“Karelia was a convenient location for both friends to get to from their cities. Andrey and Alexander decided to start from there and then go wherever they would be able to — say, Vottovaara mountain, the highest spot of the west Karelia hills. It is said to be of a spiritual, somehow magical value, and different shamans or television people tend to come there a lot. They pray, dance, hug each other and seem to have a great time. But for the guys the definition of a great time is different — they were planning to get an unforgettable travelling experience and take a look at the wonderful Karelian nature in winter. And that was quite a challenge!”

Woah…

The post Cycling Karelia appeared first on The Radavist.

The Geekhouse Woodville is the Boston-based framebuilding outfit’s touring model. Designed for long-hauls on the road or even around-town commuting, these frames are guaranteed to see their share of miles. This pair in particular was built for Bryn and Katie in Colorado, who have been more than psyched on their new bikes.

I’ve had some of my favorite moments on a bicycle on mine and still to this day find myself tweaking little details. More on that to come next week. For now, here are a few unique specimens, documented by Heather McGrath. Check out more photos below and read up at the Geekhouse website!

The post Two Hot New Geekhouse Woodville Touring Bikes appeared first on The Radavist.

Photo by Brian Vernor

Romance and randonneuring go hand in hand atop the mountains ranges outside Santa Cruz.

The post What Every Weekend Should Be appeared first on The Radavist.

Fenders aren’t exactly my favorite bicycle accessory. Granted I live in Texas where it “never rains” or so it didn’t really until this year. We’ve had a very wet spring and summer, resulting in a lot of unexpected rain riding. So much so that I finally broke down and decided to ditch the big, plump tread of my Bruce Gordon Rock n Roads for some fenders and the biggest tire I could find that would fit…

Getting rid of the Rock n Roads took a lot of convincing. After all, my Woodville was designed around them and the riding that I was planning on taking on with it. They’re just so damn smooth and incredibly durable. In fact, I just recently took this exact pair off after over a year of riding. But as previously stated, a wet few months forced me to embrace fenders, so here we are.

To make things simple, here’s a brief overview on both the fenders and the tires…

Fenders
The Handsome Mud Butler fenders come in a 45mm width, but most importantly they come in black. Their hammered finish, cork washers and sleek hardware are very similar to many of the Japanese fender offerings. While I’ll usually err on the side of Japanese-made fenders, the Handsome Mud Butlers fit my Geekhouse Woodville touring bike’s aesthetics better. You know, the blackest ever black.

Installation was simple. With an eyelet in the fork steerer (thanks Marty!) and standard fender mounts on the bike, they went on easily. Even after weeks of use, they’re still securely fastened and rattle free. In fact, these are some of the quietest fenders I’ve used to date. No rattles and no need to re-align them. Even after the bike’s fallen over and been locked up to crowded racks.

Now when it rains, I stay dry and when I ride the bike off-road, it cuts down on dust getting into my drivetrain. Still, if I were to ever take this bike into potentially muddy riding conditions, I’d swap them out for 43mm Rock n Roads. I don’t think there’s quite enough clearance for any sort of mud or trail debris.

Tires
There are quite a few offerings for a gumwall tire on the market. Rivendell makes a few, as does Panaracer and Challenge. Having ridden most of the previously mentioned brands, I was eager to try out the Compass Cycles Barlow Pass 38mm tire. It’s reminiscent of the Gran Bois, but will still fit under a 45mm fender with enough clearance to avoid debris being lodged into the fender and annoying rub. The photos make the clearance appear to be non-existent, but there’s a good amount of room, so don’t worry. ;-)

I have to say, these tires ride like a dream. Pumping the front to around 30-35 and the rear to around 35-40 psi, I’ve found them to be smooth sailing on sealed road and gravel paths. Even in the quick downpours we experience here in Austin, the tire grips the oil-slick roads with ease. Gravel paths. No problem!

Since I don’t keep a computer on my touring bike, I have no idea how long I’ve ridden them for but after a few weeks of constant use, I’m sold on this setup.

