Our Radar Roundup compiles products and videos from the ‘net in an easy-to-digest format. Read on below for today’s findings…
“fat bike”
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Radar
Hot Items in the Rad Bazaar: Ritchey, LOW, Steve Rex, Fat Chance, Marin, Mone, and More!
If you aren’t checking the Rad Bazaar–our private buy/sell/trade forum open for Group Ride members–every day, you might be missing out on some bizarre items. Our Acid Jackal went wild and picked out a selection of sweet bikes to share with you today, so check them out below!
Radar
A Multi-Bike Review of the Tumbleweed Big Dipper Drop Bars
Wide bars are becoming more and more prolific in the drop-bar MTB, touring bike, and even gravel bike subgenres. A craze that began with the Crust and Ron’s Bikes Towel Rack bars has now become widespread in the industry, with multiple brands putting their spin on an ultra-wide offering. Among these is Tumbleweed, who have worked to design a model suited for the Stargazer touring bike (one of my favorites in that subcategory of drop-bar bikes). Fittingly dubbed the Big Dipper Bars ($115), I’ve been stealthily test-riding them on two recent review bikes. I have some thoughts on the Big Dippers and the appropriate application for wide drop handlebars in general. Let’s check it out below!
Reportage
Bikes and More from the Chris King Open House 2023
With this year’s Chris King Open House coming right after the 2023 MADE Bike Show, the event decided to shift gears and focus on the Portland area’s outdoor brands. Chris King opened its doors to the public, unveiling the process that goes into machining bike parts in the USA, while inviting the broader outdoor industry to display their products. It was a full day of bikes and more! Check out our Reportage, sent in by Chris King and let us know your favorite bike in the comments!
Reportage
A Bike For A Raft: Musing On Sentimentality And Trading Gear
Many years ago my friend Tyler and I traded my Soma Sandworm for his Alpacka packraft. Both of us were ready for an upgrade in our respective realms, so we traded. Years later we now have these two items, which are so storied and niche, that we can’t let them go and even if we could, we’re not sure anyone would want them. Stuck as we are, let’s have story time and walk down memory lane.
Reportage
Fat Tires in a Skinny Frame: John’s 2012 Bruce Gordon Monster Cross
“It’s just a bike.” The late Bruce Gordon built bicycle frames to enhance his customers’ lives. Through all my interactions over the years, up until his passing in June of 2019, he would take praise for his work, but would always end the conversation with: “It’s just a bike.”
To talk about this bike in particular, you first have to know Bruce. Who he was, his ethos, the mythos, and what he brought to the “g” word: gravel. Bruce was making fat-tire road bikes for a long time. Long before many. He developed tires, toe clips, and helped foster an entire movement of makers in the Petaluma, California area and beyond.
But just like that, he was gone, and he left behind a legacy…
Radar
KEY Finds at the 2023 MADE Bike Show: A Bespoke Keychain Roundup
Our friend Paul Kalifatidi went to MADE and all he bought were keychains. Yep, keychains at a bike show. Continue reading below about these special finds and how they all stack up…
Reportage
A Familiar Feeling: A Review of the Sklar Bikes SuperSomething
Adam Sklar has been building custom bikes for close to a decade—and we’ve featured plenty of them on this site! But, in 2022 he decided to move production of a new model overseas to Taiwan. Dubbed the SuperSomething, this first production Sklar has road bike bones while still (subtly) paying homage to Adam’s mountain biking roots. Hailey Moore has been riding our signature Radavist edition SuperSomething all summer and, below, shares her review, along with insights into Adam’s design intent for this all-steel gravel bike.
Radar
The Radavist Not So Serious but Kind of Serious 2023 MADE Bike Show Awards
Best. Best. Best. All the subjectivity, all the time. The era of the NAHBS awards is long gone. No more medals given out to the same four people, year after year. Instead, we’re looking at the most subjective, most obscure, and most ridiculous to dish out a playful, in jest best list from our 2023 MADE Bike Show coverage. Read on below for the best road, best gravel, best mountain, and more…
Reportage
2023 MADE Bike Show Coverage: Part 7 – Ahearne, Blaze, Jeffrey Bock, MADE Moots, Montenegro Manufacturing, Pine, Simple, and Singular
Well, the time has come. This is our seventh and final 2023 MADE Bike Show gallery. We busted our tails to bring you the best coverage from the show. Josh and John scoured the halls of the show for bikes to document, and this last gallery is full of stunning bikes. Check out our selects below!
