The Radavist

The best tool is the one you have. And a lot of cyclists don’t have a knife. Travis usually does, but his quest to downsize brought him to the Derma Safe knife. It cuts well above its weight … and cost.

Wide-toebox hiking shoes are relatively new. Wide-toebox cycling shoes are even newer. And wide-toebox flat-pedal shoes may not have existed before the Lems Trail Thrasher. Despite some nitpicks, Travis now finds it hard to wear anything else.

The original SRAM Maven brakes offered limitless power, but some riders wanted better modulation and a lighter touch. Travis sure did, and he found it in the newly evolved Maven B1.

In today’s Tinker Tantrum, Travis explains the flawed genius behind his hideous head-tube-mounted handlebar cradle.

As of this year, Travis has been writing about bike stuff for two decades. And somehow, bike stuff is still very much worth writing about. He actually had a hard time choosing his 2025 favorites, especially when including NON-bike stuff. But his list paints a thorough picture of a banner year.

Despite his Midwestern roots, Travis has a low tolerance for camping in bad weather. He’d never survive a cold and rainy night under a string and a siltarp. So, he sought something more cozy. The MSR Freelite 1 tent is certainly cozy, and it saved almost two pounds over his previous setup.

“Mo’ money, mo’ features,” is the simplest way to explain how suspension pricing works. But it’s probably not the BEST way. So, in this edition of our Shock Value education series, we break down forks and shocks, feature by feature, and tell you approximately how much they cost, what they’re good for, and who may be just fine without them.

A chance encounter three years ago put two rolls of fi’zi:k Terra Bondcush Tacky bar tape in Travis’s hands. Those very rolls are still in service, but the Bondcush has a likely successor in the form of the thicker, lighter Terra Solocush Tacky. Travis puts them head-to-head and picks a favorite.

John recently wrote a Dust-Up article arguing that top-tube length is more important than frame reach. This was met with fierce opposition from a small vocal minority in The Radavist’s Slack channel. Very small… actually, it was just Travis. So today, he makes the potentially career-limiting move of telling his editor that he’s totally wrong.

A few weeks ago, SRAM quietly released an AXS Transmission firmware update that addressed one of its biggest criticisms. Shifting speed across three or more gears is no longer drastically slowed, most noticeably in the smaller cogs. Travis ponders if it’s a big enough deal to convert the skeptics, but also whether it was ever that a big deal to begin with.

Arctos Packs is approaching the ultra-low-slung-pack concept in a new way. Travis tested the mid-sized Arctos Epic 10.3, and found its priorities were as well placed as its center of gravity…

Terms like “supportive,” “capable,” “stiff,” and “compliant” are well worn bike-review cliches. But Travis thinks they’re far overshadowed by one little word that, for better or worse, is essential when discussing gear. You’ll have to read his thesis to find out what it is, but here’s a hint: Everybody’s got one.