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We Put a Light Bar on Moné Bike’s Light Bar So You Don’t Have To: A Review

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We Put a Light Bar on Moné Bike’s Light Bar So You Don’t Have To: A Review

The enigmatic folks behind Moné Bikes invested “new Honda Civic” money into the fabrication of their carbon riser bar. It was a gamble, but the results are impressive. Spencer Harding has become addicted to upsweep angles and while steel risers may work in many cases, sometimes you need to shave some grams. Read on for some silly memes, useless light bar mods, and a hot take on the handlebar bend you didn’t know you needed.

Brave New Wheel Builds: Johnny’s Monē El Pebblito with Oddity Squidfork

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Brave New Wheel Builds: Johnny’s Monē El Pebblito with Oddity Squidfork

Brave New Wheel bike shop is a Fort Collins, CO staple and community hub that has been around since the 1980s. Co-owned by Johnny Daggett and Mike Woodard, the shop focuses on service and repair, wheel-building, and suspension work. Johnny recently finished building a Monē Bikes El Pebblito gravel rocketship with custom Squidfork from local builders Oddity Cycles. Continue reading below for Johnny’s full rundown with a chilly photoset from Aaron LaVanchy

2022 Single Speed USA: Decorah, Iowa Edition!

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2022 Single Speed USA: Decorah, Iowa Edition!

Single speed mountain biking. It’s kinda dumb right? How hard is it to shift a derailleur, c’mon.

Let’s not sully the holy sanctity of this article with such petty things as single speed arguments (for or against). What a cliché. If you’re new here, suffice it to say there are all sorts of reasons—from cost to curmudgeonliness to cache—to ride single speed mountain bikes. Those reasons don’t necessarily make sense. If you’re a regular reader, you already know how 1-speed bikes fit into today’s bike culture…enjoy your unsullied reading.

This article is about the bond shared by single speeders and how events like Single Speed USA (SSUSA) carry and strengthen them. I also want it to be about bikes as well, as I know more than a couple of people here might be into them.

Catching up with Karl: Bikes for Buddies and his Rusty Trucker Mountain Cruiser

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Catching up with Karl: Bikes for Buddies and his Rusty Trucker Mountain Cruiser

Back in 2020, Cjell Monē and I wrote about our friend Karl Artis‘ eclectic bike collection and his collaborative “Bikes for Buddies” fundraiser with Matt Whitman, which raised enough money to purchase fifty bikes for youngsters in need. Since then, Karl has added even more bikes to his personal cache, including an enviable custom mountain cruiser, and finally found a home for the youth bikes after months of pandemic-induced hiccups. I recently met up with Karl and a crew of other friends – who were fresh off a weekend of building and donating bikes – to check out Karl’s new cruiser and enjoy some metamorphic chunder on the trails of North Phoenix.

Cjell’s Monē Hardtail With a 130-Millimeter Lefty Fork

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Cjell’s Monē Hardtail With a 130-Millimeter Lefty Fork

These days, it’s hard to set your bike brand apart from others within a specific niche but if there’s one thing Cjell has achieved with his brand, Monē Bikes, it’s just that. Monē frames are instantly recognizable with their large, bountiful brass beds of fillet brazing, unique tubing bends, intricate and ingenious singlespeed-friendly dropout designs, and yeah, rat rod aesthetics. Cjell and I have met before, albeit briefly, but at last weekend’s Dangerbird event, we got to spend a lot of time on the bike with each other, which helped me gain an even deeper appreciation for the brand, the bikes, and the man who designs and even builds some of them.

Dean Liebau’s Illustration of Bailey’s Moné Hardtail SSMTB 29er and #DrawMyKona Contest

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Dean Liebau’s Illustration of Bailey’s Moné Hardtail SSMTB 29er and #DrawMyKona Contest

We’ve featured the work of artist Dean Liebau before, who takes inspiration for many of our pieces here at the Radavist with beautiful Conte pencil illustrations. The latest Dean posted is Bailey’s Moné 29er, all packed up from our CDT tour last summer. Dean also just announced a new contest dubbed #DrawMyKona. Find all the information for that below and give Dean a follow on Instagram!

An Homage to Friendship and Staying Local During a Worldwide Pandemic

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An Homage to Friendship and Staying Local During a Worldwide Pandemic

Last year, I rode bikes all over New Mexico with this guy, @baileygenenewbrey. To limit my contact with people I pretty much rode with the same small group all year and Bailey was in that group.

