Now that Golden Pliers has settled into their new Portland, OR location, it was time for us to make another visit. Just a few days after the MADE bike show concluded, Spencer Harding stepped into the welcoming arms of the Golden Pliers crew for a much-needed decompression from all the bike show hubbub. Below, let’s look inside one of our favorite bike shops that is filled with beautiful bikes, nice things, and wonderful humans…
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Radar
Readers’ Rides: Juniper’s Bassi Rachel Everything Bike
People talk a lot about the “quiver killer,” mostly in regards to a drop bar bike that can do road and mountain bike riding but Juniper’s “everything bike” is a bit more utilitarian than that…
Radar
Ron’s Bikes R-Werks EVOO 29er Pre-Order
Featured in our 2024 MADE Bike Show Coverage and hucked to flat multiple times by John during the documentation, the R-Werks EVOO 29er ($2200) is one tough, rigid mountain bike inspired by the great rim brake bikes of the 1990s and early aughts…
Reportage
2024 Bespoked Dresden Part 04: Ergon Showcase With Corrent Components, Kobel, Quokka, Rizzo, Scarab, Significant Other, and Sueess
To help support our Bespoked Dresden coverage, Ergon bike components sponsored a special gallery with builds featuring their products, including some of our favorite saddles, grips, and bar tape. Below, our 2024 Bespoked Dresden Part 04, our final report from the show, features bicycles from Corrent Components, Kobel, Quokka, Rizzo, Scarab, Significant Other, and Sueess. Scroll on down to take it all in!
Reportage
2024 Bespoked Dresden: A Special Fern Bicycles Chuck Gravel Touring Bike
Amid our ongoing coverage of the Bespoked Dresden framebuilder and maker showcase, today we are featuring a very special bicycle made by Berlin-based Fern Bicycles equipped with Allygn racks and custom bags from Gramm Tourpacking. With design language referencing a late-1980s Toyota Pickup and mountain bikes of the same vintage, the build features both old and new elements with components from a long list of artisan fabricators like Cyber Cycles, Garbaruk, Tune, Velocity, SON, Gevenalle, Btchn’, and many more. We think this bike might be peak Fern. Continue reading below for the complete breakdown of this special Fern Bicycles Chuck gravel touring bike.
If you’re at Bespoked this weekend, make sure to swing by the Fern booth to check this out!
Radar
BESPOKED Dresden, Europe’s Largest Handmade Bicycle Show Begins Tomorrow, 18-20 October 2024
BESPOKED‘s 2nd Annual European show will on once again take place at the Dresden & expected to be the largest in the event’s 13-year history. We’ll be there documenting the showcase…
Reportage
Bespoked Dresden 2024: Drust Cycles Collapsible Touring Bike
Yesterday, Josh bumped into Konstantin Drust of Drust Cycles on his way to Dresden for this year’s Bespoked framebuilder and maker showcase. Konstantin was picking up the luggage for his show bike from Kristin Heil’s Gramm Tourpacking workshop in Berlin. Josh was so enamored with the bike that he couldn’t wait to see it again at the show, and he documented it on the spot. Continue reading below for a detailed look at the Drust Cycles collapsible touring bike…
Reportage
Bespoked X SRAM Inclusivity Scholarship 2024: Significant Other Bikes
In the next installment of a four-part series, our European correspondent Petor Georgallou joins Significant Other Bikes of Denver, Colorado. Petor recently took a gonzo-style roadtrip through North America to visit four framebuilders who have been awarded SRAM’s Inclusivity Scholarship to attend Bespoked in Dresden, Germany, on October 18–20. Take a peek behind the bikes made by Ashley King at Significant Other…
Reportage
Bike Hacks: Resurrecting a Trust Message Linkage Fork for Bikepacking
The Trust Performance Message linkage fork was an expensive, extravagant, and flawed attempt to change how we think about mountain bike design. The brand ceased operations in the early days of the pandemic, but Travis had high hopes for Trust. He also still has the Message fork he reviewed in 2019. A recent bikepacking trip inspired him to give it a second life with some new bolts, washers, and tiny, tiny bearings.
Radar
Obscura: Erik Mathy’s Handmade 4 x 5″ Film Camera Review
Photographer Erik Mathy has a problem: he has a hard time doing the same thing twice. For every project he takes on, he wants to use some new combination of camera, lens and film. When Bobby Wintle announced the Mega Mid South ultra endurance race, Erik decided to build his own camera to bring with him to Stillwater, OK. In this latest edition of Obscura, Erik shows us his latest handbuilt large format camera and explains how he went about putting it together.
