A few weeks ago, the umbrella company of radical bicycles and components that is Tanglefoot Cycles reached out, sharing their parts catalog. Aside from their wild bicycle designs, the Discord Peeper Stem really grabbed our attention. In that post, we hinted at this showcase, which we’re delivering today so enjoy a long cruise with Tanglefoot at the helm…
Chapter Two: Retro-Futurism
What if our decisions were not reactions based on the actions of those around us, but instead based on the thoughts and philosophies of those who came before, those who differ from us? What if bikes were based on sustainable design and production? What if we looked back to see who solved our current problems 30, 60 or 120 years ago? Bikes built 120 years ago were made to ride on bad, muddy, rough roads. Hey! That’s what we like to ride on. How can we learn from this rich history of brilliant fabricators, bike builders, riders and inventors?
Let’s evolve. Let’s use the past to build a better future. Retro-Futurism. Tanglefoot’s leitmotif. Retro-Futurism is simple. Examine what the past can teach us about current and future needs. It’s a concept largely ignored in the bike industry, or, when it is acknowledged, is often disingenuous. The path to Retro-futurism isn’t about historical reenactments. It’s about taking the best inspiration from 120 years of bike fabrication and remixing it to apply it to our present and future requirements.
Retro-Futurism demands that current needs accept responsibility for future demands. The future demands goods made to last. It demands we design products that will stay out of landfills, be repaired, and ultimately recycled or composted. We don’t need more landfill fodder.
Tanglefoot isn’t about Retro-Futurism in some ivory tower sense. These concepts can apply to bikes and products that are fun and useful. Our stuff is made to use in the highly demanding terrain we call home. Mud, huge climbs, gnar descents, river crossings, ice, snow, more mud, singletrack and more. We don’t have to drive to a harder region to ride in. We’re there. That means our products will work wherever you live and ride.
Tanglefoot exists because it needs to. Because bikes shouldn’t be one hit wonders. The bike industry ignores a huge swath of riders who don’t want to look like space clowns. Folks who are uncomfortable in lycra and armor and funny shoes, helmets with more vents than sense, shifters that make robot noises, bikes they have to plug in. They want to ride in whatever shorts they have on, and an old wool sweater that smells like a campfire, not like a locker room.
Bikes were invented to get outside and have fun. Races came along later, then they took over everything. Design, mentality, clothing, events, all of it. Races can be fun, but everyone has to be in on the fun. Otherwise it’s like a one sided joke where someone ends up getting hurt and everyone else is laughing. The real winners are the ones who had fun on the ride, not the ones with the fastest time.
The current design disconnect between the sport of bicycle racing and recreational riding is not big enough. If racers are 1% of the cycling consumer base, it stands to reason that the average bike should barely be influenced by the specter of the lycra crowd. Somehow that is not the case. I’d say 1 in 100 cyclists max will ever even do these occasional races, yet the idea of speed and racing permeates the very fabric of what it means to be a cyclist today. We are defined by something most of us will never partake in. It’s like if one dude at your office wears black jeans and only listens to death metal, but somehow your whole office culture is based around his identity. It makes no sense.
Ride a well-made, good-fitting bike that’s fun, and makes sense for you. It’s simple.
What: Tanglefoot Cycles makes steel framesets. Discord Components make parts out of aluminum and steel. Fifth Season Canvas makes waxed canvas bags.
Why: We are awash in the lurid excess of the new. Culture produces without knowing the reason for production. The headlong rush for the new ignores lessons learned in the past, leading to repeated failures and waste. Education is the only weapon against such waste. By knowing the past we can understand our current and future needs clearly. If we only look forward, we are blind. Tanglefoot seeks to educate and illuminate a path forward with the creation of tools for Retro-Futurists.
Where: Tanglefoot is based in the woods of the 14th state. HQ: a post and beam sugar shack in a stand of tall maples. Frames are made in the US and Taiwan. Bags are made in Vermont and Maine by one-person shops. Aluminum stems are made in New Jersey by a one-person shop. Steel stems are made in Massachusetts in a one-person shop.
When: 4 years ago, Discord launched its first products: a 0mm and 30mm quill stem, called the w(Right) stem. Development started on the Tanglefoot Moonshiner at the same time. After years of prototypes and testing, the Moonshiner frameset will arrive in May 2021.
