Friday Debrief: Transmission Brakes, Hunter Mid-Tail, Moontower Moonrisers, 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…

Hunter Cycles Mid-Tail MTB

Made in USA / $3,000 Hunter Cycles

Our friend Rick Hunter at Hunter Cycles just put a size run of his mid-tail mountain bike up for sale, and there are only two left. The bike is a 140mm MTB with 24” chainstays and a built-in extended rack. It has clearance for 3″ tires, boost hub spacing, dropper post routing, and the frame weighs in at nine pounds. The frame costs $3,000, and you can email rick@huntercycles.com to learn more.

2023 All-City Super Professional Builds and Colors

Made in Taiwan / $1,499-$2,099 AllCityCycles.com

The All-City Super Professional is designed to be fast and agile on a variety of surfaces. It’s built up around a 612 Select Chromoly Steel frame and matching fork, has two standard bottle mounts on all sizes, rack and fender mounts, and can clear 700c x 45mm or 650b x 47mm tires. All-City just announced three fresh Super Professional colors and builds for 2023. Find details on all of them here.

PACT Lite Bathroom Kit

Made in China and US / $35 at PACT Outdoors

The new PACT Lite kit is an all-in-one backcountry poop kit for digging holes and burying your waste. The kit includes a compact aluminum shovel, PACT tabs to break down poop in the ground faster while killing harmful bacteria, and compressed, plant-based wipes that unfold into a 9” towel with a squirt of water. Everything stuffs inside the handle of the shovel and is ready for when you need it.

Velo Orange Polyvalent in Glacier Metallic

Made in Taiwan / $925 at Velo-Orange.com

Preorders just opened up for the Velo Orange Polyvalent Diamond and Low Kicker in their new Glacier Metallic colorway. The Polyvalent is their longest running frameset and provides a stable platform with or without a load. The Low Kicker shares all the same specs but has a swooped top tube for easier mounting/dismounting when loaded or pedaling around urban environments.

New Ibis Exie Colors

Made in California, USA / $4,999+ at Ibis

Ibis just announced several new colors of the Exie, which we reviewed last year. The made-in-USA Exie USA, which happened to be ridden by the winner of last week’s Lenzerheide XCC World Cup, now comes in three new colors: ‘Sage Green’, ‘Cyan Sky’, and ‘Tangerine Burst.’ The more wallet-friendly Exie For All, which is handbuilt overseas, now comes in ‘Bone’ and ‘Navy.’

Moontower Moonrisers

Made in Taiwan / $70 at Moontower.Bike

Designed by Moontower Bike Co., a new bicycle brand from Texas, the Moontower Moonisers are ATB-inspired handlebars made to give your bike a more upright riding position. They have a 70mm rise, 25-degree sweep, 31.8 clamp diameter, 740mm width, and are made from anodized 6061 aluminum.

Ene Ciclo Uno Bar End Shifter

Made in Taiwan / $149 at Merry Sales

Based on the ratcheting mechanism developed by Rivendell Bicycle Works, the Ene Ciclo Uno Bar End Shifter was dreamed up by Russ Roca and the Merry Sales Co. and made by Dia-Compe. This nearly universal shifter is compatible with most derailleurs ranging from 7 to 12-speeds. It pulls 50mm of cable, works with 12-speed setups, and can shift any 11-speed road rear derailleur (and Shimano MTB 10-speed Dyna-Sys) as well as any older 7/8/9-speed derailleurs.

Carradice Classic Saddle Bag Rack

Made in UK / £29 at Carradice.co.uk

The new Carradice Classic Saddle Bag Rack is based on a vintage design but re-engineered to allow it to securely fit Brooks, Rivet, and similar saddles with metal bag loops. The rack supports and lifts your favourite saddle bag 10cm higher than when attached directly to saddle loops, making it a good option for anyone with limited bag-to-tire clearance. It has a maximum recommended load six kilograms and can be removed from the saddle in seconds.

Curve SEEK 430 FM Carbon Fork

Made in Taiwan / $890 AUD at Curve Cycling

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Remember the carbon fork launched in conjunction with the new Curve GMX+ Steel a few weeks back? Well, Curve just announced that it’s available for purchase on its own. The Curve SEEK 430 FM carbon fork improves on the original with updated brake hose and dynamo cable routing, flat mount brakes, and the addition of four heavily reinforced M5 mounting points per fork blade that can carry up to a whopping 7 kilograms (15 pounds) each when secured across three mounts. The fork has a 430mm axle-to-crown and clearance for tires up to 3.0″ wide.

