The Radavist

When I first heard about the Colorado Trail Race I was in fact riding part of the route, albeit one of the least engaging stretches. It was just ten days after I’d raced my bike for 200mi in Kansas and I’d been overly optimistic about my recovery when I’d agreed to a four-day tour from my home in Boulder through the South Platte (and on through Summit County) with my partner Tony.

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!

The often overlooked Chiricahua Mountains sit between Las Cruces and Tucson. Sitting on the edges of the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts, the range boasts incredible scenery and biodiversity. Spencer and some buds spent a long weekend bike camping around the Chiricahua mountains. Check out one of the most underrated areas in Southern Arizona and all it has to offer.

In September, Emil Carr-Ross became the first and only woman to finish the second edition of L’Esperit de Girona, the solo unsupported off-road bikepacking event held in Catalonia. She completed the 800km course in 8 days, 11 hours and 10 minutes. It was her first-ever ultra-distance event. Carr-Ross is also one of the few trans athletes competing in ultra-cycling. A few weeks after the event, she talked through her ride, her work for a refugee cycling charity in Glasgow, and her experiences as a trans athlete in the sport. Read all about it below…

Located in a commonly overlooked corner of the United States, there is a place with endless gravel roads and trails. A region with an incredibly vast network that can be linked through systems of singletrack and small towns. A land where flowing water and spring-fed lakes abound. With prime fall color promised, Josh Uhl makes a last-minute trip to the lesser-known ATB paradise that is Wisconsin to ride the 360-mile Tour de Nicolet and reconnect with the place he found bikes to begin with…

While winter has already set in over in Colorado’s San Juan Mountains, Todd Gillman and a troop of friends snuck in one last hurrah of the year, a two-day leaf peep bike tour to circumnavigate Mt. Wilson while the leaves were still poppin’. Read on for Todd’s lively route description and file this instant backcountry classic away for next year—you won’t soon forget Aaron LaVanchy‘s stunning photo set…

After getting acquainted with Mongolia during a big loop through the Altai Mountains to start his trip, Ryan Wilson was intent on riding as far east as he could, with the ultimate goal of reaching the capital city of Ulaanbaatar. A 550-kilometer track from Brigitte & Ivo over at bikepackground.com looked like a promising guide. After enjoying the luxuries of Khovd for a few days, Ryan set off into the arid expanse toward the Zavkhan province, retracing their steps through the land that connects the Gobi Desert with the Khangai Mountains. 

What does it mean to ride the 3,300-mile spine of the Continental Divide, from the Canadian to Mexican border across the United States? Very few people can say, but Kurt Refsnider can now count himself among them. In his fourth installment from the Continental Divide Trail, Kurt writes about the final miles through a geologist’s lens and how New Mexico held just as much resistance as it did enchantment.

Founded in the college town of Tempe, AZ, State Bicycle Company started out selling affordable fixed-gear bikes and geared townies for college students and commuters. In their ten years of mostly direct-to-consumer bike business since, State has grown exponentially and now occupies a large warehouse/office in downtown Phoenix where they store and ship hundreds of bikes each month. While the brand still focuses on affordability and accessibility, its product offerings have expanded to include: lightweight road bikes, steel gravel bikes, coaster brake cruisers, electric bikes, apparel, and accessories. One bike in their lineup caught my attention a while back, the 4130 All-Road. Positioned as a versatile and well-equipped steel adventure bike, the 4130 fits 700c or 650b wheels with ample tire clearance, accepts drop or flat bars, boasts plenty of accessory mounts, and is designed around a comfortable geometry—for only $899!

In early 2022, State launched the 4130 All-Road with a SRAM Rival XPLR eTap AXS build kit for $1,999 and, if you were a prospective customer watching State’s website, you’d have noticed they sold out fast and have seen limited restocks. During that fleeting window of availability, I got my hands on one for this review and, over the past six months, have been logging long gravel rides, some singletrack shreds, and daily commutes. Continue reading for my thoughts on this capable machine…

Travis and Josh are back today with their third and final report from the 2023 Sea Otter Classic. Continue reading below for another installment of interesting bikes, products, and people from the show, in addition to a mega gallery of images from the three days of sun, fog, rides, and wild times at Laguna Seca Raceway. Did they save the best for last? Read on to find out!

With a Christmas trip to visit family in Argentina on the calendar, Fernando and Mica decided they couldn’t not bring bikes. After getting over the hurdles of traveling to another hemisphere with gear in tow, the couple found more challenges in the riding than they’d expected. In fact many of their highlights of the trip—including being amongst the celebratory crowds that flooded the streets of Rosario when Argentina won the World Cup—came from their time off the bike. So, was it worth hauling their gravel rigs all the way down there? Read on to find out…

The Huracan 300 ain’t no trip to Disney World. Born from over 15 years of local land protection advocacy and route development, this 370+ mile bikepacking event showcases the finest, and sometimes forgotten, backcountry of central Florida. After making the voyage to the start line four times, Andy Karr writes about the routes’ rugged appeal and how it came to be.

In early 2022, Wisconsin-based bike rack manufacturer 1UP USA purchased Recon Racks and began offering the Recon 5 and Recon 6 for, you guessed it, carrying five and six bikes respectively on a single vehicle. With attractive features such as no frame/fork contact with the rack, off-road rating, Smooth Pivot recline, and accommodation for a variety of tire and bike sizes, our interest was piqued. Josh has been testing a Recon 5 for the better part of a year, taking it everywhere from Arizona’s remote forest roads to local shuttle runs and cross-country road trips. 1UP also recently redesigned their RakAttach swing-out adapter, which Josh has been using in tandem with the Recon. Continue reading below for a full rundown on these new offerings from 1UP…

Growing up in a small South African town in the late 80s and early 90s meant David Mercer was largely shielded from the travesties of the apartheid era. But in 1994, in a coincidental coming-of-age historical convergence, the status quo was cracked open, not just for Mercer but for the whole country. The same year he turned 16, South Africa officially ended apartheid as the country held its first democratic elections. At this point, Mercer was well enmeshed in his love affair with bikes, having grown up a young BMX ripper but becoming fully infatuated with mountain biking as a teen. Many youthful afternoons spent pouring over bicycle magazines like MB UK and Mountain Bike Action led him to develop a fast fascination with steel-wielding magicians like Dave Yates and Chas Roberts and were responsible for his own framebuilding aspirations. However, the end of apartheid brought a wave of foreign frames as longtime sanctions were finally lifted. This swift influx quickly decimated the local steel bicycle manufacturing industry and a deflated Mercer went on to become a veterinarian. The dream of bikes was always there, simmering in the background, but it would be nearly a decade-and-a-half before he’d pick up a torch himself.