The Karate Monkey has seen many permutations over the years, with various wheelsizes and build kits, but the latest might be my favorite. The most obvious change is on the front. That squishy thing is a RockShox Sektor RL, 27.5+ 140mm travel. This iteration of the KM is also 27.5+, to offer some extra cushion for all the hardtail buckin’ you’ll do. Check out more info at Surly and see one in person at your local dealer.
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A Teravail Kustom Jade Karate Monkey 27.5+ Hardtail
Our Saddle Drive photos continue with a custom-built Surly Karate Monkey, pulled together by the team at Teravail tires, specifically to model their Coronado 27.5+ tires. Painted Jade Green, I can’t help but think of it as a trail dragon, with the Teravail logo and tire tread being the scales. This thing scorches the trails and I love seeing in house brands at QBP work with the other family brands on something special like this.
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Readers’ Rides: What a Difference a Ride Makes – Andy White’s Drop Bar Karate Monkey
Sometimes it takes really pushing a bike to unlock its potential. This was the case for Andy White of FYXO on a recent bush bash down in Australia aboard his trusty Karate Monkey. Read on for a full review of this tried-and true-touring platform…
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Radar Roundup: Little Buddies, Peach n Eggplant Karate Monkey, Growtac Restock, A New Catlike Whisper, Loam and Gravel Society Ep 1, and Old Enough To Know Better
Our Radar Roundup compiles products and videos from the ‘net in an easy-to-digest format. Read on below for today’s findings…
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Readers’ Rides: Ben’s Modified Karate Monkey
Ben from Heath Creek Cycles shares with us his customized Surly Karate Monkey with some details we think the singlespeed readership will really appreciate. You don’t have to go full-custom to have a customized bike! Check out a few quick words from Ben below, along with more photos from Josh Kowalski, who manages Continental Bikes in Duluth, MN…
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Surly Goes Pastel for the Troll and Singlespeed Karate Monkey
I just wrote and re-wrote this copy, trying to come up with something clever to say about Surly in general, only to find the best way to present the brand is to let the products do the talking and leave the rest up to the consumer. The Surly Troll is by far one of the most unique bikes in their catalog. A veritable do-it-all machine if you will. Now, the Troll and the Karate Monkey singlespeed got a bit brighter for 2016 with two new pastel colors… Feast your eyes for yourselves at dealers soon!
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Readers’ Rides: Josh’s Arctic Monkey
For this week’s Readers’ Rides, we figured it’d be nice to celebrate snowfall as large swaths of the country we hit by their first big winter storm. Here’s Josh’s Arctic Monkey, shot atop a beautiful coat of snow. Read on for details and a write-up by Josh.
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Surly: A Fistful of Monkey
What did I just watch? Whatever it is, I like it. Surly’s new Karate Monkey Ops is causing quite the stir with its MDS dropouts…
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Long Term Relationship: A True Love Cycles Heart Breaker Review
After spending nearly six months riding Polish builder True Love Cycle’s Heart Breaker, Hailey Moore pens a long-term review of this drop-bar 29er, and compares and contrasts two vastly different build specs.
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2024 Touring Bikes and Rigid MTBs Under and Around $2000
All of us here at the Radavist have been on a bike tour at some point. With the proliferation of bicycle touring and bikepacking in the modern bike zeitgeist, many options exist for a “touring bike.” This also means it can be hard to sift through all those options. With bikes that span from the “skinny tire” gravel bikes to the monster truck fat bikes, touring bikes can be whatever you need of them.
We compiled a list of touring bikes and rigid MTBs under or around $2000 to help you find your first or next tourin’ rig…
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UPDATED 2024 Hardtails Under and Around $2000
We’ll continue to update this list for 2024
Hardtails make the world go round. Especially here at The Radavist. We’ve been long-time supporters of these capable yet simple mountain bikes and as people decide on the “next bike” after reaching the limitations on their gravel bikes, we thought it’d be nice to compile a list of current hardtail models we dig, all under or around $2,000 so let’s get to it!
