The Radavist

Zach Weiss of Zabrina Cycles shares the story of how his apprenticeship at Caletti Cycles grew into a deep professional and personal mentorship after John Caletti suffered a life-altering bike accident. As the torch is passed, both figuratively and literally, the student reflects on how his teacher’s influence shaped his path as a framebuilder and as a person. Take a look behind the welding helmet with Zach…

What happens when a logo flip sticker becomes a sorta serious part-time hustle alongside a full-time hustle of slingin’ pots from the edge of the Great Basin Desert? You get Campandgoslow, a brand for which our readership needs no introduction. When Cari and John were meandering back to Santa Fe from the MADE Bike Show, they dropped into the Campandgoslow HQ. While there, John got a sneak peek at the new Campandgoslow Trout Bar Tape, released today, and some of Casey’s personal bikes. Check out this inside look into your favorite bar tape brand below…

On his way to last month’s MADE bike show in Portland, OR, following a weekend in Fairfax, CA, for our premier of the Camera Corner documentary, Josh spent an afternoon with long-time friends of the site – artist Chris McNally and designer Jessica Chan of Tunitas Creative – and documented their collaboration on this month’s Group Ride giveaway item.

Below, get to know the San Francisco-based artist/designers and take a detailed look at making one-of-a-kind Day Totes up for grabs this month for Group Ride subscribers, as well as $150 gift cards from our friends at Ripton.

John and Cari were in Melbourne for a few days following the 2024 MADE Australia showcase, which gave them some free time to visit a couple of shops, one of which was Prova Cycles.

Nestled inside this compact factory, siblings Mark and Kelly Hester build some of the most advanced bikes in the world. This two-person team has optimized production over the past four years, and it’s something to behold…

Earlier this month, Josh stopped over in Paris, France, following his time in the UK covering Bespoked Handmade Bike Show. During his visit to the City of Lights, he visited multiple bike shops and fabricators. First up in a series of reports from his time there, Josh checks in with Marie and Laurent of Avalanche Cycles, who take an innovative approach to building bicycles and components from steel, stainless, and titanium.

Learn more about this duo of French builders below!

Many bike tinkerers often have an overlapping interest in cars. For those of you in this sliver of the Venn Diagram, Paul Kalifatidi presents the Radical Rigs series. Like the bikes you’ve seen on The Radavist, these cars might be perfect. They also might be so far from perfection that they go full circle and become that which they meant to eschew. They might be dented and dinged, they might be muddy and mad, they might even just be rad. In part one of Radical Rigs, Paul juxtaposes Dillen Maurer‘s Baphomet Bikes “Fall Risk” custom full suspension and his “Lil Jim” 1992 Suzuki…

While our favorite stories are always ride and event coverage, people love flocking to The Radavist for our opinion on products. We view ourselves as the bike industry’s press corps, offering nuanced takes on hot items each year, while pushing back ever so slightly on the long arm of the industry’s marketing. This year, we cracked a lot of hard nuts but walked away with some compelling products—some of which deserve extra recognition—all while deciphering the world of bikes we know and love, and penning opinion pieces that garnered lots of eyes throughout the past twelve months.

Let’s check out The Radavist Product Awards and our Top 10 Articles of 2023 below!

While Curtis Inglis from Retrotec Cycles was in Santa Fe, John took along a camera for some of their rides and documented Curtis’ new twin top tube Funduro. This 140mm-travel hardtail 29er is one that Curtis built for himself to display at the 2023 MADE bike show and was the perfect choice for sampling Santa Fe’s side country riding.

Curtis and his bike undertook one of the more technical rides in the Southern Rockies, and John was there to document it all. Check out a stunning gallery of the bike and the singletrack that makes Santa Fe such a great MTB destination below!