The Radavist

Welcome to Shock Value, a semi-regular series about all things suspension. The entries will range from deep histories to surface-level tutorials. Today, we’re starting with the basics. First, there’s now a glossary of terms on The Radavist site that we will link to any time there’s a jargon-heavy article or product review. But the post you’re reading now is even more basic. It’s a brief summary of how we feel about suspension and why we think it deserves its own regular spotlight. We hope you’re looking forward to it as much as we are.

The first entry in our Shock Value education series is this extensive glossary. We hope it will serve as a way to demystify the jargon in the stories and reviews you’ll read here at The Radavist. But we also think it functions as a standalone educational tool. There are a lot of systems and concepts at work in our suspension. We’re not just here to explain how they affect your ride but also how they function. So, we invite you to take a leisurely scroll through. You may find it will deepen your understanding of what makes your suspension tick and how to make it tick better. Or, simply use your browser’s search function to find the word you’re looking for.

As this is being published, the fires around Los Angeles have been burning for about a week. The areas that haven’t burned are being gently showered in the ashes of the areas that have. Travis lives in an area that hasn’t burned. And as he looked around his yard this weekend, he was thinking a lot about those ashes.

This installment of Wish List touches on an intimate subject: Clothes. Everyone has different needs when it comes to what we put on our bodies, and sometimes those needs just aren’t being met. So, Travis is here with four suggestions of how the bike industry could make everyone feel just a little bit more comfortable.

Travis is back with another Dust-Up involving electronic shifting. But this time, the main subject is uniquely organic.

It’s Travis‘s turn to join the Radavist edit crew in sharing his favorites for 2024. His list includes a few products, a few podcasts, the adoption of a new habit, and the return of an old one. 

Common sense says that dark cycling apparel will be hotter on sunny days. But what does science say? Unfortunately, not much. There’s very little concrete data on the role color plays in keeping you comfortable on a bike. So, Travis did some research, read some papers, and asked some brands to chime in. One of them actually did!

This one checks a lot of boxes for us: Higher performance, lower cost, and less single-use packaging. What’s not to like? Travis shares the latest evolution in his min-max approach to kitting up for a ride with a supplement-rich drink mix Bike Hack.

The original Switchgrade tilt-adjust saddle clamp from Canadian manufacturer, Aenomaly Constructs offered nose-up, nose-down, and nose-neutral settings. But when Travis first rode it, he found the angles a couple degrees too extreme for his terrain. So today, he’s excited to share his review of the new two-position Switchgrade Duo, along with some of his signature soapboxing on saddle settings.

Welcome to our second installment of Wish List, where Radavist contributors share their dreams of things that don’t exist, but maybe should. Some will be slightly niche but perfectly reasonable ideas that have every right to exist. Others will be impractical, expensive, and/or dangerous fantasies that probably should remain fantasies. Travis is back with another stack of requests, some of which go well beyond the bike industry.

The motion of suspension pivots is not like the motion of a hub or bottom bracket or derailleur pulley. Pivots are not constantly spinning full circles, and they don’t need to have particularly light action. They need to survive rocking back and forth just a few degrees, thousands of times a ride. And ideally, they need to last long enough that you’re not pressing them out of your frame every season. That’s one reason some bike brands have opted for bushings instead of bearings in some pivot locations. There’s more surface area contact, and potentially lower maintenance. That’s exactly what the new Enduro MAX Solid Lube Black Oxide suspension bearings are designed to offer.

An important part of bike touring is self-care. And today, Travis takes that to a very intimate level with his praise for A+D Ointment, a diaper-rash remedy that isn’t just for babies.

After spending a year going back and forth between bikes with and without SRAM Transmission, Travis came to a realization. In today’s Dust-Up, he writes about why Transmission compatibility will be mandatory on his next bike purchase, why that worries him, and why he needed that asterisk.