The Radavist

What better way to spend the long weekend than reviewing bikes. Next week, we’ll be dropping a handful of drop-bar reviews, starting with the Speedvagen OG Disc. After that, the Salsa Warroad and Cannondale Topstone. Which of the latter two would you like to see first?

With Crankbrother’s new Highline 3 Dropper line ranging from 60mm to 170mm travel, diameters ranging from 27.2mm for gravel bikes up to 34.9mm for mountain bikes, at a $199 price point, and the Highline 7 Dropper line ranging from 100mm to 170mm and a $299 price point, there is literally a dropper for everyone. These posts and remotes come with a 3-year warranty and are in stock at your local Crankbrothers dealers. Head to Crankbrothers to see more specs and information.

Building off this year’s launch of the Cache titanium all-road bike, Knolly has just announced a steel version for 2020. The steel Cache maintains the geometry of the titanium Cache, as well as many of the frame details.

ED coating has been added to ensure the lifespan of the bike, as well as a few pricepoint tiers: frame only for $999, frameset for $1399. While there are no details yet of the Cache steel coming as a complete, we can expect it’ll be an option in the future. See more information at Knolly.

With the popularity of the Exploro, 3T looked to make this all-road platform a little bit more affordable with a Rival build kit, bringing the price down to $3,599.00 for a complete, more than half off from the Exploro Ltd AXS build pricepoint of $9,990.00. Keep in mind that the Exploro Team frameset retails for $3,200.00. See all the Exploro models and build kit options at 3T.

To up the ante on their consumer-direct OB1 all road bike, Thesis is now offering two AXS build options. You can now order an OB1 with the “mullet” configuration, an Eagle rear mech and cassette mated with road shifters, or with AXS 2x setup. These bikes ship 90% built and ready to ride, with a variety of build options, direct to your door.

Pricing on the new AXS builds comes in at $4,999 for the AXS 1x or $5,199 for AXS 2x.

See more details at Thesis.

With the launch of AXS, SRAM reached out to specific manufacturers and offered the ability to mix their Eagle rear MTB derailleur and cassette with the Force AXS shifters and brakes. This offers up the best of both worlds with a wide gear range and the ergonomics of road shifting. It took a while for this offering to hit the market for companies to spec complete bikes and 3T was finally able to implement the mixture, so they made an extra special limited edition Exploro. These limited edition completes will come with the 3T Torno crank, a full-carbon design, including the spider and axle, built to be tough and lightweight. Head on over to the 3T Exploro page to see pricing and your local dealer to order.

If you’re intrigued by Crust Bike’s lineup, particularly the Bombora, then check out this review from Path Less Pedaled.

Nordest might be known for their mountain bikes but their latest model is the Albarda, a rugged all road bike, that comes built complete for $1,808.10 (1.610,74 €). The Albarda utilizes 420mm stays, which allows for either a 27.5 x 2.10″ or 700x50mm compatible wheels. Best of all, the medium/large size weighs just north of 20lbs.

Head to Nordest to see more information.

With more and more of the bigger brands going to consumer-direct, other smaller brands are growing out of this new model, offering complete bikes with substantial build kits, in modern geometries, straight to the consumer’s door. Ocoee Bikes has adopted this business practice with three platforms currently; all-road with the Baseline, gravel with the Boundary, and MTB with the Seclud model. Each bike comes in a variety of build kit options, colors, and sizing, allowing the consumer to pick the bike that suits their needs best. Now, this business model does come with some downsides. One of which being by cutting out the middleman – aka the LBS – it will put more pressure on existing shops to adapt to the changing market, something that older shops will have a hard time adjusting to. Another issue is being able to ride one of these bikes before you buy one.

Are you a roadie looking to get dirtier on your rides? Or a mountain biker that loves your Pivot and would like to take on some challenging gravel rides? Or perhaps you are just tired of your clapped out all-road bike? Redshift and Pivot worked on a kick-ass giveaway where you can enter for a chance to win this $8k Redshift Sports edition Pivot Vault gravel bike. All you have to do is head over to Redshift to sign up! The giveaway sign up ends June 5th so get on it!

This weekend, we took a look at the Twin Six Standard 29r and already, people are talking about this frame: their Rando frameset.

Traditionally, randonneuring frames have rim brakes, 650b wheels and quill stems, yet Twin Six opts for disc, 700c x 43c (perfect for a tire like the Bruce Gordon RockNRoad) and other modern technologies like PF30BB. Personally, I’d just call this a light touring bike since stylistically, it’s pretty detached from a traditional randonneuring bike.

At any rate, Twin Six’s offerings thus far are affordable, stylish and best of all: METAL.

These will be available as frames only and will retail for around $600 for either black or $650 for green with matching fenders. Due out by the end of 2014…

See more below.