The Radavist

The Santa Cruz Chameleon AL was a bike that really stood out from last year’s reviews. It’s capable, versatile, and affordable, especially when stacked against Santa Cruz’s other offerings. What about riders who love the Chameleon but want the frame to be made from carbon? Well, today Santa Cruz announced just that.

Without showing any favoritism, out of all the bikes at Grinduro, this bike made by W.H. Bradford Designs was one of the most unique and the only hardtail in the whole grouping, discounting the Southpark ‘rigid’ with the Lauf fork. When I first saw this bike, I was partially blinded by the fluoro front end on it. But then the brushed purple rear triangle and the little angry mountain – a symbol from Grinduro, angry Mount Hough – caught my eye, all carefully executed by Eric from Color Works Paint. It’s those little details that make bikes fun and that’s what Grinduro is all about right, fun?

With matching Yanco Bags, a SRAM MTB kit, Industry Nine wheels, and its mean and rowdy stance, I might not be showing favoritism, but I feel like I saved the best for last. What was your favorite bike from Grinduro this year? See them all in our search string.

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Follow WH Bradford on Instagram and follow Grinduro on Instagram.

Each year at NAHBS, a selection of builders at the show lament on how we should actually ride bikes together more, not just talk about them once a year at the show. I get it. Sitting in a convention center, under that horrible lighting, discussing how a bike rides is worlds apart from actually riding out on the trails. This year, Adam Sklar took the initiative to plan a weekend and then some of fun times in Bozeman and sent out an open invite to numerous builders. His idea was to expose people to the culture here, the town’s local builders, eats, drinks, and shops, in an event playfully dubbed the “Builder’s Camp.” Squid, Breadwinner, Retrotec, Falconer, Horse, Alliance, and Strong, along with a few other locals, all prepared for 5 days of non-stop riding and relaxing in this beautiful mountain town.

Falconer Slacker 150mm Travel 29er Hardtail

The work of Cameron Falconer is for the shredders. The people who put function before fashion, or thrashin’ before fashion. Either way, Cam’s work is thoughtful, exact and to the point. Like a succinct text message, a Falconer gets to the point. The beauty about Cam’s personal bikes is they represent a moment in time, or a perspective on how Cam believes a hardtail steel mountain bike should ride, or rather, could ride. Granted, a lot of this experimentation might be a bit much for the average rider to consume. Take for instance a 150mm travel 29er hardtail. It’d take me some convincing to believe that platform was the right bike for me. Hell, that’s a LOT of bike to be delivered in a hardtail, yet it doesn’t hold Cam back at all.

With an effective top tube of 660mm, a 65º head angle, a bb drop of 70mm, chainstay length of 440mm, a seat tube angle of 72.5º, geometry aficionados might nod their heads in approval. These numbers just make sense. For tubing, Cam uses Vari Wall, Columbus, and a Paragon head tube. To top it off, Cam powder coated it to match his 4Runner in a Canfield blue.

This bike is stout, but secure in its shred-pedigree and watching Cam shred it in Bozeman brought me joy. I’ll be seeing this bike in Downieville this weekend, where it’ll be right at home there as it was in Montana.
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Follow Falconer on Instagram and follow along with the #BuildersCamp hashtag.

One of the challenges of writing about and riding bicycles is finding your flow. Sometimes both just seem to propel themselves, and other times you hit a dead end. Luckily, my time on the Kingdom Vendetta X2 was not the latter. Rather, upon the first shakedown ride, I knew I was going to love riding this bike because of one reason: specialization.

Now, hardtails, while simple in their form, come designed for many specific uses. Within this realm of mountain bikes there is an endless combination of design and geometric tweaks, resulting in a bike that can either be tuned for a broad spectrum of riding, or a very specific niche. All this goes without saying, but you can design a hardtail that will climb exceedingly well and descend like a three-wheeled skateboard. Or descend like a banshee and climb like a one-legged pig. While most of these experiential data is subjective, a few key features are just straight up objective.

Currently, the cycling industry is at an all-time low, as in, the bikes are longer and lower – which is a good thing, but there’s a tipping point. A bike that rides well going up as well as going down, is going to have to strike a balance to reign supreme on the mountain. Luckily, that’s where the Vendetta rules in the Kingdom of mountain bikes.

For brands like Breadwinner, nothing is ever 100% finalized in terms of bike geometry and design. Particularly when it comes to Tony Pereira’s pursuit of the perfect hardtail. With already three hardtails – the Goodwater, Bad Otis, and JB Racer – in their catalog, Tony is always looking towards the future of hardtail design, oftentimes experimenting with tubing, geometry and other details to set Breadwinner’s bikes apart from others in the market.

