Saturday is by far the peak day of the 2026 Sea Otter Classic, as it is every year. The aisles are crowded, the racers are racing, and Travis is almost done with late-night writing sessions.
The Radavist thanks 1UP USA for sponsoring our Sea Otter Classic coverage and our independent Reportage!
Onko Rinkus Penny-Farthing
If you suddenly had the skill and the facilities to build a frame, what would be the first one you’d make? Most of us would have a pretty easy time thinking of at least one idea. But what would be the second? Or fifth? Or fourteenth? I bet you’d eventually get a little weird. And penny-farthings are definitely a little weird.
This one was built by Radavist regular, Brendan Lehman, whose bikes bear the brand name Onko Rinkus. And he’s made about seventy frames thus far, both for himself and for customers near to and far from his home of Santa Cruz, California. We’ve covered his creations, including a tallbike that tested the limits of Fox’s Taper Cast gravel suspension fork. And there’s the commuter he built (and later repaired) for the star photographer of this year’s Sea Otter reportage, Josh Becker.
Lehman learned framebuilding from Paul Sadoff, who founded Rock Lobster. You can see that DNA in the thin lines and simple shapes of his Onko Rinkus bikes. Unsurprisingly, that’s an expression of Lehman’s love for steel’s timelessness.
“I’m an appreciator of the old,” Lehman tells me. “I love antiques. I love classics. There’s a century and a half of history of bicycles that people have put a lot of thought into.” That old appreciation eventually led him to buy an authentic penny-farthing from 1880. And it wasn’t easy. He found one in nearby Berkley. “It took a year of talking with him before he agreed that I would be the next good home for it.” Lehman clearly shares the previous owner’s respect for that bike. “We’re just stewards of these old things.”
Lehman doesn’t feel comfortable using it on a regular basis lest it get stolen or damaged, so he built the one he was riding at this year’s Sea Otter. But it wasn’t easy either. He was able to buy the front wheel and cranks from a specialty unicycle shop in the UK, and fabricate the front and rear forks from material he had in his shop. But the distinctive curved backbone took a lot of effort.
“It took two hours,” Lehman sighs. “I had to have someone keeping the thing straight so as you’re rolling it through each pass, it wants to twist.” With one and sometimes two patient friends working alongside him, he got the radius he wanted. But had he simply mitered that thick steel backbone against the head tube, it would not have been closely followed the front wheel arch like he wantede. Most classic penny-farthing frames could, because there was no ball-bearing headset. In fact, according to Lehman, the very concept of ball bearings can trace their origins back to early bicycles, but that’s another story.
So, to create the offset he needed to keep the wheel nice and tucked, he had to fabricate some sort of connection. Not finding the right part in his shop, he paced around the train tracks out back and came across a piece of railroad hardware that could be milled to the perfect shape.
Lehman learned that it was best to keep the wheelbase as short as possible, and the head-tube angle around 85 degrees. His recipe must work fine, because he looks pretty comfortable on this thing. And he rides it quite regularly. He even described it as his “daily driver.” He’ll ride it into town, and lead out the Santa Cruz Critical Mass events. “When you ride one of these things through the neighborhood, people are pointing and saying “how’d he get on that thing?’ It puts smiles on peoples’ faces.” Lehman tells me. “It puts a smile on my face because it’s fun to ride.”
New SQlab Bar Tape
German touchpoint brand, SQlab is more uniquely specialized in the field of comfort than any other brand. But some of their gear is a little divisive, like their oddly shaped grips and saddles. But their new, remarkably thick bar tape may be a no-brainer for anyone looking for more softness and surface area.
For one thing, it’s thick. When coiled up, each side is the size of a pancake, not a drink coaster. But SQlab added a clever touch to make it easy to control the thickness while you’re wrapping it. There’s a pattern of three side-by-side dots repeated along the length of the tape. So, while you’re wrapping it, there’s a clear way to measure how much you’re overlapping the layer below, and thus how much thickness you’ll end up with. Those dots also add a bit of extra contour in the surface material, which is the most like a rubber mountain-bike grip that I’ve ever felt. I would have snagged the tape they had on display, but I’ll wait until they ship me some for review. I want it in black.
Astral Jester 32″ Wheels and Rims
We can’t go a day without some 32-inch-wheel news, and today we’re focusing on the wheel itself. Astral Cycling had their new Jester wheelset on display, and like the Btchn’ frame I checked out yesterday, this is not a prototype. Astral is accepting pre-orders and plans to ship wheels in May.