We often discussed how staying local has been a big change. With Covid shutting down all events, I had no reason to travel. To be safe, and as a new resident of New Mexico, I just kept it to a 100-mile radius of our home and began scouring the map for places to see/fish/ride.

One of the biggest takeaways for me is how a few close friends can make something as severe as an utterly shit pandemic more manageable. We both helped each other through some rough spots, spent nights under the stars, stoked each other out on rides, shot great photos, and most importantly, became really close friends.

It’s moments like this (still within the pandemic) that really make me value close friendship. Who helped you through 2020 and continues to in 2021?

New Skids on the Block: Monē-Enhanced State Klunker Bike Review

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New Skids on the Block: Monē-Enhanced State Klunker Bike Review

With $12,000 e-MTBs on the market, we asked ourselves, “what is the minimum you need in a bike to have fun?”… This is a wild ride, presented by Cjell Moné’s writing and Josh Weinberg’s vision. Enjoy!

Swipe, BMX video, swipe, oh, nice curved top tube, super-sharp photo of a gorgeous frame sitting on OSB, @sklarbikes. Swipe, snowboard video, swipe, oh, (pulls phone away and back in toward the eye), brain knots and unknots, those seat stays are hard to comprehend @oddity_cycles.

Swipe, surf video, swipe…AD for an OG Klunker from State. Swipe, swipe, swipe, backswipe backswipe backswipe….$399?! Shut up. The lines on that thing aren’t half bad. Swipe, swipe… Backswipe backswipe… I can’t stop looking at this affordable klunker from State. It comes with Kenda chunky 27.5 x 2.2 tires, a 1 1/8 threadless fork, and pretty decent lines. Not a huge fan of the chrome riser bars, but hey those Vans grips…hmm hmmm. $399?!

Show Me the Moné: Cerakote Black Coaster Cooler

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Show Me the Moné: Cerakote Black Coaster Cooler

To coaster brake afficianados, the Coaster Cooler might be one of the coolest most unique inventions for your cruiser. Cjell over at Moné Cycles has a limited edition run of these hub coolers – and hubs/spokes – all done up and fancy in Cerakote black for an extremely limited release. Head to Moné Cycles to check it out.

Moné Bikes: Help Fund this Carbon Riser Bar Dubbed the “Light Bar”

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Moné Bikes: Help Fund this Carbon Riser Bar Dubbed the “Light Bar”

Want a riser bar with a classic cross-brace but also want your bike to weigh less? Enter the Light Bar.

These carbon bars have a 31.8 Clamp. 2.5” of rise, 827mm wide, and 12º of backsweep. That’s a bit less rise and sweep than Moné’s Oddmone, so if you have a similar bar, you can swap the Light Bar in for a some added comfort and less weight.

Moné is making these bars, no question about it but tooling is expensive, so they’re doing a pre-sale to help kick the Light Bar into production. In exchange for your patience, you’ll get wholesale pricing ($239) for a limited time. Presale runs until Saturday, Oct. 24th. The first 30 Light Bar sales will be fast-tracked so you’ll get your bars even sooner.

Head to Moné Bikes to order.

Condensare Pack List: Bailey’s Moné Hardtail 29er Loaded Up for Touring the Northern New Mexico CDT

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Condensare Pack List: Bailey’s Moné Hardtail 29er Loaded Up for Touring the Northern New Mexico CDT

Tomorrow, we’ll be sharing our Reportage from our tour of the CDT in Northern New Mexico but today I wanted to give Bailey a showcase on his Moné and how he packs for a three-day trip…

The poet Basil Bunting, while poring over an antiquated German-Italian dictionary, found the German verb dichten (to write poetry) translated as condensare (to condense/shorten). This became one of the guiding principles of Modernist poetry;  which would state; “Great literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost degree.” In my early 20s, I fancied myself a student of Modernist writing and, unsurprisingly, many of its ideologies found a place in my daily life. This concept in particular is one that has remained important to me and thus, my approach to touring/bike packing. If one can distill their gear down to items that have the utmost meaning or necessity, while doing away with any superfluities, the result is a light and nimble bike, allowing the rider maximum enjoyment of the terrain to be traversed without compromising their safety and comfort along the way.