2024 Sea Otter Finds (Part Two)

As of yesterday afternoon, the 2024 Sea Otter Classic is officially a wrap, and it’s already vaporized into a memory mashup of good conversations, lovely people, laughter, and an endless array of components and ideas. I didn’t do as much product ogling and bike shooting as I expected. Instead, most of my time was spent talking to friends and fellow bike folks, some of whom I haven’t seen in as many as eight years. You know how you can track the number of steps you’ve taken per day on your phone? I wish there was an app that tracked the number of words spoken. There would certainly be a massive spike marking this event.

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In the end, I’m glad to report that I left with a full heart and a positive outlook, despite the news that soured the mood on the first day. For those who haven’t heard, Kona pulled up their display on day one and hightailed out of the Laguna Seca Raceway. Apparently, Kona’s holding company, Kent Outdoors, made a decision to sell the brand after appointing a new CFO who throttled things until further notice. It’s an example of the strain many businesses in the bike industry are facing and was a regular topic among attendees as we all collectively hoped for the best for a deep-rooted bike brand that many of us came to love.

Among all the chatting, I managed to drum up over a dozen more interesting finds, plus a few more things that we’ll be trickling out over the next week. Find them all below, and stay tuned for more coverage from the 2024 Sea Otter Classic. Also, if you missed it, be sure to check out part one from Friday here.

Sage Cycles Ti Handlebar

Oregon’s Sage Bikes was high on my list to check out. We’ve covered most of their bikes on the site, including their Storm King drop-bar bike that Jess reviewed. And their lineup of hardtails look promising, too, particularly the 130mm Powerline, which I’ll touch on later.

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Perhaps the most interesting find while talking with proprietor Dave Rosen was their new titanium handlebar. It’s not often you see a bar like it. The Sage Ti bar has a 13° backsweep, 25° rise, and is 800mm wide, which is a great set of specs in my eyes.

Muc-off Big Bore Tubeless Valves

Innovation in tubeless tire tech always catches my attention. I was pretty excited to learn about Muc-Off’s latest invention, the Bog Bore Valve. Apparently, Muc-Off has spent the last three years developing the new patent-pending range of “Big Bore” Tubeless Valves. The Bog Bore Valves are CNC machined from 7075 aircraft-grade aluminum like most valves, but what makes them interesting is a unique stainless steel core-less ball valve and integrated lever that opens and closes the valve.

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The Big Bore range is made up of three stem lengths: 25mm, 35mm, and 45mm to suit various rim depths, and there will be three different valves available: 1. Big Bore lite features a 3.3mm internal diameter valve head and offers up to 230% greater airflow than a standard Presta valve, according to Muc-Off; 2. Big Bore Hybrid comes with the same Presta-style valve stem but with a wider valve head offering a 5.7mm internal diameter and 254% greater airflow than a standard Presta (using Schrader pumps and still Presta rim hole compatible); 3. Big Bore Ludicrous is constructed with a 5.7mm internal valve stem and 5.7mm valve head and only compatible with a Schrader rim hole for a whopping 264% greater airflow than a standard Presta valve. Learn more about the Big Bore valves here.

PNW Silver dropper and stem

The shiny bobble that caught a lot of eyes at the PNW booth was this gorgeous anodized and silver Rainier dropper post. But, according to PNW’s CEO Aaron Kerson, it was just made for fun and to gauge interest. Fortunately, there was a lot of interest at the show, and if all goes according to plan, PNW will likely release a limited edition this summer. Stay tuned for more details on that.

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In addition to the post, PNW also released the Loam Stem, a fully CNC’d stem that will come in 31.8 or 35mm clamp diameters in either 32 or 40mm lengths. It will be available in black, silver, orange, or purple, and they mentioned it selling for $99 in July. 

Redshift handlebar bag

I stopped by Redshift for a visit and to see what they were up to. They had their entire suite of products on display, including a cutaway of their latest suspension seatpost that’s elastomer damped, which is quite a bit different from the one I tried a few years ago. They also had a couple of the hot new Top Shelf bars on hand. Apparently, they had such a good response from the launch of that bar that they quickly finished up a bag to go with it and display at the show.

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The Top Shelf Bag straps to both the upper cross brace and the lower bar on the bar of the same name to create a super-stable connection. It also has a lid hinged at the front with magnets that keep it in place when the side zippers aren’t engaged. It looks like a great little bag for a small camera or other accessories if you’re running panniers and no large handlebar luggage. It’s not on the website quite yet, and they haven’t solidified pricing or a launch date, so stay tuned for more details when it comes out this summer.

