The Radavist

There are enough competitive races, or rides that look like races in the world and the Melburn Roobaix is not one of those events. Instead, Andy and Melody White from FYXO aim to bring people together, from all “rolls of life” to take a leisurely spin around Melbourne’s many cobbled back-alleys and bike paths. I.e. off the beaten bike path…

With over 2,000 registrants this year, planning was essential. Rider registration the day of was streamlined, there were now two route options, with over 40 variations for completion and yes, plenty of prizes, all of which were drawn from a lottery. It didn’t matter how fast or slow you completed your manifest, as long as you did so, you were eligible for prizes.

So… what is the Melburn Roobaix all about? I don’t know how to answer that, other than it’s all about the participants. There’s no overwhelming demographic, not one specific type of bike reigned supreme. Rather, a broad sampling of the Melbourne cycling community attends each year. Commuters, ex-racers, current racers, weekend bike path warriors, enthusiasts, cool kids, kinda cool kids, first-timers, partygoers, costumed freaks, costumed geeks, and yes, even people on Melbourne’s rentable city bikes.

I have to say, after spending over six hours in the rain, following meandering packs of people wearing soaking wet costumes, looking for cobbled alleys, I’m convinced this is truly one of the most down to Earth events in the world. Everyone was more than stoked to ride around in the pissing rain, into headwinds and without a care in the world. The people are what make it so much fun and this Gallery is dedicated to just that: the people of the 2014 Melburn Roobaix.

Many, many, many thanks to the people of Melbourne (particularly the patient drivers), the crew from Brisbane / Queensland I rolled with, the volunteers, vendors, and FYXO for making this such an enjoyable event!

Now if I can just figure out why all “Roubaix-themed” events wreak havoc on my camera gear!

At the Melburn Roobaix yesterday (more to come on that), I bumped into my friend Ben Kamenjas from Sydney, who I met a few years back when he worked at Deus Ex Machina. Ben’s a wealth of cycling knowledge, especially the obscure / idiosyncratic world of French components and frames. At a certain point in your life, you tire of looking at others’ work and decide to start building for yourself.

What you see here is Ben’s first bike, under his moniker Cicli Spirito (no link yet). It’s a fendered porteur with a customized VO rack that mounts to the vintage center pull mounts and classic French parts with a classic geometry.

It’s always difficult to shoot a porteur with weight on the front, so I asked Ben to act as the kickstand while I snapped a few, very quick photos.

With this weather, I’m sure Ben was stoked on his Swift Industries Pelican bag, fenders and nice, plump tires during the Roobaix. That’s a great looking bicycle!

Man, I haven’t done a Shop Visit in some time. Thinking back at a few local bike shops I’ve been to in the past few months, two of my favorites were MTB shops. One of which was Topanga Creek Bicycles (which FYXO shot some great photos of) – I didn’t have my cameras and another, very different shop was My Mountain Melbourne.

As someone who’s recently rediscovered his love for XC and trail ripping, My Mountain was an all-you-can-eat buffet of radness. Well, as long as your wallet has enough clout. The owner, Tim, is not messing around. It was his Yeti SB95c that I was riding and that’s just the tip of the iceberg for the kinds of builds leaving his shop.

Tallboy LTC with full ENVE? Sure thing. Coming right up. Trek ProjectOne SuperFly with XX-1? You got it.

The world of high-end MTBs is just out of most of our grasps, but that’s not what makes a shop rad. My Mountain sponsors local racers, events and has an extensive demo fleet. They’re a new shop, so infill is coming in slowly, but right now, it looks like there’s a lot of potential in this space.

Check out more in the Gallery!

“Red and yellow, kill a fellow…”

Maybe that’s why I love these old Team Raleigh track bikes? There’s something venomous about them. Like some predatory beast, I loved looking at the old photos of British steel eating their competition alive on the boards. The last time I was in Melbourne, I shot another Northside Wheelers in-store display, classic racing track machine, that bright red Cecil Walker. They’re both the same owner, with an impeccable taste for steel race machines.

This one’s a keeper! See more for yourself in the Gallery!

Spooky Cross. For most of the world, it’s a segue into a long and arduous cross season. But for the Dirty Deeds CX league, it’s the end of series party. Unlike most spooky cross races, each race was one or two laps max, coming in under 10 minutes per heat.

Since this was my first DDCX event, I don’t have much to gauge from it other than I saw a lot of people, in exceptional costumes, having fun on bikes. That’s good enough for me. Oh and there was a streaker…

See more in he Gallery!

What better way to celebrate Halloween than with a Spooky road? Ok, I can think of plenty of “better” ways, but I felt this bike in particular fit with All Hallows. When I was at the road crits in Melbourne the other night, looking at the sea of Giants and Treks, this Spooky jumped out at me. Matte black, raw stays, SRAM Red and that recessed cable stop detail!

See for yourself in the Gallery!

For some reason, I always assumed Euro was based in, I dunno, Europe? Turns out, Brian Hayes builds Euro Sport frames in Australia, which is where, coincidentally, Andy picked up this very frame. Now, to go from a Llewelyn as your everyday road bike to a Euro Sport might seem strange to some (it did for me), for Andy, it speaks one thing: Australian racing pedigree.

This bike is the shit. Euro Sport frames have been ridden by the Aussie National Team extensively. They’re aggressive, steep and responsive. This particular frame was built by Brian Hayes for Brett Lancaster, an Aussie pro. While Brian’s work has dabbled in ostentatious paint jobs before, he can’t recall painting this specific job… Which means, clearly aliens painted it because it’s out of this world, bro.

Paint alone doesn’t make the bike. You have to know how to piece it together. Enter FYXO: the man knows how to build a bike. Campagnolo Athena 11 speed, with custom panto, C-Record influenced cranks, Cinelli cockpit, Absolut Fyxo bidons, Regal saddle and good ol’ made in the USA White Industry hubs laced to Mavic Open Pros.

I love this bike, almost as much as I love its owner, so I spent extra time photographing it. See more in the Gallery!