Friday Debrief: Titanium Stooge, Wild Honey Bar, Boutique Shifters, 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…

PAUL x SimWorks LTD Turquoise Collection

Made in USA / $15-$245 at Sim.Works

SimWorks and Paul Components teamed up on a limited edition turquoise collection of US-made components and accessories, all machined in Chico, California. The exclusive drop includes Klampers, V-Brakes, levers, crank extractor caps, bottle openers, and water bottles.

Stooge Cycles teases Mk-Ti Frameset

Made in UK / £2200 at StoogeCycles.co.uk

Stooge Cycles from the UK have announced the release of their new Mk-Ti frameset, a titanium version of their popular MK series of steel frames. Manufactured from 3al 2.5v titanium, this rigid mountain frameset features a 66° head tube angle and a truss fork with a whopping 80mm offset for fast, stable steering. The price isn’t locked in yet but should be in the region of £2,200 (+VAT for UK customers). The framesets will be built in small batch runs, so if this floats your boat or you’d just like to know more, you can contact Stooge directly using the link above.

Wheels Manufacturing Solo-XD Singlespeed Conversion Kit

Made in USA / $120 at WheelsMFG.com

The new Wheels Manufacturing Solo-XD is a complete single-speed conversion kit for SRAM XD and XDR hubs. It features 7075 aluminum carrier and cogs, adjustable 6061 aluminum spacers, an 18T cog with a narrow wide tooth pattern for chain retention, and additional cogs (16T, 18T and 20T) are available for $45 each. The kit comes in seven bright colors and they’re also offering an exclusive custom color, “Rad Splatter,” which is anodized by local artist @ashley.anodized.it.

Updated SimWorks Wild Honey Bar Gets Wider

Made in Japan / $128 at Sim.Works

The SimWorks Wild Honey Bar has been a part of their lineup since the beginning. It’s a randonneur/long-distance touring drop bar with an inverted V-shape and wide, comfortable stance. The Wild Honey Bar was just updated with 510mm and 530mm width options and a wider 31.8mm clamp area to accommodate modern mounted accessories.

Fish Ski Bike Nuts

Made in Utah, USA / $55 at Fish-Ski Designs

Just when you thought every type of bike bag has been done, something else comes along. Fish-Ski Designs, who you may remember from this tall bike post, came up with their take on the dreaded “truck nuts” in the form of a useable bag. Plus, the tutorial is hilarious. Take ’em or leave ’em, they now exist!

Sklar Super Something Restock

Made in Taiwan / $1,599 at Sklar Bikes

Sklar’s Taiwan-made steel gravel/all-road bike, the Super Something, was just restocked earlier this week, which means anyone part of a pre-order should be receiving theirs soon. It also means there are some frames up for grabs for anyone looking for a versatile new gravel bike. It’s designed for 700 x 42mm tires (but can fit 2.2″), works with drop or flat bars, and is built up around a double butted Chromoly steel frame and fork.

The Vivo F3 is a Customizable Boutique Shifter

Made in USA / $315 at Vivo Cycling

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The new Vivo F3 is a handbuilt boutique shifter that’s completely customizable for each rider. You can select everything from the shape and texture of the lever to the color, clamp band style, and more. It uses a 12-speed mechanical ecosystem and is hand built in limited quantities in New York state with 3D printed and CNC’d metal parts.

7mesh Airmap Collection

Made in China / $200+ at 7mesh.com

7mesh’s latest cycling apparel collection features a new fabric they’re calling Airmap and describe as “the next generation of air-permeable, water resistant, PFAS-free riding gear.” The concept behind Airmap is that selectively placed permeable, breathable panels regulate airflow to control heat and water vapor movement, striking the ideal balance between protection from rain and wind, and venting excess heat and moisture. The fall 2023 collection includes the Cache Anorak, Cache Jacket, and Grit Pant intended for mountain biking, adventure, and gravel, as well as the S2S Jersey and S2S Vest, which offer slim-fit hybrid protection for road and fast gravel riding.

Mission Workshop Reintroduces the Loch Short

Made in USA / $178 at MissionWorkshop.com

The Loch combines elements from two of Mission Workshop’s best-selling shorts, the Stahl and Traverse, to create a short ideal for warm weather pursuit. They are made from a four-way stretch material, have a gusseted inseam, lots of pockets, and are sewn in California from US-made mil-spec fabric.

