Friday Debrief: Raw Silver Pedals, The Wizard, UDH Sliding Dropouts, 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…

Stringbean top tube bags

Made in Brevard, North Carolina / $200+ at Stringbean Bags

Stringbean Bags, based in Brevard, North Carolina, has officially added custom top tube bags to its catalog. Starting at $200, customers can specify their desired exterior material, number of pockets and dividers, and other custom options.

Utility Rack from MONoPOLE

$TBD at MONoPOLE

MONoPOLE has released this first look at an upcoming utility rack. Mounted to their No 01 Cargo Bike through its AVS+ interface, the rack takes either a child seat or the included cargo deck and can switch between the two without tools. Pricing is still TBD, but pre-orders for the Utility Rack will be available before the end of the year.

Fresh Brother Big Bro Colors and Graphics

Made in Taiwan / £949 at Brother Cycles

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Brother Cycles in the UK just unveiled a couple of new Big Bro colors, HazelNutter and RadBerry, along with bold new graphics that bring a little extra attitude to their much-loved, all-purpose, tough-as-nails 29er/27.5+ adventure frame. The updated Big Bro is now available to pre-order through your local Brother Cycles dealer, with online pre-orders coming soon.

Raw Silver and Espresso Wolf Tooth Pedals

$160+ at Wolf Tooth

Wolf Tooth is always expanding its color options, and the latest drop adds Raw Silver and Espresso Brown to its clipless pedals. From the wider platforms on the Shift downhill pedals to the sleek, lightweight Del gravel race pedals, you can now order all of these pedal systems in silver or deep, chocolatey brown.

Lynskey UDH Sliding Dropouts

Made in USA / $245 at Lynskey

The new Lynskey UDH Sliding Dropouts let any slider frame that uses 9mm horizontal slots run the new T-type rear derailleurs. The indexable ring also lets customers fine-tune their frame alignment. So if a rider has had their frame for a while and has solid mileage and wear and tear that could throw the original alignment out of true, they can get it back in line.

Redshift’s Mousetrap Pedals now SPD-SL and Look Keo-Compatible

$60 at Redshift

The pedal adapters from Redshift that Nic reviewed early this year have been expanded to other clipless attachment systems. Originally released in just an SPD-compatible design, the Mousetraps are now available in SPD-SL and Look KEO-compatible iterations.

Shred the Earth Bottles

$20 at Send It Safely

Send It Safely out of New Mexico has released some cool new bottles. Using a white Hydrapak blank, the design borrows from the famous Sherwin-Williams Paint design, adding a bike bend to the cover-the-Earth design. These are larger 30-ounce bottles, so they should be great for long days shredding the Earth.

Magic Components The Wizard Pre-Order

Made in Taiwan / $600 at Magic Components

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Launched earlier this year, The Wizard ATB is a production model from Magic Components based around a 26″ wheel size. With a max tire clearance of 26 x 2.5″, the Wizard is built around older component standards like canti-style brakes and 132.5mm-spaced quick-release axles. Magic just opened up a second pre-order for frames and framesets, and it comes in two colors: Yellow Magic Potion and Hermit Purple.

Cyclite Ski Rack 04

Made in Germany / €99 at Cyclite

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Cyclite is the latest brand to offer a solution for cyclists wanting to carry their skis or splitboards on their bikes. The new Ski Rack 04 is a highly adjustable, 320-gram system that installs quickly and accommodates a wide range of bike styles and top tube shapes.

The Starfish Solaster is Semi-Custom

Made in Denmark / $2,900 at Starfish Bikes

After winning Best in Show at this year’s BESPOKED Dresden, Starfish Bicycles has decided to offer the Solaster as a semi-custom option. The bike is made from a mix of Reynolds 631 and 725 tubing, and has certain elements of its geometry set in stone. By filling out an order form, customers can customize their stack and reach, plus a few other key elements. The bike is a randonneuring-inspired frame that fits massive 27.5″ x 2.2″ tires without fenders. It also uses in-house QR dropouts and can be set up for disc or rim brakes.

Northern Coffee Works X Wilde

Made in USA / $22 at Wilde Bikes

From Wilde: “4/6ths of the Wilde team are very into coffee, and wanted to create a special blend for use at Wilde HQ and buy in more cost-effective bulk bags, so we did a cupping with our neighborhood roasters, Northern Coffee Works, and created a special blend personally selected by the Wilde team.”

In Conversation

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

Your Untold Stories

We all have a few bikepacking moments we’d rather forget—or at least keep to ourselves. In his recent piece, A Decade of Untold Stories, Miles pulls back the curtain on some of the less glamorous moments from his years on the trail, sharing a collection of mishaps, questionable decisions, and experiences that don’t usually make it into trip reports. That got us wondering: What are your most embarrassing bikepacking moments? From spectacular blunders and rookie mistakes to trailside disasters and other incidents you’d rather not admit, we want to hear the stories you’ve been keeping under wraps. Share yours in the Conversation below!

Around the Community

News from around the bikepacking world…

I’m Excited to Be Here

Joe Huba’s latest video is a fun, trippy ride through New England. It features a few familiar faces, along with interestingly cut footage that highlights the New England countryside’s unique geography. It’s well edited, has a great soundtrack, and shows off some cool bikes and bags, too.

Josh Ibbett’s Mason 32″ Prototype

Josh Ibbett participated in the inaugural Taurus Mountain Race in Türkiye last month. Although it was canceled mid-race, Josh still put together a detailed rig-check video highlighting the prototype Mason 32er he rode.

Juliet Elliot on the Exmoor Explorer Route

The Exmoor Explorer overnighter takes riders on an adventure across the moors of a quaint and beautiful corner of England’s South West. Juliet Elliott’s latest video documents a couple of solo days spent riding the route as a low-stress trip that’s close to home. In the video, she tries out a new tent and shares some details about her setup.

Bikepacking California Silent Vlog

PM Uncharted’s latest video is a beautiful reminder to remove your earbuds, pause the music, and take in the world around you. Sometimes, less really is more.

Events Starting Soon

What to watch this weekend and bikepacking events starting soon…

Tassie Gift

The Tassie Gift is a relentless 1,800-kilometer bikepacking event along roads, trails, and goat tracks on the island of Tasmania. This year’s grand depart kicked off yesterday, with over 30 riders participating. 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…

Logan Watts: Portugal

I’ve spent plenty of time in Spain, but I’ve never managed to cross the border and delve into Portugal. Over the last month, we’ve published two really nice-looking routes there, and they’ve piqued my interest. They both look amazing, but Lapias probably tops my list with a little more singletrack mixed in.

Weekly Social

Some things we found around the ‘gram and elsewhere. This week, Cyber Cycles universal dropouts, and Split Bags is back…

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