The Radavist

Our Radar Roundup compiles products and videos from the ‘net in an easy-to-digest format. Read on below for today’s findings…

Jutting out into the Pacific Ocean south of California, west of Mexico, the Baja Peninsula encompasses four deserts, roughly 3,000 kilometers of coastline, and the right mix of challenge and remoteness to attract intrepid travelers of all kinds. For those of the bikepacking variety, a relatively new route has quickly become a must-ride: the 2,692-kilometer Baja Divide. Those with schedules to keep may take on the Divide in sections, riding for a week or two before hopping on a bus back to where they started. And then there’s Sònia Colomo.

“I think the big highlight for me was just the energy—the energy shared any time I passed someone, or they passed me—I’d stop and think I was alone, and all of a sudden, I’d turn a corner and see someone I knew. The energy we left echoed through those mountains.”

This past April, in the quiet Spanish town of Teruel, a few hours east of Madrid, 56 riders set out by bike to take on the Komoot Women’s Montañas Vacías Bikepacking Challenge, an eight-day exploration of one of the least-populated regions in Europe. The 57th rider, Josie Fouts, followed along in the media van and recaps the challenge below.

Note: This article is part of a sponsored partnership with Komoot. We’ll always disclose when content is sponsored to ensure our journalistic integrity.

Katherine Moore, a zoologist by training and a cycling writer by trade, has just launched a new bikepacking route through her home turf in East Devon. Besides the gorgeous coastal tracks and sleepy wooded trails further inland, quaint thatched villages, and colorful seaside towns, the East Devon Trail features a twist: linking up nature reserves and bird hides along its 115-mile length. While the release of this accessible weekender trail has been the cause of much excitement, its development sprung out of a much darker and unexpected place.

Note: This article is part of a sponsored partnership with Komoot. We’ll always disclose when content is sponsored to ensure our journalistic integrity.

International bikepacking duo Tristen Bogaard and Belén Castelló have a special talent for looking at destinations through the lens of bikepackers. On their exploration of the Balearic Islands they sniffed out hidden gems and immersed themselves in the local culture, history, and landscape of the islands to ‘bikepackify’ them for future explorers.

When you think of volcanic landscapes, is your mind is drawn to the barren, rocky, and dark moonscapes of Iceland, Hawaii or Lanzarote? Well, in the volcanic regions of Central France, a different kind of geology awaits.

Enduro World Series racer turned YouTuber Scotty Laughland has traveled the world mountain biking, from British Columbia to Jamaica, but world events in recent years kept him closer to home than anticipated.

Born out of a fresh perspective on his local trails after the birth of his first child, Scotty set about sharing the gems he’s enjoyed over the years – as well as some thoughts on sustainable mountain biking development, the role of trail associations and how we can support these valuable networks.

Komoot is a route planning and navigation app that enables you to find, plan, enjoy and share your experiences in the great outdoors. Its promise to the world: to make exploration and adventure accessible to everyone. Today we’re going to give the readers of The Radavist an official introduction…

When Ride with GPS began developing their new mobile route planner, they had a whole list of things in mind. For one, they wanted to utilize a smart phone’s tapping feature to allow the creation of a route. Users should also be able to search for various locales and be routed to and from your current location, with interactive elevation profiles and deliver riding time-based on how long you climb, pulling from your previous riding history.

Once they began working on the app, they were able to tap into the various map options offered like satellite, terrain, OSM Cycle, OSM Outdoor, ESRI, and more. Finally, they wanted users to develop color-coded routes to distinguish sections.

This app is now available to use, so if you’ve been struggling with other apps, give this one a try!

Watching the Tour Divide race unfold on Track Leaders is great, but it’s always nice to add additional layers of information. What DotWatcher does is just that. They include Instagram posts to the web portal and for the first time, David Chirnside is offering his wisdom and previous experience with the Tour Divide and is commentating the race day by day. His commentary on the event, the rider’s kit, and his personal experience bring a very personal, in-depth perspective on the race coverage. Head on over to Dot Watcher to check it out.