The Radavist

Hallie Silva is taking on the Tour de Los Padres this year and is running a fundraiser to help raise awareness for the area. Hallie reached out with some details of her effort, including some organizations she’s currently fundraising for:

“I’m a teacher in Santa Barbara riding the Tour de Los Padres this year as to bring awareness to, and fundraise for the San Marcos Foothills Preserve. This public space is the ancestral home of the Chumash and one of the last remaining access points for front-country wilderness in Santa Barbara, and right across the street from the junior high I teach at. This access point is being currently threatened by corporate luxury home development. 

I’m currently collecting donations that will go directly to two local organizations:

Seeds to Forest Defense, an autonomous group of Chumash, BIPOC and white allies protecting the land who center Indigenous ecological knowledge. They also work to provide resources such as lawyer fees for the indigenous folks who were arrested in ceremony while protecting our public lands. 

The second organization is Save the San Marcos Foothills Preserve, led by Channel Islands Restoration, whose mission is to purchase the undeveloped property next to the San Marcos Foothills Preserve at fair market value, to protect it forever as public open space, and to restore the native habitat. You can learn more at their website, https://www.savesanmarcosfoothills.org  “

If you can and would like to help out Hallie’s efforts, you can donate to her cause. Right now, she’s $1,000 into her $3,000 goal. Expect more to come from Hallie in the near future.

Grav.Elle, a gravel cycling resource site for women, by women, has launched today and one of their first stories features our friend Sarah Sturm:

“Ever since I was a little kid growing up in Albuquerque, I remember always wanting to do things differently. That same mentality has morphed into my adult life for better or worse, and when I started my journey into the world of cycling I felt real friction. I got into cycling, specifically racing road and cross when I was in college. I remember seeing and learning from my peers all of these ways to be an athlete. Eat this, do this, don’t do this. And for years I subscribed to that; I wore what I was supposed to wear, I limited what I ate, I trained, I raced and I wasn’t really having that much fun.

So I quit.”

Head to Grav.elle to read the full story.

SRAM is hosting four stories by a few of its sponsored athletes including Ayesha McGowan, Renee Hutchens, Lael Wilcox, and Isabeau Courduier over at their website. If you have a few minutes this week, we highly suggest reading one, two, or all of these stories.

It’s 2021 and women’s cycling is still fighting for their equal piece of the pie, as illustrated here by artist Thomas Slater. The InternationElles have had enough. These ten female cyclists and three crews from across the globe, are united in the fight for equality. Their hope is through activism, that they can boost women’s cycling. Right now, they have a GoFundMe to raise €5,000 as equal prize money to the top 5 women’s podium for the upcoming 2021 Strade Bianche. The above illustration might seem like an exaggeration but the payout at the recent Omloop Het Nieuwsblad paints a clear and concise picture…

Hopefully, the UCI, USAC, and other organizations will get with the times.

Previously known as WTF Bikexplorers, the Radical Adventure Riders are looking forward to increasing and enhancing gender inclusivity and racial equity in the bicycle and outdoor adventure communities. As WTFBX did, the RAR is doing so by providing connection, education, resources, and support for the community.

See more at RAR and we look forward to continuing to support this organization!

… to move into our new office! Since relocating to Santa Fe last March, we’ve been looking for an office to run the webshop out of and to solidify the life/work balance. We finally found one, only a short bike ride from our house, so we’re going to be spending the day moving into it. We’ll see you back tomorrow with plenty of Radar and great Reportage to whet your appetite. I hope you can enjoy this day off.

First of all, I just wanted to thank everyone for reaching out, noting some bugs that are going on right now with the site. We’re aware our RSS feed has stopped, as well as the comment count. We’re also working on our social media plugins, which push our posts through to Facebook and Twitter. Thanks for all your help and patience. Grant is working on it.

xo

It’s always exciting to see makers in this industry grow and that’s the case with the UK’s Restrap, which recently moved from a 6,290sqft factory to 12,250sqft, doubling their production space. Check out their press release below, along with more photos of their new digs.

