The Radavist

San Francisco is out of control and not in a good way. Bike theft is at an all time high as the city continues to cope with a massive drug problem. Basically, your bike’s not safe unless it’s under your ass, being pedaled. Natalia had her race bag, shoes and this Igleheart singlespeed MTB “secured” within her car as it was parked in Noe Valley. Within minutes, her windows were smashed out and her bike was gone.

The next morning, Rai from Mission Workshop was riding past the BART station on 16th when he spotted it being pedaled by some random dude. He put out a call and had some friends go steal it back from some unsuspecting schmo who had bought it from the crackhead that stole it.

Now it’s safe and sound in Natalia’s possession, who races it for Chica Sexy in the Bay Area mountain bike circuits. It’s not everyday you see some Boston-area steel in SF, so I had to get some photos of it…

I’ve come to really love this climb. It’s short, sweet and pending traffic, isn’t that far from San Francisco. Mt. Diablo can be heaven or hell, depending on the weather. Get on it early enough, as the sun is rising and you’ll be descending just in time for the heat to set in. Get on it later than ten or eleven in the morning and you’re in for a scorcher. After climbing up to the KOM during the ATOC this year (that story is still coming), I told myself I’d make it up every time I visit SF.

The Monday after The Ends photo show, I rallied Lyle and Evan from Mission Workshop and Marc Marino to hit the climb early. It was the first time I had taken the North Gate road and I think we saw three cars total that day, along with only a handful of riders. At the top, “the Devil’s elbow” awaits, a steep ramp up to the ranger station. Once there, we had a Coke, a chat and talked about how we’d head back down. After a roundabout way back to our vehicles, we had totalled around 37 miles and 3,900′ of climbing. Next time I’m taking the trails down!

I have to say, this part of California is very photogenic and these photos came out great. See for yourself in the Gallery.

Tools of the trade:
Yashica T4 / Neopan 400

Rai loves Bianchi track bikes. After buying various models like his old RCD2 Pista and his 2006 Concept, all he really wanted was a black 2004 Concept. When Kyle from Tracko / GSC posted this frame for sale on his Instagram, Rai jumped on it, built it up with his parts and began riding it immediately. For dudes like Rai, the black Concept represents the track bike’s heyday in SF. It’s iconic and while this bike certainly has street cred, it is going to start seeing some time at Hellyer in the near future. Of course, he’ll have to replace his booted tire first… Check out more shots of Rai and his 2004 Bianchi Concept in the Gallery!

Two years ago, Chas and Walton from MASH sat down with the designers at Cinelli in Italy to work on the next track frame. After years of riding track bikes both on the street and in races, the two of these athletes knew exactly what they wanted. The end product was something unlike any track bike Cinelli has made before: a mixture of new technology with performance and practicality in mind.

Last year at Interbike, Cinelli handed over two of the prototypes, which were spraypainted with Montana outside Mash’s flagship store in SF (in fact, you can still see blue and green overspray all over the sidewalk). Chas’ green track bike has traveled the world and seen its share of the fast n loose riding lifestyle. It’s been in multiple Red Hook Crits and bombed the streets of SF and NYC alike.

The most noticeable difference in this frame, versus the older MASH frames include a tapered fork and head tube for added stiffness and proprietary hydroformed Columbus tubing. A level top tube and traditional track geometry add a confident stance to this bike’s profile. In short: the Mash team is very happy with their work and with new paint samples on the way, I had to shoot photos of this bike while it was still built up….

Many thanks to Chas and Lindsey for recommending the sunset bike shoot location and Bucket for showing his appreciation.

While I was in California last month, I worked on a few pieces for the Rapha blog, loosely-related to the Amgen Tour of California, with emphasis on loosely. You’re not going to see any pain face pros, just Regular Riders who we met along our trip from Los Angeles to San Francisco. There’s more on the way, but here’s the first edition of Cali is Not California™!

I’m not the best raconteur but Jeremy Dunn is and he did an exceptional job at profiling some of the people we surveyed, so do yourself a favor and check it out at the Rapha Blog!

Tools of the trade:
Mamiya 7ii / 80mm
Kodak Portra 400