By now, the last pop-up tent has been loaded into the last brand-wrapped Sprinter van, and the last 32″ wheel has rolled smoothly down the the grassy hills surrounding the 2026 Sea Otter Classic. But Travis had an SD card full of unused photos that deserve to be scrolled through. And you can scroll quickly if you’d prefer. This one’s mostly about the vibes.
The Radavist thanks 1UP USA for sponsoring our Sea Otter Classic coverage and our independent Reportage!
Sea Otter is a service-dog-only affair. So the ones who make it in are very popular.
I was stoked to see the new Liv Embolden and Giant Stance in person. The fit and finish is even more dialed than you can tell from Giant’s photos … or mine, I suppose.
I was nervous about the fork, but it felt good in a bounce test. Also, I’m digging the bamboo-style chainstay-slap damper.
Lezyne had this new credit-card-sized light mounted under a dual-sided out-front Garmin mount. It’s angled to accommodate multiple tilt angles, and apparently it’s pretty aero.
So many boxes checked on the Giro Chamber shoe. Understated design, walkable sole, and a knit ankle cuff to keep out debris.
As seen at the Old Man Mountain campout, this repurpose of some Wolf Tooth B-Rad mounts is pure genius.
Freedom Coast had their new 90 Degree Pod Clamp out to touch and feel. And it feels good. The buttons are no farther apart, of course, but the thumb motion feels much more distinct when reaching near or far than reaching high or low.
There were some prototype silver gravity wheels at Hunt. Hard to photograph, easy to love.
114mm wide by 133mm long looks even bigger in person. As someone with size-13 feet, I’ve got to get me a set.
This Star-Destroyer-lookin’ gadget at the Ergon booth helps create some concrete points of measurement when dialing in saddle position and angle. It helps find your saddle’s bio-mechanical reference line, or BMR, which several saddle brands suggest using when setting height and offset.
Liv and Giant revamped their shoe lineup. On top of the added dual-Boa models and improved rubber, there’s now a pretty clear “good, better, best” vibe to the lineup.
Also pretty cool to see that every model is available in both Giant and Liv. Only way they differ is Liv shoes are shaped around a different last, and come in nicer colors if you ask me.
On one of my commutes from the show down to the Old Man Mountain camp was on foot, so I was going slow enough for legends Aaron Lutze, Jeff Lenosky, and Eric Porter to flag me down for a chat. I used to ride trials with Aaron and Jeff when I lived in Illinois, and Porter is just friends with everyone he meets.
Gravel bikes are inheriting down-tube storage from mountain bikes. This unreleased, unlabeled mystery has an odd bulge to accommodate the door and add space. I’m sure nobody will have an opinion about how it looks.
I caught Bronson Moore of Be More Bikes chatting with fellow disruptor, Tyler Reiswig of Btchn’ Bikes. I also saw Bronson’s DH / enduro test mule with his outrageous extended upper clamp and direct-mount stem. Still, I bet they were talking about how crazy this whole 32″ thing is.
Soon after I sat down to get some secret Leatt info from my former Bike Mag editor, Dain Zaffke, we were joined by my former Bike Mag mentor, Mike Ferrentino . He started telling stories, as he often does. He got a little blurry, but he often does that, too.
To earn my spot at the Old Man Mountain campout, I decided to ride to this year’s Sea Otter … kinda. There were a lot of trains and busses, but I did more than 200 miles of pedaling into a headwind there, and about 70 back, somehow also into a headwind. It all started and ended in San Luis Obispo, which I reached by train. That’s where I met Carlos.
He had parked his L’avecaise touring bike opposite mine in the bike car. He’s a professor from Mexico City who, with similar help from trains and busses, rode to a wedding in San Francisco and back. We remarked how different our bikes were, even though what we did with them was so similar. We talked for a bit and exchanged numbers. When my train reached Los Angeles, he had gotten off. I think somewhere after we passed Carpinteria.
The Radavist thanks 1UP USA for sponsoring our Sea Otter Classic coverage and our independent Reportage!