How: Bikes and parts are designed based on the idea that form should follow fit. Bikes that fit well, and have a stable, capable geometry ride well. All Tanglefoot frames feature Tantamount geometry: no toe overlap on any size, even with platform pedals, the same HTA and STA on all sizes, no cheating on smaller frames. Geometry inspired by bad roads bikes from 1900-1915, updated to incorporate the more practical technologies of our time.
Who: 3 cyclists with years of fitting, design and riding experience living in a tiny village in the Southwest Kingdom of Vermont. Candice Passehl, James Johnson and Adam Adeane.
Dealers: Products are only sold through authorized dealers. Tanglefoot does not handle direct sales. Any sales inquiries must be launched through a dealer. Currently, there are 3 in the US, 2 in Canada, 1 in Japan, and 1 in Singapore. Dealers can sell online at MAP pricing, but must have 3 frames and a demo bike on the floor for test rides. The current list of dealers are at our website.
Builds: Complete builds or custom build options will be available at dealers.
Tanglefoot Cycles line
Moonshiner:
What is a Moonshiner? A rowdy sniggle shred sled? A diggle whip designed to dominate rocky roads? A ride-camp-ride mule-foot machine? Yes.
When Tanglefooting, the animal magnetism of 1986 plays a Van Halen riff on your heart strings. Tie-dye your socks. Look askance at magic food. Quaff a warm beer on the edge of a river. Ride like Strava was never invented.
Spirit animals were not consulted to make the Tanglefoot Moonshiner. Instead, we broke open rocks on the side of the trail and consulted the fragments. Luminance readings procured by holding the samples up to a dying headlight while eating a goose pastrami sandwich, pointed to the one true north. We consulted the tree rings of a downed sugar maple, and chewed the root of a birch tree. The mingled messages clarified like butter at the boil. Our formula: 104 tree rings x birch beer flavorings, + the astral position of Taurus at the solstice / Young’s modulus of steel = Tanglefoot Moonshiner.
Crush single track and slay dirt roads. Overgrown gravel or cross bike? No! Not a rando bike with huge tires. The Moonshiner shirks the low bottom bracket trend, tosses the short chainstays, dumps the short top tube and long stem design standard. The tubing is beefy. This bike does not plane. It shreds.
The Moonshiner isn’t a gravel bike with a hat on. It’s an ATB bike. Sharp handling, the ability to climb steep loose terrain, and a high Moonraker bottom bracket to deal with rock gardens, off-camber trails, and tight switchbacks. The head angle is semi-slack: not so slack that it hurts climbing, in fact it tracks with minimal input, even if you are tired. The Moonraker bottom bracket means you can pedal through rock gardens, around tight ‘n steep switchbacks, over logs without breaking stride, even with a loaded bike.
Some ranting about Tanglefoot and Moonshiner geometry, for the rant inclined.
The Moonshiner is set up for future and current needs. Retro Futurism. It’s our thing. No one makes fenders that will fit tires this wide (yet), but we have Azimov fender bosses and fender clearance. Because one day, when you are old and feeble, we want you to still be riding this bike, probably down to the co-op, for some wheat grass CBD avocado almond butter smoothie action. It has rack mounts for front racks, rear racks and the Nitto R-10 rack. Down tube triple bottle cage braze-ons on the top and bottom of the down tube. The high BB lets you safely put longish items under the down tube, so you can skip a full frame bag if ya want.
Our ExFlex fork crown is unique to Tanglefoot. It’s the only lugged fork crown on the market that will clear this big of a tire with room for a fender. Divining Rod fork legs are oversized and stiff for good tracking in the rough stuff and no noodle town action with a load. The Exflex crown and Divining Rod fork blades make the II Fat fork one of the most durable forks you can lay your greasy fingers on.
Dig it: Down tube moto vector force alignment plate gusset = super-moto. Fear not the head on collision with a Geo Metro or free range Yak. Head tube reinforcing Rings of Saturn = loose headset? No sweat. It won’t blow your frame up if you forget about it for a ride.
Chainstay yokes are in vogue; a necessary evil when you have super short chainstays. Chainstays should be long, like our Traction Tubes, so you can climb with your rear wheel planted and descend as fast as you want, without your bike getting all squirrely.
The Moonshiner has the perfect alignment of high stack height and low LHFA stand over. High stack means you can get the bars up high without a crap load of headset spacers. LHFA stand over means you won’t rack your bits when you have to do an abrupt stop at the ice cream truck. The rest of the bike is zero BS. Non adjustable SoS dropouts, which add weight, flex, cost, and historically slip, creak or squeak. No adjustable bottom bracket. See above (minus the flex).
