The Radavist

Spencer Harding and Chris”Dirty” Reichel went down the southern border of Mexico and Arizona for the start of the 2023 Arizona Trail Race. The race taverse the whole of Arizona for racers who elect the 800 mile route or the abbreviated and nonetheless daunting 300-mile option. Summer hasn’t relinquished its grasp on Southern Arizona with temperatures in the 100s for the early days of the race…

Founded in the college town of Tempe, AZ, State Bicycle Company started out selling affordable fixed-gear bikes and geared townies for college students and commuters. In their ten years of mostly direct-to-consumer bike business since, State has grown exponentially and now occupies a large warehouse/office in downtown Phoenix where they store and ship hundreds of bikes each month. While the brand still focuses on affordability and accessibility, its product offerings have expanded to include: lightweight road bikes, steel gravel bikes, coaster brake cruisers, electric bikes, apparel, and accessories. One bike in their lineup caught my attention a while back, the 4130 All-Road. Positioned as a versatile and well-equipped steel adventure bike, the 4130 fits 700c or 650b wheels with ample tire clearance, accepts drop or flat bars, boasts plenty of accessory mounts, and is designed around a comfortable geometry—for only $899!

In early 2022, State launched the 4130 All-Road with a SRAM Rival XPLR eTap AXS build kit for $1,999 and, if you were a prospective customer watching State’s website, you’d have noticed they sold out fast and have seen limited restocks. During that fleeting window of availability, I got my hands on one for this review and, over the past six months, have been logging long gravel rides, some singletrack shreds, and daily commutes. Continue reading for my thoughts on this capable machine…

I’ve always considered The Radavist a resource for inspiring people to get outdoors. While we primarily cover cycling, my interests don’t stop there. Many of my favorite springtime activities surround the Colorado Plateau’s canyons and rivers; two places you cannot take a bike, or rather, including a bike in those activities seems unnecessary. I love bikerafting and incorporating a bicycle in lieu of a car for shuttling, but sometimes nothing beats a bipedal venture into those wild and vast places.

Walking in canyons is my detox from the sometimes stressful job of talking about, photographing, living, breathing, and eating bikes. It’s a tangential experience, but when you do enough, you quickly realize the best places in the American West, particularly Canyon Country, are only accessible by foot.

Last week Cari and I brought along our friends Jay and Carrie on a backpacking trip down the Paria River Canyon. Jay and Carrie had never been to the Colorado Plateau, much less in a canyon, and had never backpacked in the desert. Widening our friends’ perspectives has been a real joy being closer to these places living in Santa Fe, and the trip provided equal parts  beauty, tough terrain, and ideal weather.

While earning, or enduring, her Ph.D in Environmental Life Sciences, Courtney Currier began spending more time on the bike as a way to further connect to the places she was studying, and as a way to just spend time outside during the very inside days of the pandemic. In a very real sense, her time on the bike was inspiring and she began making art again. Building up and custom painting a unicorn fixed gear commuter brought everything full circle! Below, as she plans for what comes next in life post-Ph.D, Courtney reflects on bikes and joy, along with Tobias Feltus’ overview of the build process.

For the third year in a row, I invited a small group of friends to race me on the southern 300 miles of the Arizona Trail. I ultimately challenge people to ride the route southbound and descend the trail on Mount Lemmon; why else would there be an AZT 300 if not to ride all the magnificent trail between Superior, AZ and Mexico?

After a string of injury, Denver Luttrell rediscovers the freedom of bike touring and the mysticism of natural spaces with a multi-sport trip through the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge in southwestern Arizona. Read on for his reflections on lessons learned through injury alongside his thoughts and film photos from the trip!

Living in the Phoenix, AZ metro area, I get to connect with a variety of interesting folks who travel here during the winter months. Like Western Sandpipers, Sandhill Cranes, Golden Eagles, and other airborne travelers of North American migratory flyways, humans also flock to warmer climes in the Sonoran Desert’s overwintering sites. On a recent trip to my neighborhood caffeine dealer, Cartel Roasting Co, my jaw dropped when I saw Richard’s handmade cruiser parked out front. Visiting from Winnipeg, Manitoba with his wife Michelle, the couple snowbirds in Arizona to connect with friends and ride bikes. Before I knew it, Richard and I had talked for nearly an hour about his love of vintage bikes, cycling for physical and mental health, and his recent forays into building his own framesets. Let’s take a look at his most recent creation below!

In early 2022, Wisconsin-based bike rack manufacturer 1UP USA purchased Recon Racks and began offering the Recon 5 and Recon 6 for, you guessed it, carrying five and six bikes respectively on a single vehicle. With attractive features such as no frame/fork contact with the rack, off-road rating, Smooth Pivot recline, and accommodation for a variety of tire and bike sizes, our interest was piqued. Josh has been testing a Recon 5 for the better part of a year, taking it everywhere from Arizona’s remote forest roads to local shuttle runs and cross-country road trips. 1UP also recently redesigned their RakAttach swing-out adapter, which Josh has been using in tandem with the Recon. Continue reading below for a full rundown on these new offerings from 1UP…

Tyler and Spencer stitched together a multisport overnight in the enigmatic Cochise Stronghold in Southern Arizona. The duo combined some of the best single and double-track riding, along with a squeeze through the popular Inner Passage, making one epic lap around this beautiful mountain range. Be careful if you’re claustrophobic because this gallery is tight!

Earlier this year, I purchased a Bug Out, the new “stock” steel frame offering from Zach Small’s framebuilding operation Amigo Frameworks. While visiting Zach in Nashville, we spent a few days building it up in his shop before heading out for first impressions on some springtime Middle Tennessee mixed-terrain riding at the Gosh Darn Gravel Gathering. Since then, I’ve put hundreds of miles on the Bug Out and swapped components a few times to get it where it is now—an intersection of pure enjoyment and mechanical perfection. Genre-wise, this bike pushes a lot of boundaries, and I’m not sure what it is: Dropbar MTB? Adventure bike? ATB? Touring bike? Monster Gravel? At some point, labels stopped mattering, and I realized this might be the most fun bike I’ve owned. Let’s look at the Bug Out, and some build highlights, in detail below and find out why!