The Radavist

Being the brand manager for a company like All-City certainly has its perks. One of which being you get to cook up ideas for new bikes, ride said bikes and have your buddies Instagram and photograph these bikes. My job, although the later is already understood, was to make said bike plenty dirty for the photo shoot.

Since Jeff from All-City got into town for the Keep Cross Weird race, we’ve been riding everyday and aside from one MTB session, it’s all been on the local roads, trails and tracks here in Austin. Rocks, mud, river crossings, sand, limestone and more, the whole time Jeff was so stoked to be riding this bike. Why? Because it’s unlike anything All-City has cooked up before.

Hydraulic disc brakes, courtesy of SRAM, a disc Whisky parts fork, Reynolds 853 tubing and a mix of other spare parts Jeff had lying around, certainly put this bike in the well used category. When I asked if Jeff wanted to wait for his new cranks, seatpost and saddle to come in prior to shooting the bike, he replied “this is how I ride my bikes!”. Honesty that matters.

The All City 853 Macho King is a prototype and whether it goes to production or not, depends on the people’s demands. If you like this bike and want to see it go to production, holler at Jeff in the comments!

Check out more #lightbro shots in the Gallery!

Santa Cruz, I think I’m in love and while it may be an infatuation with the trails, the wood or just the people, every time I go there, my heart palpitates. On Wednesday, Vernor scooped me up and we headed south from SF, along the coastal roads. We met up with Garrett from Strawfoot and it was a pleasant surprise.

Strawfoot is one of those companies that I never would have known about if it weren’t for Vernor, so to finally see the operation and bags in person, solidified my expectations. More on that to come but for now, a little on Garrett’s new Hunter disc cross bike.

Bicycle camping in Santa Cruz is something I’ve yet to experience but with its endless amount of fire, frontage and park roads, any weekend can turn into some solitary time in the ‘wood. When Garrett approached Rick Hunter about a bike, Rick wanted to try something a little different.

Discs, a rather unique cable routing style and Sim Works by Nitto components are simply accents to Rick’s excellent craftsmanship and engineering prowess. Ok, I’m done sugar coating the work of Mr. Hunter. This bike rules. It’s going to look better with age, after chips and dings but right now, it’s so easy on the eyes…

I’m back in Austin, after a completely incredible weekend of filming and photographing Giro’s new clothing line, New Road. One of the things that made this photo shoot different than a lot of previous ones were the people involved. There was an ex 7-Eleven racer, a magazine editor, the co-founder of kickstarter, a bike shop owner, a race organizer, myself and a few Giro employees.

One of those employees was Eric Richter, a key figure in Giro‘s helmet and cycling shoe division. Eric’s responsible for many of the rad new products that Giro has been pushing over the years, as well as their involvement in various events like the Red Hook Crit. I’ve gotten to know him from chatting at Interbike and other events but I really enjoyed getting to spend some saddle time with him on his new Black Cat disk road bike in the hills of NorCal.

Columbus MAX doesn’t make this the lightest bike ever but the bent stays, disc brakes, Dura Ace and Easton parts set this bike apart from any other MAX road bike I’ve seen. When Eric pulled this beauty out of his car, I had no idea what to even say. I was stunned. See for yourself below!