The Radavist

Surly‘s 27.5 wheeled drop bar mountain bike, Grappler ($1899), is a boost-spaced off-road tourer. New for 2025, the Grappler gets hit with lavender in a new color called “Purple Dust Bunny.” The Grappler’s steel chassis clears a 27.5 x 2.8″ tire for rough terrain or 29 x 2.1″ for hardpack touring. Check it out in its lavender glory at Surly.

Announced back in May, the Esker Lorax is the ultimate, do-anything drop-bar mountain bike. Today the brand just announced a more affordable steel chassis material. Let’s check it out!

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…

Earlier this year, Hailey Moore reviewed her True Love Cycles Heart Breaker—a steel-tubed drop-bar mountain bike made in Warsaw, Poland. The original build spec saw the Heart Breaker outfitted with a short-travel color-matched and refurbished RockShox RS-1 but, after a long review period with this setup, Hailey was keen to shave a little weight and see how a rigid fork paired with the frame. Read on for her update on riding the Heart Breaker with Whisky’s No. 9 MTN Boost fork.

The Wanderer is Viral’s drop-bar-specific titanium adventure bike, designed for rough roads and the longest of backcountry adventures, all with an electronic-shifting Pinion gearbox…

There’s a lot to love about Kona’s latest drop-bar bike, the Ouroboros. From the name (duh) to the stance and details, it’s got a lot going on. John got his hands on the Supreme build spec ($6999) and shot some photos before today’s release, so let’s take a closer look at this adventure-ready platform.

Just when you think handlebars can’t get any weirder, Redshift Sports drops the Top Shelf. But after riding them for a week, Travis found they actually felt pretty normal. Whether that’s a good thing is up to you.

The new Pace Cycles RC429 is a North Yorkshire-bred down country steel hardtail using Reynolds 853 steel tubing and offering either drop bar or flat bar MTB builds.

The Stayer OG Plus is a frame to take advantage of the mullet, mix and match, mountain bike drive chain, and road bike shifter component options that make bikes like this sort of a strange bird. Monstercross? Adventure bike? Or just a touring bike? Whatever you call it, the OG Plus has a phenotype we can all get behind.

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!

There are some bikes that are forever bikes. For Thomas from The Bike Hub, that bike is his trusty Trek Sawyer that he converted to a Drop-Bar MTB. Let’s check it out below!

Fresh off racing the North-South Colorado Bikepacking Race, where she finished 1st women’s and 7th overall, Hailey Moore is here to share her first-ride impressions of Germany-based Beast Components’ Carbon Hybrid Bar. The mtb-shift-and-lever compatible design allowed her to run her Bearclaw Ti Hardtail as a monster-tourer, drop bar 29er, but how did the modified design manifest in ride quality as she pedaled 600 miles down Colorado’s Front Range? Read on for her thoughts…

This week’s Readers’ Rides comes from within our editorial team. Hailey has been kickin’ ass over here at The Radavist for a while now and today, we’re featuring the bike she’ll be kickin’ ass on during the North South Colorado race this weekend, her Bearclaw Hardtail. Let’s check out her build, intent, and a full spec below!

This morning’s Readers’ Rides was sent in by Filippo from Italy and features his beloved all-rounder; a 1992 Marin Team Issue. Let’s check it out in detail below!