Thanks to 1-Up USA for sponsoring our continued 2023 MADE Bike Show coverage!
Reportage
2023 MADE Bike Show Coverage: Part 03 – Argonaut, Bantam, Destroy, Heavy, Ignite, No22, Onguza, Retrotec, Sim Works, and Wolfhound
We’re here in Portland, covering the 2023 MADE Bike Show, looking for bikes that we thought you, the readers of The Radavist would appreciate. Josh and John have been scouring the halls of the show for bikes to document, and we’ve got Part 03 of our coverage for you to enjoy…
Thanks to 1-Up USA for sponsoring our continued 2023 MADE Bike Show coverage!
Reportage
2023 MADE Bike Show Hype: Three Custom-Finished Stinner Tunnel Hardtail 29ers
On the cusp of this year’s MADE Bike show, we’re getting the hype train rolling early with a note from Aaron Stinner on the recent updates made to Stinner Frameworks’ mainstay hardtail, the Tunnel. Then we’ll take a look at three custom-finished Tunnels for three takes on this classic mid-travel 29er.
Radar
Radar Roundup: Outer Shell Randonneur Ultralight, Lithic Gravel and MTB Forks, Circles and Bassi Bikes, Sensus Crüe Pedals, and Jenn Jackson Floats
Our Radar Roundup compiles products and videos from the ‘net in an easy-to-digest format. Read on below for today’s findings…
Reportage
Lightfooted and Fancy: A Review and Debut of the New No. 22 Bicycle Company Drifter Adventure Gravel Road Bike
There’s no shortage of drop-bar, dirt-oriented, MUSA titanium frames to choose from these days. Yet, one company’s consistently impressive designs continue to stand out in this somewhat crowded market: No. 22. John got his hands on the latest member of No. 22’s Drifter family, the Drifter Adventure, which became his “get into shape” bike this spring and summer. After logging miles on his favorite loop in Santa Fe, he’s ready to discuss what makes No. 22 and this new Drifter Adventure so special.
Read on for a fat gallery full of details and scenery, and his review…
Radar
Bridging Community: Santa Fe Fat Tire Society Bridge Building Day
Like many towns along the Rocky Mountain corridor, Santa Fe has easy access to endless singletrack that spans many mountainous ecotones. You can pedal from town at 7000′ all the way above tree line to where our bike-legal trails top out at 12,500′, on almost exclusively singletrack.
This dense network of trails is stewarded by our local organization, the Santa Fe Fat Tire Society, and over the years, they’ve been putting in work adding new, legal trails, keeping the current trails running smoothly, cutting deadfall, fixing blown corners, and adding signage in a hope to bridge the various trail users in this community…
Reportage
Female Hygiene on a Bike: How to Prepare for a Multi-Day Journey
Cyclotourists, bikepackers, and other backcountry travelers love shaving down their gear to just the bare essentials, splitting toothbrushes in half, or rationing the squares of toilet paper with every wipe. But, when it comes to personal hygiene, I feel like I owe it to myself to splurge a little, given how much I put my body through day-in and day-out whilst on a long, multi-day journey.
It wasn’t until recently that I became aware of the lack of information around the topic of personal female hygiene and bikepacking. As I’ve been approached by more women with different questions on the subject over the years, I began to realize that there’s a need for this kind of information sharing, and that actually, there’s no distinctive guidance out there to help.
So, I want to share my knowledge and experience with the hope that it will help other riders better understand what female hygiene on a bike looks like. There’s no universal solution for everyone, and I can only speak from the anatomy that I know about, but perhaps you’ll find good tips and advice to integrate into future trips based on your needs.
Reportage
The Tour Divide on Fabric Spokes: Brian and His Rare Earth Cycle Craft Touring Bike
For framebuilders, there’s no better test for their product than a long bike tour. When I last saw Brian, he had just completed the Baja Divide on a bike he built. At the time, he had just left the outdoor industry and hoped to transition into building frames full-time under the Rare Earth Cycle Craft banner.
His hardtail was one of my favorite bikes I documented this year until I saw his Tour Divide bike…
Reportage
The Future of Mobility: Recapping Eurobike 2023 Part 2
Today, we continue Petor Georgallou‘s coverage of Eurobike 2023. In his second installment from this year’s convention, Petor looks at an ensemble of beautiful bikes, in addition to what Eurobike considers the future of mobility. While shocked at first, the more Petor peeled back the layers of what was on display, the more interested he became…