Overall
Everything on this bike has held up beyond my expectations. The White Industries VBC cranks are still going strong, as is the Phil Wood bottom bracket and SRAM drivetrain. I’ve cleaned and serviced the Chris King Classic rear hub a few times, but haven’t had to touch the SON generator hub. Recently, I spliced a Supernova rear light to the Edelux lamp and save for the lack of internal routing, it looks and works great.

After breaking a few of the Velo Orange decaleurs and not finding a system that worked, I ditched the Swift Ozete Bag for a Wald basket and cargo net. The way I look at it, I can fit a lot of crap into a Wald basket, especially when it’s lined with a tarp. If I have items that need to stay dry, I simply put them in a dry bag. Easy in, easy out. Ideally, I’d like to put a bigger basket on the bike and find someone to make a bag that suits my needs, but that’s a whole ‘nother project.

Overall, I’m very impressed with not only the longevity of the components, but the durability and consistent pleasant ride the Woodville has delivered. This bike is a dream. No creaks, no nonsense, just precision riding all around. The guys at Geekhouse really know how to make a looker that takes kindly to bookin’ around town, as well as being loaded down.

Thanks to the more than capable hands at Mellow Johnny’s for the help building it up.

Questions? Comments? Share them below…

This is only part of the story that’s coming this afternoon. Enjoy!

While we took a look at my own touring bike yesterday, I will say this with confidence: had I ridden the Elephant Bikes National Forest Explorer prior to ordering my Woodville two years ago, I would have drastically changed my views on 650b, disc brakes and trail.

The National Forest Explorer is a low-trail, 650b bike with disc brakes and a decent, not copious amount of tire clearance. These NFE’s are made by Glen Copus in Spokane, WA and pack quite the wallop of versatility in a beautiful, forest service green package. They’re made from lightweight steel for just the amount of liveliness.

As Elephant describes the bike:

“The National Forest Explorer (NFE) is the ideal bike for long days of spirited riding on dirt roads. While designed to carry a small load over the wheel for day supplies, the NFE also handles well with low-riders and a rear saddle bag for overnighting. Unlike many heavy “adventure bikes” or “gravel grinders” sold by larger manufacturers, the NFE is light and responsive, built with a double-butted TrueTemper front triangle and 4130 rear triangle.

The geometry is optimized for experienced riders who prefer nimble handling and light steering input. The fork is brazed & lugged with a handmade direct-mount disc tab and a beautiful bend that helps soak up washboard roads.”

I’d like to put emphasis on the last paragraph. No, the NFE doesn’t have thru-axles. No, the NFE doesn’t bark back at you with stiffness when you load it down and smash around on trail. There is nothing about this bike that leaves you sore after a long day of riding.

The NFE is alive. A beautifully-elegant specimen of the bicycle that dances with you on the climbs and lets you really lean into it while descending. While clearly its intent is to be a back country tourer, inspiring you to explore National Forests, we here in Austin, Texas have no such place nearby, so I took to exploring our local trails, State Parks and swimming holes.

Arrival:
When the bike arrived here in town, it was spec’d with a complete Ritchey kit. Seatpost, some sort of Ritchey road bar, a stem and a saddle. I felt like a majority of the components didn’t fit the bike’s intent so I made a few changes. The saddle and post came off and on went a PAUL Tall and Handsome post with a Brooks C15. Then, in what was probably the boldest component switch, I swapped the road bars for Salsa Woodchippers. Then I attempted to wrap them with Brooks Cambium tape and after an hour of frustration, I accepted my horrible execution…

Having just come off the TDR with the Cutthroat, I liked the riding position the Woodchippers offered and since the NFE came with Gevenalle shifting, I figured it’d be a great time to test out a cockpit I’ve been considering for my own touring bike. When I realized how much room the bars offered, I fit a large Wald basket on the Haulin’ Colin rack.

The stem was ok and even though I found the size large NFE to be a bit long, all it took was a few millimeters of adjustment on the saddle rails to put it in a position that felt normal for me. Other than that, the build felt surprisingly adequate.

Build:
I caught a lot of flak on Instagram for the “parts bin” build on this bike. One guy even said this bike wasn’t set up for shredding. I laughed at that comment in particular. This bike was made for shredding and the Woodchippers enabled that behavior more so than a set of road bars would.

