The Radavist

We’re here in Monterey, California for the Sea Otter Classic, camping and breathing in some of that fresh coastal California air. If you’re here, make sure you say hey and we’ll see you out at the Laguna Seca Raceway!

Velodramatic has some of the nicest photos from last week’s Sea Otter Classic. The BMX and MTB photography is a hell of lot more fun to look at than road racing, that’s for damn sure! Check the entire set out here. There are some gems in that set.

This just in from Sea Otter. It seems the event has been rescheduled due to the Coronavirus scare, yet the organization has not listed new dates…

Sea Otter Classic Supporters,

Frank Yohannan
President & CEO
Sea Otter Classic, Inc.

The purveyors of speed and stoke, Santa Cruz’s Syndicate, take on the Sea Otter Classic.

We missed out on posting the Amstel Gold video from Bell with all the Sea Otter madness going on last week, so here’s a video in preparation for the forthcoming La Fleche Wallonne on April 22nd.

Lots of websites are speculating about the future or fate of Kona when its struggles were made very public after the company set up its Sea Otter Classic booth and then broke it down the evening before the show. This led to posts from media outlets, who made bold claims about the brand’s demise. Because we couldn’t contact anyone at the company, we thought we’d leave it be, knowing how the VC-backed cycling world works from personal experience, and then this morning, Kona posted on Instagram.

Coinciding with this week’s Sea Otter Classic, 1UP USA just announced a completely redesigned Super Duty hitch-mount bike rack. With a new one-handed push-button system, adjustable tray spacing, 100 lb rating per tray, and more, there’s a lot to like about this rack. Josh, our resident rackaholic, has been testing the new SD and shares a review below…

Quick Hits

• One Hand Operation
• Adjustable tray wheelbase
• Increased spacing between trays
• 100 lbs per tray weight capacity
• Off-road rated
• Optional wheel chock
• Clearance for tires up to 5”
• Compatible with existing Quik Rack add-ons and accessories
• Single Tray: Silver $600/Black $630; Double: Silver $900/Black $950; Add-on: Silver $395/Black $425
• Made in USA
• Lifetime warranty

Last year, 1UP USA launched the XD (Xtreme Duty) hitch-mounted tray bike rack. Designed for “extreme” off-road use or hauling heavy bikes, the XD eschewed some of 1UP’s classic design features (and added quite a few new ones) in creating what they’ve dubbed the “most durable, highest capacity rack.”

I was included in the prototyping phase for XD, but didn’t write anything about the final product because I didn’t think it would broadly appeal to our readership for a few reasons. With a maximum 150 lb capacity in the first tray (120 lbs in a second add-on and 75 lbs in a third), the XD is targeted at e-bike and e-moto owners. And it’s heavy and expensive (a single XD costs $250 more than a double SD).

But in terms of capacity, the 1UP XD is pretty much in a league of its own. The only product that comes close is the Rigd RambleRack, rated at 150 lbs per two bike trays for on-road use.

But there were quite a few features of the XD that made me pretty excited. First, 1UP got rid of the folding trays. This feature was originally meant to make their racks easier to fold up and store away but also added pivot points that could introduce unwanted wobbling as bikes move independently at the steering axis.

Additionally, the XD’s arms are beefed up, wheel chocks can be added to reduce front wheel rotation, and probably my favorite is the new glide bar ratcheting system.

1UP USA Super Duty

So, you might be asking, since I didn’t write about the XD a year ago, why am I writing about it now? Well, the completely redesigned SD (Super Duty) rack that launches today incorporates key features from the XD, in a lighter-weight and more versatile package. It’s the first major update to the flagship model that came out nearly ten years ago and is pretty much the rack I’d been hoping they would make for a long time.

The redesign of the SD also more clearly defines the 1UP lineup, with the lighter Heavy Duty rated at 65 lbs per tray and the Xtreme Duty at 150 lbs.

Priced at $600 for a single and $900 for a double (that’s for silver; anodized black is a slight cost increase), there are SD-specific add-ons for $395.

The first two trays are rated at 100 lbs each, and the add-ons can hold 75 lbs. Original SD add-ons, and other Quick Rack accessories, are compatible with the new rack.

What’s New with the 1UP SD

The new SD retains 1UP’s integrated anti-wobble corner expander ball and machined slot for fine-tuning the hitch bar lock. And everything above the hitch bar is new.

The glide bar and red lever have been completely redesigned to offer a stronger connection to the arms that hold the tires. This allowed 1UP to introduce a press and lift feature that disengages the ratchet and opens and closes the arms with one hand. The rack arms now extend all the way down for easier loading and unloading and there’s even an optional ramp for rolling heavy bikes onto the ramp.

