We’re back with another installment of our editorial staff’s Summer picks. As in years prior, this transcends the typical product listicle and offers a look into the personalities of our contributing editorial team. John’s up first with his 2026 Summer Picks list that includes some bike stuff, a thick stack of vinyl, books on doing hard things, gender fluidity, metal demigods, consumerism, and Bubba, Cari, and his desert willow…
This year, I’m relishing my personal bikes and reducing the number of products I take in for review. My intent is to make thorough use of what I already own and review some of my favorites, rather than chasing the torrent of products in 2026. In doing so, I hope to put concerted effort into evaluating components and accessories I’ve been fond of over the past few years. More on that later.
However, that doesn’t mean I don’t have a killer new cargo bike, along with a few other choice bits to gloat about!
My Drust Cycles Klunkargo
I’ll be beaming with glee about this bike for some time, so apologies in advance!
After my elk hunt, in which I hauled out my harvest on the Omnium Mini-Max cargo bike. I had some notes. The Mini-Max is a bike designed for urban cycling, not rough and rugged backcountry trails. Wanting something better equipped for camping (maybe the occasional hunting outing), while still zippy for around-town errands, I hollered at Konstantin Drust to make a cargo bike inspired by a mid-1970s klunker.
When the Berlin-based builder of dream bikes had finished the frame, we decided on a powder-coated finish. Then another small Berlin maker, Juicy Bike Stuff, added cheetah-print webbing to the front rack, and the Klunkargo Safari was born.
I’ve got a more in-depth review coming of the bike and its components later this year, but as of now, cargo bike summer is off to a great start! But I can’t emphasize this enough: if you have a dream cargo bike you’d like built, holler at Drust Cycles!
Wolf Tooth Locked-In Bar Ends $34.95
When you ride wide-ass bars in tight and twisty forested singletrack, chances are, you’ve hit your bar ends a few times. My bars always eked through some of our pinchier lines, but after crushing my pinky this spring on an unfaltering Aspen tree, I was intrigued by Wolf Tooth’s Locked-In Bar Ends. Aimed to reduce “arm pump” and increase leverage for tight, high-speed turns, the Locked-In bar ends aren’t your standard endurance comfort bar extensions.
They feature a chamfered edge to reduce the chance of hooking them on branches and give you a firm surface to press into with your hands. Now, the question is, am I hitting trees because my bars are 20 mm wider now, or am I simply saving my pinkies from future boxers’ fractures?
Colfax Design Works (Big Ass Waterproof) Tote Bag $247
I love seeing what small makers are cooking up in their workshops. After using the Colfax Design Works camera straps for a number of years and swearing by the brand’s Q.D. Tire Bag for trailside trash when we’re car camping, the brand’s Tote Bag has been in heavy rotation for the past year. I’ve used it as a travel tote, stuffing it full of my down gear for winter camping, then using the roll-top construction to purge all the air from it, and, more recently, it fits perfectly in my Klunkargo crate.
Cari also uses it for shipping Radavist merch each week on the Globe Haul e-Cargo. Its material “grips” the racks better than any other bag in our ever-expanding tote fleet. Then, to up the ante, the bag is constructed using RF fabric welding manufacturing techniques to ensure everything stays dry when that afternoon monsoon hits.
Black “Burnt Slice” Safety Pizza $15
Visibility when you’re riding a 62 cm yellow bike might not be of the utmost concern, but I like to play it safe in the era of distracted driving. One of our local shops here in town, the Broken Spoke, had this size small “Burnt Slice” Safety Pizza in stock right by the checkout counter, and it was an impulse buy I do not regret. It matches the vibes on my Bombadil so well!
Hex Components Bling ~$60
The UK’s Hex Components cast-brass embellishments are deep-cut bike-nerd bling. When I first saw the brand’s offerings at Bespoked UK this spring, I had to go all in, buying the bar ends, top cap, and the brand’s yet-to-be-released 3D-printed titanium seatpost clamp. Once they roll out the seat collars, I’ll be sure to update you in our Radar section.
For now, I love how Lovecraftian these parts made my Meriwether Storm Camo hardtail look! Is it a hardtail or a Shoggoth? Perfect for the Mountains of Madness! Ok… I’m done, promise. It does look metal as fuck, though!
