Radar Roundup: Firefly Titanium Fork, Garbaruk Gravel Crankset, Ocean &#038; San Solution Bib Shorts, Moots Garage Sale, URGENT BLM Mountain Bike Trails at Risk!!!, Alt_Road, and Becoming a Bikepacker

Our Radar Roundup compiles products and videos from the ‘net in an easy-to-digest format. Read on below for today’s findings…

Firefly Bicycles Makes Titanium Forks

When we say custom, we mean custom and Firefly Bicycles now offers 100% custom framesets thanks to its new in-house titanium forks!

The key to the entire project is 3D printing. Firefly worked with its long-time partner Josh Ogle to design 3D printed Ti fork crowns and dropouts for Road, Road Plus, and All Road/Gravel models, covering a huge range of riding from road to gravel, with tire clearance options from 700 x 32mm to 700 x 55mm and 650 x 57mm. Those 3D printed parts are shaped to match perfectly with ovalized Ti fork legs and tapered carbon steerer tubes, allowing Firefly to build forks that are light, fast, and strike the right balance of ride quality characteristics: stiff enough for precise handling and braking, never harsh feeling, and nearly as light as full carbon forks.

The advantages of 3D printing extend beyond the surface too. The brand is taking full advantage of the 3D design with internal routing in the fork crown for simple brake routing on all models, and innovative dynamo wire routing in Road Plus and All Road fork crowns, including split routing for both lights and steerer tube-mounted chargers like the Sinewave Beacon, or light switches like the Velolumino TMAT switch…

See full specs for each model at Firefly Bicycles.

Garbaruk Road/Gravel Crankset 420.00 €

Known for its ultralight and ultra flash componentry, Garbaruk just upped the ante with a new 7075 aluminum crankset and chainring for gravel and road (non-boost) applications. Fully equipped weight with a 42T Round chainring, these smooth on the eyes cranks weigh in at just 480.5 grams. There are eight color options for the crankarms, eight color options for the self-extractor nut, and eight color options for the chainring create 512 possible combinations.

See more at Garbaruk!

Ocean & San Bib Shorts for Men and Women in Cargo and Plain $245/255

No training version, no race version, no pro version: one bib, perfected. The Solution Bibs are the result of 13 months of rigorous research, design, development, and field-testing. They’re inspired by the ethos behind our All Day Shirt — designed for versatility and performance regardless of your riding style.

Performance Italian fabric with four-way stretch for maximum comfort and durability. Triple density elastic interface chamois for ultimate comfort on even the longest of rides. Two side cargo pockets for optimal storage on longer rides in the cargo model.

Roll on over to Ocean & San for more!

Moots Garage Sale

Buying a brand new Moots with carbon components and electronic shifting can set you back $15,000 in some cases making them some of the most expensive US-made bikes on the market. Yet for a limited time, Moots has opened up its fleet of lightly used bikes to the internet for purchase. Save $5,000 on a Vamoots, $3,000 on a Womble, and buy with confidence as Moots stands behind its products.

See the current selection at Moots.

The BLM Needs Your Input: IMBA Call to Action

Mountain bikers protect healthy landscapes and promote conservation across our nation. Conservation is important to us, and a clear rule that helps the BLM protect and support healthy landscapes is something we would support. In order to explicitly support the new BLM Public Lands rule, mountain bikers need clarification.

It is difficult for us to clearly answer, “How is this going to impact mountain bikers and trails?” This is partially because a rule is a framework for case-by-case decision making during cyclical land planning processes at the local and regional level within the BLM. It’s also because much is unclear in this version of the proposed rule. Because of the ambiguity and lack of clear definitions, it is especially important for us to uplift our questions and the voices of mountain bikers.

There could be negative implications: this rule could allow decisions to be made to restrict access to mountain bike trails in areas where land/trail health is an issue. There could be positive implications: sustainable recreation positively impacts conservation efforts in people-power and advocacy for protecting the places we play. This could lend itself to helping BLM land managers approve sustainable trail construction projects that promote protection of intact landscapes and responsible recreation.

If we say nothing, the thousands of individual voices of mountain bikers and other recreation enthusiasts are not part of the conversation. If one or two of us write a letter, maybe we’re acknowledged, but the voices of the many stakeholders involved in BLM land planning, from recreation to resource extraction, drown out our perspective. Please lift up your voice and the needs of our mountain bike communities across the country.

Take Action Now!

The new “Public Lands Rule” could support conservation on 245 million acres of public lands, but mountain bikers need more information. The BLM and your lawmakers need to hear from you about how sustainable trails and outdoor recreation contribute to conservation, support healthy landscapes, and are important parts of managing public lands now and into the future. Learn more about public lands advocacy and the International Mountain Biking Association’s (IMBA’s) advocacy efforts here. *Update: the BLM has extended the comment period by 15 days. Comments are now due by July 5th, 2023.

Please make your comment today at IMBA.

Alt_Road™ Chasing Alternative Paths with Martijn van Strien

938 kilometres. A solo fixed route over seven days with only three staffed checkpoints. 29,000 meters of climbing (the equivalent of scaling three Everest’s plus some change). The Hellenic Mountain Race is one of those events that pushes you to breaking point, and many times beyond it. To have the levels of brass just to turn up at the start line is a feat alone, let alone finishing the thing.

Becoming a Bikepacker

BBB Cycling invited three cyclists: Aenea, Emily and Berend to go on their first-ever bikepacking trip. They brought their gravel bikes and we provided them with all the bags and accessories to turn their nimble rides into fully packed rigs…