If you want a Rohloff, this isn’t your bike. Derailleurs are more efficient, shift better, cost less and weigh less. Threaded Nopressfit 73mm shell BB because they are easy to find, and you can get Gucci or cheap ones that work fine. Pressfit plastic bottom brackets are terrible. Squeaky, creaky, short lived. Like a Walmart lawn chair. Boost spacing front and rear, because it makes for stronger wheels and a cleaner chain line with big tires.
The Moonshiner has a really expensive washer brazed to the back of the seat post slot. No matter how many times you crank down on the seat post clamp, that slot will not crack, because Kim Gordon’s Washer disperses the force and reinforces the end of the slot.
All of this adds up to a frameset made for gnarpacking shredonneurig sniggle rambling and of course, beer runs to the general store.
Get to Tanglefooting. Attitude is step one. Step two is the leap of faith. Snag a Moonshiner and start the journey.
Stiffest fork crown known to humanity. Design modeled after maple spiles. Fork clearance for a 3.5″ tire on a 50mm rim. Also of note: brazed downtube gusset, which keeps the extra high heat of tig welding away from this critical area. Machined reinforcement rings on the headset mean that if you accidentally ride 100 miles on bad terrain with a loose headset, your headtube will survive. EC44 headsets have more ball bearings than EC34 headsets, and that means longer bearing life. The frame and fork is tested to the highest MTN Fatigue, drop and impact tests going. This is not an overgrown gravel bike. You can ride the hardest trails, crash, scratch it, ding it, and still be riding it in 25 years.
Made in Taiwan. Wet paint.
1100 USD for frame, fork, and stem
Hardtack:
For more than 1600 years, long distance travellers have relied on hardtack for sustenance. The Codex Theodosianus mentions hardtack among the rations given to Roman soldiers. The British sailors used hardtack for more than 400 years as a principal daily ration, along with rum and a gallon of ‘small beer’. Properly made, hardtack can last years, even decades. There’s a hardtack biscuit in a museum in Denmark from 1852. It still looks edible. Hardtack isn’t about the latest taste craze. There is no Umami sensation when eating hardtack. It’s about durability (see it’s nicknames: armor plate, tooth dullers, sheet iron, armor wafers) and basic nutrition.
The Tanglefoot Hardtack is tough, stripped down, simple, versatile. You can pretty much do anything with this bike, from bike packing, to gravel roads, commuting, loaded touring and technical singletrack. Clearance for 27.5 x 2.6”, or 700c x 47mm tires, with fenders. Beefy tubing means no speed wobble, even on bad roads with a big load of gear. Frames should be stiff, period. Give and flex should come from low pressure tires. Flexy frames don’t track well in rough terrain.
Thru axles. Dropper routing. A simple but stiff fork. All of the braze-ons one needs for touring and bike packing. Tanglefoot Tantamount Geometry: consistent bottom bracket heights, seat tube and headtube angles, chainstay lengths, across the size run. Tanglefit Design: Long front end and high bars based around a short stem for no toe overlap in any size, and less endos / more high speed control. Slack, C.L.E.A.T.U.S seat tube angle so you can run a 0mm offset post and retain the same fit of a bike with a 72.5 degree STA and a setback post. No compromises. No fluff. A tough bike made for hard rides.
Custom butted 4130, as all good strong bikes should be.
Headbadge features the Vermont motto: Freedom and Unity. The bird is the state bird, the Hermit Thrush with it’s speckled belly.
Made in Taiwan. Powercoated.
750 USD for frame and fork
Bull Thistle
Snowmobile trails in the spring are rutty, muddy, with long patches of soft snow. They’re steep, with slick exposed rock beds, a mountain stream where the water is mud. The trails wind up long mountain contours, and take you to views that few will rarely see. The catch: the trails are only open in the winter.
The Bull Thistle is made for these winter trails, for finding seldom seen overlooks and dense stands of hemlock crusted in ice. These old carriage roads and logging traces, leading to the faintest outlines of former root cellars, past stone walls dating to Revolutionary War-era farms, these lines of history are home of the Bull Thistle. It’s a road bike, for a different kind of road.
