The Radavist

In the short time that Chumba found a new home outside of Austin, they’ve been pushing hard on expanding their made in Texas frame catalog. With rowdy hardtails, 29+ and finally, a full fatbike, the brand has something for everything from bikepacking to daily trail riding. Their first full fat platform bike, the Ursa Major has landed and it’s one of the most surprising fatties I’ve ridden.

Austin isn’t exactly ideal stomping grounds for a fatbike. Not a straight out of the box kit anyway. Once you dial in your tire and rim selection, go tubeless and can achieve the much-needed traction for both loose corners and slick limestone, you’re good to go. Getting that tire pressure right is crucial, especially with a suspension fork. That takes a little bit of trial and error and a few trialside adjustments. In my experience anyway.

What Morgan touched on with his Ice Cream Truck and RockShox Bluto review applies here. While a lot of what he was talking about in his review was foreign to me at the time, even after just a single afternoon on the Ursa Major I began to understand his points.

Futurism and the Specialized Enduro Expert Carbon 29
Words by Kyle Von Hoetzendorff, photos by Ethan Furniss

Before we begin let me give you a little background about who I am and how I found myself writing this review. I grew up in Bishop, CA. I raced mountain bikes there as a kid. Then I stopped, the reason is a tired story, and one that you have most likely heard before, it has to do with hormones, cars, beers, and girls. When I moved to Santa Barbara, CA to attend college and I started working at a shop called Velo Pro. This is where I started riding downhill bikes. Then I stopped, did some rock climbing, school, babe chasing, etc. A decade ago I moved to Portland, OR and once again I found myself at a shop, working at the Fat Tire Farm and riding downhill bikes. This is where it gets interesting. First came seat droppers and with it a yearn to explore more trails. I started riding trail bikes, then picked up riding road bikes and cross bikes. For the past three years I worked for Chris King, and my job gave me the chance to ride a wide variety of bikes. Through mutual friends and shared adventures John and I became friends and I have been lucky to post a couple rides and adventurers all the while sharing with him some of my favorite MTB videos and articles from around the web. It turned out that John needed a bike reviewed, so here I am. Lets get started.

Todd from Black Cat Bicycles knows a thing or two about mountain bikes. Living in Santa Cruz provides a more than ideal testing ground for everything related to dirt. Over the years, he’s dialed in the geometry on his hardtails and recently, this process culminated in what he’s dubbed the Thunder Monkey.

A few months back, Todd emailed me asking if I wanted to review a production bike he was making. His description was right up my alley “slack and low 29r with a tight rear end.” Some time passed and this incredible frame showed up at Mellow Johnny’s to be built up with various SRAM and RockShox products.

Since then, I’ve been putting this bike through the hell that is Central Texas limestone. How does a bike designed to conquer Santa Cruz bide in Texas? Damn well. Check out more below.

Apologies for double-dipping in Bontrager today!

It’s been torrentially downpouring for the past few weeks in Austin, which flushes those dirt-obsessed back onto the roadways. My MTBs are gathering dust and yet my Argonaut Cycles road bike has been incredibly happy. Coincidentally, we did a photoshoot here in Texas Hill Country with Bontrager last week, which left me with a set of the new Aeolus 3 TLR wheels to review. So now it’s got a new pump and new shoes to skate around town on.

There’s a lot of made in the USA goodness going on. Check out more below.

The first ride on a custom bike is one of the best feelings in the world. At least to cyclists. Every pedal stroke, every turn, you form the beginnings of a new relationship with a machine that will hopefully one day take you to your dream landscape or roadscape.

For Sean from Team Dream Team, his Stinner hardtail has been in a shop since Sea Otter, getting everything dialed in for riding. When your dream bike is the poster child for a company like Mavic, sometimes it comes down to the wire and “the functioning build” is actually more of a “photoshoot-ready build.”

Anyway I’m in LA, stressed from being on the road, shooting photos and trying to maintain sanity but on Monday, I cracked. I needed to ride. I too have a new MTB and I wanted to shake it down some mountains and splash some sand across its powdercoat. Sean and I dipped out on responsibility, in a fuck-work kind of way and pedaled our way up to Brown, to hit one of my favorite descents in the area, El Prieto.

