The Radavist

The Sweet Spot from Bozeman, MT-based Sklar Bikes is a steel hardtail mountain bike designed to be a venerable quiver-killer. Built around 150mm of front suspension, with clearance for up to 29 x 2.8 tires, its geometry embraces builder Adam Sklar’s mantra of “fast is fun, but fun is fun-er.” Sweet Spots were Adam’s first foray into offering a small batch frame design and sizing, which he hopes will make his bikes more accessible and faster to produce.

I picked up a Sweet Spot of my own earlier this spring after many years of searching for the perfect hardtail. Due to a few requests I had to make it even sweeter, it turned into a custom project that retained the established Sweet Spot geometry and material selection. Below, let’s take a closer look at my build in addition to a brief interview with Adam about these bikes and his design/build process!

The mid of March is usually a time where you think about the upcoming season and what kind of adventures you are going to tackle during springtime. Suddenly, the world is closing down, throwing everyone into the status of the unknown. Leaving us with restless and raving minds. Diving into the world of bikes has always been a great way of escaping reality for me. Let it be physically or virtually – if you don´t have the chance for some saddle time.

I was blessed to have the chance of getting my first taste of ultra-cycling at the Atlas Mountain Race last February. The harsh brutality of the Morrocan rock fields brought up the first ideas for this project. Rocks and smaller stones hitting my frame and rims for hours let me think about how I would repaint my bike after the race.

This year was to be the first year Nao Tomii of Tomii Cycles was going to attend NAHBS. For a small builder like Nao, spending the kind of money it takes to pull a seat up to the table of the USA’s largest hand made bicycle show takes a lot of financial planning, so when NAHBS was postponed this year, Tomii Cycles wouldn’t be able to attend. Most builders display customer’s bikes at NAHBS and asking his clients to wait four more months for their bikes, especially during a pandemic was out of the question. I reached out to Nao and asked if we could display his bikes here at the Radavist, so this week, we’re doing just that…

When someone makes a big marketing claim, one that promises “compliance”, superb strength, and a ride quality unlike anything else on the market, I can’t help but roll my eyes. This reaction is a sentiment that I’m sure you, the readers of this very website, also feel! The cycling industry is always coming out with the next best thing and trying to get you to buy it. That’s why when I take on something to review, I like to really give it a go because if I’m going to tell you something is worth your hard-earned money, it damn well better perform.

Please don’t mind this introduction, I just wanted to explain how long I’ve been thinking about writing this review and how it’s going to seem that I was paid to sing the praises of these wheels. Spoiler alert, I was not and yes, these wheels really do live up to the marketing hype!

For the past 10 months, I’ve been riding the Zipp 3ZERO MOTO 29er wheels on my hardtail and I am a firm – pardon the pun – believer that these wheels are the best thing to hit the MTB market in some time.

For the tenth anniversary of the Philadelphia Bike Expo, PBE introduced a diversity and inclusivity scholarship to support women, trans, POC frame builders who have been underrepresented at bike shows and the industry at large. SRAM is stepping up to sponsor the PBE Inclusivity Scholarship inaugural class consists of Moth Attack, Pedalino Bikes, Schon Studio, and Untitled Cycles.

The way I ride road bikes has evolved with the way the bikes are being built. As I have moved away from pack racing over the past 10 years, I have desired more variety in my daily rides. Most of my rides involve sections of steep LA county fire roads or linking hilly neighborhood climbs together by zigging and zagging through hidden dirt paths.

This year at Grinduro, eight frame builders presented bikes in partnership with Maxxis, Sram/Zipp, Columbus, and Hope Tech. The theme? What is your ideal Grinduro bike? In the first post, we’ll look at BTCHN Bikes’ gravel bike.

When you think of the mountain bike brand Evil, chances are you think of the three pillars of modern mountain bike design, long, slack, and low. So when the brand began developing a gravel bike, they tapped into that design DNA. I got an in-person look at this new bike at Grinduro so read on for the details.

We Built a Stinner Romero to Raise Money for Our Friend Edie Perkins
Photos by John Watson, words by Jonathan Neve

In April of 2017, while on a morning bike ride, our friend Edie Perkins was hit head-on by an SUV. She survived but is now paralyzed from the chest down. The day before the accident, Edie had taken delivery of a 50cm Stinner Frameworks Romero, custom built and painted in Santa Barbara, CA.

The frame ended up at Golden Saddle Cyclery in Los Angeles, and we had an idea: Build the bike up and auction it off, with 100% of the sale going to Edie’s recovery fund. We originally envisioned a “parts bin” build to help keep the costs low, but within a few hours of sharing the idea, a handful of companies stepped up and offered their help.

SRAM, Zipp, Industry Nine and Chris King donated everything needed to build the bike, and to top it off, Stinner Frameworks offered to paint the cockpit to match their frame and fork. None of these companies hesitated in offering their help; there were no questions, and nothing asked in return – just a genuine desire to help a fellow cyclist in need. A friend at SRAM said it best in an email: “When things like this happen, it really hits close to home for each and every one of us, regardless of direct association or not.”

While Golden Saddle may have a world-class parts bin, the generosity of these companies helped this build massively exceed our initial plans and expectations.

The crew at Golden Saddle built the bike, and we think it turned out pretty darn beautiful…

Zipp bars, stem, and seatpost have been custom painted by Stinner Frameworks to match the Romero’s frame and fork. Shifting and braking are handled by SRAM Force Hydro, and the Industry Nine AR25 wheels are wrapped with WTB Nano 40 TCS tires. A Chris King headset and bottom bracket in Mango are a perfect match for the Stinner’s custom paint, and will likely survive decades of abuse.

The bike is up for auction at eBay, with 100% of the proceeds going to our friend Edie. This is a great opportunity to purchase a beautiful, custom built cyclocross/gravel/touring bike while contributing to a worthy cause.

Detailed specs:
Crank: Force 1 GXP 170mm
Chainring: 40t
Cassette: XG-1195 10-42
Chain: PC-1170
Bottom bracket: Chris King Threaded
Rear derailleur: Force 1 long cage
Shifters/brakes: Force 1 HRD
Brake rotors: 160mm Shimano Centerlock
Handlebar: Service Course SL-70 40cm
Stem: Zipp SL Speed 100mm
Seatpost: Zipp SL Speed 27.2 0 offset
Third bottle cage under downtube
Wheels: Industry Nine AR25 Tubeless Road/Cross wheels
Tires: WTB Nano gumwall tubeless 700 x 40mm tires
Headset: Chris King InSet 7 headset

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You can also check out Edie’s GoFundMe page, or bid on this bike at eBay and see the full geometry here.

Cycling is an experience that should continue to mature overtime. I’m weary of people who stand firm in their ideologies, rest on laurels and refuse to embrace the “new,” especially when it comes to riding bikes. Look, it’s not that hard to have fun. Opinions can change with experience, its normal. Embrace it.

For the past two years, I’ve been planning both financially and functionally for this bike. Something I’d encourage everyone to do with a custom machine. Don’t just jump in head first without doing research and saving your money. The last thing you want to do is to take a financial hit once the final invoice comes in.

You see, I knew I wanted a Firefly. I kind of felt like that brand and my own brand have grown together over the years. When Jamie, Tyler and Kevin started the company, it had a breath of energy, creativity and their final products all expressed experimentation. Those guys can make anyone a dream bike but deciding what kind of bike is a challenge. Part of my apprehension was not only where I felt like cycling’s technology was heading, but where my own riding would be taking me over the next few years.