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Radar Roundup: Argonaut Supernaut GR3 and RM3, Cinelli Nemo Gravel, Stridsland Barnacle Fork, CDC Atelier, Extract Bottle Filter, Everyone is Entitled to Bike Joy, and Chris Akrigg – Remnants
Our Radar Roundup compiles products and videos from the ‘net in an easy-to-digest format. Read on below for today’s findings…
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What’s Old is New Again: Crust X Ron’s Bikes Alumalith Rigid MTB Review
Unveiled at the 2022 Philly Bike Expo to much fanfare, the Alumalith is a realization of Ronnie Romance‘s dream to incorporate his favorite aspects of vintage mountain bikes into a deciededly modern offering. Featuring a non-suspension corrected Switchblade-style fork, rim brakes, sharp angulation, and 6061 aluminum fabricated by renowned craftsman Frank Wadelton–but with internal dropper routing, clearance for 27.5 x 2.6″ tires, and a contemporary approach to geometry–the Alumalith is nostalgic delight for riders of today. Josh picked up an Alumalith earlier this year and has spent months building it, riding, refining, and riding some more. Continue reading below for his review of this niche yet capable and fun machine…
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Radar Roundup: New RockShox SID, Limited Ortlieb Bags, Ripton Artist Series, Taco Pedal Re-Up, and Riv Re-Ups
Our Radar Roundup compiles products and videos from the ‘net in an easy-to-digest format. Read on below for today’s findings…
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Psychic Gasoline: Bikepacking and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
If you’ve ever been on a bike tour, you know that sometimes the most challenging part isn’t necessarily the actual riding. Emma Jones finds answers for overcoming obstacles of bikepacking in Robert M. Pirsig’s classic, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, while taking on a two month trans-Europe tour. Beware of the Gumption Traps!
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Josh Uhl’s 2019 Triple Crown Attempt: A Personal Journey
The beauty of bikes is in the people who ride them—and how they all have a story. I have little doubt that everyone—serious riders, aeroed and grimaced, and carefree cruisers alike—have experienced that epiphanous fresh-air feeling of freedom that accompanies spinning your legs astride two wheels. Sometimes we just enjoy it at the moment—letting the short-lived wave of release and clarity wash over us during a weeknight burrito run, or a trip to the coffee shop. Other times we chase that feeling down with the hope that, somehow, it might change our life.
What first intrigued me about Josh Uhl was, however, not his history with bikes but his podcast Here For Now, which he started in February of 2021. Josh uses this platform to have intentional and intimate conversations with his guests about motivation, struggle, and the big whys of life. Listening to an early episode with Peter Hogan, where the recovering addict asserts that “Bikes aren’t God,” and to a later episode where the writer Zoe Röm reflects on the delusion of “authenticity” on social media, I found myself frequently nodding along. Yes, exactly.
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Embracing Moments of Opportunity: S24O in the Caja del Rio
January is the hardest month of the year. The annual hangover from the holidays is in full swing, most New Year’s resolutions already have been broken, and winter has yet to abate. It is because of this that it’s important to embrace moments of opportunity and spontaneity and burn off some pent up energy. So when your riding buddy drops you a text asking if you want to do an overnighter, despite an impending winter storm, you obviously say ‘Yes’.
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Happily Stuck in Hardtail Jail: A Look at Spencer’s Orbea Loki
To fill in the gaps between normal, group-ride-oriented bicycle stories, we’re featuring a few rides from the staff over here at the Radavist, beginning with Spencer’s Orbea Loki.
When it was finally time for me to accept that my fatbike just wasn’t that good of a trail bike, I looked to the next best thing, a plus bike. I finagled my way into Interbike a few years back and made it my mission to ride all the plus bikes at the dirt demo. Turns out they were damn fun, the Advocate (now Esker) Hayduke was the winner of the day in my eyes, right in front of the newly updated Karate Monkey. At the time I worked for a guide company that had a fleet or Orbea’s bikes, and they sent our company a closeout list with some discounted bikes at cost. I saw a swoopy aluminum 27.5+ hardtail that looked like it might just be the ticket. I figured I could fit an XL and hopefully, that would give me the most framebag space since I planned to use this as that ever-fleeting idea of a quiver killer.