Lazer Cerro KinetiCore Gravel Helmet

$99 at Lazer

Lazer’s new Cerro KinetiCore is designed to offer the best of both worlds, feeling right at home both on smooth roads and off-road in the dirt. It features KinetiCore technology to protect against rotational impacts, a magnetic buckle, eyewear-docking slots, and an optional small visor. The Cerro is available in three sizes and six colors and weighs in at 270 grams in medium.

Commencal 365 Gravel Bike

Made in Taiwan / $2000-$4000 at Commencal

Commencal just released their first gravel bike, the Commencal 365. It’s based around an aluminum frame and fork, dropper post routing, clearance for 700 x 47mm tires, and a pedaling position that they claim is catered to long rides. The Commencal 365 is currently offered in three complete builds with prices starting at $2,000 USD, and it comes in five sizes and three colors.

Nalgene Monochrome Collection

Made in USA / $17 at Nalgene

Nalgene’s new Monochrome collection is available in both 32oz and 16oz narrow mouth and wide mouth sizes and consists of six understates colors including mocha, cotton, cherry blossom, and butter. As always, Nalgene bottles are made in the USA and are a great oversized bottle for your favourite oversized bottle cage.

In Conversation

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

Run vs Rest

The rest or ride debate is a popular one during most ultra-endurance bikepacking events, and it’s front and center at this year’s Tour Divide. As riders enter their seventh day on the route, the balance between rest and ride time is crucial, both for their sanity and well-being and the outcome of the race. We’ve been watching the Run/Rest tab on Trackleaders, which shows the riders’ total moving time, rest time, and average speed. Some of the top riders have only been off the bike for just over a day so far. Is there a perfect formula? See our latest Tour Divide Debrief for more thoughts on the subject.

Around the Community

News from around the bikepacking world…

Bear Bones Bike Packing – Welsh Ride Thing 2023

The 2023 Bear Bones Bikepacking Welsh Ride Thing was earlier this year and the organizers put together a fantastic video from the weekend. Learn more about the event here.

Ergon GreenLab Circular Recycling Program

The new Ergon GreenLab Circular program focuses on material recycling and waste avoidance, ensuring all components can be returned to the material cycle at the end of its service life. Ergon is kicking off the program with the SR AllRoad Core Circular Saddle, a recyclable un-dyed saddle that’s constructed from a family of similarly engineered materials. They have plans to expand the project to include grips and more soon.

“How to Fly with Your Bike Like You Know What You’re Doing”

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Xena Goldman recently launched a collection of graphically illustrated how-to zines to help eliminate some of the barriers around cycling by offering tips in the simplest language she possibly could. Her most recent zine is a guide to taking your bike on an airplane called “How to Fly with Your Bike Like You Know What You’re Doing.” You can pick up one for yourself at XenaStuff.com.

Lone Tree Transmission Brake

Designed by Kurtis Peters at Lone Tree Enterprises in Alberta, Canada, the Transmission Brake was the result of a friend losing a leg and wanting a way to ride with a foot level to the ground, not dropped. Kurtis remedied this by mounting a disc brake to the drive-side bottom bracket, replacing the now-useless crank arm, allowing him to ride foot forward and without pedal strikes. Learn more here.

Events Starting Soon

What to watch this weekend and bikepacking events starting soon…

Catskill Bikepacking Route

The Catskill Bikepacking Route is a self-supported ride following a 250-mile route circumnavigating the Catskill Mountains of New York State. The route follows a mix of terrain, including smooth paved road, flowing singletrack descents, and gnarly hike-a-bike. The grand depart is limited to 19 participants and takes off this morning from Ellenville, NY, at 7 a.m. Follow along live here.

2023 Hope-1000

The Hope-1000 is a bikepacking race that begins in Romanshorn on Lake Constance and ends at the statue of Freddie Mercury in Montreux on Lake Geneva. Spanning 1,000 kilometers across Switzerland and nearly 100,000 feet of climbing, the Hope-1000 follows mostly singletrack through meadows, crystal clear lakes, abbeys with courtyards, and, of course, stunning views. The grand depart starts tomorrow at 6 a.m. local time with nearly 100 riders registered, 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…

Josh Hicks: North Bay Overnighter

After traveling around San Francisco, the Northern Redwoods, and many coastal towns along Highway 1 for the first time earlier this week by car and foot, all I could think the entire trip was if I only I was on two wheels right now. Around every corner was a jaw-dropping vista, increasingly lush plant diversity, whales feeding in the bay, or deep forest. Time slows down in these areas for me, pairing exactly what the bicycle does for me too. I think I will start planning a bikepacking trip that includes the North Bay Overnighter now…

Weekly Social

Some things we found around the ‘gram and elsewhere. This week, more #tourdivide2023 posts from Instagram…

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