category
Today, we’ve got an extraordinary treat in our Vintage Bicycles series, brought to you by Mike Wilk with photographs by John Watson. At Sea Otter, John photographed a stunning 22″ 1992 Yeti Ultimate. This one-off bike has such a unique story; aside from being the only bike this size made in that era, it also has a Tioga Disk Drive rear wheel. It’s not every day you get to feature such a rare bird as this Yeti Ultimate, so read on for an in-depth look at what makes this bike so unique!
Today we’re pleased to showcase a build from our friend Martin at Second Spin Cycles. Martin works on restoring old mountain, road, and yes, track bikes for his clients by speccing the period-correct components and more.
It’s a Merckx! On a Monday! … and it’s been a while.
During a period of frustration with parts shortages as I was trying to build up a forthcoming review bike, I began browsing eBay looking into building up a classic timepiece. I figured if modern parts are in short supply, vintage parts have to still be available. I wanted a bike that would be a centerpiece in my office that I wasn’t afraid to ride. Something that I could do easy road rides on, not pushing myself or the bike to the limit at all, but rather just a simple machine with downtube shifters, a steel fork, and 7 speeds. Kind of like driving an older, vintage vehicle; stripped-down elegance and damn sexier than anything “new” on the market. With my longtime love of Merckx frames, I knew where to begin, but I wasn’t expecting to find one of my favorite liveries, in such great condition. Check out an in-depth look below…
Many of you are obviously familiar with the brand WTB, or Wilderness Trail Bikes. They make awesome tires, saddles, wheels, and other accessories but for a long time in the decade following the birth of mountain biking, they made all sorts of bicycle components including headsets, handlebars, bottom brackets, frames, and more. We reached out to Mark Slate, one of the founders of WTB for his thoughts on one of the most iconic bikes to leave the WTB and Steve Potts workshops: the Banana Slug, Steve Potts #45. I documented this wonderful dream bike – don’t you want one? – this was a joy to shoot for our Vintage Bicycles feature and I am honored to have Mark’s thoughts on it here at the Radavist. Read on for Mark’s words and Steve’s handiwork below!
For this edition of our Vintage Bicycles showcase, we present the unique 1989 Otis Guy mountain bike, built with Suntour, which was displayed at the Braunstein-Quay Gallery ‘Art of the Mountain Bike’ showcase. The current owner, who is loaning this bike to the Pro’s Closet sent over the story of how he acquired this unique ride, so read on below for Eric‘s words and yes, the chain is out of alignment in the photos. John blames that on the bright sun… ;) Check out the full spread below!
Continuing our Vintage Bicycles feature with this cherry red Richard Sachs with a stunning Campagnolo 50th anniversary kit…
Continuing our sporadic coverage of our Vintage Bicycles feature is this rare J.P. Weigle Ice Cycle. Due to the nature of this creation, I reached out to Peter Weigle himself to see if he could fill the readers of the Radavist in on this stunning bike. Check out Peter’s story below accompanied by a plethora of photos…
“Gravel bikes are just XC bikes from the 80s/90s with drop bars.” You hear that over and over again, ad infinitum on the internet. While that might be true to some degree, I think this statement does XC bikes from the 80s/90s a disservice. Back when the big companies were slow to pivot towards innovation, smaller builders were the ones tinkering in their shops, fabricating step-up cassettes, designing bikes with boost spacing, 1x drivetrains, quick-release seatpost collars, and more. It took people like Charlie Cunningham and Jacquie Phelan to really push the paradigm until it broke.
Take, for example, this tribute of Jacquie’s 1983 “Otto” Cunningham, which was built in June of 1983 for a customer in Marin…
Longtime readers of this website will recall our weekly “Merckx Mondays” posts that began back in 2008. Well, let me just get this out of the way and say don’t get your hopes up for its return, but I am very excited to share this Eddy Merckx with you, on a Monday, as a part of a little sub-category of Vintage Bicycles we’ll be doing at the Radavist over the next few months…
One of the things I love about our content here on the Radavist are features like this. Martin runs a hobby company called Second Spin Cycles, an outfit we did a Shop Visit on a few years ago, and this is his 1987 Mantis X-frame, aka a Valkyrie. Check it out in detail below with words by Martin…
Most people know Wilderness Trail Bikes or WTB as an aftermarket component manufacturer. While this has pretty much always been their MO their catalog once included a lot more than seats and tires. In the early days WTB products were further developments of the work done by founding partners Charlie Cunningham and Steve Potts.