No ‘all road’ bike or ‘gravel’ bike would survive these conditions. You need big tires. Not too big, because you are not rooting around in deep powder. A high bottom bracket, to eliminate pedal strike when climbing a rocky, mud slickened road. Longish chainstays, for traction and stability. A comfortable fit, with drop bars level with or higher than the saddle, so you can actually use the drops. Slack seat tube angle, to put you in an endurance riding position, not a sprint position. That slack seat tube angle also helps with rear wheel traction, putting your weight further back and lower over the rear axle.
The main triangle of the Bull Thistle is big, like a traditional road bike. That means you can put a substantial frame bag in there, for trips up to camp for a night of grilled venison and Buck Boui (pronounced Boo – E, recipe elsewhere in the CATALOG). Of course there are braze ons for big water bottles. Rack and fender braze ons too, although no one yet makes fenders that will fit. One day they will, and the Bull Thistle is ready.
Most fat bikes have a Q factor that’s obscene. Your knees ache just thinking about it. The Bull Thistle, while not exactly a low Q bike, has a lower than normal Q factor thanks to it’s 83mm bottom bracket. That’s a downhill BB size, and don’t worry, quite a few folks make cranks and BB’s to fit. Raceface, Middleburn, Hope, to name a few. Now, a standard chainring on an 83mm BB won’t give you a good chainline with a 170mm rear hub, so you have to flip the chainring over. That means you need a chainring that’s symmetrical, no shark fin shapes like SRAM has now. Once you do that, you have a fat bike chainline with a narrower Q factor. Happier knees on longer rides. You couldn’t do this on an aluminum bike, the chainstays would be too fat for the reduced Q factor of the cranks.
The Bull Thistle is lugged. We love lugged bikes. We think the world, in general, needs more lugs. Ian at Swift Design Works, did the engineering for the fork crown, based on a drawing we sent him. It’s custom CNC’d chromoly. Tough enough for offroad use. Overbuilt, really. The frame lugs are modified to make critical points even stronger: reinforcing rings on the head tube lugs mean no ovalized headtube even if your headset is a bit loose. There’s a washer brazed to the bottom of the seat collar slot, so no matter how often you tighten or loosen the seat binder bolt, the bottom of that slot won’t crack. Lugs are elegant and strong, artistic external reinforcements at critical junctions on the bike. We hope to use more lugs in the future, and maybe one day even make our own full set, not just a fork crown or 2.
Currently all Bull Thistle framesets are made to order in Massachusetts by Alex Meade of Alex Meade Bikeworks. He’s a one person show. They are custom painted by Hot Tubes, a two person show, also in Mass. Pricing depends on paint. Figure 3400-3800. We reserve the right to nix wacky paint jobs. These are not custom bikes, in that we don’t let you monkey around with a geometry that we know works well. If you want a custom bike, ask Alex directly. If you want a Tanglefoot Bull Thistle, ask your dealer, who will work with you to determine a size and color.
3800 USD starting price for frame and fork
Waterbottles: Old Crow Becomes Old Turkey Vulture. Jim Beam’s seal becomes the icon on the back of the original Vermont Copper, with the Tanglefoot Retro-Futurism motto below.
Discord Components line:
Discord Fingerling Quill Stems (70mm and 50mm)
Fingerling, named after those tiny first potatoes you pull outta the dirt. Most quill stems are flexy. These are not. Overbuilt for off-road riding. 4 bolt face plate means bars will NOT slip. A quill stem for the 21st century. From the CATALOG: Guitar necks, pencils, cocktails are all better if they are stiffer. Vacation plans, musical tastes, and yoga pants are all better if they are flexible. Get a stiff stem. Go where you want to go.
Specs:
-22.2 quill shaft for most threaded 1” forks
-50mm or 70mm extension
-77 degree angle (Same as a Nitto Technomic)
-225mm quill bolt
-31.8 bar clamp
-6Nm faceplate bolts, 9Nm quill bolt
-Stainless hardware
-Brazed, Cerakoted Chromoly
-Made in Massachusetts by Alex Meade Bikeworks
-Not carbon bar compatible
-Minimum insertion: 65mm to the top of the headset lock nut. Don’t push it. The stem will not fail, the fork will.
–$195 USD
Discord w(Right) Quill Stem (0mm and 30mm)
Long stems are going the way of the Dodo.
