The Radavist

Crust Bikes gives the people what they want and that ranges from frames, to complete bikes, accessories, parts, and yeah, handlebars. Their small-time operation allows them to pivot easily to follow trends and in a lot of ways, set the trends themselves. With road bikes permuting into even more capable off-road machines, a lot of the ideologies of mountain bike design and technology have found its way onto drop-bar bicycles. Sure, the obvious moves are those shorter-travel suspension forks but something that not many people have touched on is bar width.

That’s where Crust Bikes and Ultra Romance have really influenced and inspired the question: what is the appropriate width for a drop-bar bicycle? We already looked at my Sklar with the Towel Rack Bars but after much demand – and my own curiosity – I decided to try out the Made in Japan by Nitto Shaka Bar.

Products like this intrigue me. They pique my interest and pull at my heartstrings. Oftentimes, I find the cycling industry’s apparel offerings to be too wrapped up in the supergraphic, the superhero, the loud, obnoxious, and ostentatiously-designed garb most of us are forced to wear due to brand simply one-upping, building off of and straight biting-off of other’s designs. Personally, I want my cycling gear to emulate my outdoor gear. I want my cycling shoes to look like boots and honestly, most of the time while I tour and bikepack, I wear just that.

Fizik’s Terra lineup – their dirt-focused shoes – has trapesed about the tundra that is earth tones and laces for some time now but it wasn’t until their Ergolace X2 model dropped earlier this year that I was intrigued enough to reach out to the brand to review a pair. So, aside from a rugged aesthetic, how do they really feel in person?

Bontrager has developed a line of bikepacking bags designed to specifically fit the Trek Checkpoint yet the three universal sizes will fit any number of other frames. These half-frame bags use water-resistant fabrics, easy-pull zippers, a bright fluoro interior, and use a soft strap that won’t marr your frame’s paint. Also included in this drop is a top tube bag. These bags are available at your local Trek dealer.

Salsa just announced their 2020 steel bike lineup including the Apex 1 Fargo (pictured here), GRX 600 Vaya, and Sora Marrakesh. From rugged bikepacking to all-road touring and bikepacking, these models are staples in the Salsa lineup, with their limitations being how long you can take off work for a tour. Head to the Salsa Blog to see more details.

Building off this year’s launch of the Cache titanium all-road bike, Knolly has just announced a steel version for 2020. The steel Cache maintains the geometry of the titanium Cache, as well as many of the frame details.

ED coating has been added to ensure the lifespan of the bike, as well as a few pricepoint tiers: frame only for $999, frameset for $1399. While there are no details yet of the Cache steel coming as a complete, we can expect it’ll be an option in the future. See more information at Knolly.

It’s a busy week for bike companies to jettison their new and improved models into the consumer market. We reviewed the Trek Checkpoint last year and were amazed at how well this bike checked all the boxes. It really felt like Trek listened to its customers and made the most capable bike they could.

For 2020, the Checkpoint stays relatively the same, solidifying its place in the adventure/gravel/all-road space, yet the paint jobs are much flashier and now with AXS integration, the lines on the bike are even cleaner. Head to Trek to see more details!

With the popularity of the Exploro, 3T looked to make this all-road platform a little bit more affordable with a Rival build kit, bringing the price down to $3,599.00 for a complete, more than half off from the Exploro Ltd AXS build pricepoint of $9,990.00. Keep in mind that the Exploro Team frameset retails for $3,200.00. See all the Exploro models and build kit options at 3T.

For those wishing to sacrifice a bit of that plush and supple ride quality for more flat resistance, René Herse just made another product announcement. To follow up with their Juniper Ridge Endurance Casing tires, René Herse just announced their 700x44mm Snoqualmie Pass tire, an all-road slick, now comes in a more resilient casing as well. Also available in an Endurance casing is the 700x42mm Hurricane Ridge that were ridden to 8th place in this year’s Dirty Kanza by Ted King. The knobbies are 2mm narrower to allow for mud clearance.

See more at René Herse.

Perhaps you wanted a set of the G-Series wheels but were squeamish about spending a lot of money on a carbon wheelset?

Carbon fiber wheel warranties have come a long, long way. ENVE recently stepped up to the plate with a new, very impressive coverage plan. Offering a Lifetime Incident coverage package. This new warranty replaces a rim no matter what happens to it. As long as you’re the original owner. Say you break an ENVE rim and they replace it, what happens to that replacement rim? Is it warrantied? Yes! ENVE has always covered “rock strike” failure under their 5-Year Limited Warranty, now it’s just extended to the life of that rim.

Under the new Lifetime Incident, that rim will be covered for life. Even if your wheel breaks while shipping your bike, or you run over your bike with your car, or you hit a moose, anything is covered under their new Lifetime Incident warranty. There’s now second-hand coverage as well. If you break a used rim, that you bought second-hand, you’re now entitled to 30% off a new rim. Then, that replacement rim will be covered for life.

The new 5-Year Limited Warranty covers any manufacturing defects, so you can now confidently invest in carbon fiber, made in the USA rims.  Head to ENVE to read all about it.

Last year’s Cannondale Topstone review generated quite the buzz over here, so when Cannondale sent me a Topstone Carbon to review, I was intrigued to see what changed between the lower pricepoint aluminum and this new, fancy carbon model. Turns out, a lot! The biggest being an all-new, BallisTec Carbon, Kingpin suspension system which locks the seat stays together with a thru-axle, allowing for dampening on rough terrain. Read on below for more!