Ektar 100 35 mm $14.99/roll
Damn. Film is so expensive now! But in my opinion, if you’re going to fork out some serious dough for a six-pack, find the film that matches your style and stick with it. Since moving to Santa Fe in 2020, just before the COVID pandemic, I’ve leaned in hard on Ektar 100 after being bummed on Portra 160 for various reasons. While the 120 format is dreamy on my Mamiya 7ii, it’s the 35 mm size in my rangefinder that I’ve really come to vibe with over the past few months.
The grain is dreamy, the hues are muted, there’s just the right amount of contrast, and there’s something about the way it renders red sandstone that is sublime. I like to push it a stop, overexposing it in camera, to really make it the final exposures pop. Sometimes lugging a big medium format rig around isn’t an option, and that’s when 35 mm shines.
Rafting, bike camping, and just plain old forest bathing, year after year, Ektar 100 just delivers.
Photos by Paul Kalifatidi
Ornot Olive Mission Shorts $126
Usually, I’m rendered in all-black, all-summer long, but this year, I’ve ventured out of the darkness (not completely) and into more earth tones, setting aside my trail ninja persona for the time being. I can’t get enough of the Ornot Mission Shorts. The fit, the durability, breathability, and comfort are hands down the best I’ve found, and this new (to me) green fabric is so quintessentially Radavist. Made in the Bay and built to last.
By the way, we’ve got our own, wild-looking Radavist 20th Anniversary shorts on the way… shhhh!
Ultradynamico Brut JFF Fast Fatties $75
Big, plump, fast-rolling. The Ultradynamico Brüt tires are speedy-feeling while still offering some traction with a minimal, directional tread pattern. I’ve got them on my Meriwether Ponderosa, but they’d be equally at home on a gravel racing bike or rigid 29er. Made by Panaracer in Japan, the Brut JFF comes in at the lowest pricepoint of the three compounds, while landing between the Brut Race ($95), Rozzo ($95), and Brut Robusto ($85) casings.
Campag Cutter by Winter Cutlery $350
Since the proliferation of Campagnolo wrenches, cutlers have been converting them into knives. A fabled piece of bike shop lore, these are colloquially referred to as “Campag Cutters” and can be found next to the actual Campy Peanut Butter Wrenches in extra-special bike shop kitchens and coffee areas.
Winter Cutlery – once known as Winter Bicycles – is Eric Estlund’s current metalworking venture. From time to time, he’ll accumulate enough Campy wrenches to convert into knives, and a few years back, I sprung for one. They’re exceptionally well done, with a makers mark on the razor-sharp-edged blade, and finished with a paracord lanyard, complete with a sheath.
Follow Winter Cutlery on Instagram to catch the next batch!
Roadie Ultra Light Brew $13.99 6-pack
I’m big on hop-flavored sparkling waters and NA shrubs. Coming up on nine years of abstaining from alcohol, I’ve leaned into the seemingly abundant offerings of non alcoholic bevs. Roadie was introduced to me by a friend. Its branding was done by LAND, the team that designed The Radavist’s branding, too, so it felt serendipitous to have that connection. Roadie is made in Los Angeles and has a thicker palette, with a light beer-like taste that slightly obscures the sparkling water fizziness.
It’s a zero-calorie, zero-sugar experience, and the ingredients are malted barley and hops. You can buy a single 6-pack for $13.99, or a 12-pack for $27.98, and if you choose to subscribe, it knocks 10% off the monthly subscription.
SRAM XO Transmission Replacement Cage $160
I’ll be touching on this more next week, but when I literally peeled an XO cage on a rock during a recent ride on a review bike, I was amazed to see how easy it was to replace. Literally 5 minutes and I had a new functioning mech. Here’s to more products that are repairable, and while the $160 pinched, it’s better than replacing a whole mech.
Bubba, Our Desert Willow, Chilopsis linearis ‘Bubba’
After talking to various botanists and horticulturalists in Santa Fe, we decided to embrace the climate-change-induced shifting ecotone of our region and plant a “desert” tree to offer shade in the southwestern corner of our yard. This section of our yard is very sandy, and the various species of cholla we’ve propagated are thriving in it, alongside Apache plume, Fallugia paradoxa, and Sand Sagebrush, Artemisia filifolia. We figured a sand-loving plant like the Desert Willow would also thrive.
