Each year, our staff takes on dozens of bike reviews, testing out what the bike industry is offering in various taxonomies. From carbon fiber full suspension bikes to small batch fillet brazed drop bar bikes and everything in between. The Radavist’s Top Ten Bike Reviews both paint a picture of what our audience wants to see and what our eclectic group of authors likes to ride.
We rank our Top Ten lists by views, comments, and social media chatter, distilling the metrics into an easy-to-digest cross-section analysis based on twelve months of web traffic and industry-leading independent Reportage. Furthermore, each of these Bike Reviews ranks at the very top of Google search results.
Without further ado, let’s check out the Top Ten Bike Reviews of 2024 in descending order below!
10: Revel Bikes Tirade 29er Hardtail Review
Eking it out at number ten is the Revel Tirade 29er. This titanium hardtail proved to be an incredibly balanced platform that was more than capable of handling the chunky terrain found in the Phoenix area. John pushed this bike hard and kept coming back impressed. Pairing his words with Josh’s exceptional riding photos added to the high-engagement Reportage. The first legit trail hardtail from Revel clearly resonated with the readers of The Radavist with its 140 mm travel fork and even-keeled geometry.
09: Monē Bikes SB2 Review
The Monē SB2, or straight bar two, is a small batch production coaster cruiser from Silver City, New Mexico’s Monē Bikes. When John saw Cjell announce the bikes on Instagram, he immediately bought a frame and built it up with a mix of vintage-inspired and vintage parts. The chef’s kiss to the build is those Inter Am flat track moto bars that are made of solid aluminum and made to flex. We’re not sure how many people read the review because they wanted to buy one or if they just flocked to see Cari Carmean’s amazing action photos as John played on his local trails on the bike, in garb inspired by the 1970s flat track racers.
08: An Elephant Bikes National Forest Explorer Review
Morgan’s affinity with finding the bike with the right amount of flex brought them back to a bike we hold dearly in our hearts over here: the Elephant Bikes NFE. John reviewed one back in 2015 when the Spokane, Washington-based framebuilders announced a production run; Cari Carmean, the co-owner of The Radavist, has one as her daily driver, and now Morgan has christened the bike as nothing short of perfection. Clearly the readership responded with love!
07: Tern Orox All Terrain e-Cargo Bike Review
Part people hauler, part all-terrain vehicle, all e-Cargo. The Orox was by far the wildest bike we reviewed all year from the e-mobility brand Tern. Unlike its other models, the Orox used large wheels with a mid-tail geometry that made it capable of hauling another human around with a full load in its cavernous panniers. While very large and cumbersome, John and Cari found a tiny corner of their bicycle cramped home for storage and thoroughly enjoyed ringing in the New Year on this versatile platform.
06: True Love Cycles Heart Breaker Review
Hailey Moore is our resident ultra-endurance, multisport badass. When she’s not cranking out miles, she’s often scrambling up mountains, rock climbing, and AT skiing in the winter months. Last winter, she met up with John while he was staying with Josh in Tempe, Arizona to photograph the True Love Heart Breaker drop bar mountain bike. Hailey put this bike through the wringer, taking it on various bike tours and bikepacking events and penned beautiful prose about her connection to the bike and how it shaped her conceptions about a drop bar mountain bike.
05: 2024 YT Jeffsy Core 2 Review
The San Gabriel Mountains of Southern California are juggernauts, much like our trail boss author Travis Engel, who took the YT Jeffsy Core 2 up Condor Peak just outside of Los Angeles for a photoshoot with John. On the ride, Travis showcased the budget platform’s true trail-ready capabilities, which he matched in a thorough review, finding little fault with the platform. 150 mm front travel full suspensions occupy a strange realm in the mountain bike world, but for the right rider and terrain, they can fit a niche nicely. If anyone on the staff here at The Radavist can push a bike to the limits, it’s Travis, and clearly, his thorough and critical review resonated with our readership.
04: Fairlight Secan Review
When Morgan reviewed the Fairlight Secan in 2022, the bike stayed in Vancouver, where it resided for an illustrious life of ultra-distance riding, mostly of the randonneuring variety, with their friend Andrew. In this follow-up review, Morgan and Andrew consider the Secan’s updated build for randonneuring and speak to the easy wins and marginal gains of preparing both bike and rider for very long days in the saddle.
03: Stooge Cycles Speedbomb Review
While we review countless full-suspension bikes over here, we know a lot of you pine for rigid bikes. Enter Stooge Cycles and its cruiser/klunker-inspired modern bikes. These vintage-looking bikes feature a modern chassis with boost spacing and ample tire clearance. In this Stooge Speedbomb review, Jason Fuller reflects on our collective obsession with ever-more-complicated bicycle technologies and what led him to give up suspension for the simplicity of a rigid mountain bike. Beyond the retro-grouches and technophobes, the review asks a simple question: can a rigid mountain bike be more fulfilling than one with suspension?
02: Kona Ouroborus Supreme Review
In what has to be the most polarizing bike of the year, the Kona Ouroboros, like 2024, was a very divisive bike. Yet for how much people focused on the aesthetics alone, the bike planted a flag in the adventure gravel sector. This taxonomy is between the often cumbersome drop bar mountain bike and the under-equipped for rough stuff gravel road bike and offers control and a sure-footedness many people would benefit from if they like a healthy dose of underbiking. Putting the Ouroboros through the Southern Sangre de Cristo wringer left a lasting impression on both John and the readership.
01: Brompton G Line Review
Most people are familiar with Brompton. Yet, the announcement and Petor’s first look at the all-new 20″ wheel-equipped G line felt like a brand annunciation ceremony. Readers absolutely ate it up. The G Line is the first Brompton to ride like a full-size bike across multiple types of terrain—from the city to gravel tracks and beyond. And it’s still designed around the folding chassis that made Brompton famous. This line of Brompton features new geometry, 20” wheels fitted with custom-made Schwalbe tires, hydraulic disc brakes, and an internally geared Shimano 8-speed hub.
Brompton issued a recall over the G Line bikes since writing this article, so if you bought one, you should contact them. It seems one customer had the pivot locking hinge fail on them…
Well, let us know if your favorite bike didn’t make the list! Furthermore, tell us what you’d like us to review more of in 2025! Thanks to everyone for visiting The Radavist and engaging with us in the comments. Y’all are the best!