With bikes getting longer (and, for some, heavier) and handlebars wider, squeezing four bikes onto the original Super Duty was always tricky.

I often carry a combination of flat and drop bar bikes and channel my sub-par Tetris skills to make everything fit without rubbing each time I load up. 1UP designed the new SD around similar use cases, spacing each tray an additional 2″ apart and making them adjustable for four different configurations: standard at 54”, long at 58”, and offset to either the driver or passenger side at 56”.

While I’ve exaggerated the offset of the trays in these photos for demonstrative purposes, the new rack configuration makes it a lot easier to load my varying types of Large to XL bikes without extending wheels beyond the width of the truck’s side mirrors.

In order to achieve the 100 lb per tray weight rating, 1UP also beefed up the thickness on the side plates and pivot beams. They also widened the trays to fit fat bike tires while also accommodating everything down to about 45mm without needing a Wheel Saver.

I find the optional wheel chocks to be especially helpful in locking in the front wheel of my gravel bikes with around a 2″ tire. Without it, the wheel seems to swim in the wide side arms, even though it’s plenty stable. There’s also a fat bike chock for tires in the 4-5″ range.

My Weird Use Case and Review

I’ve been using the new SD for a couple of weeks now and with my extended drive out to Sea Otter Classic in Monterey, CA this week, have logged nearly one thousand miles. With the base two tray rack and a wheel chock for each bike, I can report that it is very, very, secure.

I’ve bounced it all over the desert finding some remote camp spots and the bikes don’t wobble much at all. I frequently monitor my rearview mirrors while driving, glancing back at bikes hanging off the back of my truck, and the new SD moves less than any other rack I’ve used.

In my previous rack reviews, I’ve pointed out that I rely on racks that can carry at least four bikes and a swingout adapter that allows access to my truck’s tailgate. I’ve been using the original 1UP SD along with the Rigd Rambleswing since the swingout came out right around this time last year.

It’s been a solid setup for me, as the overbuilt nature of the Rambleswing and its 300 lb capacity help isolate movement in the overall system that can come from cantilevering a four-tray rack off the back of a pickup truck. But after testing out the new SD with two add-on trays, I decided to drive to Sea Otter with only the base rack.

Photo showing the old SD rack with Rig’d Rambleswing

The Ramblwswing isn’t quite as wide as some other swingouts, which requires me to mount 1UP racks pretty far out from the unit to clear the tailgate when open. This isn’t possible with the more substantial trays of the new SD. The only way to swing the rack out and clear the tailgate is to move the rack into one of its lower settings and then swing it out. So, I decided it would be easier to deal with the two-tray version rather than four while on my initial road trip with it.

Moving forward, if I continue using the new SD, I’ll swap out a wider swingout like the 1UP RackAttach, or wait until Rid’g hopefully makes a larger size of the Rambleswing. This is a non-issue for folks mounting the new SD directly to their vehicles.

As of writing this, I’m still waiting on the official product weights from 1UP, but the new SD is heavy. So, be sure to check the weight ratings of vehicles and other accessories, especially if you’re carrying heavy bikes. Those numbers tend to add up fast.

Overall, this is the best rack 1UP has made yet. The new glide bar mech is super nice to use and staggering the trays makes loading and unloading bikes much easier than before. And the combination of beefed-up components with optional wheel chocks keeps bikes stable even in rough conditions.

Pros

• Glidebar redesign is easy to use
• Staggered trays for convenient loading
• One tray/arm size for a range of tire sizes
• Lots of anti-wobble features make it super secure
• Compatible with old and new accessories

Cons

• Heavy
• Might not work in combination with narrow swingouts

See more at 1UP USA

Not too many people have ridden the Colorado Trail on a fat bike. But Jason Winkler has. Hailey Moore shares a Q&A with the maker behind Spruce Cycles and his race-spec 2016 Salsa Beargrease.

Announced way back at the 2021 Sea Otter Classic, Old Man Mountain’s Basket ($80 – made in Taiwan) is a stamped aluminum, rugged basket meant to take the place of the almighty Wald 137. John got his grubby little mitts on one of these along with an Elkhorn Rack ($168 – made in Taiwan) and offered up some thoughts below…

In our current climate of cycling innovation, where maximizing gear range and number of cogs is top priority for many, singlespeeders are often left out. Teased earlier this year at Sea Otter Classic and available for sale today, Wheels Manufacturing flips the script with the SOLO-XD Single Speed Conversion Kit, which offers a reliable solution for converting both XD and XDR driver-equipped hubs to carrying a single gear. Josh recently received a SOLO-XD kit and, below, outlines the installation process and a review after riding with a “dinglespeed” setup for a couple of weeks.