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Dispatch From the Badlands – Carmen Aiken

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Dispatch From the Badlands – Carmen Aiken

Dispatch From the Badlands
Photos and words by Carmen Aiken

On the dotted line to Sheep Mountain Table, I suddenly brake. Something tilts in my nervous system, tugs. The summer’s off-pavement riding has me forgetting the sweetness of an emptiness’s quiet when your contraption and all the nonsense it carries is, for a moment, still. What do you matter? The rocks rest as they wont to do, I suppose, the world ticks to its own endless motion, even as it’s stupidly being timed and quantified on devices it doesn’t give a shit about.

Sarah’s Madrean Pinion Gearbox S&S Dirt Tourer

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Sarah’s Madrean Pinion Gearbox S&S Dirt Tourer

Last week, we took a look inside the shop of Madrean Fabrication and Hubert’s own dirt tourer. Now we get an up close and personal look at Sarah’s Pinion gearbox, S&S coupler dirt tourer.

Both Sarah’s and Hubert’s Madrean have very similar details in terms of construction and stance. They’re both designed to be a multi-day bikepacking machine, where the only limit in terms of trip time is the rider’s schedule. For Sarah, she spends a lot of her year bikepacking or touring all over the world, so having a stout and reliable bike is of the utmost importance, hence the Pinion Gearbox.

QBP’s  2019 Women’s Bike Mechanic Scholarship Recipients

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QBP’s 2019 Women’s Bike Mechanic Scholarship Recipients

This year, Quality Bicycle Products has announced their winners of the Women’s Bike Mechanic Scholarship. There are 32 scholarship recipients who will attend a two-week Professional Repair and Shop Operations in Ashland, Oregon’s United Bicycle Institute. This is made possible by SRAM, Park Tool, UBI, DT Swiss, Problem Solvers, SPANK, MAXXIS, DERO Bike Racks, and WTB. Check out the press-release below!

Sarah Swallow’s Sick Flatbar 27.5 Sequoia

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Sarah Swallow’s Sick Flatbar 27.5 Sequoia

The general rule of thumb is if you build it, people will cram the biggest tire possible into it. I wish we lived in a world where tire clearances were maxed out with drivetrain efficiency in mind, but it’s not always the case. However, when it is the case, you end up with a very capable bike. So yeah, if you build it… with ‘it’ being the Specialized Sequoia. While people have certainly put mountain bike tires on this bike before, I don’t think I’ve seen anyone fit as big of a tire as Sarah Swallow did with the Ground Control 2.1″. This bike is her recon bike for her 125 mile race next month, the Ruta de Jefe, in Elgin, Arizona. While there is no singletrack per se on the course, the roads can get rowdy, where a wide bar and fat tire will soften the blow from the washboard and ruts.

It’s built with a Rogue Panda framebag, SRAM Force 1, PAUL Klampers, a Revelate Feed Bag, one of those WTF Bikexplorer bidons, and a set of those S-Works Overendz Bar Ends.

Some might call it a hybrid, or just a rigid MTB, so that nomenclature is welcome, but bottom line is, I doubt anyone foresaw a build like this arising from the Sequoia platform!

Also, as a personal note, happy birthday Sarah!
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Follow Sarah on Instagram.

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Just Like Flying

Hope takes us for a ride with Gavin Stanton (11 years old) and Brooke Anderson (12 years old), from Portland, Oregon as they shred their local trails.

Happy Holidays From the Radavist

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Happy Holidays From the Radavist

From everyone here at the Radavist, we’d like to wish you Happy Holidays. We’ve had an insane year with tons of excellent content and early next year, we’ll be launching a new website design! Stay tuned as we continue to share stories and Beautiful Bicycles throughout the New Year, with our Year in Review and the Top Beautiful Bicycles dropping next week.

Thanks to each and every one of you for visiting the site and following along!

A note for those shopping in our webshop, we will pause shipping orders on Friday, December 21st and resume on January 4th. Thank you!

The Devil in a Dress; L’Eroica Celebrates Alfonsina Strada – Tenzin Namdol

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The Devil in a Dress; L’Eroica Celebrates Alfonsina Strada – Tenzin Namdol

The Devil in a Dress; L’Eroica Celebrates Alfonsina Strada
Words and photos by Tenzin Namdol

“The act of remembering is about the future, not the past.” -Dr. Tashi Rabgey

There was a poster on the door of the Jolly Bar in downtown Gaiole In Chianti advertising a one woman play about and dedicated to Alfonsina Strada, the only woman to have competed in the Giro d’Italia way back in 1924. She was called “The Devil in Dress” by the press who sensationalized the story of a woman riding the Giro against pro racers of the time who were very well known and very male. Strada is no doubt a darling of the Italian vintage cycling social scene but completely unbeknownst to me. The play was one of the many official events organized for the L’Eroica weekend of ogling at relics that function as baseline vision for countless daydreams of bike builds, some looking much like the bike Strada rode for the Giro.

Mountain Flyer’s Latest Cover is Amazing

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Mountain Flyer’s Latest Cover is Amazing


Cover photo by Matthew Roebke

2018 has been a whirlwind of a year, but in that chaos rose an awareness for WTF and POC in the cycling industry. With an increased traction and momentum, brands and magazines are finally filling their pages and covers with more than your standard white dude. Case in point is Mountain Flyer’s new cover.

Head to Mountain Flyer to see more!