Bike fit, bike geometry and bike spec work in aggregate to shape how a rider rides a bike. In an ideal world, bikes would be comfortable, efficient, and stable. Bikes would allow you to run whatever tires you want, and fenders, without the front wheel wacking your foot at low speeds. The bike would be designed in such a way that it would be close to impossible to fly over the bars. This dream bike can exist. But! We need to accept shorter stems to make this “hypothetical” perfect bike happen.
We know a decent amount about fit, and a bit about geometry and design. That said, we’re always trying to learn more, and always willing to adapt in light of new evidence, or in this case, old evidence.
After reading a biography about the Wright brothers (that had an annoyingly small amount of info on their bike business) I looked into their bikes, and here’s the takeaway: The Wright bikes had slack head and seat tube angles (which are currently coming back into vogue). Why? Roads were bad, and bikes needed to be long and have slow steering. Slack head angles sort of self stabilize the handling, so you need less steering input from the rider to hold a line. That’s why motorcycles and downhill bikes have slack angles. The bikes had short stems. Why? Because that allowed the front wheel to get further forward, extending the wheelbase: adding stability and eliminating the dreaded toe clip overlap (even with fenders and big tires), while still keeping reach in check.
In conjunction with the short stems, the bikes had swept back drop bars, and the steering leverage point (probably not the right term, I’m not an engineer… but where you grip the bars), not unlike the steering with an Albatross bar, was BEHIND the head tube. I had never thought about this before but I extrapolated that the bike does not know how long a stem is, or the reach of a bar, etc. The bike is reacting, from a steering perspective, to the line drawn between where you grip the bars and the center of the steerer. Bikes with albatross bars handle great. Not squirrel-y or slow. Yet their steering leverage point is behind the head tube. To test this concept further, I put a -60mm stem on a Surly Long Haul Trucker and rode it around, off curbs, up and down hills, etc. If you put a white piece of paper over the stem area, you’d have no idea it was a -60. Grant of Rivendell Bicycle Works did this a while back, and he reported basically the same thing.
If you have a zero extension or 30mm extension stem, and your hands are the drops, and you have a 95mm reach bar like a noodle, it’s as if you were riding a flat bar with a 125 stem. Which is a lot of stem.
The Wright brothers did most of their fabrication and design in house. They were outside-the-box thinkers. They chose to go with either 0, +30 or -30 stems (around that, I can’t actually measure it, but it looks like between 25 and 35mm). They did it for a reason. All of this is reinforced by current trends in mountain bikes (35-40mm stems are the norm these days, and with swept back alt-bars, that’s equating to a -10mm stem), and what has been happening with motorcycles for over 100 years. If short stems didn’t work, these bikes and motorbikes would not have them.
Purists pick what they want to be purist about. Stem length has been changing for 100+ years, but purists whose ideas are based on 70’s and 80’s road race bikes with skinny tires think that 100mm stems are the best, and everything else is a compromise from there.
From a bike design perspective: a shorter stem allows you to fit bigger tires and provide more stability via a longer wheelbase without having to lengthen the back of the bike a bunch.
From a bike fit perspective, and really, this is the thing I’m most excited about: short stems allow shorter torso riders to size up and get the bars higher. In combo with a good short reach drop bar, a short stem can allow a 5’5” woman like Candice, our mechanic, to ride a 55cm bike. She has the same saddle height I do, but I’m 5’9”. With a traditional stem, she could not ride a small bike and easily get the bars high enough. With a zero stem, her fit is perfect.
Specs:
-US made, fillet brazed in Massachusetts by Alex Meade Bikeworks
-Nitto quill bolt and wedge
-22.2mm shaft
-M5 stainless faceplate bolts
-30mm or 0mm offset
-31.8 bar clamp diameter
-Removable faceplate
-215mm quill extension
-$195 USD
Discord Creemee Chromo Stem
The tallest, stiffest, shortest stem out there. Not a good pick up line in a bar, but it makes for a great stem. Strong enough for navigating the worst terrain with a loaded bike.
Specs:
-0mm extension
-1 ⅛ steerer clamp for most threadless forks
-125mm stack height
-Minimum steerer clamping area: 55mm
-Bolt sized by steerer tube length
-31.8 bar clamp
-6Nm faceplate bolts, 6Nm steerer bolts
-Custom hardware
-Custom reamed tubing
-Stainless hardware
-Brazed, cerakoted chromoly
-Made in Massachusetts by Alex Meade Bikeworks
-Not carbon bar compatible.