Last month, we took to Bend, Oregon for the Chris King Swarm event, and Tony was riding this new Breadwinner Prototype. Built with Veriwall stays, a vintage Zona downtube – hence the bend at the head tube junction; modern mtb forks don’t hit the downtube like vintage ones used to – PAUL Klampers, PAUL Boxcar stem, and SRAM Eagle GX. Tony has always been a Shimano guy, but was interesting in trying out a lot of new parts, as well as some geo tweaks on this 150mm travel hardtail mountain bike. Then, to top it off, the chassis is rolling on Sugar Wheel Works wheels!

Breadwinner, like all small brands, wants to avoid stagnant bikes and one way of keeping the waters moving is experimentation. From the looks of this prototype, they’re moving in the right direction.

Keep an eye on Breadwinner for more updates! Got any comments or critiques? Let’s hear them!

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Follow Breadwinner Cycles on Instagram.

Nick Was High in LA on His Purple Haze 160mm Sklar Hardtail
Photos by Kyle Kelley, words by Nicholas Haig-Arack

I first met Adam Sklar a few years ago while riding bikes with a bunch of frame builder friends in Santa Cruz. I was impressed by the character of Sklar’s bikes – those flattened swoops are pretty sweet, can’t deny it – but it was Adam’s personality and lighthearted approach to riding that made me really appreciate his brand. Our paths crossed again in Moab for the most fun week ever and I was convinced that I wanted a bike from Adam. Fast-forward a few months and imagine my stoke when he asked me to do drawings for Sklar Bikes! Since then we’ve been cultivating a cross-country creative partnership, one that emphasizes creativity, exploration, and good times.

Sometimes, the simplest bikes at NAHBS are the ones that grab my attention. It doesn’t have to be shiny or flashy to motivate me to document it. In fact, I often like seeing bikes at NAHBS that don’t look like overly precious, especially when it comes to mountain bikes. This year, Indy Fab brought a handful of completes and various frames, but this hardtail really did it for me. Chris, the painter, had fun applying this fade paint job, a throwback to IF’s first bike ever. These paint jobs lived on for a while, even through the serial numbers in the 200s. For example, this “Test Bike” on the MTBR forums, built with XTR. Now, with this bike and its updated, modern components the legacy that is IF lives on.

Chameleons don’t actually change color to “blend” into their surroundings. Contrarily, their colors are used to mark territory, attract mates and display moods, often resulting in these unique lizards “standing out” more than blending in. The Santa Cruz Bicycles Chameleon adheres to this logic, standing out from many of the other production hardtails on the market but before we get ahead of ourselves here, and lizard anecdotes aside, when I first saw the newly-designed Chameleon last year it checked a lot of boxes and left me with a few questions.

Sure, Santa Cruz is saying the chameleon is a master of adaptation, which metaphorically makes a lot of sense. This bike can really do a lot, but isn’t that the nature of hardtails in general? For me, my thoughts on the Chameleon stem from its legacy, its updated design and most importantly, to a lot of people, the cost.

We’ve still got our year-in-review post coming up, but for now, let’s take a break and check out Matt’s Advocate Cycles Hayduke Titan 27.5+ hardtail.

Before we jump into this build let’s look at Advocate Cycles. As their name implies, “Advocate Cycles is a bike company that exists solely to create innovative bicycles and delivers 100% of profits from the company back to cycling advocacy efforts.” That means, as per the IRS’ laws, they’re allowed to donate 50% of their profits to non-profit organizations each year. They then take that remaining 50%, pay required taxes on that amount, and use the remaining money to run their own advocacy programs during the following calendar year. All-in-all, the result is a bike company that’s the main goal is to help organizations like People for Bikes.

Matt was looking for a new hardtail. One that would offer ample tire clearance, a snappy rear end, and a rowdy fork. On top of riding, Matt uses this bike for bikepacking as well. He’s a trail builder with the Mount Wilson Bicycling Association, so carrying a trailer was a must too. However, first and foremost, Matt wanted a bike that would eat up our chunky, rocky and sandy trails with no hesitation.For portage, he pinged Yanco Customs, our local bag maker to outfit his rig with Multicam and Cordura bags, designed to fit Matt’s specific needs. The resulting product is impressive and in the future, I’ll get some shots of it loaded down with camping supplies and toting the trail working tools used by MWBA.

If you’d like your own Advocate, head to their site and check out their frameset and complete bike offerings.