Yes, it’s built with a mix of lower-end Shimano components and it’s true, there is nothing balleur about the build that Elephant sent me but that doesn’t mean the bike wasn’t capable of being a blast to ride. In fact, nothing felt inadequate, or sub-standard. The hub’s engagement was fine, shifting was crisp and I never had to touch a barrel adjuster. Ah Shimano, you’re so good, even at the Deore level. That’s what a touring bike should be in my opinion: shit that works, is easy to find replacement parts for and any mechanic could service it.

The only thing I would have swapped out, had the bike mysteriously disappeared into my stable would have been the Avid BB7 disc calipers. I really hate those things! … and maybe a generator setup.

Frame:
Oh my fucking forest nymph. What a beautiful bicycle this is. Wishbone stays, check. Long, swooping fork, check. Beautiful branding, check. Unique lugwork, check. And the color! I’ve always wanted a Forest Service Green bicycle.

Rack mounts, fender mounts, three bottle cages, zip-tie cable guides. You name it, the NFE (probably) has it.

Even the attachment for the wishbone seat stay, an arguably difficult detail to execute in terms of frame engineering and longevity, was resolved in a smart, straight forward way. I feel like I see a lot of early builders weld or braze the stay directly to the seat tube with no reinforcement. Over time, I’ve seen these fail, but Glen simply sleaved a collar around the seat tube cluster, reinforcing this connection. Now, I’m no engineer, but it makes me feel confident.

Another moment where I have no business commenting on due to my lack of engineering background is the reinforcement of the low-trail disc brake fork. I have no idea if this is a suitable reinforcement to avoid stress risers or not, but it delivers a stiff stopping sensation with no chatter or movement. It looks like the reinforcement moves up the blade enough to keep any stress risers from forming. Again, I’m not an engineer, I just see a lot of these and coincidentally, have seen what fails and what doesn’t.

The head tube has two elegant lugs, or sleeves at the clusters, the fork crown has a rack mount and there’s even a pump peg. Truth told, I made it out all the way on my ride to shoot this thing, got to the trail at the right time of day and realized I forgot my Topeak pump. I figured the low-pricepoint build spec on this thing mandated a $50 pump, in lieu of the Silca pump I’ve been toting around.

Rubber:
The Thunder Burt… the only tire from Schwalbe I’ve ridden that I can honestly give my thumbs up approval. Good on sealed road, good on gravel, with enough hook to catch even dusty and dry limestone corners. Good on you, Schwalbe.

Shifting:
We’ll come back to this, tomorrow. ;-)

Overall:
The Elephant Bikes National Forest Explorer grabbed me from the get go. After a few trail rides, hauling shit to and from parks, swimming holes and even the grocery store I was in love. So much so that I was a bit upset to find that I had to send it back this week.

I’ve put in so much time these past few weeks riding it on and off-road, through the woods and between cars in rush hour traffic. The ride itself changed the way I feel about 650b low trail “rando” frames. I felt like it’s more of a rigid MTB with dirt drops than a randonneurring frame with MTB tires.

While I didn’t get to do any actual camping on the bike – I was planning on taking it to SF with me in two weeks – I did load it down as I would for a S24 trip and ride it out to a local state park to see how it handled. The NFE rides with confidence when loaded and still was able to be skidded through corners and pushed hard down descents.

The nature of the frame, with its good amount of flex feels so good with a bit of extra weight on it. One moment that did make me feel a bit concerned was when I was descending down a rather steep residential road, putting on my gloves with no hands and I did get a bit of speed wobble at the front end with the basket unloaded. More than likely this is just a by-product of the low-trail geometry and steepness of the road. I never felt it again, nor did I try to re-create that moment. Hands on the bars at all times, folks.

If I didn’t have a touring bike, I would have offered to buy this bike from Glen. It’s exactly what I thought I didn’t want, yet realized it was what I really needed after a few weeks of riding it. I cannot stress this enough. If you are looking for a made in the USA shred sled of a touring bike, the National Forest Explorer is for you.

