#Travis-Engel

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The Dust-Up: We Need A Better Way to Measure MTB Seat-Tube Angle

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The Dust-Up: We Need A Better Way to Measure MTB Seat-Tube Angle

Today’s edition of The Dust-Up is a nerdy little tour through the world of effective seat-tube angles. Travis Engel thinks that the way we measure them is a little … obtuse. That number on your bike’s geometry chart may not mean what you think it means. He informs his opinions by talking to some mountain bike brands who are taking a fresh look at this deceptively complex dimension.

The Ten Best Horror Films for Adventure Cyclists

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The Ten Best Horror Films for Adventure Cyclists

Just like the rows of bagged candy at your grocery store, or the fountains of pumpkin spice latte at your coffee shop, you can’t escape Halloween once October hits. Not even here at The Radavist. Travis Engel has jumped on the spooky-season bandwagon with a list of scary movies (and one scary short film) that will strike a nerve for anyone who likes riding to the middle of nowhere…

Bike Hacks: Why Prism Reading Glasses are My new Favorite Bike Camping Accessory

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Bike Hacks: Why Prism Reading Glasses are My new Favorite Bike Camping Accessory

One helpful tip for getting a good night’s sleep while bike touring is to mimic your home sleeping experience as closely as possible. Cotton pillowcases or fleece sleeping bag liners can ease your mind by tricking your body. But you should apply that logic to your entire pre-sleep ritual. Have some dessert, brush your teeth, and once you’re all tucked in, do some light reading. Travis Engel is here with a bike hack that may make that last part a little easier to do in the wild.

Room For One Less: An e*thirteen Helix Race 9-52 12-Speed Cassette Review

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Room For One Less: An e*thirteen Helix Race 9-52 12-Speed Cassette Review

When modern wide-range cassettes first hit the market, it was the giant 50-tooth (and now 52-tooth) cogs that grabbed all the headlines. But 1X drivetrains arguably wouldn’t have taken over if it weren’t for the 10-tooth cog down at the other end of the stack. That’s how brands can claim their 500, 510 and 520-percent gear ranges. Still, it wasn’t enough for e*thirteen. They introduced a lineup of cassettes with 9-tooth cogs, allowing for lighter, more compact setups with as much as 556-percent range.

And then, earlier this year, they introduced a 12-speed cassette that spanned from 9 teeth to 52 teeth, netting a 578-percent range. Travis Engel had to get his hands on one, but not for his mountain bike. He wanted it for his multi-headed beast of a gravel, touring and bikepacking bike. Range is king if you can’t (or won’t) run a front derailleur. But is one less tooth worth bowing down to?

Pump It Down: Why Every Rider Can Benefit From Volume Spacers, and How to Use Them

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Pump It Down: Why Every Rider Can Benefit From Volume Spacers, and How to Use Them

Before you even hit the parking lot to test ride a suspension bike, most shops will walk you through a careful sag and damping adjustment. But few of them will tell you that there is a whole other dimension of control inside your fork or shock’s air spring. By inserting or removing volume spacers, you can make your suspension more or less resistant to bottom-out. In turn, that may allow you to run more or less preload. This deceptively simple adjustment has gotten a reputation for being only for racers, or nerds, or nerdy racers. But Travis Engel believes everyone can benefit from volume tuning. So, he has this quick explainer on what it can do for you, and how you can try it for yourself.

