Friday Debrief: Paul Top Caps, Featherlight 32″ Wheels, a Dual-Burner Camp Stove, 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…

Albion Zoa Sun Shield Longsleeve

$165 at Albion

The new Albion Zoa Sun Shield is a lightweight, versatile performance mid-layer made from Teijin Deltapeak, providing high UV protection, exceptional moisture-wicking, and durability for long rides and bikepacking. It offers UPF 50+ sun protection and a relaxed fit that’s comfortable both on and off the bike.

Berd HAWK30 Gold 32″ Wheels

$2,495 at Berd

Berd has expanded its HAWK30 Gold lineup with a 32″ wheelset that claims the title of the lightest production 32” XC wheels available, weighing just 1,196 grams without tape or valves. Built around a 30mm internal rim width, Berd claims the design is optimized for modern high-volume XC tires, offering better sidewall support, improved cornering stability, and a more planted feel at lower pressures. The wheels run on the new ESL Talon hub, developed in collaboration with Belgium’s Erase Components, featuring a 70-tooth ratchet, a 28-hole layout, and Berd’s Equal Spoke Length (ESL) design.

Optimus Gemini II

760 grams / $199.95 at Katadyn

The Optimus Gemini II is a compact, high-performance dual-burner camp stove designed for serious outdoor cooking. Featuring two powerful 4,600W burners with independent controls, it allows you to boil, simmer, or sear side by side. The Gemini II measures 12 x 2.76 x 4.14” (305 x 70 x 105mm) and weighs 760 grams. It’s not meant for ultralight or ultracompact pursuits, but it has a relatively low-profile, fold-flat design that might be interesting glampacking excursions. Other features include integrated wind protection and a built-in pressure regulator.

New Cascada Land Outdoor Shirts

Made in Italy / $157 at Cascada

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Cascada just launched an updated collection of Land Outdoor Shirts. They’re made from a breathable wool–polyester blend that handles temperature shifts well and dries quickly. They are made in Italy and available in a variety of colors and sizes.

Paul “The Rook” 5mm Top Cap

Made in USA / $25+ at Paul Components

Paul Components has launched a 5mm integrated top cap in the same style as their Klamper adjustment knob. This helps keep things clean and flush and gives a bit of space at the top of the steer tube for later adjustment or the extra space some compression plugs need to properly engage.

COROS NOMAD in Ash

$349 at COROS.com

The COROS NOMAD, the brand’s go-anywhere, do-anything watch, is now available in a sleek ash color with red accents. It’s the same watch Nic reviewed earlier this year, just in a cool, two-tone color.

SimWorks Stainless Outer Cable Crisper Colors

$20 at SimWorks

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SimWorks in Japan just added a couple of fresh colors of their Crisper brake housing in three-meter lengths. The latest additions are Smoke Brown and Mulberry, pictured above. For now, they’re only on the Japanese site, but we expect to see them pop up on the SimWorks USA site before too long.

Sklar Straps

$9 at Sklar Bikes

Sklar Bikes added to their accessories through a custom Sklar-branded Voile strap. Available in a single 22″ length, these are perfect for strapping a Nalgene, sleeping pad, or dry bag to a rack.

Stone Wizard Mountain Clog

$TBD at Bedrock

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Bedrock will be releasing the Stone Wizard Mountain Clog, a collaboration with designer High Wizard Society, on that most special of days April, 20th. The project yields two new Bedrock mountain clogs with a suede upper and some special bits elsewhere on the shoe.

2026 Brother Cycles Kepler Colors

Made in Taiwan / £849 at Brother Cycles

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Brother Cycles is on a roll with some fantastic color drops in 2026, and the new Kepler colors are no different. Their steel touring frame gets two new colors for this year, green and blue metallic, but keeps the same great, all-rounder geo and build as before.

Around the Community

News from around the bikepacking world…

Bikes of the Ladds 500

In his latest video, Dustin Klein of the Everything’s Been Done YouTube channel highlights a selection of interesting bikes he spotted at the Ladds 500 event in Portland earlier this month. Watch it above.

A Week Across Albania

Though he’d only planned for a brief transit through the country, Albania pulled Nathan Starzynski in, as it has a way of doing, and his few days turned into a full week of pedaling through one of Europe’s hidden gems. See some of his time there in the video above, the 19th episode in his series chronicling a 41,500-kilometer solo ride around the world.

Events Starting Soon

What to watch this weekend and bikepacking events starting soon…

Rockstar Challenge 2026

RockStar VA is an annual 720-mile challenge that has riders pedaling from Rocktown (Harrisonburg) to the Star City (Roanoke) along the RockStar TRAIL, GRAVEL, or PAVÉ routes. There are nearly 60 riders registered for the 2026 event, which you can follow live here when it starts tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. local time.

Wish We Were Here

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

Lucas Winzenburg: Iceland Divide

Having studied at the University of Iceland in Reykjavik as an undergraduate almost two decades ago, Iceland has long held a special place in my heart, and I’ve visited several times since graduating. One thing that has still escaped me is a ride along the Iceland Divide through the country’s spectacularly rugged interior, and a mid-summer trip is calling me back for another trip soon.

Weekly Social

Some things we found around the ‘gram and elsewhere. This week, a new Spooky/Rodeo Labs collaboration that caught our attention. Rodeo mentioned that it’s a geometry study and prototype made in collaboration with Spooky, Suntour, and FSA. They started the project with a fresh geometry plan and had Spooky fabricate the raw frame and integrate Rodeo’s own Lockjaw dropouts. Next, they hand polished and hand masked the detailed and “absurdly unserious” graphics just as reminder that mountain bikes are first and foremost fun.

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