While we’re typically not in a space to post job openings in the cycling industry, this one feels like an opportunity ripe for those wanting to push the Adventure Cycling Association forward in a great direction. Right now, Adventure Cyclist Magazine is hiring for an Editor-in-Chief:

“Directs the planning, production, and administration surrounding Adventure Cyclist magazine, which includes working with an established corps of 40+ freelance contributors, pioneering new contributors, and working closely with other programs/departments to promote internal business units that are critical to the success of the organization.”

See the full lineup at ACA!

Rapha is growing their support for women and not just professional cyclists. Today the brand announced its sponsorship of two charismatic personalities, Sarah Sturm and Lael Wilcox. Both of these women are great representatives of the gravel/adventure/touring market and we couldn’t be more stoked for them. Rapha also launched a women’s Instagram, so keep an eye on that for more updates as events warrant.

Our announcement after the insurgency at the Capitol triggered quite a few ex-readers to write in with messages like this. Unfortunately, this letter is the only one suitable to post online. Let us be clear here, if you support the events at the Capitol on January 6th, you do not embody the cycling culture we promote here at the Radavist. The terrorist insurgency represents white supremacy in the United States. As a free publication, we try to offer the best cycling entertainment on the web but don’t get it twisted, we oppose the insurgency at the Capitol and will always speak out against such actions.

Today is Martin Luther King Day, in which we honor the birthday of the civil rights activist. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, and we’re still fighting white supremacy as a country, over 50 years later.  The January 6th insurgence is yet another example of the hurdles we need to overcome in this country. 

The author of the email above is essentially asking us to remain silent because he does not agree with our position. Unfortunately, civil rights are political to people like the author. For us, basic human rights and civil rights are not political. All humans are equal and should be treated as such. We will not sit by like a majority of the cycling industry in silence. Our hope is that we can breach this line and create an industry that joins in unity as we rid the United States from this plague and makes cycling more open and accepting to all genders, races, and creeds.

Today we donated to the ACLU to assist in the battle against white supremacy.

Thank you.

The Adventure Cycling Association just announced five new U.S. Bicycle Routes in four states – Maryland, New York, North Dakota and West Virginia – plus Washington, D.C., adding 290 miles to the U.S. Bicycle Route System (USBRS). Check out a breakdown of each of the four-state routes below.

I’d like to think the actions of our company have proven that we are trying to make cycling a better, more inclusive place. That’s not saying we don’t have a lot more work to do, that we are anywhere near the horizon. We cannot stop pushing towards this goal of ridding the outdoors/cycling of white supremacy and making this community more inclusive. The actions by those white supremacists/terrorists who stormed the Capitol this week is simply evidence of the challenges we face as a nation. We will continue to do our best. Thank you.

What a year it’s been. As you might imagine, we need some time off to rest, recover, and spend time with our families. We’re going to take the rest of the week off but will be back on Monday with our year-in-review posts, some of our favorite moments, and the top Beautiful Bicycles of the year.

The first week of the new year, we’re going to have a very special restock of our made in the USA Radavist hats as well as some other goodies.

Enjoy the Holidaze and let’s look forward to a brighter future.

xo

It’s no secret that for the past few years, we spend a lot of time on the road traveling to bike events. We often spend 7 months on the road, visiting gravel races, MTB events, framebuilder showcases, or just checking out the cycling communities and rides in various towns all over the Western United States. 2020 put a damper on that with Covid-19 but this year I’ve been building out a desert tourer and road trip vehicle of a different sort, an HJ75 Troopcarrier from Australia. This “long van” is one of the most capable and compact RVs in the world and unfortunately, we never got this specific model of Toyota here in the States.

When BF Goodrich caught wind of a recent interview with me where I discussed desert touring… by bicycle. They had to know more. How in the world do you ride in the desert on a bike? So I sat down with them for an interview about the Radavist and what it means to “Shred Lightly.”

Guide books like this are where I get a lot of inspiration for bike rides and tours.

The piece might be common knowledge for a lot of y’all but it’s always nice to push a positive message for outdoor recreation on a large platform like that. Head over to BF Goodrich Garage to check it out.