Three years ago, we planted our Desert Willow, and it’s already grown four times its size at planting. When Cari was researching how to propagate it, she came across a lovely story about this particular cultivar. Developed in San Antonio, the original Bubba is still alive at the San Antonio Botanical Garden. Coincidentally, Cari grew up with the director, who told us the story over dinner just last week.
Paul Cox developed this plant, seeking a stronger, upright tree-like shape, with glossier foliage, and a heavy blooming cycle. The variant would be more robust to climate change and grow faster in home gardens. Cox had a bit of a sense of humor. Knowing if he named this variant “Bubba,” it’d rile up the wealthy San Antonians of a particular neighborhood. We had no idea about this when we bought ours, and we couldn’t help but laugh at not only the absurdity of the binomial nomenclature of this cultivar, Chilopsis linearis ‘Bubba’, but the circumstances of which it came about.
Not to mention Cari’s friend immediately recognized this variant in our front yard!
Cari’s Gardening Green Thumb
We’ve been in our home for six years now, and all of Cari’s hard work in the garden has paid off. Her mix of wildflowers has created a veritable endless buffet for our local pollinators. Before many wilted in our heat wave, I spent a week documenting their beauty in a series of photos I’m really proud of.
Coming home after Brother in the Wild UK to find our poppies popping off was a real treat.
Now if we can just get this opium crop processed… 😉
Photos by Spencer Harding
Memorable Riding Moments
Each year, it’s the rides I do with our editors at The Radavist that always stand out for me. Last year, Miguel’s first time bike camping in the Santa Fe National Forest was fun and educational. This year began with me spending time with Spencer in Tucson, riding and photographing in the Sonoran Desert. Bringing the Crust Nor’Easter and Sour Cowboy Cookie was the perfect pairing for shooting well past sunset each night. Then we finally got to shoot Spencer’s Steamroller in a fixie-throwback, steezy shoot.
Just a few weeks ago, Paul came down from Bellingham, venturing the furthest south he’s ever been. We spent five days on big rides in the Southern Rockies, where Paul exchanged PNW damp loam for SW dusty duff, steep rocks, and relentless climbs. Having Paul stay with us and showing him some of my favorite trails was a real treat. We shot some photos and ate lots of New Mexican cuisine. Craving more red chile yet, dude?
Photo by Paul Kalifatidi
We even shot a Radical Rigs with my HJ75! More on that later. It was an honor to have Paul document this six-year-long project of mine. In many ways, it’s a blessing to have someone else write about it who hasn’t poured blood, sweat, and tears (along with $$$$) into making this 1987 vehicle reliable. It’s been a labor of love, but keeping old cars running (with character) is better than buying new cars, in my opinion.
Connecting with our team takes a bit of coordination, but it’s always worthwhile.
Books to Realign and Disappear Within
No one person is gonna fix the world, but it’s ok if you want to try, was my theme going into 2026. Coming off a life-altering elk hunt and diving into the longest, coldest nights of the year, I spent time reading a few books by Michael Easter that offered a shift in perspective. Unfortunately, I don’t have any photos of these books because I’ve since loaned them out or gifted them to friends, as any good book ought to be.
PLEASE SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL, INDEPENDENT BOOK STORE!
The Comfort Crisis: Embrace Discomfort To Reclaim Your Wild, Happy, Healthy Self
After my elk hunt last year, a number of people recommended the writing of Michael Easter. Primarily, his book, The Comfort Crisis. Easter begins the book with a theory: that society has gotten soft and the grit and challenges of our ancestors are lost in the digital era of ease. Throughout the book, he interviews various people specializing in the physiological and psychological effects of taking on challenges, all while weaving in a narrative of a caribou hunt in Alaska with Donnie Vincent.
I found some of Easter’s and Vincent’s ethos aligned with what I described in my elk hunting piece last year, but don’t let that dissuade you from the book if hunting ain’t your thing. Easter’s thesis is wrapped beautifully in anecdotes and a deep, historical context that really makes you think about why we love to hate doing hard things in our modern society and how maybe being uncomfortable is the way to reconnect with who we are at an atavistic level.
