Friday Debrief: Little Dummy, Bespoked UK, Rhino Run, Prospector Pre-orders, and More…

We started “The Debrief” on our YouTube channel last year as a way of highlighting the week’s news and things that caught our attention on the website, in the conversation, and elsewhere around the community. To take this a step further, we’re posting a weekly Debrief here on the site to highlight all of those things and more, including upcoming events and interesting things 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…

Take a Trip Bike Friday Framebags

Bend, Oregon-based Take a Trip Bags has teamed up with Bike Friday on a perfectly fitting framebag for the All-Packa and Diamond Llama. The bags are made from recycled fabrics, use a water-resistant zipper, and the downtube webbing is offset to match the downtube/bottom bracket offset, keeping the bag centred and away from your chainring. The bags are designed to fit all sizes of the frames mentioned above and come in black, tie-dye, or a custom color. Preorders are open now, and the bags will ship in mid-November.

$85 / Made in USA / Details

Wolf Tooth Morse Cage Ti Limited Edition Green

The latest limited edition titanium Morse Cage from our friends at Wolf Tooth Components is finished in a Cerakote matte green. Each Morse cage has a dot/dash mounting pattern for optimal positioning, is available in a variety of other colors, and weighs just 33 grams.

$85 / Made in USA / Details

Surly Little Dummy Bag

The new Surly Little Dummy Bag is a 15L sling-style bag designed to work with any standard rear rack—perfect for hauling groceries, awkward cargo, or a backpack. Surly designed the bags to stay on the bike, unlike traditional panniers that are usually made to clip on and off. There are three rack attachment points, lots of daisy chains for lashing gear onto, and side compression straps to keep things tight.

$100 / Made in China / Details

Tumbleweed Prospector Preorders Open

After being out of stock for months, the Tumbleweed Prospector is scheduled to be restocked in the next few weeks, and preorders are now open. The Prospector is a rigid steel mountain touring bike with 29+ tire clearance and lots of mounting points for gear. It was designed to be used with a Rohloff SPEEDHUB internal gear hub but works well with derailleurs as well. Make sure to give Logan’s review a read here.

$1,550 (frame + fork) / Made in Taiwan / Details

Bags by Bird Big Tail Grab

Building on the design of the Lil’ Tail Grab released last month, the new Bags by Bird Big Tail Grab is a 6.5L handlebar bag that opens away from the rider for quick, easy access. Unlike its smaller sibling, the Big Tail Grab has a front flap pocket, four-way stretch pockets and both sides, and stretchy shock cord on top of the lid for lashing on gear. The exterior is constructed from X-Pac that’s available in a variety of colors, and each bag is handmade in BXB’s shop in Tucson, Arizona.

$160 / Made in USA / Details

Soma Port Mann Handlebar

The new Port Mann Handlebar is a collaboration between Soma Fabrications and Dream Cycle in Vancouver, British Columbia. It’s a swept-back bar for cruising around town that pairs up nicely with a porteur rack, basket, or bar bag. It’s 650mm wide, weighs 465 grams, and comes in polished silver or black.

$49.95 / Details

Gramm Tourpacking Multi-Tool Saddle Bag

Our friends at Gramm Tourpacking in Berlin, Germany, just released a tiny new bag that’s built out of X-Pac RX36, which is made from recycled PET bottles. The Gramm Multi-Tool Saddle bag has a 0.5L volume and is designed to store a repair kit under your saddle on day rides. It attaches with a Voile strap around the seatpost and a Gramm strap around the rails, features a YKK Vislon Profile zipper, and weighs just 80 grams.

€54 / Made in Germany / Details

In Conversation

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

Singlespeeding the Arizona Trail

It was hard not to notice the number of singlespeed setups included in this year’s Rigs of the Arizona Trail Race. In fact, according to Trackleaders, nearly half of the riders participating are riding singlespeed bikes! This includes Jefe Branham’s Why Cycles El Jefe, which we just featured in a Rider & Rig post. Is singlespeeding the way to go for ultra-endurance racing?

Around the Community

News from around the bikepacking world…

Beautiful Bikes of Beskpoked UK

Scheduling conflicts meant we couldn’t make it to the Bespoked UK handmade bike show for the first time in several years this time around, but the folks at Velo Orange made it over, and they just shared their first of two galleries. See their roundup of favorite bikes, bags, bits, and more here.

Planning for Extreme Weather

This new guest post at the Revelate Designs blog—written by Luc Mehl, an Alaskan leader in the field of trip planning and preparation—looks into several free digital forecasting tools that can help us plan and complete shoulder-season adventures in remote backcountry areas. Check it out here.

The New Verde Valley Randonneé

Created by our friend Dana Ernst, the Verde Valley Randonneé takes riders on a roughly 250-mile magnificent ramble of Northern Arizona. The route is a mixture of gravel and pavement, and the challenge is to ride the route in one go. There is no specific start date. Instead, it’s an ongoing challenge. Learn more here.

Alpkit is Crowd Funding

Two years ago, Alpkit first invited customers to become shareholders, closing the round less than an hour later with 1,350 customers joining in. In the two years since, they’ve become certified as a B-Corp and Living Wage Foundation Employer, doubled sales, donated £500,000 to grassroots organizations, and added 100 jobs, growing to a team of 184 people. On Monday, October 24th, Alpkit will ask customers to invest in them again to help hit their next round of goals. Learn more here.

Events Starting Soon

What to watch this weekend and bikepacking events starting soon…

2022 Rhino Run

The Rhino Run is an immersive bikepacking expedition with a charitable focus, supporting the Masaka Cycling Club Foundation in Uganda. The inaugural event took off from Plettenberg Bay in South Africa at 6:22 a.m. local time, and there is an exciting lineup of riders, including Sofiane Sehili, Josh Ibbett, Abdullah Zeinab, Sarah Hammond, and many more. Follow along live here.

2022 Arizona Trail

The Arizona Trail Race is an unofficial challenge that takes place every year on the cross-state Arizona Trail. Two distances are available. The Arizona Trail 300 is a 300-mile event that has been held every April since 2006. The Arizona Trail 800 is the complete traversal (Mexico to Utah) and was offered for the first time in 2010 as the AZTR750. Nearly 50 riders took off from the Mexico border yesterday for the grand depart, and you can follow their progress along live here.

Wish We Were Here

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

Miles Arbour: Tucson, Arizona

It’s hard to believe it’s been three years since Lucas and I met up in Tucson for some gravel rippin’ and urban cruises. Although we didn’t get a chance take on any massive rides, we did get a good taste of Reddington Road and a good section of the Sky Islands Odyssey route. Every fall, I start to miss the warmth of the south. The sand, cacti, and massive views are so different than home, and it’s hard not to crave it when the leaves begin to fall in British Columbia.

Weekly Social

Some things we found around the ‘gram and elsewhere. This week, a couple of updates from the inaugural Rhino Run event in South Africa…

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