The Radavist

This week’s Readers’ Rides is a good example of an older frame put to solid, modern use. Sam‘s Ritchey has a Crust Clydesdale Fork that has really transformed this MTB into a multi-purpose work horse. Let’s check it out below!

Well, mark this up to something you don’t see every day. Yoann Barelli is best known for his course previews, where he follows a pro downhill racer and narrates the tracks’ bumps and jumps. Today though, he’s taking on Squamish… on the new Guerrilla Gravity hardtail.

“Keep Riding” is Rapha’s video lookbook featuring its Fall/Winter Trailwear lineup. Check the whole drop out for yourself at Rapha.

With a new, steeper seat tube angle of 75.5°, a 63.5° head tube angle, 430mm chainstays, and a bottom bracket height of -58mm, the 2022 Orange Crush Pro 27.5er is right there in terms of existing within the hardcore hardtail geometry. There’s also a new chainstay yoke, promising excellent chainring and tire clearances, and yeah, we love the new paint job!

These frames are made in the UK from 6061-T6 Custom Butted OS aluminum tubing and carry quite the cult following. See more of the new and improved Crush Pro at Orange.

If you’re looking for a non-custom and more affordable version of John’s Sklar that we posted today, then check out the newly-released Kona Unit and Unit X. For 2022, these popular models return with the Unit ($1,399) offered as a singlespeed and the Unit X ($1,599) comes with Deore 12-speed. You can even buy a frameset for $699. See all the details at Kona and throw your leg over one at your local dealer.

As MTB geometry changes over the years, so do forks, and eventually, this progress trickles down to stems. That’s the motivation for component brand Tenet who just updated its Nora stem. The Nora V2.5 stem is designed with modern bike geometry and short offset forks in mind. These are designed for a  ø35mm clamp bar, thus the shortest length you could go is 32mm. From there, Tenet increased the stem length by 5mm increments, matching the fork offsets of 37mm and 42mm nicely. Most brands that offer bikes with modern geometry recommend running a stem as close to your fork offset as possible. These stems are machined in Bellingham, Washington, from North American sourced 6061-T6 aluminum and carry a retail price of $134. In stock and shipping today from Tenet.

The Esker Cycles Hayduke is one of the most capable production hardtails on the market and now it’s available in four new colors including this “bluebird” color. Head on over to Esker to check out the other new colors available this year.

Dustin Klein‘s “Everything’s Been Done” YouTube channel is one of our favs and recently he worked with our parent company, The Pro’s Closet, on a Ritchey P29er giveaway. Check out this video for the details on how you could be rolling away on this bike!

This project has all the feels:

“Velocio Ambassador, Gregg Deal, found cycling first as a mountain bike racer growing up in Park City, Utah during the mountain bike boom of the 1990s. Today, the 46 year old father, husband, artist and activist lives in Colorado Springs and uses riding to inform and infuse his professional life.

To that end, we’re proud to collaborate with Gregg on a custom benefit jersey bearing his art and benefiting The Sovereign Bodies Institute for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and 2 Spirit and Illuminative, which aims to increase Indigenous representation in media. 100% of the profits from this jersey will be donated to these organizations.

We followed Gregg on a ride from Truckee, California to the Pyramid Lake Paiute Reservation, a 742 square mile plot roughly 35 miles northeast of Reno, Nevada. What we saw was the unique connection to place, an intimate look at Indigenous culture and a tie to bike that is rarely seen.”

Check out the limited edition jersey and more photos from Greg’s ride at Velocio!

Titanium hardtails offer the best riding experience out of any material, ATMO, and seeing more US companies offering them is always a good thing. Alchemy’s newest offering is its Argos, a 140mm travel hardtail. This frame is made from Alchemy’s own blend of titanium, feature a sculpted rear triangle, and come available as completes with packages from GX to AXS. Head to Alchemy to see more from this beaut!

“Golden Façade” is the tenth layout of the Radavist 2021 Calendar. It was shot with a Sony A9ii and the Tamron 28-200mm f/2.8-5.6 di iii rxd lens outside of Taos, New Mexico.

“The New Mexico high country is a truly beautiful riding experience and the South Boundary Trail might be one of our favorite trails in the South West.”

For a high-res JPG, suitable for print and desktop wallpaper*, right-click and save link as – The Radavist 2021 – October. Please, this photo is for personal use only!
(*set background to white and center for optimal coverage)

The mobile background this month is also from the same tour. Click here to download October’s Mobile Wallpaper.

The new Chameleon is here from Santa Cruz Bicycles and yes, we got our grubby paws on an early press-release build we’re currently reviewing – look for that next week – but today we’re hoping you’ll check out the amazing stories Santa Cruz pulled together for the launch. There are tales from Indigenous women, framebuilders, bar owners, and an employee who works at Santa Cruz Bicycles. It takes a lot of effort to pull together stories like this, so head to Santa Cruz Bicycles to check them and this new dang beautiful bike out!

Look for our review next week and check out our review of the old Chameleon in our Related Archives below.