The Radavist

Teased in the Campandgoslow Shop Visit and Trout Tape post, John got to shoot Casey’s delicious rigid 29er klunker Manzanita Cycles mountain bike while visiting Great Basin Pottery in the foothills of the Easter Sierra. This bike is a perfect mix of vintage throwback and modern mixed-terrain sensibilities. Check out a detailed photo gallery below with words from the bar tape/potter Hemmingway, Casey himself, along with a Q&A with Nick from Manzanita…

While John was hanging with Whit from Meriwether Cycles in the Nevada City area, he shot his Silk-Ti Flex Pivot bike. Whit calls this bike the Luddite. While we already featured this bike and the following write-up as a Readers’ Rides, John and his mindful eye have cataloged and fully documented it. Read on for the full story on the Luddite, along with some stellar photos of this titanium dream sled!

The Tumbleweed Sunliner ($3775 complete) continues a long-held tradition of equipping a mountain bike with touring accoutrements. Since the mountain bike’s inception, people have been bolting racks and strapping bags to them, taking advantage of its beefy chassis and wide gearing to pedal deeper into rugged terrain than ever before. John has been riding the Sunliner all year in the Southern Rockies, both unloaded as a trail bike and loaded on camping trips. Read on for his thorough assessment of this timeless touring bike…

John likes to review a carbon full-suspension bike at least once a year to challenge his opinions on his preference of chassis material, and this summer’s bike is the 2024 Rocky Mountain Instinct. Thanks to new geometry, details, and a simplified RIDE-4 adjustment, the Instinct proved to be a very capable 140/150 trail bike. Perhaps the bigger picture of this review is John’s ever-questioning of his quasi-religious, cult-like zealotry for metal bikes…

Launching today, the Hoot Ti from Otso Cycles is the brand’s first foray into designing a truly modern and progressive hardtail mountain bike. Built around 140 mm of front suspension with short 425mm chainstays across all sizes, the Hoot is meant for demanding trail riding yet is playful enough for riders who like to get airborne. It’s an evolution of where the brand, which has been innovating since day one, is going while also showcasing its ability to deploy new technologies to solve challenging design problems.

Josh has put considerable mileage on the new Hoot over the past few weeks, both in his usual testing grounds of southern Arizona and a big week in the steep mountains of northern New Mexico. Continue reading below for Josh’s review of the Hoot and a peek inside Otso’s Minneapolis, MN-based operations.

Initially released in the mid-aughts, the Singular Cycles Swift was one of the first bikes to embrace 29-inch wheels, which, as we now know, became a highly popular size during the proceeding decades. Still, nearly twenty years later, the Swift endures. The frameset has undergone multiple updates over the years, with the most recent incarnation featuring elements true to its roots, like thin steel frame tubing, eccentric bottom bracket, thicc tire clearance, and reasonable pricing. Yet the MK5 version, launched in late 2023, finally gets internal dropper routing, tapered headtube, boost spacing, and thru axles. 

When Josh swung through Portland, Oregon, earlier this year, he picked up a Swift test frameset from US distributor Biciclista and outfitted it with choice parts from generous partners like Ingrid, Chris King, and Paul. A longtime fan of plus tire bikes, Josh reviews the Swift after a few months of riding on his home trails in southern Arizona. Is this 29+ suspension-corrected rigid bike still relevant in 2024? Read on to find out…