It happened to be at sunset and guess what? It’s LA, the weather was perfect. The dirt was dry, the poison oak was parched but on-trail adjustments were made resulting in a perfect shred sled sess…

Drew from Engin Cycles is a wizard of custom mountain bike framebuilding. Over the years, he has built some of the most dialed titanium bikes I’ve seen. It doesn’t matter if it’s a rowdy hardtail with 140mm of travel up front, or a snappy, steep XC race machine to tear the field apart, what Engin offers to their customers is custom, performance machinery.

So where does a 29+ rigid mountain frame come into play? It’s not exactly performance, but it does offer up a unique problem solving opportunity. One that Drew couldn’t pass up.

Tyler’s bike utilizes Paragon’s 29+ yoke to ensure chainring and tire clearances. The rigid steel fork is painted with cerakote, as are the frame accents and Tyler chose a mix of X9 cranks, XX1 rear mech and XTR brakes, with a Stan Hugo up front and a Blunt SS on the rear. The Groovy bars really just add the icing on the cake for me.

Fatter tires at a low pressure are perfect for Austin’s Greenbelt trails, which offer a rocky, rooty and sometimes slick environment. Tyler’s been vibing with this bike all spring and is sold!

See more for yourself in the Gallery.

Now, I’ll admit that the Yo Eddy! 29’r had me pretty stoked but I was more drawn to the 27.5″ version. Not that the 29’r doesn’t look like a great bike, it was just missing something… Something signature and iconically Chris Chance.

Segmented forks made the older Yo Eddy! frames in my opinion and after seeing the rigid 27.5 version at NAHBS, I knew what was missing with the 29r. My rigid Indy Fab was modeled after the old Yo Eddy! frames and it’s long been my favorite MTB. It has an iconic look that feels very Somerville.

Personally, if I were to buy a new Yo Eddy! frame, I would spring for the rigid fork option. Just look at that damn bike! It’s a perfect balance of modern components with just the right amount of throwback style. The build kit rounds out functionality nicely with XTR, a dropper post, brand spankin’ new WTB carbon rims, White Industries hubs and those nice n plump WTB 2.25″ Trail Boss tires.

While the 29r could tackle my local trails with ease, this rigid would make things a lot more interesting. Then, when your wrists and back start hurting, throw a Rock Shox on it and jam on.

Like the big brother of this frame, this one’s a prototype. Custom drawn stays are on the way and the geometry might take a bit of tweaking. Hopefully, me and Mr Yo Eddy! can spend some quality trail time together soon. Keep up to date on all things at Fat Chance Bicycles.

Contrary to popular belief, you can shred a 29r – even a XC race-ready 29r. Those big wheels have a bit of a stigma attached to them and while they may not be as flickable as popular opinion would suggest, there’s a lot to be said about a lightweight rig being just as happy on flat as it is with a bit of rubber side up action.

Santa Cruz has kind of neglected their Highball over the years, not intentionally, but with the popularity of their Nomad, Bronson and even the Tallboy, they’ve been busy working on their all-mountain and trail bikes, while leaving the Highball sitting in the corner – void of dunce hat at least.

While the main silhouette of this bike reads the same – hey, it’s a hardtail, how different can it really be? – the Highball got a revamp from the ground up, including a new 27.5 wheelsize – more on that to come. For now, let’s just look at the 29r…

With special emphasis on hard tail… This Mosaic MT1 is unique.

Kyle’s no stranger to xc racing. He’s competed in – and won – a number of state and regional championships and has been climbing the ranks of the local race series. The angles on this bike are very XC-race specific (72.5 STA 70.5 HTA) and the parts were specified for, you guess it, racing. Just look at that cassette. That’s how someone who usually races singlespeed in the geared category – and wins – specs a cassette.

Sure, the 3T bars are a bit narrow by today’s standards, but as a XC racer, Kyle knows exactly what he wants. Take for example, the detail that stands out the most, the integrated seat post, something you don’t often see in a MTB. In fact, Mosaic doesn’t traditionally make ISPs on their mountain frames and for good reason. If you hit a drop and land on the saddle awkwardly, you could kink or worse, break it.

