The Radavist

As a companion piece to his workshop visit with Albion Cycling Clothing, Petor Georgallou spent the majority of the past year reviewing multiple pieces across Albion’s range of cycling and cycling-adjacent outerwear product lines. Below, Petor shares his experiences with the Ultralight Insulated Jacket, Zoa Rain Trousers, and Zoa Lightweight Insulated Jacket…

By now, you know that the carbon fiber used in rims from Revel, Evil, Chris King, and most recently FORGE+BOND is recyclable. And maybe you know that the first product being made from that recycled material is tire levers. What you probably don’t know is that a pair of those tire levers cost $50. When you consider they’re made in a U.S. factory built to churn out $2,500 wheelsets, that’s almost reasonable. But Travis Engel wanted to see how they stacked up against his go-to levers from Pedro’s, a pair of which only cost $5.50.

I love to tinker with bike components, as seen with my vintage bike restorations. In my Yo Eddy! resto documentation, I stripped the faded Syncros post and polished it up to a mirror-like finish. It matched the Suntour XC Pro parts kit perfectly. So when it came around to me building up my Black Cat rigid 29er, I wanted to do something different. An homage of sorts to my love of vintage mountain bikes. When I saw this post on the Kona blog, I knew it was time to try it out.

While I’m not quite ready to talk about the bike itself, my latest bike hack is something I thought you’d all enjoy. Black MTB components are so prevalent these days, and while that aesthetic works for this era of plastic motorcycles, what about modern steel bikes with a vintage aesthetic? I don’t vibe with all-black components and am always trying to mix it up with my modern projects.

My Black Cat has a mix of black and silver anodized parts, but this latest hack raised the bar for me. Read on below for how to strip your dropper stanchion to a lovely, polished silver.

Known for their outstanding power and beautiful finish, Trickstuff brakes are masterpieces. They’re also pricy and hard to find, especially in North America. But it’s not just about what’s on the outside that counts. The pad material Trickstuff developed is also pretty special, and you can get their pads for nearly any brand of brake. So Travis Engel slid some Trickstuff Brake Pads into his Shimano SLX brakes, and started stopping.

Daniel Zaid and Karla Robles were able to get their hands on an early version of Forager Cycles‘ new Jemmy Bar ahead of the preorder for the handlebar that opens today. Daniel explains his journey from wide drops to wider flat bars and bringing a classic MTB into the modern world of 2023 with a quick bar swap. Continue reading for more about the Jemmy Bar!

Industry-shifting products come in all shapes and sizes. Bivo’s disruptive design of choice? Bike bottles. The carbon-neutral Vermont-based brand is channeling its sustainability efforts through the innocuous bidon and, based on how many I’ve seen popping up in my IG feed, they seem to be making a splash. Read on for a review of Bivo’s stainless-steel bottles.

While I’m a big fan of converting older 26″ MTB wheels to tubeless, I have found that if you let the bikes sit for a month or two without riding, the bead will unseat and the tires will go flat. Here in the Southwest, that means that the sealant usually dries up by the time you’ve noticed. I still believe that a tubeless setup is crucial if you have a bike you ride a lot, but when you have a few vintage bikes in your fleet that don’t see as much regular rotation, that can become a lot to manage. Once the bead breaks and the sealant dries up, you must completely clean the rim and tire out to re-seat it. Not ideal! 

A few weeks ago, while inserting Tannus Armour Tubeless rim protectors into my 29er, I noticed the brand also makes Tannus Armour Inserts, designed to be run with inner tubes. These inserts are very similar to the tubeless inserts but don’t require the upkeep or regular mileage that tubeless systems demand, particularly with vintage rims.

Last week I posted my Yo Eddy! restoration and, after I shot those photos, I got a few flats from thorns. So, instead of resorting to my normal tubeless conversion, I decided to give these Armour Inserts a try.

Let’s check out what that entails below!

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.

Named for the Lalashan Mountain Range in Northern Taiwan, Quoc‘s new Spring footwear capsule builds on their classic Grand Tourer series while introducing two new additions to the product line. Josh Weinberg and Hailey Moore have already logged some miles in the new models and offer first ride reviews of the UK-based designer-adjacent brand’s new Gran Tourer XC, Escape Off-Road, and the Lala Slide.

Today, yet another brand is releasing thermoplastic carbon rims manufactured in Utah by CSS Composites. But unlike Revel or Chris King or Evil who launched house-branded CSS-made rims in 2020 and 2021, respectively, FORGE+BOND is actually a new division of CSS itself. This product launch represents the next step in the development of CSS’ fully recyclable FusionFiber™ material and manufacturing process. Travis Engel spent some time with the founders riding bikes and taking notes, and he has things to say.

Last week, we looked at my tutorial on polishing vintage bicycle components. But how do I find my components in the first place? Over the years, I’ve developed a bit of a knack for finding period-correct pieces for my builds, using various sources. Today, I’ll be using my 1991 Yo Eddy as an example to walk y’all through my process for finding the appropriate parts. Let’s check it out below…