Scarcity Brain: Fix Your Craving Mindset and Rewire Your Habits to Thrive with Enough
Oh boy. After finishing The Comfort Crisis, I immediately dove into Scarcity Brain, Easter’s next book that analyzes consumer habits and contextualizes them against ancestral cravings for excess in times of perceived famine. What was most interesting in this book was the chapter on how we feel consumerism wastes resources, when in reality, we’re living in an era of optimized production. Most of our consumables are made from multi-generation reclaimed materials. A good example was one where the author compared a simple beer can. In the mid-20th century, a can of beer used 80 grams of first-generation aluminum, whereas modern cans are around 14 grams, all of which is recycled.
Easter goes on many tangents throughout the book, like the one that dives deeply into how essential boredom is to brain function and how it’s been largely de-programmed in our productivity-driven capitalist societies.
The book pushed against some of my fervently held beliefs and caused a lot of mindful, self-reflective pauses. Most importantly, it made me re-evaluate some of my own habits, noting pitfalls the author himself had fallen into.
Scarcity Brain and The Comfort Crisis were two “thinkers” I enjoyed so far this year.
The Left Hand of Darkness
Back in 1969, the American science fiction author Ursula K. Le Guin penned a story that questioned sexual and gender identity in a time-warping story dubbed The Left Hand of Darkness. The novel is written from the perspective of Genly Ai, a galactic envoy from the Ekumen alliance. Genly is tasked with convincing the Gethen people to join his homeworld’s galactic alliance. The Gethenians are unlike anything Ai has encountered before: a society of ambisexual individuals with no fixed gender.
Le Guin’s writing explores notions of gender fluidity, a matriarchal social structure, and unique technologies in this universe, offering a mind-altering reading experience. The Left Hand of Darkness also expands upon the ideology of the “Left Hand Path,” or the humanist, anti-establishment philosophy that prioritizes individualism and the rejection of societal and religious dogmas.
Science fiction has long represented the LGBTQIA2S+ community, and The Left Hand of Darkness is a great example of an author exploring gender themes.
Hyperion Cantos
If an interdimensional villain that impales its victims on a metal tree for them to suffer eternally and a ragtag group of misfits looking to end its reign of terror sounds appealing, then check out Dan Simmons’s Hyperion Cantos. This four-part series includes Hyperion, The Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, and The Rise of Endymion. The themes represented in the 1989 Hyperion reflect many of the societal issues we’re facing today. Humanity struggles with the emergence of the Technocore, an AI that has gone rogue and formed its own civilization, and various religious sects are struggling for power, all while a group of people battles an entity known simply as the Shrike.
The Shrike is one of the most unique antagonists of any science fiction novel. I’d love to see it on the big screen someday, but until then, I’ll continue to revisit this series to paint a new picture of its horrors in my mind’s eye. I don’t want to divulge too much of the plot, but I’ll just say if you are a science fiction fan and haven’t read the Hyperion Cantos, give it a try!
Crate Escape: 12″ LPs on Rotation
As the world gets fuckier and fuckier, I find myself diving even deeper into the realm of what I call stressoterica music. All of my industrial, black metal, neofolk, and dungeon synth LPs have been on heavy rotation, but I’ve selected a few stand-outs of the year for me so far. A few are classics, and a few are recent releases. Read on for a list of Cascadian metal, Silmarillion-inspired black metal, anti-establishment British punk, along with some ultra-unobtainium cuts from New York’s own Taurus.
Weakling: Dead As Dreams (Fan Club Repress)
US black metal has built its foundation on a few notable acts over the past three decades, with the Cascadian front mixing atmospheric soundscapes inspired by the natural world. Bands like Agalloch, Ash Borer, and Wolves in the Throne Room drew inspiration from their environment in the Cascade Mountains. Nature is metal.
The Midwest brought about Akhenaten’s Judas Iscariot, which delivered hit after hit, starting with its first LP, The Cold Earth Slept Below, in 1995. Meanwhile, on the depressive black metal front, Xasthur and Leviathan burned down the house in the mid 90s through early aughts, ushering in a new wave of US black metal dubbed the DSBM genre.
Meanwhile, in 1998, the San Francisco band Weakling released but one album, Dead As Dreams. Unless you’re willing to fork out $1,850 on Discogs for an LP or hundreds for a CD or cassette, the only way to listen to Dead As Dreams has been on YouTube for the past two decades.
Our local black metal distributor in Santa Fe (yes, that’s a thing), Banner of Blood, stocked this bootleg fan repress, and I managed to snag a copy. Listening to it on vinyl has been epic, with a note of apology to my neighbors. Soul-crushing exhalations met with tremelo avalanches and drums that just will not quit, Dead As Dreams remains relevant to the global black metal scene all these years later.