This lovely machine comes in three sizes: small, medium and large. Check out the geometry chart at Elephant. It retails for $1285 (frame/fork) and can be built up for around $2200 complete. Holler at Elephant for more information and availability.

For some reason, when Gevenalle first launched, I didn’t want to like their shifting mechanisms. They just seemed too contrived. A solution for a problem that didn’t exist. Perhaps it was their marketing, claiming to be designed for cyclocross racing. Sure, I read the product descriptions, the PR, looked at the photos but I still wasn’t convinced.

It wasn’t until I began to see the Gevenalle shifters on touring bikes that my interest was piqued. “Now that makes sense” I thought. Not running traditional road shifters on a touring bike is completely reasonable. The same can be said for barcons or downtube shifters. Why take your hand off the lever to shift? Sure. I get that.

The Gevenalle shifting system I recently spent time with is the GX shifters for mountain bike derailleurs. More specifically, a shifting system ideal for long-cage, dirt tourers like the Elephant NFE.

Gevenalle is addressing the need for a drop bar integrated shifter that is compatible with Shimano’s Dyna-sys 10 speed mountain bike derailleurs. Why is this a need? Well, because Shimano doesn’t even offer a shifter that’s capable of that. Womp womp.

So why do these make sense for a touring bike? Traditional shifters will interfere with your handlebar or front rack bag. Some, like the Shimano levers, seem to throw a great distance. If you have a bikepacking bag strapped to your drop bars, that means you lose a lot of real estate due to paddle interference. If you’re running a large Wald basket or other rack and bag system, the same applies. The GX shifters remove any interference. If you’re used to barcons, just imagine having that control at your fingertips without having to move your hands.

The GX shifters offer the control of indexed shifting at your fingertips, but it takes a bit to get used to. By “a bit” I mean like 15 seconds. It’s simple, really. Want to dump your cassette? Just swipe. No hassle, nothing. If things start to get sloppy, use the easy barrel adjuster for fine tuning.

I was running these on Salsa Woodchipper bars, so my hand position was a bit different than a traditional drop bar but the translation and transition would be just as simple on the latter. The GX shifters provided a more than stable shifting experience on the road as well as the trail. The only time I didn’t appreciate their positioning was when I’d be in the drops going down a steep trail, only to face a wall of a climb right ahead of me, forcing me to change hand positions to shift. Granted, this only happened once and I adjusted my riding accordingly.

So… here’s where I tell you that I’m still not convinced the Gevenalle system is ideal for racing cyclocross but I am sold on their application for touring or even commuter bikes. They’re easy to setup, require very little maintenance and most importantly, they shift precisely!

The pricepoint ain’t bad either. $219.00 for the pair. If you run a 1x setup, you can easily remove the mechanism from the left lever.

Two mates attempted to ride the length of Great Britain during the coldest March on record in 54 years…

Like many framebuilders, Rafi Ajl began his love for the bicycle at a young age but it wasn’t until after graduating from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design that he began pursuing his love for building bicycle frames. Ajl’s background is fine art and as such, his bicycles began functional art. Something you would not only love to look at, but would love to ride and would be able to do so for the rest of your life.

Perhaps it was Rafi’s passion for art, design and the bicycle that drew Geoff from Box Dog Bikes, a local, owner run co-op bicycle shop in the Mission of SF to Raphael Cycles’ work. Or maybe it was the proximity. Rafi Ajl is no longer making frames, but when he was, Raphael Cycles was literally blocks away from Box Dog Bikes.

Geoff wanted a classic touring bike with external routing, fender, rack mounts and a 1″ threaded headset. A seasoned tourer, randonnée, cyclocross racer, shredder of vintage mountain bikes and all-around capable cyclist, Geoff knew exactly what he wanted and has been thoroughly enjoying this bike. As evident by the years of use.

A SON hub powers the S3 lighting and a well-positioned and broken in Brooks saddle cushions and inviting a ride, so much that I pedaled this bike for an hour or so before finding the perfect spot to photograph it.