Hub Tech: Project 321 and I9 SOLiX

There were a couple interesting new hubs that launched recently, and I thought it was worth checking them out in person while I had the chance. I first paid a visit to my western North Carolina neighbors Industry Nine to see the new SOLiX hub in action. I haven’t had any issues with my two Hydra hubs, but it’s nice to see innovations such as less drag and lower noise. They also redesigned the axle to prevent failure, as some folks experienced with the early Hydra axle.

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Project 321 was also showing off their new G3 hubs. I won’t get into it as we covered them here extensively, but I’ll add that they look sharp in person and the 6-Lock mechanism is impressive.

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Ortlieb strap and bags

Jeff and company from Ortlieb USA had an excellent display set up again this year, including the popular Dark Sand collection of bags as aptly displayed on this lovely Kona Ourobouros CR/DL. It’s a beautiful color combination. Also, notice the larger TOPTUBE-BAG mounted on the cockpit. This is Ortlieb’s latest cockpit bag that’s similar to the Fuel-Pack we announced a while back but larger. It also has a quick release mechanism that’s quite clever. Learn more about that here.

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Ortlieb also teased a new accessory strap with a clever German-engineered buckle. It looks like it would be a great strap for a basket or rack-top bag. These are available now and you can find all the details on that over at Ortlieb.com.

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1up Super Duty Rack

The 1UP USA Super Duty (SD) rack launched at Sea Otter, and while it’s not necessarily related to bikepacking, I always like the 1UP system and thought the upgrades on this one are worth sharing. The SD is their latest tray-style bike rack, and it has a new one-handed lever design to make things much easier. If you’ve ever put your bike in a buddy’s 1UP rack, you’ll know this is a game-changer. Instead of holding the lever up, you now simply push the red button and lift; the ratchet system disengages and allows the arms to move outward. Press the button down and close the arms, and a satisfying series of clicks tells you the ratchet is engaged.

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In addition, the new design accommodates a wider variety of bikes up to 100 pounds. That should mean it can carry a fully loaded rig, no problem. It also works with 16” kids bikes and can now fit 5” fat bike tires without a spacer kit. Find all the nitty gritty over at 1UP-USA.com.

Madrone Cycles

Several people told me I should pop over to the Madrone Cycles booth, and I’m very glad I did. After a long day, it was refreshing to meet this crew, who were all avid bikepackers and had ridden several of the routes on our site. It was a much-needed boost to hear their positive feedback. Better yet, they had some impressive new products on display that I was excited to learn about.

Perhaps the most interesting was the cage made for SRAM AXS and mechanical derailleurs. Most of us who’ve used SRAM Eagle for a while have eventually experienced poor shifting due to a bent cage or worn out linkage bushings. Madrone aims to solve this with linkage kits and replacement cages that they claim are stiffer and more durable than the stock SRAM cages, using material in the right places and extra fasteners to join the two halves. Their cages are CNC machined from 6061-T6 aluminum and compatible with cassettes up to 52T (520% range). The cage sells for $79, and the links sell for $120, which includes a nice 3D-printed Pin Press Tool.

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Madrone also had their prototype derailleur on display. The derailleur has ball-bearing pivots, a carbon-fiber cage, and a play-free hangar bolt design. It’s slated to be compatible with SRAM or Shimano shifters and cassettes (via alternate cams) with the goal of being the most precise, responsive, reliable, and user-serviceable derailleur available. In person, it looked and felt quite impressive. For more on Madrone’s products (most of which start shipping on April 24), head over to MadroneCycles.com.

Stan’s Exo-Core Tubeless Valves

More core-free tubeless valves! I was equally as excited to see how Stan’s approached retooling the lowly air valve. The new Exo-Core Tubeless Valve is meticulously engineered with four machined aluminum parts, three O-rings (not shown), a brass valve stem, and a rubber seal grommet. Stan’s says the Exo-Core Tubeless Valve is easily serviceable and simple to keep clean.

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There’s are a number of unique things going on here. First, the top cap doesn’t thread on. Instead it’s a “Twist And Pull” Cap that quickly pops on and off the valve. The large grip area then allows air to be bled (1/8 turn for micro-bleeding; one full turn to wide open). Stan’s claims the external sealing and brass stem design keep it from clogging, and the oversized bore diameter and five-way base allow maximum airflow. It also has a tapered elliptical stopper for an airtight seal on rims and a self-locking valve nut with a captured O-ring design that’s supposed to stay secure and not vibrate loose. They seemed to work very will during a demo, but I look forward to working up a review down the road. In the meantime, find more over at NoTubes.com.

Gulo Composites

Hailing from my hometown of Brevard, North Carolina, Gulo Composites had a tent set up this year relaunching the brand with their new wheels and spokes. The Gulo wheel system incorporates the Gulo G-Spoke, a triaxially braided carbon composite spoke that they claim offers an excellent combination of compliance, comfort, stiffness, and strength, and vibration reduction from surface chatter. Gulo also says their spokes have a tensile strength 20% stronger than stainless steel spokes.