After making my purchase, a little bird told me the band is pressing an official re-release shortly, too, so be on the lookout.
Iron Firmament: In the Land of the Pre-Human Kings
What Blood Incantation’s 2024 release, Absolute Elsewhere, did for death metal, Iron Firmament’s In the Land of the Pre-Human Kings has done for black metal. Eerie soundscapes, mixed with atmospheric drone and synth, coupled with vocals straight from Inquisition’s Invoking the Majestic Throne of Satan, have made the Pacific Northwest’s Iron Firmament hone its sound into what I believe will be my album of the year in 2026. Atlantis in Permafrost is full of tasty riffs, and the title track, In the Land of the Pre-Human Kings feels like it could go on forever, and I wouldn’t be upset.
Play it once, play it twice, play it on repeat; the album has plenty of breathing room and depth that is best appreciated loud and on vinyl. Hot damn.
It’s one hell of a black metal, multi-dimensional journey.
Runeboy: Aggro Saxons
Limited to only 100 LP pressings, Northeastern England’s Runeboy full-length Aggro Saxons is rarer than a week of bluebird skies in the Northern English countryside. Recorded in a pub and full of a mix of blackened punk, oi, noise, and neofolk, Aggro Saxons burns the St. George’s Cross on its cover in an anti-establishment, anarchic outcry. Fueled by White Lightning, a popular but now discontinued 8% cider drink, and lauded by UK locals in chaotic, blue-collar defiance, Runeboy’s releases are hard to get but well worth it when you land one. English Rain III is also an exceptional 7″ if you can land it!
This has been on constant rotation. It’s a toe tapper.
Atheosophia: Puritans Take Shelter
Speaking of USBM, Taurus, a one-man black metal powerhouse, has been trickling his various band releases on the Blood and Crescent label for the past five years. Taurus’ bands include Gauntlet Ring, Fellwinter, Arbor, and Atheosophia. The latter’s 2026 release, Puritans Take Shelter, with its second-wave black metal homage approach to gritty, crunchy riffage (in Sturm), and granular black metal (in the title track, Puritans Take Shelter), has been his crowning achievement. While it’s hard to dethrone Fellwinter’s 2023 release, The Dawn of Winter, Puritans Take Shelter has one clear intent: annihilation of theocratic constructs.
Taurus is picking up where Judas Iscariot left off in the early aughts, and it’s profound.
Труп Колдуна/Warlock Corpse: Bloody Tears of the Desert
Dungeon synth and desert themes? Sign me up. Kazakhstan-based Warlock Corps’s 2024 release, Bloody Tears of the Desert, fell into my lap earlier this year, and it’s been on constant rotation. At 45 PRM, the album flies by, but plays great on loop with dank, wet, and sticky dungeon synth keyboards, minimal vocals, and ephemeral rhythms.
The flute solo in Dance of the Burning Sands just slaps so hard.
One of Nine: Dawn of the Iron Shadow
Tolkien fans, draw your swords, and march with Glorfindel to the pass of Cirith Thoronath to face thy dooooooom. Dropping the needle onto Dawn of the Iron Shadow transports you to the pages of The Silmarillion, where the lore of Middle-earth unfurls like lembas bread in mallorn leaves.
Featuring the battle of Glorfindel and the Balrog battling while Gondolin burns in the background, One of Nine used the art from Ted Nasmith to set the tone of the band’s 2025 release. Throughout the album, Tolkien themes surrounding the Nine Kings of Men echo throughout this quintessential black metal release. Atmospheric, melodic, and properly fantastical chords and choruses echo through the realm of men.
Highly recommended for lovers of black metal, atmospheric metal, and Tolkien.
xRADAVISTx
I’m still sober, having abstained from alcohol for nine years and other psychedelics and weed for going on three years. Throughout this process, I’m still learning so much about who I am as a person and feel an even stronger connection to my friends and community thanks to this lucidity. Nature is my drug of choice. Fractals, mannnn.
Well, that’s it for me. Over the next few weeks, the rest of the team will have their 2026 Summer Picks to share. Let me know what you think in the comments!
We create these lists in an attempt to showcase the diverse opinions and personalities we have on staff.
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