Rust Never Sleeps on Sofia’s AWOL Touring Bike
Words by Erik Nohlin, photos by John Watson

TRUST ME, I’M A DESIGNER

As a designer of bicycles I try to stay on top of things like material development, new alloys, paint pigment, flakes, pearls, platings and whatnot. It’s in my interest to stay updated in an ever-changing world. What you see on the floor in a bike shop is not just a bicycle with a random color: it’s the result of hundreds or thousands of hours of trial and error behind the scenes at any one man bike shop or huge bike brand with a fleet of designers.

That one color started out as 666 other potential colors and in the end, only one made it. For the one man operation or smaller brand in a well-defined niche it might be easier to do cool and crazy shit to please that one customer with that weird request of a thermochromatic dead matte black that fades to metallic peach with a pride parade pearl to top it off. I design bicycles for a global brand and need to create a bike that pleases a global rider and as you all know, trends and cultural differences around the globe vary, fluctuate and make my day pretty complicated.

I’ll be honest with you: it’s frustrating to rarely ever be able to bring the raddest and weirdest stuff to you. One example is the one off Full Nuke Rainbow AWOL I created for the Transcontinental Race, a bike that almost blew up the internet when John posted it. So much stoke and love was thrown on that bike but the reality is that it would be impossible to produce it, guarantee the surface quality, get a decent price and distribute it to you. Doing rad stuff is easy but mass producing it is a completely different story. So, I try a lot of surface treatments and materials but most often these tryouts, experiments never leave the design studio as more than dirt on my hands, stains on my jeans and once in a while, a painted one off bicycle that I can tell you about.

The Rust AWOL is my wife Sofia’s bike and it used to look quite different. A super glittery rainbow flakey touring bike that was left in the hands of Garrett Chow on a journey to the heart of Death Valley early last winter. The washboard and dirt in Death Valley eat bikes for breakfast and the beat up bike that was returned to her had a couple of scars too many so I promised to bring it back to its “old glory”. The frame is one of the first nickel plated frame samples for the Transcontinental Edition AWOL we did and a perfect canvas to be creative on since the nickel makes it completely sealed for corrosion – ironic isn’t it? Rust is corrosion and in this case impossible to achieve without some chemical magic from a UK paint company called Rustique.

My colleague Barry Gibb had previously used it to create a fantastic surface on a carbon bike and I wanted to try it to, on steel this time. We ordered some paint and decided that Sofia’s nickel plated bike would be the victim for this experiment. The month of June is usually pretty mellow at work (read: not as completely fucking crazy as July and August) and I spent some afternoons in the workshop and paint booth to finish off this creative experiment in an effort to bring real organic life back to a surface that’s dead. In a step by step series on Instagram, I told a transparent story about the process of the #rustawol and here it is and for the first time, a somewhat finished bike. The project was crowned with a Brooks Cambium rust saddle and bar tape where the fabric matches the bike and the vulcanized rubber matches the tan wall tires nicely.

As a last step I gave the Supernova headlamp and the Tubus rack a kiss of iron oxide. The humid and cold San Francisco summer will continue to corrode and oxidize the surface even though it’s been sealed with a clear coat as I surprisingly discovered after picking up the bike today. I learned a ton on this project, got my hands dirty and created a bike that Sofia really seems to like. I love that I sometimes can show you the hands-on process of being a designer at a big brand when 90% of my work never leaves the design studio. Confidentiality keeps us all from sharing what I know a lot of you like seeing and know more about.

Personally, the making-of-dvd in the Indiana Jones DVD box is far superior to the movies themselves and getting dirty is the only way to learn something new.

____

Follow Erik on Instagram.

Summer’s here in sunny Los Angeles and on today’s ride, Graham decided it was an opportune time to catch some rays… Enjoy the weekend, y’all.

By the way, who knows this spot?

As a bike shop owner, you see a lot of interesting customer projects roll through the doors. For Kyle, Woody, David and Ty at Golden Saddle Cyclery, it’s this steady influx of unique projects that keeps them engaged in the day to day shop routines. Once and a while, however, something rolls through that catches your eye.

