The Radavist

Travis is back with another Dust-Up involving electronic shifting. But this time, the main subject is uniquely organic.

It’s Travis‘s turn to join the Radavist edit crew in sharing his favorites for 2024. His list includes a few products, a few podcasts, the adoption of a new habit, and the return of an old one. 

Common sense says that dark cycling apparel will be hotter on sunny days. But what does science say? Unfortunately, not much. There’s very little concrete data on the role color plays in keeping you comfortable on a bike. So, Travis did some research, read some papers, and asked some brands to chime in. One of them actually did!

This one checks a lot of boxes for us: Higher performance, lower cost, and less single-use packaging. What’s not to like? Travis shares the latest evolution in his min-max approach to kitting up for a ride with a supplement-rich drink mix Bike Hack.

Miguel reviews the Cane Creek Invert Fork and dives deep into suspension with Radavist author Travis Engel, who gives Miguel a straightforward answer to the question he’s been asking ever since taking on the fork to review…

Please, if you enjoy these videos, hit the subscribe button below! If we hit 10k subscribers, John will do a gravel race. If we don’t, Miguel has to shave his mustache!

The original Switchgrade tilt-adjust saddle clamp from Canadian manufacturer, Aenomaly Constructs offered nose-up, nose-down, and nose-neutral settings. But when Travis first rode it, he found the angles a couple degrees too extreme for his terrain. So today, he’s excited to share his review of the new two-position Switchgrade Duo, along with some of his signature soapboxing on saddle settings.

Welcome to our second installment of Wish List, where Radavist contributors share their dreams of things that don’t exist, but maybe should. Some will be slightly niche but perfectly reasonable ideas that have every right to exist. Others will be impractical, expensive, and/or dangerous fantasies that probably should remain fantasies. Travis is back with another stack of requests, some of which go well beyond the bike industry.

An important part of bike touring is self-care. And today, Travis takes that to a very intimate level with his praise for A+D Ointment, a diaper-rash remedy that isn’t just for babies.

After spending a year going back and forth between bikes with and without SRAM Transmission, Travis came to a realization. In today’s Dust-Up, he writes about why Transmission compatibility will be mandatory on his next bike purchase, why that worries him, and why he needed that asterisk.

Welcome to the first installment of Wish List, where Radavist contributors share their dreams of things that don’t exist, but maybe should. Some will be slightly niche but perfectly reasonable ideas that have every right to exist. Others will be impractical, expensive, and/or dangerous fantasies that probably should remain fantasies. Travis dives in first with a list that spans this spectrum quite nicely.

It’s hard to gather massive data about how careful or careless our industry is with waste.  A lot of manufacturers take transparent sustainability pledges, but a lot more don’t. Bike shops, on the other hand, have open doors. So, Travis surveyed several dozen bike shop recycling programs (and got a few dozen responses) about how their waste is managed. Answers ranged from recycling to donations to landfills to something involving art projects and Burning Man.

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.

This is a good time for thick grips. There are more options than ever for anyone seeking a little extra surface area. Travis is a bit of an expert on the subject, and never travels without a set of grips 33 mm or larger in case he needs to borrow a bike. So, he’s gathered a baker’s dozen and gave them a squeeze.