike. I even hear there’s an S&S REload bag to match. More people need to make S&S bags!

Two years ago, I rode with a small group of friends from Brooklyn to Philly. Well, technically from Brooklyn to the WTC PATH station, then took the train to Newark and rode from there to Philly. Rather than riding along the shoulder of busy highways and biways, we took the gravel path along the Delaware & Raritan Canal State Park. It was shorter than the last time we did it (previously totaling 120 miles) but that’s because the route was dialed. This year’s ride came in around 100 miles and barely breaking 1,700′ of climbing. Nothing to brag about but for someone like me, who hasn’t experienced an actual Fall in a few years, it was a lovely ride.

Shot with my Yashica T4 and cheap Kodak film. Check out more photos in the gallery.