Fresh Tunitas Basket Tote 137 Colors

Made in USA / $160 at TunitasCreative.com

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Our friend Jessica Chan of Tunitas Creative in San Francisco just launched several new colors and fabric options for the Tunitas Creative Basket Tote 137. The tote is designed to be equally at home on or off the bike and features casual styling with the functionality of a bike-specific bag. It’s now offered in Obsidian (X-Pac), Lavender (RX30/X-Pac exterior), Glacier (EcoPack and VX42 X-Pac exterior), and Evergreen (EcoPack exterior). All options feature a 420d packcloth liner, #5 waterproof zippers, plastic hardware, paracord with reflective tracers, and closed-cell foam padding.

In Conversation

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

Bikes Designed for Events: Marketing Hype or Practical?

Our announcement of the new Chiru Highlander stirred up conversation about whether it’s practical or just marketing-speak to claim that a bike is designed for a specific event or route. According to Chiru, the Highlander is optimized for the Highland Trail 550 in Scotland, which is really no different than Salsa saying the Cutthroat is designed for the Tour Divide… which seems to be widely accepted. What do you think? Let us know in the conversation below.

Around the Community

News from around the bikepacking world…

2024 Reanimator Bike Tour Announced

Applications are open for the 2024 Reanimator Bike Tour, a unique social action adventure starting April 15th, 2024. Selected participants will tour across the state of New Mexico while engaging in a curriculum covering four core topics: bicycles, sewing, resiliency strategies, and emergency response. Learn more and apply here.

Bohemian Border Bash Winners

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This year’s Bohemian Border Bash started and ended in Bohemian-Saxon Switzerland National Park, following a fixed 1,300-kilometer route circumnavigating Bohemia, crossing back and forth along national borders, through Germany, Austria, Poland, and the Czech Republic. The first three riders made their way to the finish this week, including a new record time by Rick Steffen (97 hours and 50 mins), Andre Jonsson in second (100 hours and 43 mins), and Adrien Guilmin in third (106 hours and 46 mins). Sherry Cardona took first place in the women’s category and seventh overall with a time of 124 hours and 58 minutes.

Bikepacking in a Suit

The YouTube algorithm blessed us with this oddity earlier this week, and this effort is too bizarre not to share.

Sofiane Sehili’s Winning SRMR Bike Check

Sofiane Sehili was the first rider to make it to the finish line of the 2023 Silk Road Mountain Race in Cholpon Ata, Kyrgyzstan. Sofiane completed the grueling 1,880-kilometer course in just 6 days, 16 hours, and 47 minutes (6d:16h:47m). This was Sofiane’s third win in just as many years. He just published a detailed bike check video outlining everything he carried and his thoughts on riding ultra endurance races on a full-suspension.

Chuska Challenge Bikepacking Campout

Our friend Jon Yazzie has teamed up with Navajo Yes to offer an introduction to bikepacking campout during their mountain bike event on September 16th/17th in the Chuska Mountains. The course starts at 9 a.m. on Saturday with a seminar on how to pack, set up gear, and Leave No Trace chat. The group will follow a 40-mile out-and-back route and camp at an overlook of Red Valley Cove. They will provide gear, food, and anything else you might need. More info and registration details can be found here.

Events Starting Soon

What to watch this weekend and bikepacking events starting soon…

The Adirondack Trail Ride (TATR)

TATR is a 585-mile self-supported bikepacking adventure through the Adirondack Mountains of New York State. The annual grand depart is the second Friday of September, which means riders are taking off today at 8 a.m. EDT to take a shot at finishing the route. You can follow their progress live here.

Utah Mixed Epic

The Utah Mixed Epic is an officially unofficial self-supported bikepacking pilgrimage across Utah. Riders may choose a long-weekend route (The Jello Salad) or a more immersive 750+ mile-ish session (The Funeral Potato), both of which start and return participants to Salt Lake City. The grand depart takes off this morning, and you can follow their progress live here.

L’Esperit de Girona

L’Esperit de Girona is a challenging 800-kilometer self-supported event that starts and finishes in Girona, Spain. The event is hard. It will test riders to their mental and physical limits. The fastest will struggle to crack four days yet there will be no time cut off for the slowest riders. The grand depart takes off tomorrow morning at 8 a.m. local time. Follow along live here.

Weekly Social

Some things we found around the ‘gram and elsewhere. This week, a couple of updates from the Bohemian Border Bash Race…

Further Reading

Make sure to dig into these related articles for more info...

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