Reportage
Tumbleweed Sunliner Review: A Timeless Mountain Touring Bike
The Tumbleweed Sunliner ($3775 complete) continues a long-held tradition of equipping a mountain bike with touring accoutrements. Since the mountain bike’s inception, people have been bolting racks and strapping bags to them, taking advantage of its beefy chassis and wide gearing to pedal deeper into rugged terrain than ever before. John has been riding the Sunliner all year in the Southern Rockies, both unloaded as a trail bike and loaded on camping trips. Read on for his thorough assessment of this timeless touring bike…
Radar
BTCHN Bikes Titanium Bullmoose Bars Pre-Order
Tyler from BTCHN Bikes has a pre-order running for his titanium bullmoose bars ($480) he debuted at this year’s MADE Bike Show on his Geoshift hardtail. When John saw them, he had to have them and forked out some cash to take a pair home. We’ve got a review coming up next week but we wanted to alert our readership that they do indeed rule, offer just the right amount of flex, without being too springy, plus look the part, even mimicking Tom Ritchey’s OG Bullmoose with just the right amount of shaping/ovalizing on the twin struts.
Specs:
- Made in Chico, CA
- 800mm
- 13° of backsweep
- 50mm effective stem length
- Weight 493 grams
- Pre Order closes Oct 5th. Bars will ship Oct 21st
See more at BTCHN Bikes!
Reportage
Meriwether Cycles Ponderosa Adventure Gravel Bike Review
Yesterday we looked Inside and Out of Meriwether Cycles via an in-depth Shop Visit. In that post, we offered a sneak peek at Whit’s production adventure gravel bike, the Ponderosa. John has been riding a prototype all year, providing Whit feedback for the final production model, which we’ll look at it in detail today. Read on for a full review of this tall and sturdy dream bike platform…
Reportage
Inside / Out at Meriwether Cycles: The Ponderosa, Portage Handles, and Adventure Bike Wayfinding
Whit Johnson’s handmade bike company, Meriwether Cycles, has been featured here at The Radavist periodically over the years. Recently, John spent a day at Whit’s small garage shop in the foothills of the Sierra Mountains of California and got out on a sunset pedal with him. Read on for a look inside and out of Meriwether Cycles, in addition to a preview of Whit’s new adventure gravel bike, the Ponderosa…
Radar
Unboxing Sklar Bikes Tall Tales with Yang MFG
Daniel Yang from Neuhaus Metalworks, Artefact, and Yang MFG lends a helping hand to countless builders. From helping Meriwether design the complex bends for a unique fat bike to aiding in chainstay yoke and unique dropout designs, he has his hands in a lot. Including, unboxing a shipping container full of Tall Tale hardtails with Adam Sklar.
Watch as Daniel unboxes a box inside of an unboxing. Then he interviews, Adam Sklar, CEO/CMO/CFO of Sklar Bikes.
Radar
Chumba USA Fundraising Give-Away for Bikepacking Roots’ BIPOC Adventure Grant
Chumba USA and Astral Cycling have teamed up and kitted-out a one-of-a-kind USA-built gravel adventure bike to raise funds for Bikepacking Roots’ (BPR) BIPOC Bike Adventure Grant! The Terlingua Steel frame will include Astral Outback Wheels and components from other Bikepacking Roots Sponsors White Industries, Shimano, Old Man Mountain and Paul Components. Find out how you can win it below!
Radar
The People and Bikes Behind Rodeo Adventure Labs
To compliment Hailey Moore’s Shop Visit with Rodeo Adventure Labs, we’re sharing the people—and bikes!—behind the Denver-based company. Rodeo is known for going all-out on custom builds and paint schemes for its customers, but the staff bikes pictured here might be some of the most expressive we’ve seen from the brand yet.
Reportage
Sturdy Cycles Cilla Gravel Bike Review: Living with an X-Wing
What makes you smile while riding a bike? This question, and many more, brought our European correspondent – and big-time Star Wars aficionado – Petor Georgallou to purchase a Sturdy Cycles Cilla gravel bike (£8000) last year that he’s now dubbed an X-Wing. Did this futuristic titanium rebel alliance fighter-of-choice live up to his expectations? Read on to find out…