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May 9, 2020:
“Also, if you’re interested, riding from Mammoth to Tahoe and back in June…”
This non sequitur caught me off guard. It was also exactly what I’ve wanted to hear for a while. I have long admired the big days my buddy Connor puts in the mountains. Slipped in the middle of casual conversation (mostly about bikes) between two friends, was the invitation to join in on one of his epic adventures. An invitation to partake in the fun, madness, joy, suffering, and glory.
On June 9, 2019, the second annual Hunt of the North tested more than a rider’s speed. Not a race in the traditional sense, this gravel event pushed participants onto terrain that had no boundaries or course markings to rely on. Left only with their orienteering skills and proficiency on dirt, riders became Hunteurs as they searched for five pieces of uniquely colored gravel throughout the North…
As the only media outlet to cover every single Grinduro California race, I’d say it’s safe to say we’re the official Grinduro coverage website! The proof is in the pudding. With that said, we’re stoked to announce that the 2020 registration for the Mt. Shasta event on September 12th is open tonight at 7pm PDT, with 210 registration spots saved for FTW (femme, trans, women) riders. We can’t wait to provide our exceptional coverage this year, yet again! Especially with this recent announcement. Read the entire press release below…
Sometimes the most gratifying journeys aren’t a product of being perfectly prepared; rather, they occur when you’re in the shit, working with the wrong tool for the job, and in spite of overwhelming odds, you scrape by. That’s precisely what took place this summer on a supremely challenging bike trip across the great Golden State.
One of the ways we keep the lights on over here at the Radavist is I try to pick up as much commercial photography work as possible. A lot of which I won’t post here on the site but every so often, I get complete creative control and those shoots are always special to me. I will say when I do post the work here on the website you can rest assured I am not being paid to do so. I’m simply sharing because I’m really stoked on how these photos came out and this is a cycling website, right? This particular shoot covers a zone we haven’t shared much here on the Radavist, so everyone should get out and ride these trails if they have the chance! With that said, check out this Behind the Lens series featuring Giro’s new Manifest helmet in Simi Valley with Kathy Pruitt and Chris Akrigg…
It feels very doom and gloomy these days and with good reason. All we can do is look forward and do our part to ensure this pandemic ends swiftly. With the spring and early summer calender events postponed or cancelled all together, Grinduro California is crossing its fingers that we’ll be back to status quo come September 12th. As such, they announced the official registration time to be Tuesday, May 12th at 7pm PST. That’s all you need to know at the moment, but we’ve attached the press-release below!
Register at Grinduro California on May 12th and let’s all cross our fingers!
From the shadow of mount Tam to the coastal plains of Santa Barbara exists a quilt of broken earth. An underlying structure of torn apart geology transported hundreds of miles from where it was originally emplaced. A Mediterranean climate of warm summers and cool wet winters that becomes progressively drier towards the equator. A diverse floral assemblage stemming from the eroded remains of rocks past and present harboring condors, salmon and mountain lions. From North America’s largest estuary reflecting pastel sunrise to the sandstone peaks of the east/west transverse ranges gleaming pink and orange as the sun sets over the pacific.
He thought there would be a limit and that would stop him. He depended on that.
“An Atlas of the Difficult World – VIII” – Adrienne Rich
Before I left:
A month before I left, a bus hit me on the sidewalk as I avoided² the dangers of an indifferent suburb riding to the job I did as pittance-paid worker on a bike industry profit trawler. The night before I left, I couldn’t get the tire off, sobbed, exhausted. Six days before I left, I stopped having fun at a race and decided to bail, tired, beer softened, slowed wrong, ate gravel, wrist sprained. Before I left I destroyed my shell in the wash. Before I left I shook nothing down. I wasn’t ready but it didn’t matter. I had to go. How would I keep on otherwise?
Some of us are hoping for limits. There are reasons for that.
This just in from our friends at the Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship:
Sierra Nevada Conservancy awards $360,525 planning grant linking 15 communities by trail
To fulfill the Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship (SBTS) mission of building sustainable, recreation-based communities, Connected Communities will change the economic future of Sierra, Plumas, Lassen and Butte County forever. Linking 15 California mountain communities across four economically disadvantaged counties by approximately 300 miles of new motorized and non-motorized trails, the Lost Sierra Master Trails Plan and Connected Communities project will be a historic collaboration between federal land managers, regional government, local businesses and concerned citizens.
The Salton Sea first appeared to me back in 2016, a couple of days into the Stagecoach 400 bike packing trip with the Borrachos. It appeared to me then as it appeared on this passage, an out of place body of water in the desert landscape, planar and mirage inducing. It could have been the heat exhaustion the first time I saw it, but the sea seemed to bend the horizon. We only saw it in the distance at that time, as our Stagecoach route took us up and away into Anza Borrego. This time around though, we’d pedal straight for it.
Welcome to the beautiful dark twisted world of Paul de Valera and Atomic Cycles‘ Coaster Brake Challenge! A race I have known about for over a decade, a race that my mentor JimC would race religiously, but for some reason, I never made the time to attend. I always made up some kind of excuse, usually, it was about the bike, which is bullshit. Paul and Atomic Cycles have plenty of loaners, and as you can already tell from the title of this story, these bikes are simple, cheap, and easy to build.
The Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship knows how to throw races. There’s a reason we cover each and every one, year after year! The proof is in the puddin’. Every year, 1000+ racers show up for Lost & Found, even more for the Downieville Classic and with Grinduro leaving Quincy, the SBTS decided to up the ante and continue throwing a weekend event of racing and partying, dubbed Mountains to Meadows. The location is too good to not pick up where Grinduro left off. Mark your calendars for September 24-27, 2020 and read on below.
Today we get an in-depth review of John’s titanium Sklar Bikes PBJ touring bike after its maiden tour in the Long Valley Caldera…
Years ago when I first met Trevor, he came to a photography show I was showing at and without much on an introduction related to me a story of how stoked he was to be a counselor at a camp for kids learning to ride mountain bikes. Ever since then I’ve always wanted to check out what he was jabbering about way back when. Bikes, cool. Kids on bikes, even cooler. Kids on bikes learning how to explore on bikes and have water fights, the coolest…
Cooper and Pius decided to quit their jobs and spend the foreseeable future traveling from Seattle to Mexico by bike, with their surfboards in tow. They’re riding, surfing, and cleaning up the beaches along the way… More videos like this, Light and Motion!
Robin Sansom, Brian Vernor, Jeremy Dunn, and Barry Wicks worked on a project for Bike Mag, covering the aftermath of the fires California endured and what those blazes did to many NorCal trails.
Head to Bike Mag to read the full piece, Burned Lines, to gain a better insight into how these communities are bouncing back after a summer of blazes.
Crossing the high desert from Nevada’s Sand Mountain, across to the Sierra and Alabama Hills, through the basin, and over to the coast, Canyon hits some of the lesser-known trails in their new video.
I don’t know what to title it. But the bike is really fun, so this is worth the read. I like to think that the writing is also fun, making it double worth the read.
The bottom line at the top: The new Juliana Joplin ups the “raucous trail ability” of its predecessor a few ticks with the new build: feeling right at home pointing down chunky and steep serpentine terrain, while somehow maintaining that xc pedal-ability we sometimes care about. While the positioning of the historic Juliana Joplin, which launched with the brand in 2013, pointed towards super-capable cross country, this bike and its lineage have always pushed the boundaries of the technical ability of a bike that can still pedal fast.