The Jesters run on asymmetric alloy rims with a 30mm inner width and a 20mm depth. They’re a bit narrower than Astral’s 29” and 27.5” Serpentine rims, which suits the commonly 2.2” mild-duty 32” tires that dominate The First Wave of options. The 32-hole-only rims will go for $199 on their own, and the wheelsets cost $1,249 a set. They run on Astral Approach hubs made by White Industries, which come in 135QR, 142×12 148×12, or Super Boost 157×12. And 32-inch-wheel spacing debate is one I’ve been curious about, so I sat down with Astral director of sales and marketing, Loren Mason-Gere to get his take and learn the lay of the land.
Astral is the OEM wheel partner for a number of small framebuilders. And it’s small framebuilders that have been quickest to market with 32” bikes, so Astral has a head start on market research regarding what hub spacing is getting the most traction, so to speak. Loren didn’t even have to check the books. 148 is by far the most common. And while Mason-Gere wouldn’t push an OEM client in one direction or another, he happens to think 148 is perfectly fine for 32” mountain bikes. But let’s see what our token 32” content for tomorrow says about it.
Smith XC Sunglasses
These flip-up sunglasses are not new. In fact, they’re very very old. Smith first introduced the XC Sunglasses in 1984. That’s 42 years ago for fans of scary math. And they didn’t just bring them back this year. They brought them back in 2023 with updated materials and significantly updated optics. Not quite 42 years ago, but probably too old to deserve a spot in a Sea Otter round-up. Nevertheless, they’re in first place for our photographer, Josh Becker’s, Coolest Thing Of This Year’s Sea Otter. So, they’re in.
Josh and I have been attached at the hip this whole event, and he’s taken all our photos (except for these ones above, of course … and the ones in the segment below). Photo and video are his bread and butter. And thus, he’s regularly taking off his sunglasses to peer through a viewfinder or check focus after a shot. The XC’s ability to flip up make them the perfect shooting companion. Back in 1984, they were made (in part) with a different sort of shooting in mind. They were popular among biathlon athletes who needed unencumbered view down their rifle scope before hitting their target and cross-country skiing to the next one. That’s how they got the name. The XC glasses retail for $200, but they’re on sale for closer to $120 nearly everywhere. Because they’re old.
Old Man Mountain Bikepacking Campout
Even if you’ve never been to Sea Otter, you probably know it’s held at a race track. But you might not know that race track is surrounded by acre upon acre of open land. Some patches of that land is set aside for camping, often during events held at the race track. The most popular campsites are adjacent to the track itself, and regularly sell out. But one slightly more remote camping area was the site of a pretty special event this year.
Old Man Mountain, along with a handful of other bikepacking and adventure-focused brands, rented out that entire spot and invited anyone who wanted to come touch grass. $80 got you four nights at the camp spot, plus clinics, talks, movie screenings, and a party on Saturday night that was also open to all Sea Otter attendees.
I technically got there a day before the event started, but there already were one or two early birds plus some Old Man Mountain staff on-site. Then, each night I came back from working the show, more and more tents (and a few cars) joined in the mix until after a busy Saturday when I crested the hill above camp to see the grounds polka-dotted with an array of colorful Dyneema domes next to diverse bikes laid gently in the grass. Amongst them gathered dozens of campers who were talking, laughing, mingling and wandering in a way that reminded me of fourth-grade recess.
I don’t just mean the jubilation of being outside and having fun. I mean the jubilation of being among people—a lot of people—that you share a kinship with. In fourth grade, that kinship is simple: It’s that you’re all fourth-graders. That may mean something different for everyone, but it didn’t matter. There you are, and there they are. So, when things work like they should, you begin to make connections and ask questions and tell stories. Because there’s no structure preventing that free-flowing interaction. Recess wasn’t an organized sporting event or a race or a team-building exercise. It’s an open forum with perhaps a jungle gym here and a broken tether-ball pole there. And it was always great.
The kinship shared among attendees of the Old Man Mountain campout is that they like to put a tent on a bike and take it somewhere for the night. That also means something different for everyone. But there you are, and there they are. And over there is the president of Ortlieb, and that’s the founder of Stinner Frameworks. That guy with the Fu Manchu mustache owns Old Man Mountain. Over there is that guy who tours on that kitted-out cargo bike. And this is the cargo bike itself. And here are some hot dogs and some weird flavor of Kirkland sparkling water you’ve never tried. Connections, questions, and stories ensue and overflow.
The Radavist thanks 1UP USA for sponsoring our Sea Otter Classic coverage and our independent Reportage!