Friday Debrief: Women Behaving Badly, Sagged vs. Un-Sagged, Sweetrise Handlebar, and More

The weekly Debrief highlights small but important bits of news, products, and things that caught our attention on the website, in the conversation, and elsewhere around the community. These include upcoming events and interesting items our readers shared in the comments. Check out this week’s findings below.

Bits & Bobs

New products that are worth highlighting but didn’t make the Dispatch…

2024 Enve MOG Colors

$5,500 at Enve

To celebrate the one-year anniversary of the MOG, ENVE’s carbon gravel bike, they just added two new colors. In addition to the Sand finish, the MOG is now available in Terracotta and Slate Blue to bring a fresh look to their flagship drop-bar platform. Find our Dispatch about the MOG here.

Corvus Sweetrise Carbon Bar

Made in Vietnam / $160 at Corvus Cycles

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The Corvus Sweetrise Carbon Bar shares the Sweet 16’s 16-degree sweep but adds 48mm (1.1″) of rise for a slightly more upright riding position. They are 780mm wide but can be trimmed down if needed and feature a carbon construction with something Corvus calls CoolCore for extra vibration dampening. This is the first we’ve heard of it, so we asked Corvus how CoolCore works. They say it’s a supercritical foam core inside the bar that improves vibration dampening and is somewhat unique because cold temperatures have minimal effect on the compliance of the foam. Corvus is using CoolCore in their Sweet 16 bar as well.

Hayes A4 Brakes go Purple

310 grams / $250 at Hayes Bicycle

To celebrate 25 years, Hayes just released their A4 hydraulic brakes in purple. This announcement coincides with their 25th anniversary as they pay homage to the legendary anodized mountain bike components that ruled the market in the ’90s. The A4 features a four-piston design with tool-free reach adjustment and flip-flop lever orientation.

Tubolight Diamana

97-205 grams / ~100€ at Tubolight

Tubolight announced the Diamana this week, an advanced tire insert they claim is the fastest and lightest on the market. According to their marketing, this was accomplished by allowing air molecules to move inside the tire during casing deformation. They say this adds a new level of traction by shaping the lateral channels to create a Venturi effect, meaning air flow through the channels increases speed as the channels gets smaller. They also claim the Diamana offers 55% more vibration damping, among a lot of other things that we’ll let you judge for yourself. The Diamana is offered in SL (XC), XD, and XHD models for different tires and applications.

In Conversation

Exchanges and ideas that caught our attention in the site’s conversation section…

Sagged vs. Unsagged

As you may have seen in the Revel Tirade review earlier this week, there were many numbers and angles floating around based on two different states: sagged and unsagged. The reason for this, for those just tuning in, is that Revel specced their geometry chart with un-sagged numbers. If you’re not familiar with sag, here’s an excerpt from our guide to Bikepacking With a Suspension Fork:

It’s widely accepted that the first step in setting up your suspension fork is by using sag. Sag is the amount suspension settles with the rider (and gear) weight in a neutral stance. It’s a fairly simple metric that gauges the stiffness of the air spring proportional to the load—your weight plus the bike’s weight and gear attached to it. For those unfamiliar, it’s fairly easy to measure your fork’s sag. You simply steady your bike against a wall (usually using a handlebar end as a stabilizer), sit on the bike, and then bounce around a little, settle into a riding stance, and move the sag gauge rubber O-ring to the bottom of the fork stanchion. Then you gently dismount and allow the fork to decompress. The proportion of vertical space under the O-ring on the stanchion is the sag percentage. Some forks have gauge markings, but if not, you can use a measuring tape to figure out the sag percentage. Most manufacturers recommend 15-25%. I usually opt for 20%.