We’ve Added Some New Products to the Web Shop

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We’ve Added Some New Products to the Web Shop

We’ve been wanting to do a MTB jersey for a while but couldn’t find one that we liked in terms of the cut or material. Then we found Voler, or rather Voler found us. Using our Disruptive Coloration patterns, we made these dirt jerseys for men and women from our green or black pattern. They’re quick drying and wicking. The best part about this material is it’ll keep the sun off your arms in the summer and it’s lightweight enough to wear even in warmer months. The fit is less boxy, less baggy, more streamlined and less likely to flap in the wind or get snagged in your pack. If you like your jerseys bigger and baggier, we suggest ordering a size up. Note: getting our ENDO jerseys to match the Voler jerseys and vice versa was hard, while the tones are the same, the Voler jerseys came out a little lighter… They’re $75, with men’s and women’s sizes in each color, and in stock now.

We also re-upped some sizes in the Long Sleeve Winter Tee, added some Point Socks, sticker packs, and RUNE Stem Caps.

Head to our web shop to pick one up!

Leave it on the Road’s Desert Bear: a Ride from Joshua Tree to LA

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Leave it on the Road’s Desert Bear: a Ride from Joshua Tree to LA

Leave it on the Road’s Desert Bear: a Ride from Joshua Tree to LA

Words by Crystal Haggard and Bianca Pettinicchi, photos by Jordan Clark Haggard

On Saturday, November 10th, seven women embarked on an epic desert journey to help fund cutting edge cancer cell and gene therapy research. They navigated the arid landscape from Joshua Tree to Los Angeles, following a route, and more importantly, their hearts. A ride to remember, with a noble goal – help raise $100,000 to fund cancer cell gene therapy.

Love Letter to a Velodrome – Brenda Croell

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Love Letter to a Velodrome – Brenda Croell

Love Letter to a Velodrome

Words and photos (black and white) by Brenda Croell,  Introduction and photos (color) by Spencer Harding

I had heard much lore about the NSC velodrome over the years leading up to me spending last summer in Minneapolis.  It is truly a spectacle in physicality and community alike. Until you have taken a lap on those old boards you don’t truly understand what it takes to drop into those turns every Thursday night.  After just a few months in this community, I was brought to tears as we left the velodrome to move to Arizona, Brenda and I literally drove our fully packed truck to the velodrome for one last night of racing. I lack the words to describe my sorrow imagining how everyone in this community will feel when this place is torn down next summer.

We met on a cold Saturday in April. Winter had worn on you, rotted your core. My job, along with other volunteers, was to strengthen your weak points; a job you would reciprocate months later. You creaked and moaned as we pulled up your boards to expose your insides. Afzalia had become endangered and so we patched you with lesser wood. Rotten next to the new, but “well-loved” was the word I chose to use when talking about you to friends and family.

Summer meant I spent every Thursday I could spare with you. My body leading up to that day reacted as it does before a first date: sleepless nights, unbridled giddiness, overthinking, and trying on my skinsuit countless times. Instead of butterflies in my stomach, my lower region decided to nervously poop for 24 hours leading up to our meeting. Was this love?

Once a week for three months, my weaknesses were unapologetically put on display. Dark truths of my life that I had done well to ignore were spoken so clearly from an inanimate and seemingly voiceless object. “Eat more. Or you will not be able to ride.” And so I ate because being away from you meant my body would wither. “Leave him and be free.” And so I left because the three hours I spent with you were more joyful than the past three years of my life. I always thought it was a cliche when I overheard folks saying bicycles changed their life. But there I was, truly living on two wheels without brakes and without fear, speaking a sentence over and over that had never felt comfortable coming from my mouth: “I am strong.” What was supposed to be a casual hobby quickly turned into therapy while my competition soon became family.

Unfortunately, your time is coming to an end. And I can’t save you the way you have saved me and countless others. The space you occupied, which was dedicated to bikes and their humans, will ironically become a place for cars to park. Your soft green grass once littered with grandma quilts that were occupied by sweaty bodies of exhaustion and elation will turn to hard concrete. Silence will replace the sounds of rumbling boards, cheers from dedicated fans, and ridiculous infield dance parties. The bright lights will go dark and no longer illuminate faces of determination and defeat. We’ve seen this finale before. Dorais. Olympic. Stone Mountain. Fallowfield. Meadowbank. Dieppe. Your name will be added to the long list on a Wikipedia page titled “Velodromes No Longer in Use,” followed by a short description that does your story no justice.

I started this relationship knowing there was an expiration date, and that awareness has not softened the heartbreak. I refuse to accept that the only narrative told of you will be two sentences, one of them including the word “demolished.” You deserve better than that because you are magic incarnate. Each board possessing the ability to not just call out my fragileness, but also my strengths. The pieces of you that will stay with myself and others, outside of the literal splinters under our skin, are in the form of lifelong friends and a passion to preserve the freedom and power we all felt pedaling in circles at the NSC Velodrome.

The NSC Velodrome in Blaine, Minnesota is being torn down after the 2019 season. It has hosted countless Thursday Night Light competitions, Fixed Gear Classic, Track Cycling Championships, and Olympic Trials. One of the largest WTF fields in the country called the boards home, and numerous racers from around the country were able to experience riding what can only be described as a wooden roller coaster. The track community in Minneapolis is currently working hard to contact legislators to find a location and funding for an indoor cycling center that will not only benefit athletes but the community as well through youth job training programs and a variety of learn-to-ride cycling classes for children and adults.   

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Follow Brenda on Instagram and follow Spencer on Instagram