Today is Labor Day in the US, so we’re taking the day easy, and catching up on life’s demands but we wanted to share this bike on Monday, because, you know, it’s Merckx Mondays. When I was at the Cub House a few weeks back, I met Jun, who was out on a ride with this bike. As you can imagine, this bike has quite the story…
Grove Gathering: Rody’s Groovy Grove Innovations Hardcore
Photos and words by Jarrod Bunk
We’ve all been there, the one bike we always wished we never had gotten rid of. The one bike that transported us to a place of freedom, or perhaps the bike that got us stoked on bikes, this is that bike. After 12 years without his trusty bike, Rody, of Groovy Cycleworks decided to try and find this hardcore, which he sold a long time ago.
With a flyer in hand, his local bike shops help, and some perfectly aligned stars he was able to find the bike, rebuild it, the owner even had the original HardCore fork and Hammerhead stem. I doubt Rody will ever make the mistake of getting rid of this bike again.
____
Follow Jarrod on Instagram and Second Spin on Instagram and Freeze Thaw Cycles on Instagram
Grove Gathering: Grove Innovations Assault Team Bike
Photos and words by Jarrod Bunk
This assault was one of the first 10 assaults to roll out of production in Grove’s Pennsylvania factory and was ridden as a team race bike in the early 90s. I can’t imagine if I were in attendance back then, my mind would’ve melted as a ten-year-old. Just look at it! Fade, check, splatter, check, crackle, WHAT? This Grove has one of the wildest paint jobs I’ve seen on a bike. Sadly I’m told that this paint can’t be replicated because the chemicals don’t exist any longer.
Not only did Grove make frames, forks, stems, and handlebars, but perhaps the coolest of all of the Grove parts is the Hotrod cranks. At the time square taper was everywhere, but Bill Grove and his team looked to military applications and came up with an asymmetrical polygon, very similar looking to the interface that E13 uses in their cranks today some 25 years later. They thought if tanks used this design it should be strong enough for a bicycle application. These two-piece cranks used a row of four bearings (two per side) and some seals to keep the weather at bay. Aside from the cranks, this build features some pretty standard parts for a grove of the time, including the Hammerhead bar/stem, and some Shimano XT parts.
____
Follow Jarrod on Instagram and Second Spin on Instagram and Freeze Thaw Cycles on Instagram
Grove Gathering: Grove Innovations Prototype Hardcore
Photos and words by Jarrod Bunk
Earlier this year, Martin from Second Spin and Justin from Freeze Thaw Cycles schemed about an event that would let them share their mutual love for Grove Innovations and get together some Grove owners for a ride and party or shred-n-show if you will, that event was the first Grove Innovations Gathering.
Grove Innovations might not be a household name if you live outside of Pennsylvania, but Bill Grove and his team were innovators that tried some new things that many others wouldn’t dare for the sake of creating a bombproof bike. The oversized 2″ 4130 downtube and straight blade fork made for an extremely precise steering bike with a stiff bottom bracket junction that allowed the pilot to put power into the ground and control it over all types of terrain. The hardcore, at its inception, was an east coast bike if there ever were one, playful, rugged and capable of hucking off a loading dock as well as ripping over log-laden single track. With a 13.5″ bottom bracket, and integrated bash guard that even protected all 44 teeth on the big ring, the hardcore could make short work of the rugged rocky terrain of which this bike was born. Most of the builds done on groves of this vintage ran durable parts in favor of early 90s anodized bling. Each frameset came with a set of Hammerhead bars as well, and bottle cages painted to match, albeit this proto isn’t running the latter. Proof of the concept in durability is that this prototype is still being ridden nearly 30 years later.
____
Follow Jarrod on Instagram and Second Spin on Instagram and Freeze Thaw Cycles on Instagram
Vintage Radness at the 30th Annual Keyesville Classic
Photos and words by Erik Hillard
This past weekend was the 30th annual Keyesville Classic, the longest running mountain bike race in the United States. Because of its Vintage Class races, Keyesville is also a gathering of mountain bike restoration artists from across the country. Each year, a group of enthusiasts meets for the weekend with a beautiful selection of historic mountain bikes.
To call Martin from Second Spin Cycles a “collector” doesn’t do his operation justice. When I think of bicycle collectors, I picture hoarders stacking NOS parts for the sake of their own enjoyment, often shutting off their acquisitions from the real world, while only allowing members of various online forums the sneak peek inside, via photos. Maybe that’s an exaggeration but personally, I feel a great amount of indifference to people who hoard bicycles and components. Unless they’re riding them…
Yesterday we took a look inside Second Spin Cycles and Martin’s stock of vintage mountain frames and accessories. Today, we’re going to look at four of his bikes in detail, all of which I felt were very unique. I’ve done my best to include Martin’s synopsis for each bike, along with some details which surprised even me. As with everything in this gallery, you can head to Second Spin Cycles’ blog for more information.