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Esker Cycles’ Lorax is back and better than ever. The 2024 Esker Cycles Lorax Titanium is a boost drop bar MTB, with touring accouterments, and a 120 mm suspension corrected fork, designed for long-distance touring and adventure riding. Let’s take a closer look…
The Reaper lineup of bikes from Rocky Mountain utilizes many of the brand’s popular features from its adult-sized siblings but in smaller versions for growing younger riders. Featuring dialed kinematics and adjustable RIDE-9 geometry, the Reapers–which include 24″, 26″, and 27.5″ wheeled models–are designed as ripping platforms for kids with the same Rocky Mountain DNA as the rest of the storied Canadian brand’s lineup.
Last year, Josh brought in a Reaper 26 for his now twelve-year-old son Holden to ride on their loose and chunky southern Arizona trails. Holden also used the bike to race his first XC season with the Arizona Cycling Association’s Youth Development League.
If you have a young rider at home and are curious how this bike fit, handled, and held up for Holden over nearly nine months of extended use (and abuse), continue reading below…
Seeds of inspiration come from many places, people, and times in your life. Fyxo’s latest project was a trinity of such influences fused into one. Combining inspiration from Speedvagen, an old Shogun MTB, and MAD MAX to create his custom rusty Surly Krampus for Melburn Roobaix.
From snow to sand, wildflowers, and close encounters with a rattlesnake, John’s been putting the Cotic FlareMAX Gen5 through the wringer for his in-depth review on this made-in-the-UK short(er) travel, metal full-suspension bike. Read on for his full take on how less is more with the FlareMAX’s design below…
When downcountry isn’t enough, and all-mountain is too much, there’s probably no safer bet than a 140 mm bike like the new 2024 Canyon Spectral. But that’s the problem. These are not precision instruments, nor are they unstoppable eaters of worlds. To stand out, a 140 bike has to either cast a very wide net or have some very clever tricks up its sleeve. After a couple months with the new Spectral, Travis discovered it does a little of both.
The most fun addition to any bike? Ask Colt Fetters and the answer is unquestionably a dropper post. He’d argue that droppers are more fun than suspension, fancy wheels, and wireless shifting, because getting the saddle out of the way is key to maneuvering a mountain bike to its fullest potential. But for multi-day riding, running a dropper can present logistical challenges. In the following roundup, Colt reviews seven dropper-post compatible seat bags to ensure that you don’t have to compromise carrying capacity in exchange for confident descending on multi-day mountain biking missions.
Nick’s titanium Sycip hardtail has been on our list to document for some time. On his April road trip to Sea Otter, John crashed in the driveway at his buddy Nick‘s house while he visited shops and builders in the area. After a particularly epic afternoon of riding in Annadel State Park, he grabbed Nick’s beautiful Sycip for some photos. This bike isn’t your ordinary Sycip and Nick ain’t your ordinary guy. Let’s see why below…
The Radavist thanks 1-Up USA for sponsoring our Sea Otter Classic 2024 coverage!
Josh and John were at Sea Otter Classic this week, covering people, products, and bikes on display. We’ve pulled together a few über galleries for your enjoyment, so let’s get into Part 02!
Framework Bicycles turns blocks of aluminum and spools of carbon into one-off custom bikes where obsessive precision and iteration becomes rideable art. In this long-term, long form Framework Bicycles review, Morgan Taylor details the experience of designing and riding their custom road bike. Did they strike the perfect balance, or produce their own Homer car?
We talk a lot about the early klunkers, from Breezers to Cunninghams and Ritcheys, but what about the very first MTBs in the US, the coaster cruisers, aka mountain cruisers? These esoteric singlespeeds rely on a coaster brake hub to control their speed and were adapted from old Schwinn newspaper bikes.
Read on as John reviews his coaster cruiser, a Monē Bikes Small Batch Straight Bar, aka the SB2. These bikes are the simplest mountain bike you can ride: No hand brakes. No gears. Big bars. Balloon tires. This is peak coaster cruiser!
Tall as this bike may be it’s not a traditional tall bike, and although it was made by Adam Sklar, it’s not a traditional Sklar. Jarrod Bunk couldn’t resist getting a few snaps of Ben and his quirky not-tall bike at this year’s Mid South. Let’s take a closer look…
Rounding out our 2024 2024 Philly Bike Expo coverage by Brad Quartuccio, we have four phenomenal bikes from the Diversity Scholarship winners, ARTEFACT, Básica Estudio, Shovel Research, and Significant Other, all of which brought very unique and awe-inspiring work. We’re elated to feature some high res images of these on the web! Let’s check them out.
Apologies for the delay in delivering this week’s Readers’ Rides, but as you can see, it’s a special one. Tandems are often called “relationship accelerators,” particularly when it comes to tandem mountain bikes! Laura and Tree had Curtis from Retrotec Cycles build them something special… so let’s get to it.
Yes, Travis calls the $3,300 YT Jeffsy Core 2 “budget.” Maybe because it’s so good at so many things that the net bang/buck ratio is off the charts.
Not too many people have ridden the Colorado Trail on a fat bike. But Jason Winkler has. Hailey Moore shares a Q&A with the maker behind Spruce Cycles and his race-spec 2016 Salsa Beargrease.
We must say that one bike model pops up more than any other: the Specialized RockHopper. These readily available bikes are frequently customized, and Chris from Minneapolis shared a great one with us this week! Let’s check it out.
The Swoop is Starling Cycles‘ versatile single-pivot steel full-suspension bike designed for 27.5 wheels. With its adjustable shock mounts, the Swoop can be set in “Trail” mode with 130 mm of rear travel or “Enduro” with 160 mm. Partners Alex and Nikki each have Swoops in respective enduro and trail modes that they’ve been riding for some time now. Below, they share a review of both iterations of this adaptable built-in-UK platform from one of our favorite bike makers…
Today, we’ve got a fine selection of used goods from the Rad Bazaar, our Group Ride subscribers‘ selling platform, featuring some unique offerings. Let’s check it all out!