SRAM Introduces Powertrain E-MTB Motor System

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SRAM Introduces Powertrain E-MTB Motor System

Totally no big deal if you’ve got better stuff to do, but if you wanna read about “Powertrain,” SRAM’s first-ever E-MTB motor, Travis wrote this post. Like, he didn’t ride it or anything, but it’s big news, and we figured you might want to know about it. He talks about stuff like the different modes and how the buttons work and a thing about auto-shifting. No rush, though. The post will just be sitting here. So if on, like, Friday night you’re, like “Oh yeah, that SRAM e-bike thing…” and you haven’t read Pinkbike’s review or whatever, just come on back. But again, not a huge deal if it slips your mind…

Under the Hood: Reviewing Gravel Drop-Bar Dropper-Post Remotes from Crankbrothers, PRO, ENVE, Easton, and Wolf Tooth

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Under the Hood: Reviewing Gravel Drop-Bar Dropper-Post Remotes from Crankbrothers, PRO, ENVE, Easton, and Wolf Tooth

MicroSHIFT, SRAM, and now Shimano all offer gravel brake levers with built-in dropper post remotes. And there are ways to hack most left shifters to work great as dropper remotes. But if you aren’t currently in the market for a new drivetrain, or if you run a front derailleur, there aren’t many good plug-and-play options that work comfortably from both the hoods and the drops. Travis Engel found just five of them, from ENVE, Crankbrothers, PRO, Easton/Fox, and Wolf Tooth. It turns out they’re all very special in their own little ways.

Right to Replace: Why the Wolf Tooth Zero-Offset Chainring Is Exactly What SRAM Transmission Needed

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Right to Replace: Why the Wolf Tooth Zero-Offset Chainring Is Exactly What SRAM Transmission Needed

Amid the circus of Trojan hangers and load-bearing derailleurs, few of us paid any mind to SRAM Transmission’s humble front chainring. All it got was praise for its two removable bash guards, and scorn for its eight-bolt interface. But the T-Type chainring reflects some fascinating choices. Choices that prevented you from using any competitor’s chainring, and by extension, any competitor’s crank … until now. Wolf Tooth recently released Transmission-compatible chainrings that can be paired with many common cranks. Travis Engel talks about why that matters, even though his Cane Creek eeWings aren’t exactly common.

Reboot Damping: A Review and Retrospective on the Fox Float [2023]

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Reboot Damping: A Review and Retrospective on the Fox Float [2023]

The new 2023 Fox Float rear shock is not any flashier than its predecessor. In fact, it’s less flashy. Fox abandoned the blue lever’s not-too-hard, not-too-soft “Middle” setting, leaving riders the simple, classic choice between “Open” and “Firm.” Travis Engel loved the idea, and could gush all day about its implications for the future of trail bikes, and how it relates to their past. Now, he’s finally ridden the new Float so he could make sure of it. And he’s talked to some folks at Fox so he could make sense of it.

Assembly Required: Are Lugged Carbon Mountain Bikes Having a Moment?

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Assembly Required: Are Lugged Carbon Mountain Bikes Having a Moment?

No matter how innovative or controversial a given mountain bike technology may be, it’s usually just a means to an end. A way to add efficiency or capability. Sure, these technologies can often make for utterly spectacular rides. But bikes themselves—especially full-suspension bikes—rarely add any soul purely for soul’s sake.

That may be why we love to highlight bikes like the REEB SST, Chromag Darco, and, of course, the Starling Murmur. These bikes have esoteric quirks usually found only on hardtail, gravel, and town bikes. And they just happen to also offer utterly spectacular rides.

But when Travis Engel noticed function-first stalwarts, Pivot and Specialized suddenly teasing in-house experiments in lugged carbon fiber, he wondered if there might be a new search for soul afoot…

Bike Hacks: How to Keep Your Brake Levers Symmetrical on a Modern Gravel Handlebar

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Bike Hacks: How to Keep Your Brake Levers Symmetrical on a Modern Gravel Handlebar

There’s a classic, time-honored technique to help you evenly position your drop-bar brake levers by using a ruler or straightedge. If you know, you know. But handlebars have changed, and the ruler method sometimes won’t apply. So, Travis Engel is here to share a bike hack to help keep the brake lever positions symmetrical on today’s shallow or oddly shaped gravel bars. There’s no ruler involved, but you will make use of some items you may already have in your home office.

