The Radavist

When I say Cervelo, chances are your mind doesn’t jump right to off-road bike like the Áspero and that’s why we wanted to review it…

After finishing up his second big tour across the Andes, Ryan Wilson heads to the rugged terrain and clear blue waters of Crete.  Follow along as he gets a taste of the life and riding on Greece’s largest and most mountainous island.

Having fallen in love with cycling as a teenager while living in Namibia for a stint in the 90s, Capetonian Stan Engelbrecht has been dreaming about spending more and more time riding through the desolate desert terrain and finding creative ways to make it happen. Join Engelbrecht and a cast of characters for a bike overlanding trip through the austere Namibian landscape… 

In addition to having perhaps the best name in cycling, Watts Dixon is also the proprietor of Revolution Cycles in Greensboro, North Carolina. Nestled along an unassuming and quiet street in a somewhat unassuming and quiet town, Revolution Cycles stands out for its quirky, irreverent posture and the community that’s been built around it. In this, the final installment of a three-part shop visit series in his home state of North Carolina, Andy Karr drops in on Watts Dixon at Revolution Cycles in Greensboro. We love bike shops with personality here, and Revolution Cycles most certainly has it in abundance.

After having owned his Leica M10 camera for over seven years, John felt like it was about time he penned a review for our latest installation of The Radavist’s Obscura series…

To wrap up our Year in Review posts, here are the picks for the 2024 Radavist Product Awards.

Radical Atavism is all about telling stories, and we love to tell stories about the people who bring unique color and character to the world of cycling. Reportage is where our passion lies – but sometimes along the way, we get to try out and test a lot of innovative bikes and bike-related products. We pour our creative energy into our reviews and over the years, we’ve established a reputation for publishing thoughtful and well-researched opinions on products.

This year, we found flaws, offered our unvarnished takes, and fell in love with a lot of products, all while deciphering the world of bikes we know and love. Some of these products deserve some extra recognition as we bid adieu to 2024.

Let’s check out ten cool things that made it to The 2024 Radavist Product Awards, marked by our Mauve Sandstone Toad below!

Our review of the Raised Reversed stem will not be a normal review. Normal reviews rarely have to overcome such a mountain of very hasty (but very reasonable) skepticism around their products. And those products are rarely so intimately connected with their designer.

Travis brought some of that skepticism to this review, but he also spent a lot of time with that designer. And the experience fundamentally changed the way he thinks about bikes. Needless to say, that’s more than we can put into a review, even if it isn’t a normal one. If you’ve still got questions after reading it, please drop them in the comments.

For the Top Ten Beautiful Bicycles of 2024 we looked at pageviews, comments, and social media chatter from twelve months of content to determine what bikes best represent a calendar year at The Radavist. Then, to up the ante this year, we’ve included our Handmade Showcase Awards, featuring bikes from the OZ/US MADE Bike Show and UK/DE Bespoked. Let’s get to it!

Each year, our staff takes on dozens of bike reviews, testing out what the bike industry is offering in various taxonomies. From carbon fiber full suspension bikes to small batch fillet brazed drop bar bikes and everything in between. The Radavist’s Top Ten Bike Reviews both paint a picture of what our audience wants to see and what our eclectic group of authors likes to ride.

We rank our Top Ten lists by views, comments, and social media chatter, distilling the metrics into an easy-to-digest cross-section analysis based on twelve months of web traffic and industry-leading independent Reportage. Furthermore, each of these Bike Reviews ranks at the very top of Google search results.

Without further ado, let’s check out the Top Ten Bike Reviews of 2024 in descending order below!

Veteran mountain bike journalist Bob Allen takes us Inside / Out at Exposure Lights, a UK lighting company based in West Sussex. Read on for a brand background and deep dive into what it takes to make industry-leading cycling illumination…

The updated Singular Cycles Kite Titanium is an evolution of the original steel Kite, one of the first gravel bikes to accommodate large tires. Like, really large tires. While the titanium frameset has remained a popular option in Singular’s catalog, the UK-based brand just launched a revised version that features an entirely new titanium fork with 3D-printed crown and UDH-compatible rear dropouts.

Josh, who is consistently interested in testing chubby tire gravel bikes in his home turf of southern Arizona, spotted a prototype Kite Titanium earlier this year at the MADE show. That particular Kite happened to be Singular owner Sam Alison’s personal build, and he let Josh keep it in the U.S. for a couple of months before sending it back across the Atlantic. Read on below for Josh’s impressions of the quick and capable Singular Kite.

Finishing up his bike tour from Colombia to Santiago de Chile, Ryan Wilson rides through the arid countryside of Argentina’s San Juan Province in his latest installment from the Andes Mountains.  Read on for a glimpse into the local traditions and stunning scenery that this region has to offer…

Aday Palmero, one of the voices behind the podcast La Escapada Cultura Ciclista, chronicles a weeklong cycling journey from Madrid shared by several friends who seek to travel by bike and disconnect from the world and everyday life. Tomás Montes captures the Spanish countryside in a photoset that beautifully illustrates the trip.  

Micah Ling takes us along for the adventure through southern Arizona with Lael Wilcox and 60 women for the Komoot Women’s Arizona Rally. The 8-day loop included Mount Lemmon, Patagonia, Ruby Road, and endless highlights not on any map. Check out her recap, Ashley Gruber’s photos, and some testimonials below…