–$195 USD
Discord Peeper Chromo Stem
Get the bars up high, so you can ride in the drops. Stiff AF, overbuilt for the hardest riding on the worst terrain. Fillet brazed, because it’s strong and beautiful. Thin, hard cerakote finish protects better than powder coat and does not need a primer.
Specs:
-1 ⅛ steerer clamp for most threadless forks
-125mm stack height
-Minimum steerer clamping area: 55mm
-Bolt sized by steerer tube length
-31.8 bar clamp
-6Nm faceplate bolts, 6Nm steerer bolts
-Stainless hardware
-Brazed, cerakoted chromoly
-Made in Massachusetts by Alex Meade Bikeworks
-Not carbon bar compatible
–$195 USD
Discord Peeper Aluminum Stem
Vague school lunch milk carton vibes. Named after the spring peepers that live in the pond where we get our drinking water. Get bars close, and higher. Tougher than a boiled owl.
Specs:
-30mm extension
-1 ⅛ steerer clamp for most threadless forks
-75mm stack from bottom of stem to center of bar clamp
-31.8 bar clamp. 50mm wide
-Milled aluminum with stainless bolts
-5Nm faceplate bolts – tighten front bolts completely and then tighten rear faceplate bolts to -5Nm 6Nm steerer bolts
-Engineered and made in New Jersey by Swift Design Works
-Not carbon bar or carbon steerer compatible
–$185 USD in black
Discord Creemee Aluminum Stem
Inspired by bad roads bike from 1900. Proven on the nastiest trails and class 4 roads Vermont has to offer. Stiff, strong and simple.
Specs:
-1 ⅛ steerer clamp for most threadless forks
-52mm steerer tube insertion, leave a 2-5mm gap for bearing preload.
-31.8 bar clamp.
-Milled Aluminum with Stainless Bolts
-80mm stack height
-5Nm faceplate bolts. Tighten in “X” pattern. 6Nm steerer bolts.
-Stainless hardware.
-Engineered and made in New Jersey by Swift Design Works.
-Not carbon bar or carbon steerer compatible.
–$165-185 USD depending on color
Fifth Season Canvas line:
Squall Sack
The Squall sack is a super simple basket packing bag. Minimal seams means less leakage. Simple closure means less fuss, easier in and out. Fits in a Wald 137. Exactly zero bells and whistles, zero zippers. The Squall sack is made to stand up to Vermont’s worst season: mud season, the fifth season. It’s cold, salty, slushy. Get a bag that will keep stuff dry, last a long time, and look fine doing it.
Specs:
-US made waxed canvas and brass hardware
-Fits a Wald 137 full or half basket
-Sewn in Maine by one dude in an off the grid cabin with a treadle powered sewing machine
-Weather proof
-17 liter capacity with rolled top closed
-19cm x 32cm x 28cm with roll top closed
–$100 USD
Kinni Kinnic Sack
Dead simple, made to hold things you need to get at quickly. We often camp a ways from our bikes, hiking up to some ledge or high point. The Kinni Kinnic Bags can easily be attached to your belt, like a utility belt.
Specs:
-US made waxed canvas
-Sewn in Maine by one dude in an off the grid cabin with a treadle powered sewing machine
-Attaches to the outside of a Wald Basket
-1 liter max capacity with roll top closed
-7cm x 10cm x 15cm rolled dimensions
–$60 USD
Cache Sack
Use it for whatever, it’s a stuff sack. Designed for Manything style cages on the fork. Big enough for a 3 season down bag or a light 2 person tent. Made in Maine by a guy who lives in an off grid cabin, using a treadle powered sewing machine. All US materials. Waxed Cotton. Weather proof. Rewaxable as it ages. Easy to repair.
Specs:
-3.5 liters max capacity with roll top closed
-10cm x 13cm x 27cm rolled dimensions
–$62 USD
Fifth Season Key Pa Saddlebag
The only saddle bag on the market with no plastic fabric or trim. Just canvas, cerakoted brass hardware, leather. Made in Vermont by Waxwing Bag Co. All US materials.
Specs:
-Side pockets can fit a 32oz Nalgene easily
-Main body size: 36cm x 26cm x 22cm
-24 liters in standard mode, 34 liters with flap extended
-Ideally supported by a saddle bag support, like a Nitto R-10
–$350-375 USD
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Thanks for sitting in for this thorough look at brands we feel are pointing their bars in the right direction. What products, in particular, speak to you and which bike would you like to throw a leg over?