When we asked Revel why they opted for un-sagged metrics, they explained that they’re changing all of their geometry charts because they see it as the standard for full-suspension bikes. Their theory is that this will make it easier to compare their full-suspension and hardtail platforms. However, we see it a little differently. For one, most companies use sagged geo numbers for hardtails, although there are a few outliers. Second, aside from bottom bracket drop/height, full-suspension bikes maintain [relatively] the same angles when sagged, since both the front and the rear suspension is compressed at the same time. And, of course, rigid bikes are at a constant. However, hardtails are unique in that they hinge at the rear axle, which produces a variable geometry based on the compression of the fork. So a neutral state of a hardtail’s geometry is with the fork sagged at ~20% and we think it makes much more sense for hardtail geometry to be specced with numbers based sag. Sorry for the extra nerdery here, but hardtails are the favorite bike type of most of our editorial team here, and as a result, we get real granular with numbers and details. What do you think? Do you think hardtail geometry should be specced sagged or unsagged?

Around the Community

News from around the bikepacking world…

Women Behaving Badly

The Steezy Collective, a UK-based space for women and non-binary riders to come and cycle together, launched a new project this week known as Women Behaving Badly. They are honoring some “bad” women with a series of fully guided bikepacking trips, day rides, and night rides. Their first ride will be on the 25th-26th and honor the Pendle Witches. The English Witch trials rampaged the people of England for years, with an unusually large group from mainly two families being executed at once from the Lancaster area. Head to the Steezy Collective Instagram to keep in touch and learn more.

The Vintage Mountain Bike Show with BoneshakerMTB

Just announced, BoneshakerMTB is putting on a Vintage Mountain Bike Show next month with plans to showcase bicycle craftmanship of the early 80s and 90s. The show will be held at Top Top Projects in Toronto, Ontario, with an opening reception on March 7th from 6-10 p.m, and the main event will be held on March 8th and 9th from 6-9 p.m. Learn more here.

Women In The Bike Industry Summit

Organized by Colena Cotter, Aoife Glass, Vedangi Kulkarni, and Emily Stratton, with the support of Developing MTB in Scotland and South of Scotland Enterprise, the Women in the Bike Industry Summit 2024 is set to take place in Glentress in the Scottish Borders on the 15th and 16th of March. Find additional information here.

A Couple Screws Loose (Trailer)

A Couple Screws Loose is a new film documenting Matt Schweiker and Luke Swab’s attempt to take on three of the most challenging gravel rides (Dirty 130, Death March, Tellico Highland) in eastern Tennessee in three consecutive days. Watch the trailer above and stay tuned for the full film coming March 5th.

Wild Wolf Cycling Collective Bike Campout

Los Angeles-based Wild Wolf Cycling Collective is an intentional space to celebrate, connect, and center all gender-expansive and women riders through skill shares, campouts, and community rides. Their first campout is on February 24/25th, and although all the spots appear to be taken, there’s a waitlist for those interested. It looks like a great group to be a part of for anyone in the LA area. Learn more about Wild Wolf on Instagram.

Ron’s Riv Roadini Bike Check

Ronnie Romance from Ron’s Bikes released a bike check video earlier this week featuring “a delectable dealer’s-choice-customer build of Rivendell’s budget rough road bike.” He goes through the parts spec and more. Enjoy!

Tour Te Waipounamu 2024 (Video)

Martin Grethe of Scouse Racing was one of 38 finishers at this year’s Tour Te Waipounamu event in New Zealand. The 1,300-kilometer route traverses the length of the South Island of New Zealand and covers an incredibly diverse landscape. Martin put together a great self-filmed video from his ride that you can watch above.

Events Starting Soon

What to watch this weekend and bikepacking events starting soon…

2024 Tour Aotearoa

Tour Aotearoa is New Zealand’s longest bikepacking event. Stretching 3,000 kilometers from Cape Reinga to Bluff, it follows a combination of cycle trails, tracks, paths and lanes connected by the most enjoyable country roads available. This year, riders are taking off in waves, starting Sunday. There are over 200 riders registered for the event, and you can follow their progress live here.

2024 Sydney to Summit

The Hunt Sydney to Summit is a self-sufficient bikepacking challenge that takes riders through some of Australia’s most beautiful terrain. Riders will pedal from Sydney to the summit of Mt Kosciuszko and be aim for a grand finish, rather than a grand depart, on Saturday, March 2nd. You can follow their progress live here.

Weekly Social

Some things we found around the ‘gram and elsewhere. This week, the fastest riders at the 2024 Race Around Rwanda event…

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