The Dust-Up: Bikepacking is Not Bike Touring No Matter the Bags Used or Terrain Traversed

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The Dust-Up: Bikepacking is Not Bike Touring No Matter the Bags Used or Terrain Traversed

Welcome to the second installment of The Dust-Up. This will be a semi-regular platform for Radavist editors and contributors to make bold, sometimes controversial claims about cycling. A way to challenge long-held assumptions that deserve a second look. Sometimes they will be global issues with important far-reaching consequences; other times, they will shed light on little nerdy corners of our world that don’t get enough attention. This week, John looks at a divisive topic through a historical lens to lay it all out in a column called: “Bike Touring is Not Bikepacking No Matter the Bags Used or Terrain Traversed.”

Read our latest edition of The Dust Up below…

First Ride Review: SRAM’s New Eagle Transmission and Stealth Brake Collection

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First Ride Review: SRAM’s New Eagle Transmission and Stealth Brake Collection

After months of leaks, spottings, and speculation, SRAM unveiled their newest wireless mountain groupset, Eagle Transmission, along with a collection of Stealth Brakes. This hefty product launch encompasses derailleurs, cranksets, cassettes, shift controllers, and more across XX SL Eagle, XX Eagle, and XO Eagle levels along with power meter and e-bike-specific components. SRAM also released an all-new Stealth lever body for their Level and Code brake lineup. As such there’s a lot to unpack here, which we expect to dive deeper into during the next few months of Transmission-equipped bike reviews. Today, however, let’s take a look at product highlights and some initial thoughts about these new components after a few rides on a Santa Cruz Megatower test bike that SRAM sent us a couple of weeks ago.

Eric’s Raw and Rusted 1985 Bridgestone MB-2 Wigsplitter

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Eric’s Raw and Rusted 1985 Bridgestone MB-2 Wigsplitter

I found this Bridgestone MB-2 as a complete on Marketplace in December of 2021. It’s January of 2023 and I’ve just wrapped up the build. The time in between was spent having some frame modifications made, aging the frame, making custom head badges and acquiring various components. Once I had my parts, the build should have only taken about a day but stretched into a week as I inched along with minor changes. The final outcome, though, is better than I could have hoped!

The Radavist’s Top Ten Readers’ Rides of 2022

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The Radavist’s Top Ten Readers’ Rides of 2022

We first began featuring Reader’s Rides back in 2011; since then these part-review, part-vignette reader submissions have become a beloved weekly fixture here on The Radavist. This year’s Top Ten Readers’ Rides feature both brand new builds and older frames full of stories that have been given new life. As always they are 100% audience-submitted and the builds highlighted here were chosen based on web traffic and engagement. We love receiving submissions each week so if you have been on the fence about submitting your ride, perhaps this list will motivate you to break out the camera and show off your rig. Read on for some choice submissions from 2022…

The Radavist’s Top Ten Beautiful Bicycles of 2022

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The Radavist’s Top Ten Beautiful Bicycles of 2022

We’d like to think we’re pretty alright at photographing bikes over here at The Radavist. The steeds we choose to document reflect our audience’s preferences and capture distinct trends in bicycle design. Yet, each year as we reflect on all the builds that have rolled through this cyber showroom, we’re always surprised to see what the Top Ten list reveals. This year, we’ve got a good mix of bikes, outfitted with flat and droopy bars, running rubber across the size spectrum, and made of steel, aluminum and yes, even carbon. Let’s get to it!