The Radavist

On this episode of “Meet the Maker”, we get an inside look into the history of Ibis Cycles through the lens of their founder and visionary, Scot Nicol a.k.a. “Chuck Ibis”. Scot takes us on a journey through his early adventures on balloon tire cruisers in Northern California, pioneering the sport of mountain biking, through the ups and downs of building a successful business, and into the modern age of cycling as IBIS continues to build great bikes today. History like this never gets old…

2020 and 2021 brought about many canceled events, of which our beloved Lost & Found gravel race in Portola, California. The Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship just announced that Lost & Found is returning for 2022:

“Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship has announced that the Lost and Found Gravel Festival will return in 2022, in partnership with long-time cycling production team, Breakaway Promotions. Lost and Found will run on June 4th, 2022, and the proposed routes will feature a 101 mile route with 8,100 feet of elevation gain. Shorter 39 mile and 61-mile routes are also available.

The City of Portola contacted SBTS and encouraged the event taking place following a tough 2021. The festival provided an economic boost to the region each year it was held, and the town was ready to get the race going again. In the summer and fall of 2021, the Dixie Fire burned much of the Lost Sierra and created dangerous air quality for months. It was the largest single wildfire in state history. Lost and Found looks to rise from these ashes and create a positive financial impact on the community of Portola in 2022.”

Registration opens in March, so stay tuned and keep an eye peeled on Lost and Found for more updates as events warrant.

Browsing YouTube sometimes reveals some gems, both old and new. In this case, it’s a 1979 news segment, hosted by Steve Fox and showcasing the founders of mountain bike racing. Note that “klunkers” have gears and brakes while “cruisers” are what many refer to as klunkers these days, coaster brake and singlespeed…

There are some gems in this one including:

“Klunking is muddy in the winter, and it’s dusty in the summer…”

“Klunking is best away from the cops, the cars, and the concrete.”

Enjoy!

The Long Traverse is about learning from, and loving, the landscapes we ride in. Through the story of an iconic 80-mile, 11,000-foot ride, @Christopherblevs, and @dillon.osleger consider the history of a landscape and our place within it, grappling with the realities of forest fires and extraction while letting the bike show us all we can appreciate and learn as people on the land.

The Los Padres national forest spans the Central Coast of California, from the Pacific Ocean to the fringe of the Mojave Desert. This land of many uses hosts world-class biodiversity, the endangered California Condor, 350+ miles of trail, and a multitude of Chumash cultural sites. The Los Padres Traverse route is not only an incredible ride, but it highlights the intersection of recreation, conservation, and climate. Through the trail stewardship and advocacy work of Dillon’s nonprofit Sage Trail Alliance, Christopher established the fastest known time (FKT) along the route. And throughout this process, Christopher learned more about caring for the places he gets to ride in and the communities along the way. Whether you’re trying to complete the traverse in six hours or taking three days to bike pack it with friends, the Los Padres is a place to visit. Likewise, whether you’re a World Cup racer or a Weekend Warrior, we can use the bike to understand our responsibility to take action to better our planet, and we can all dig during trail restoration days.

I’m not sure what got into me this year but I’ve been on the hunt for some vintage bikes. A few months back we looked at an Eddy Merckx Corsa Extra I built up with Dura-Ace 7400, an arguably pretty bike yet it’s nothing special per se. Now this project will be even cooler. It’s a 1984 Mountain Goat Whiskeytown racer I just picked up from Second Spin Cycles…

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.

Forgotten Roads is a video series by Safa Brian that features some of California’s lesser-known roads and routes. In this episode, Safa and his friend Alex head up to Idyllwild to take on some high elevation dirt…

Last summer, we featured The Coyote Collective’s Fastest Known Time attempt to link all the 14,000-ft. Peaks in California under human power. Now, we are proud to share their short film documenting the journey, A Study of Self.

“Hypothesis: The California 14ers could be linked up by bike in under 9 days, covering 800 miles of riding, 100 miles of running, and nearly 100K of vertical gain. In August 2020, we set out to test the hypothesis, starting from Mt. Shasta. Charlie, Jonny, and I rode our bikes, and Colin and Nick followed along in the van, filming and having an adventure of their own. We didn’t know how things would unfold, only how hard we’d worked to make it all come together, and how much fun we were having figuring it all out with our best friends. We were field testing our lives — planning out a route and diving headfirst into bikepacking. We were taking a chance on something we believed in.

Was our hypothesis correct? Did we break the speed record and find fame and glory? Check out our scientific beatdown in the first film project from The Coyote Collective, “A Study of Self: Methods & Madness.”

Jason Fitzgibbon, who has delivered some exceptional content here at The Radavist over the years, MTB shredder and wildlife ecologist, makes a point to stop to smell the flowers.

Fitzgibbon monitors, tracks, and documents the vast and delicate landscapes of the southwest. He knows that the more aware people become of the needs of the landscape we share, inhabit, and recreate in, the better we are able to work to sustain and protect it.

Filmmaker and fellow SoCal resident Brian Vernor documents Fitzgibbon as he shreds through subalpine regions around Los Angeles, educating and elaborating on our impact to the regions where we live and ride. Made for The Pro’s Closet.

The latest video from Pas Normal Studios takes us from the Bay Area to the Yosemite Valley for some of California’s best road riding…