Friday Debrief: Tips for Aspiring Framebuilders, Ride Across Arizona FKT, Tarptent Arcdome, 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…

Ari Shafer

$1,999 at Ari Bikes

The Ari Shafer is a modern carbon gravel/adventure bike built for “high-output” rides, pairing big-tire clearance with smart utility. It clears 29×2.25” (700c×58mm) rubber, adds a weather-sealed Cache downtube storage compartment, multiple frame/fork mounts, internal dynamo routing, and mounts for up to 180mm rotors. The latest frame drops weight by ~200g (claimed 928g in size M; matching fork 491g) and updates fit with size-specific chainstays (425–440mm), more stack, and a traditional seat clamp, while keeping Ari’s gravel-first geometry (69° head angle, 50mm offset) and optional 60mm suspension-fork compatibility for extra control on rough roads. In short, it blends race-day speed with bikepacking readiness in a tidy, feature-rich package.

Cascada Riverside Hoodies

Made in Italy / $143 at Cascada.cc

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Cascada in Italy just released a new lineup of technical hoodies for shoulder-season riding. The Riverside Hoodie is crafted from a soft, brushed Bluesign and Oeko-Tex Standard 100-certified fabric, providing UPF 50+ sun protection. There are thumb holes, a drawstring hood, and the unisex fit comes in seven sizes and six color options.

Xero Pagosa Fireside Slippers

Made in China / $94.99 at REI Men’s Women’s

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The new Xero Shoes Pagosa Fireside camp slipper features a 200g insulated nylon upper and a cozy fleece lining. Its rubber outsole and convenient step-in heel make it ideal for navigating camp and easily moving in and out of your tent. For ultimate packability, a built-in cord allows the slippers to be compressed and banded together. The camp slippers are available in men’s and women’s sizing, and a few different colors.

Coming Soon: Tarptent ArcDome 1

Made in China / $449 at Tarptent.com

The new Tarptent ArcDome 1 is a four-season, freestanding dome-style tent, but unlike the ArcDome Ultra, it’s made from a PU-coated polyester fly fabric instead of Challenge Sailcloth’s Ultra TNT fabric. The fabric holds up better to being stuffed into bags and drops the price considerably. The ArcDome 1 has room for users up to 6’6″ tall, is designed to withstand heavy wind and snow, and can be purchased with a partial solid interior, a full solid interior, or a two-person solid interior. The typical complete weight is 1,607 grams, but that can be dropped down to 1,335 grams with the fly, solid interior, carbon poles, and no bags or stakes. You can sign up to be notified when it becomes available on the Tarptent product page.

The SimWorks RAL Bags Have Been Refreshed

Made in USA / $85-120 at SimWorks

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The SimWorks RAL collection has seen an update to its bag line, improving quality and looks for the new season. Among the new selections are a large basket-style tote bag, a small triangle-frame bag, and a large pannier. The bags are still made of 1000-denier nylon, and the pannier and tote feature a large external pocket for extra storage.

CTRL ALT DEL Pedals Background

$219 at Wolf Tooth

Following our launch-day review yesterday, Wolf Tooth released this detailed video about the development process behind their new CTRL ALT and DEL pedals. It’s worth a watch.

In Conversation

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

What Are the Best Merino Undies for Cycling?

Breaking from the regular scheduled programming, this week’s In Conversation isn’t about a conversation happening on the site. Instead, it involves a conversation a couple of us had internally—what are the best merino underwear for cycling? We’d love to hear your top picks. Leave a note in the conversation below.

Around the Community

News from around the bikepacking world…

Tips for Aspiring Framebuilders

Thinking about building bike frames for a living (or for fun)? Meriwether Cycles just published a frank, experience-driven guide for aspiring builders—covering why you might not want to go pro, the essentials (BikeCAD, Fusion 360), how to avoid unprofitable one-off rabbit holes, and smart advice on models, fit, regional identity, and questioning “accepted” geometry dogma. It’s a generous download of 15 years of lessons learned—equal parts reality check and inspiration. Find the full post here.

Ergon Seeking Sponsored Riders in North America

Ergon is looking for riders, racers, and teams with a strong social media presence to represent the brand and use Ergon products for the 2026 season. The application period is open until October 31st, and they’re looking for folks in the following categories: gravel/road, MTB/XC/endurance, gravity, bikepacking/adventure, and triathlon. Learn more and apply here.

Sklar Visit Circles Nagoya

Adam Sklar visited the Circles bike shop in Nagoya, Japan, giving viewers a tour and idea of what it’s like at one of the coolest and most well-known bike shops on the planet. Through a nice walk-through, you get to see the average view of this extraordinary shop through the lens of one of its stockists—Adam Sklar.

Revel Bikes is Back!

Though their return to business has been known for some time, Revel Bikes is officially back with an announcement video set to premiere at 9 AM Eastern today. After repurchasing the company, founder Adam Miller and his team have been working tirelessly to restore Revel to the industry leader it once was. Tune in to this video to find out more about what’s next for Revel.

Tyler Arnett Sets Ride Across Arizona FKT

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On Wednesday, Tyler Arnett finished the Ride Across Arizona (RAAZ), completing the 616-mile route in just 2 days, 10 hours, 53 minutes. Tyler was ~9 hours faster than the previous record, set by Dana Ernst in 2024, and his total stop time was just under two hours.

We reached out to Tyler to see how things went, and here’s what he had to say: “Overall, the ride went about as good as I could have hoped! I was able to push through the whole ride without any sleep. Craig from AZ Gravel put together an amazing yet brutal route! I’ve always been drawn to adventure and challenging myself. There’s something exciting about starting a journey that you’re not sure if you can actually pull it off. In fact, I DNF’d twice doing RAAZ. Third time was the charm!”

Forager Cycles: Intro to Ultralight Bikepacking

Dan at Forager Cycles uploaded a video a few weeks ago as an introduction to ultralight bikepacking. The video offers some helpful tips for anyone looking to lighten their kit. Dan: “This video is an overview of my planning methods and sorta-ultralight bike weight, gear weight, and food and water weights for backcountry singletrack-oriented bike trips.”

Events Starting Soon

What to watch this weekend and bikepacking events starting soon…

Marche Trail

The Marche Trail is an unsupported bike adventure through the enchanting National Park of Sibillini and Monti Azzurri, from the Adriatic Sea to the mountains and back again. There are two route options: The Wild route is 400km with 7600′ of elevation, and the Classic is 300km long with 4600′ of elevation. The grand depart started yesterday, and you can follow along live here.

Peninsular Divide

The second edition of Peninsular Divide is a Malaysian self-supported ultra-cycling race covering 1,500 kilometers with 20,000 meters of climbing. The race starts on Sunday, and you can follow their progress live here.

Wish We Were Here

Shedding a little light on a route one of us is dreaming about riding at the moment…

Nic Morales: The Wilson’s Ramble

With the turning of the leaves, the crisp, cool autumn air, and plenty of dry air from the north, I’m not thinking about being anywhere other than where I am. It’s been a tough few weeks in Appalachia, but things finally seem to be turning around. With some perfect weather on the horizon, I can’t think of a better time to go and ride The Wilson’s Ramble.

Weekly Social

Some things we found around the ‘gram and elsewhere. This week, some stunning photographer from the 2025 Arkansas High Country Race from Kai Caddy, who has been out documenting the event. Give them a peep, and then go check out our Tracker page for loads of updates.

Please keep the conversation civil, constructive, and inclusive, or your comment will be removed.