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Radar By: Daniel Pasley

World of Bikes: Gravel Hall of Fame

Today, coinciding with another episode of The Pro’s Closet’s World of Bikes series, we offer up an article Daniel Wakefield Pasley wrote to the head of the gravel (evil) empire, aka the overlords in control of the Gravel Hall of Fame, nominating skateboarding. Daniel has had more to do with the popularity of gravel than you might think and so let’s hear him out below. Please note, take this stuff with a grain (gravel) of (gravel) salt. It’s all in good fun!

An Iconic All-Rounder: Stooping with the Singular Cycles Peregrine 650b Gravel Bike

Reportage By: john watson

An Iconic All-Rounder: Stooping with the Singular Cycles Peregrine 650b Gravel Bike

One of the original “all-rounders”, the Singular Cycles Peregrine first took flight over a decade ago, in May 2007, as an homage to post-war French constructeurs with modern updates like bigger tire clearances, more robust steel tubing, and disc brakes. I’ve had this bike for longer than I’d like to admit but with supply chain issues, parts shortages, and trying to align a review with more stock incoming from Singular, I’m finally ready to share my thoughts on this versatile bike. And we’re giving this exact build away in the coming weeks, so read on below

A Review of the All-New Moots Routt ESC Adventure Gravel Bike: Don’t Call it a Baxter

Reportage By: john watson

A Review of the All-New Moots Routt ESC Adventure Gravel Bike: Don’t Call it a Baxter

The Baxter was a blip in a long line of adventure bikes to grace Moots’ 40 years of building frames in the Rockies. Personally, I really liked the Baxter. It held its own in the Steamboat Ramble Ride and tackled our “Disconnected” project in the Inyo Mountains with SRAM but the Baxter had some quirks that needed to be addressed. With the Routt ESC, Moots did just that, abandoning the Baxter model altogether.

In an era where adventure, gravel, touring, and bikepacking bikes are seeing lots of permutation, there’s no time for nostalgia. Brands need to address their bike’s quirks and redesign as needed. That’s where the Routt ESC comes in. It’s like the Baxter and the Routt gravel line had a lovechild, which resulted in a completely new paradigm within the Moots catalog. Let’s check out this new Routt ESC bike in more detail below!

Radar

Beautiful Builds with John and His Rad Rod Firefly

The second video in our Beautiful Builds series showcases John Watson, the founder of The Radavist’s “Rad Rod” Firefly gravel/all-road bike. Back in 2014, he commissioned Firefly to make him a “gravel” bike before there were gravel bikes. This bike has a road geometry with ‘cross bike clearances and cable routing.

Don’t forget to Like and Subscribe for more Radavist videos to come at The Pro’s Closet YouTube

Music: Bongripper – Endless

The Radavist’s 2021 Photographic Year In Review

Reportage By: John Watson

The Radavist’s 2021 Photographic Year In Review

There are about 52 weeks a year and every week, we post 5 full-resolution galleries, meaning there are around 260 Reportage galleries a year for you to enjoy. The intention behind this website has always been about documenting the outliers of cycling and inspiring you, the readership’s next build and bike ride. Over the years, we’ve tapped into a wonderful resource of talented raconteurs and photographers. Hosting their work is both a privilege and an honor we cherish.

With such a massive image database, these Photographic Year In Review posts provide reflection, aspiration, and motivation to continue, to push on, and keep doing what we do best: tell stories and share photos.

Read on below for a short synopsis of this year with a massive gallery of inspirational photos from the past twelve months…

Radar

Introducing Our Beautiful Builds Video Series! Beginning with John’s Retrotec Funduro

Beautiful Builds. Like Beautiful Bicycles but in video! For our first video in this series, John goes over his Retrotec Funduro with videographer Justin Balog in beautiful Santa Fe, NM. Check the video out above and be sure to like and subscribe to The Pro’s Closet’s YouTube, where we’ll be hosting our videos from here on out…

Many thanks to the Fat Tire Society for maintaining these wonderful trails and to our creative director Cari Carmean for the kick-ass Beautiful Builds type treatment!

Music: Electric Wizard “Dunwich”

The Radavist’s Top 10 Beautiful Bicycles of 2021

Reportage By: John Watson

The Radavist’s Top 10 Beautiful Bicycles of 2021

I hope your winter break was refreshing and that you got some miles in over the Holidaze. We’re back in 2022 with the first of our 2021 year-end recaps, beginning with everyone’s favorite: the Top 10 Beautiful Bicycles of 2021. Like years prior, I compiled this list by traffic, comments, and social media/backlink chatter, also omitting bikes from Open House/Expo style showcases. There are some real gems in here, so let’s get to it!

Radar

Yeah, Beija Flor!

Life has a way of changing all of our well-thought-out plans. In a moment, how you relate to your career, your friends, your hobbies, your family, can change. This moment for Beija was when her father became one of the first COVID-19 patients. She immediately moved home to Seattle to be with her family. Back in Seattle, Beija discovered cycling and it soon became her mood elevator, her escape from reality and sleepless nights.

Beija wrote a wonderful piece for us this year and we’re stoked to see her getting some recognition by our parent company, The Pro’s Closet!

We Fixed Our Webshop

Radar

We Fixed Our Webshop

As you might have noticed when we dropped our Winter product last week that the UX for the webshop was not so hot. We rushed it to get the collection live and shipping as soon as possible since it had already been delayed for so long. Well, we have now had some time to massage the design a bit more. Now when you click on the Shop link, it’ll take you straight to The Radavist’s shop at The Pro’s Closet. We should have done that from the beginning but well… you know how it goes.

We’re also working on a Bikes and Gear sub-shop that contains my personal picks from TPC’s incoming queue. Josh and I will be updating this regularly with steel/ti bikes we think the readers would be interested in, along with other components, accessories, and bike frames. Since TPC gets in hundreds of bikes a day, this will make it a bit easier for all of you to see some fun and funky bikes that we catch as they hit the inventory.

Once again, thanks for your patience and if you have any feedback, drop it in the comments and I’ll take it to the team!

Shimano
Tern
Wolftooth
Argonaut
Brooks
State Bicycles
Paul
RiG'd Supply
Mission Workshop
Rivendell
SimWorks
Maxxis