The Hero We Need: A microSHIFT Sword 1x Drivetrain Review

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The Hero We Need: A microSHIFT Sword 1x Drivetrain Review

MicroSHIFT’s new Sword group came into Travis Engel’s life at the perfect moment. He had been noticing that his Ratio-12-speed-converted SRAM Force shift quality would degrade quickly, as the cable housing wore and friction increased. It’s a sad side-effect of the Ratio conversion’s decreased cable pull per-shift. Also, the hydraulic brakes had too much dead stroke for Travis’ discerning index fingers. He was looking for something new. That’s when, like the sexy stranger disrupting a rom-com protagonist’s unhappy European vacation, microSHIFT Sword bumped into Travis with a very timely meet-cute.

Inside-Out: A Lezyne Tubeless Pro Plugs Review

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Inside-Out: A Lezyne Tubeless Pro Plugs Review

A brand new tubeless tire is just as vulnerable to punctures as one that’s two days from retirement. It’s one of cycling’s many injustices. And nobody wants to throw away $80 (or more) just because of a slice that’s barely too wide for a traditional plug. Travis Engel happens to be in that very predicament. He has a nearly new tire with a terminal injury, and it’s been on ice waiting for science to find a cure. The Lezyne Tubeless Pro Plugs just might do the trick.

Self-Motivated Masher: A Yeti SB120 Review

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Self-Motivated Masher: A Yeti SB120 Review

We just covered the SB135, a Switch-Infinity-equipped, carbon fiber Yeti with just 15mm more rear travel than the SB120 that Travis Engel is here to talk about. But there’s very little danger of any overlap between the two bikes. The SB135 is one of the last mid-travel 27.5-inch bikes left in the wild, and that kinda dominates any conversation it’s in. The SB120, on the other hand, is a short-travel trail 29er: The compact crossover SUV of mountain bikes. Seems like every brand has at least one model that mixes trail-bike capability with cross-country speed. Pivot, Ibis, and Transition have a few perfect 10s on the board. Marin and Norco are strong players too, and they can do it for under $2,000 if you don’t need a carbon bike. But comparisons are always tricky thanks to Yeti’s unique design language around geometry, frame construction, and, of course, suspension. As with every Yeti, the SB120 is like nothing else in its category.

The Dust-Up: Most New Mountain Bikers Should Start on Full-Suspension Bikes

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The Dust-Up: Most New Mountain Bikers Should Start on Full-Suspension Bikes

In today’s installment of our ongoing opinion column, The Dust-Up, we bring you Travis Engel’s thesis on why full-suspension bikes offer the most inviting, user-friendly experience to people trying mountain bikes for the first time, and why the commonly held “hardtail-first” doctrine is flawed and outdated. Please read in full before commenting, but please comment.

Forge + Bond Adds 25 XC and 30 AM Carbon Wheel Models and Lowers Prices

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Forge + Bond Adds 25 XC and 30 AM Carbon Wheel Models and Lowers Prices

We covered Forge + Bond’s house-brand, U.S.-made, recyclable “Fusion-Fiber” carbon wheels when the brand launched back in April. Today marks the first update to their lineup; the new cross-country 25 XC, and the lightweight all-mountain 30 AM, which Travis Engel will be putting through its long-term paces on his personal and test bikes over the coming year. But there are also new builds, and new price points. The exact details of today’s news serve as a bit of a status report on this disruptive new tech, and how today’s volatile market is reacting to it.

Sincerest Flattery: Reviewing Maxxis Assegai Imitiations from American Classic, Delium, and Bontrager

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Sincerest Flattery: Reviewing Maxxis Assegai Imitiations from American Classic, Delium, and Bontrager

The Maxxis Assegai is one of the most aggressive front tires on the market, but you don’t necessarily have to be aggressive to enjoy it. Its adaptability to multiple riding styles and multiple terrains has gained the Assegai quite the following, including from competing tire brands. American Classic, Delium, and Bontrager have launched lower-priced tires clearly inspired by the Assegai, and Travis Engel is here to tell us how how they stacked up against his favorite front rubber.