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One thing is certain. These things are very light. The downcountry GMD 27 wheelset weighs 1,394 grams with their own carbon rims and six-pawl hub that offers 6.66° of engagement (54 points). The wheelset retails for $1,795 and comes with a lifetime unlimited warranty on most of the components. Learn more over at GuloComposites.com.

Ornot Musette, etc.

It was great to connect with Trystan and Tyler from Ornot Cycling. They showed me a few new things that were recently cooked up, including a sweet UV/sun shirt with our friend Chris McNally’s artwork in the pocket. They also had a new featherlight musette on hand that features Chris’ wonderful illustrations, quite a few bags, and their award-winning Mission shorts and pants.

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Watch for the McNally musette, and find their other products over at OrnotBike.com.

Berd HAWK30X

Minnesota’s Berd Spokes launched a new wheelset at the show. The Berd Hawk30x features the same Canada-made 30mm internal-width rim as the Hawk30 that we awarded in our Gear of the Year list last year but gets thicker PolyX Spokes spokes.

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PolyLightX spokes have a 50% larger diameter, which according to Berd, makes them 44% stiffer and offers more than double the abrasion resistance compared to their standard PolyLight spokes on the Hawk30. Still, they weigh only 3.5 grams each (1 gram more than the standard spokes). Find details over at BerdSpokes.com.

WTB Rocket Plug Demo

The WTB Rocket Plug was released back in March, and we already covered in a Dispatch. I have to admit that I was a little skeptical or maybe just didn’t get it at the time. However, while talking about with a friend this weekend, I became Rocket Plug curious, and to further understand it, I went over to the WTB tent for a demonstration.

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You can read all about the Rocket Plug here, but the summary is that it uses standard-sized mountain bike tire plugs and small aluminum tips that the bacon strip plugs thread into. In short, you thread the tip with a plug(s), press it into the puncture, and it remains in there with the tails of the plug left sticking out of the tire.

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The four takeaways that changed my mind about it are, 1. The machined-aluminum tips can hold up to three normal-sized bacon strips, which effectively makes them like a single oversized plug; 2. They can be reclaimed once the tire has reached its end of life and removed, making them fully reusable; 3. The tips prevent plugs from backing out and pretty much won’t come out no matter how hard you pull on them; 4. You can insert the tips with an Allen key on a multi-tool, so all you really need to carry are the tips and plugs. I had briefly heard all of this, but seeing it in action is impressive, and all these things made me pretty excited about this unique little tool. I’ll definitely be bringing it along for a ride.

RecPak

As I was chatting with the folks at Gulo, I had the opportunity to meet Joy, who was managing the booth next to them and representing her company, RecPak. Normally, I might skip food products and nutritional brands but Joy started talking about bikepacking, a mutual friend, and how she thought RecPak was perfect for ultra-endurance cycling.

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These food pouches are designed to offer a complete 700-calorie meal with a full nutritional macro profile in liquid format. Pretty simple, but she also mentioned carrying them and then using the package as water storage for the remainder of the trip, as well as compatibility with Sawyer filters. Note that they’re currently updating the ingredients list to use olive oil, but in the meantime, you can find more info over at RecPak.co.

Cane Creek Invert, etc.

A Sea Otter ramble-about wouldn’t be complete without stopping to stop see some familiar faces and fellow Pisgah folks at Cane Creek. They had the new Invert set up front and center with a sharp blue paint job. It sounded like a lot of people were hoping this was an option, so who knows, maybe one day it will be. On that note they also told me about an attachment they have in the works that will enable bolt-on cargo cages and other gear. I’m excited to see how that turns out.

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They were also showing off a variety of parts to demonstrate their Chroma Studio, a variety of anodized part options that allow customers to add a little splash of color (or silver as is the case with the above knobs and trim on the Helm). They also were shoeing some the new silver eeBrakes. Learn more about the Chroma Studio at CaneCreek.com.

Chris McNally’s Second Annual Ride to Draw

For a second year in a row, friend and illustrator Chris McNally held a “ride to draw” meetup on Saturday afternoon. We assembled at the Ornot tent, where Chris handed out sketchbooks and supplies, and we rode out to the BLM land overlooking Fort Ord. Once there, we each sat to draw or paint the landscape, a wonderful way to take 30 minutes to be mindful and decompress from the noise and crowds of the festival. Thanks for the invite, Chris! I’m already looking forward to riding and drawing more once I catch up on some much-needed sleep.

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If you haven’t seen it yet, be sure to dig into part one of our 2024 Sea Otter coverage here, and stay tuned for more to come later this week. What new products intrigue or befuddle you most? Let us know in the conversation below!

Further Reading

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