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“Just get the right-length handlebar,” they’ll say. But what if the right-length bar doesn’t come in the right shape? Or it’s not the right vintage? Or you just really like the bar you have? That’s why handlebar extenders exist. Problem is, none seem to be designed for aggressive riding. Except for the ones Travis found from a small fabricator tucked away in a vintage BMX forum.
As this is being published, the fires around Los Angeles have been burning for about a week. The areas that haven’t burned are being gently showered in the ashes of the areas that have. Travis lives in an area that hasn’t burned. And as he looked around his yard this weekend, he was thinking a lot about those ashes.
This installment of Wish List touches on an intimate subject: Clothes. Everyone has different needs when it comes to what we put on our bodies, and sometimes those needs just aren’t being met. So, Travis is here with four suggestions of how the bike industry could make everyone feel just a little bit more comfortable.
Our review of the Raised Reversed stem will not be a normal review. Normal reviews rarely have to overcome such a mountain of very hasty (but very reasonable) skepticism around their products. And those products are rarely so intimately connected with their designer.
Travis brought some of that skepticism to this review, but he also spent a lot of time with that designer. And the experience fundamentally changed the way he thinks about bikes. Needless to say, that’s more than we can put into a review, even if it isn’t a normal one. If you’ve still got questions after reading it, please drop them in the comments.
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!
Over a decade ago, Kona helped spark The Mountain Bike Geometry Revolution. Their Process line of aggressive full-suspension models were some of the first to get the “longer, lower, slacker” treatment that is so ubiquitous today. And although the 2024 Kona Process 134 harbors the same rebellious spirit as its ancestors, Travis found it was uniquely approachable.
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.
The Trust Performance Message linkage fork was an expensive, extravagant, and flawed attempt to change how we think about mountain bike design. The brand ceased operations in the early days of the pandemic, but Travis had high hopes for Trust. He also still has the Message fork he reviewed in 2019. A recent bikepacking trip inspired him to give it a second life with some new bolts, washers, and tiny, tiny bearings.
The Coros Dura GPS unit grabbed headlines this summer with its claims of a 120-hour battery life. In theory, that could even be extended indefinitely thanks to the integrated solar panel. But Travis dove deep into the drop-down menus and found the stuff below those headlines to be just as interesting.
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.
The new Specialized Stumpjumper didn’t exactly get a refresh. It got a reboot. It now has more in common with the critically acclaimed Stumpjumper Evo than the mild-mannered Stumpy we once knew. And its Genie shock promises unprecedented dimensions of tunability. But at first, the carbon-frame-only update came with an electronic-drivetrain-only twist. That’s why, when Travis heard an aluminum version was coming, he signed up.
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.
Whenever we veer into the mainstream by covering a bike from The Big Three, we do it because that bike has something special going on. And the Giant Trance 29 2 certainly is special. Travis spent a month aboard the moderate-travel, moderate-price trail bike. He praised its modern features, sophisticated suspension, and thoughtful spec. It does need bigger brake rotors, but that’s kind of a compliment if you think about it.