How could you miss it? A purple pachyderm. An Elephant in the room…

The customer acquired this bike in a deal from its original owner, who rode it for a few years. It has a bit of beausage after extensive use. Once he acquired the frame, he began buying components piece by piece. Personally, I like the seemingly random parts including: made in the UK Middleburn cranks, a raw Haulin’ Colin rack, SON Edelux, Berthoud saddle, White Industries rear hub and Nitto cockpit.

If you’re thinking this frame looks familiar, John from Elephant used this platform as a beginning for the National Forest Explorer. They’re strikingly similar, save for the use of cantilevers on this bike, versus disc brakes and that color.

After Woody, the head mechanic completed this build, the guys at Golden Saddle Cyclery fell in love with it… and it’s easy to see why!

Jordan Hufnagel took a short sabbatical from bicycle frame building to take on his transcontinental motorcycle trip with West America partner James Crowe. Before taking off on the road, or dirt rather, he produced a run of porteur bikes. These bikes may look similar, clad in their matte black with gumwall 650b tires, but each one was specially tailored to his client’s needs and potential uses. Hufnagel has an aesthetic he likes to hit, ever-so precisely.

As I was flipping through Instagram, I noticed an newly-built olive-drab disc bike on Jordan’s Instagram. No less than a few minutes later, in rolls Jason with his Hufnagel.

Jason snagged one up as soon as he saw the pre-order go live and to be completely honest, it’s my favorite one I’ve seen. Having shot a few for the Radavist already, I was impressed with the detailing that went into Jason’s build: clean lines, custom fender brackets, custom racks, custom stem, matte black paint, clean generator routing and that awesome pannier…

See for yourself in the Gallery!

Photos by Heather McGrath

Being a returning Geekhouse customer myself, I can identify with this bike. Deb wanted the ultimate city/touring bike, sparing no details. She already has a Geekhouse Mudville ‘cross bike, but wanted a dedicated tourer for the long haul and around town commuting.

This one’s got it all. Racks, fenders, generator lamps and a mean parts list. Not to mention paint designed by Adria Klora, and then painted by Rudi at Gold Coast Cycles. It’s one of the most complicated bikes I’ve ever seen come from the Geekhouse shop.

Check out the full build kit and more photos below.

Parts List:
Front Rack: VO Campeur, powdered black, mods for removable pannier mounts.
Rear Rack: VO Campeur, powdered black
Fenders: Berthoud, powdered black
Cranks: White Industries
Brakes: TRP Hylex
Wheels: Velocity Dyad, laced to Schmidt front, Rohloff 14-speed rear
Shifters: Cing 5 for Rohloff
Bell: Spurcycle in Black
Lights: SuperNova
Tires: Conti, Sport Contact
Saddle: Brooks Cambium
Headset: King
Post: Thomson

Now’s the perfect time for bikepacking and touring. The mornings are crisp and the days are beginning to cool off. Kitsbow provides the entertainment this afternoon, you just have to go plan a trip yourself…

You don’t have buy a ticket to Bolivia or Peru to enjoy a few days of bikepacking. Recently, Yonder Journal found themselves in New England for a quick stint in Connecticut and some extensive touring in Vermont, all guided by none other than UltraRomance. Dubbed the Mad Wikkid Bike Toouah, this trip took our heroes through country roads in the green mountain state.

Part one of who knows how many days is now up at Yonder Journal.

Bikepacking and bicycle touring are great ways to explore new or old environments and experience the unexpected. Over the years Blackburn has been working on various types of gear to make your journey more enjoyable. Their latest ride movie, entitled Roll With It, is a collaboration between some rather unique individuals and now you can buy a photo book, which comes with a free download code. Or you can buy the movie on iOS, Apple TV, Roku, and Chromecast.

Head to Blackburn for more information and check out the book’s flip through above.

If you missed the galleries from Brian Vernor and Chris McNally, be sure to check those out in the sidebar…

Path Less Pedaled takes us on the Harriman trail in Idaho for some off-road riding and fishing.

Touring videos from other countries are great ways to immerse yourself in a foreign land.

Sean and James go from Baja California to San Felipe on The Sea of Cortez in this bicycle touring video.