Prior to building the bike, Aaron from Mosaic double checked that Kyle knew what he was doing. From there, the seat tube was reinforced and Kyle’s bike was ready to go. I love the curves and tubing diameter of titanium mountain bikes and this hard, hardtail has got to be one of the more unique custom frames I’ve shot this year.

In Austin, Mosaic Cycles can be ordered through Austin Bikes.

This past weekend, some buddies and I went on a little camping trip. Some of us had to be back in town the following day, while others went on through Monday. The lucky bastards… One of the early returnees, along with me, was Jonathan. It was his first camping trip here in Austin, since recently relocating from Omaha, so we wanted it to be a good one.

There’s more to come on the ride itself (oh and it was a good one), but I thought I’d take a minute to feature his rather unique Surly Disc Trucker…

I’ve ridden my share of 29’rs and up until recently, I was sold that the Tallboy and Tallboy LTC had the market cornered as far as geometry is concerned. Now, let me say that I’m an enthusiastic reviewer and that can be a double edged sword at times. I’d also note that I don’t particularly like doing reviews, not because they’re not fun, but I couldn’t really care for technical adverbage.

That said, I can tell naunces in geometry and component groups quite well and when something’s good, it’s good. Also, believe me, when it’s bad, it’s bad.

Luckily for me – yay new review bike – I’ve been in absolute love with the new S-Works Stumpjumper FSR EVO 29 – which has been replaced by the standard FSR 29 – and who wouldn’t be? This is a 29’r fans dream bike. Once you strip away the plush, crispness of XX1, the tunability and stability of the Rock Shox PIKE and the Fox Float rear shock, you’re left with one crucial element: geometry…

Turner’s CZAR XC Lightweight Race 29r MTB
Words by Sean Talkington, photos by John Watson

I spent the last few weeks getting to know the Turner Czar and rode it just about everyday while in Austin post-Interbike. John had invited me to fly out on his private jet – the Jetavist. Our plan was just to chill and launch water balloons at Lance Armstrong’s house from his adjacent mansion (they’re neighbors you know). This was an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up, but when we tried to pay the pilot with “internet dollars” he declined, so we were forced to drive out in an old pickup truck instead.

David Turner has been building legit metal bikes in the USA for 20 years now. He and his wife both ride/race regularly. The fact that he has been both building and riding for so long and is actually conducting R&D on his own products is apparent in the ride quality. If you talk to anyone that owns a Turner, they will tell you how great the ride is. Now he is offering carbon models like the Czar to keep pace with the current trend of making featherweight xc bikes.

This bike was perfect for Austin, TX. The place is basically one giant rock! You don’t really “feel” the rear suspension until you need it, which is nice. That paired with the fact that this bike weighs in at less then most hardtails and has two bottle cage mounts (why are people still making xc bikes w/ one cage mount!!!) makes it a perfect bike for long days and mixed terrain combined. It goes over rough sections effortlessly, yet climbs with ease… especially in the chunky stuff.

I’m no rocket ship down the super steep technical stuff, so it was easy to become a fan of the slacker head tube that this bike offers. The 69.8 degree angle makes steep downhill sections feel noticeably more comfortable than a bike with a more aggressive set up. The Turner sizing on this model is also shorter then most other brands. The Czar I was riding was listed as a medium, but felt more like a small/medium (smedium).

This made the bike feel more maneuverable and agile for quick or technical punchy climbs and switchbacks, but I did have to ride a 100mm stem. The demo I road had some skinny pizza cutter Schwalbe tires that would be better suited for a cross bike, but if you swapped those out for something a bit meatier and maybe even throw in a dropper post I think you could ride this bike just about anywhere.

For more information, including purchasing, build options and just plain browsing, head over to Turner Bikes.

*Photographer’s note: We haven’t had much sun at “golden hour” in Austin and it was raining when we shot these photos. That said, the photos don’t do this bike’s finish justice. It really looks great in the sun!
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