The Radavist

You have a little bit of everything in Los Angeles. Diversity, opportunity, creativity, it’s all at your fingertips. But there are two versions of this city: there’s Hollywood, and then there’s the multi-faceted, beautifully complex reality. Born and raised in LA, Ron Holden feels like he owes the city everything but at the same time, he’s always been missing something. Following the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, he offered his company the opportunity to make a meaningful change but got nowhere. So instead, he quit his job and founded a movement that allows its members to go anywhere. Ride for Black Lives organizes open-to-all group rides through town that spread the message of equality. It welcomes riders from all walks of life, it bridges the gap between communities, and it’s what keeps Ron riding each and every day.

If you’re in the greater Los Angeles area this weekend, head on over to the Cub House in San Marino. Our friends at Team Dream are having a sneak peek at their winter launch jerseys and other goodies, along with other festivities, and it looks like it’ll be a hoot!

Here’s the schedule of the weekend’s events:

Cub House opens early at 9:00 am on Saturday
-Pre-Order Jerseys in person
-See the new ‘Nopalitos Hecho en Mexico’ pop up shop by Prickley Pals
-Geaux Party working the grill starting at 12:00
-Toy Drive! Bring a new/unwrapped toy or sports equipment for Spark of Love toy drive!

Sunday Rides
-Danny’s 8 mile lazy Basket ride leaves promptly 9am. Be prepared to snack!
-Sean T’s gravel 40-mile dog loop. Leaves promptly at 9am. With 4,500 ft of climbing, be prepared to sweat!

Los Angeles Bicycle Academy (LABA) is an organization that believes the sport of cycling can change the trajectory of young peoples’ lives. Today we are launching a funding initiative with the goal of raising $300,000, in order to further develop our program to help underserved youth (ages 8-18) develop entrepreneurial and leadership skills that they can use for the rest of their lives. Check out the full initiative below!

The final episode of the Forgotten Roads series and Safa Brian and Alex Colorito are close to home but a long way from creature comforts. They ride from Lake Hughes to Lake Castaic just outside of Los Angeles with temperatures near 100º leading up to filming this. Luckily, a bit of cool weather blew in and the two cyclists headed out to take on the Old Ridge Route. The Old Ridge Road is a great look into the past and is one of the most historically significant construction projects in California’s history.

This week’s Readers’ Rides comes from Paul de Valera from Atomic Cycles, the organizer of the Coaster Brake Challenge. Paul had an idea for a Cruiser and finally executed it, resulting in a very unique bike. Check out more as Paul walks us through the design and fabrication below.

Los Angeles has no shortage of inspirational athletes. Skate legend Eric Koston and Justin Williams of L39ION of Los Angeles recently worked on this video for Specialized in Silverlake while talking bikes and sneakers…

Pat Cummins is a big sweetheart. The ex-MMA fighter is a lover of singlespeeds and mountains. I shot some photos for Outside Magazine of him a few years back on his rigid Niner. He usually rides his singlespeed exclusively but his recent acquisition has some extra gears. Read on below for some photos of this new build by the Cub House, with words by Danny from the Cub House.

What a cool project from Giro and Vernor!

“The bike world is undeniably insular. It’s always been divided into categories, but as we add more subcategories, riders become more confined to fitting into their neat little boxes of road, cyclocross, gravel, XC, enduro, downhill, freeride, BMX, street. Riders pick a box and stick with it, rarely acknowledging that the others exist.

Andrew Jackson is out to break down those barriers.”

Team Dream’s first drop since the pandemic hit is one that looks to raise money for LA Bicycle Academy to help fight systematic oppression for black cyclists. Their All Proceeds Product Launch bundle kit has sold out but they still have a pre-order live for these graphic t-shirts.

Team Dream will be donating a total of $27 from each T-shirt, $25 from each water bottle set and $62 from every bundle to support the work of the Los Angeles Bike Academy and The NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Head to the Team Dream Journal to read more about their mission statement and their shop to pre-order a t-shirt.

Hip hop icons don the newest capsule collection by Los Angeles based Endo Customs. These jerseys were designed by Alonso Tal from MORE Track Bike and feature icons of hip-hop. These jerseys come in a standard fitting Alameda silhoutte and a Ladera super tight race-fit. All jerseys are designed to pair with the iced-out Verdugo bibs. So head to Endo to see the full collection.

Justin and Cory Williams from Legion of Los Angeles give the new Tarmac SL7 a rip.

One of the best gravel rides in SoCal gets some light shed on it in this video from Gravel Bike California. Mount Lowe used to be a railway, bringing visitors up to the top of the mountain. The remnants of this railway are still evident today…

Rapha and artist Geoff McFetridge have long admired each other and this week, they made their admiration formal with an entire capsule collection, complete with socks, jerseys, base layers, musettes, and more, designed by Geoff himself. As a skater kid, I personally have admired Geoff’s ability to document culture through his ambiguous figures, and in recent years, his work has popped up everywhere. This collection looks fantastic and is in stock now at Rapha.

This bike is a real stunner and one that I was hoping to document before I left Los Angles for Santa Fe but never got around to it. It was one of those “I’ll document it the next time it’s in the shop” moments. Carson‘s Funk La Ruta+ is a real gem of a bike and the dude puts in work on it, maintaining trails for the Mount Wilson Bicycling Association. Let’s check it out with Carson’s own words describing this idiosyncratic steed…