The Radavist

Welp, that didn’t take long. Just a couple days ago, Travis shared his first impressions of Forge+Bond’s prototype handlebar, but we didn’t know what it would cost. And we didn’t know when—or if—it would come to market. That may not seem like a normal way to announce a product, but this isn’t a normal product. 

Forge+Bond is probably doing a bunch of ongoing experiments with Fusion Fiber, their signature thermoplastic carbon material (see our first post about Forge+Bond for more details). The handlebars probably happened to be far enough along that they wanted to see what people thought. And maybe they saw a big uptick in traffic from the handful of reviews and handful of teasers that have been circulating. So, they picked a date and a price. The date is today, and the price is $265.

We’ve ridden a handful of Fusion Fiber wheels, and we always wonder when this unique approach to carbon fiber might make the leap to other components. Well, we can keep on wondering, but the prototype handlebar that Forge+Bond sent to Travis last month has us thinking about the future.

Last week when Josh published his Otso Hoot Ti hardtail review, he fielded a lot of questions about the accessories used to add extra bottle cage and accessory mounts to the bike’s frame. As a companion to the bike review, Josh takes a closer look at Wolf Tooth’s clever B-Rad System below.

This may be the most promising step forward yet in the potential of U.S.-made thermoplastic-style carbon components. We’ve talked a lot about FUSIONFIBER, the carbon rim material used on wheels from Revel and Chris King. And when the engineering team behind FUSIONFIBER launched their own brand, FORGE+BOND, it was positioned essentially as the tip of the spear. It’s who would be exploring what’s possible with this unique material and process. And not surprisingly, their debut wheels were aimed at the high-end carbon wheel market, including models laced U.S.-made hubs from Industry Nine starting at $1,900. But pricing in the carbon wheel game has gotten extremely competitive, so FORGE+BOND has now introduced the much more affordable Shift series to their wheel lineup, offering wheels with U.S.-made FUSIONFIBER rims for $1,250.

Now that Wolf Tooth released the ReMote Drop-Bar dropper lever, Travis compared it to its one good (and three not-so-good) direct competitors.

The ORNOT Mission Pant got a few new colors for 2024. They’re now available in Curry and Mosswood…