Bicycle companies already have to work pretty hard to forecast future sales, but it seems that forecasting the weather is also fairly important. At Summer Press Camp 2014, Hayes Components seemed to know exactly what was coming as the only brand on hand with a fat bike to take advantage of the wet, heavy snow that fell on Park City. Naturally, Big John Wells was happy to demonstrate the new MuleFüt 80’s abilities on an extremely slick walkway.
We might have gotten the first details at Sea Otter, but we have the full details including weights on Sun Ringle’s new tubeless fat bike rim, plus a few other goodies after the jump…
There are more fat bike rims available now than ever, but the new MuleFüt looks like a winner if you’re looking for an affordable rim packed with features. The biggest difference compared to most aluminum fat bike rims is the fact that it is build with STR technology, or Sun Ringle Tubeless Ready, which is the same bead design found on the new Helix rims as well. In spite of the huge cutouts in the rim, it can still be easily converted to tubeless. We’re told that this set up used a standard plastic rim strip for cut out rims, and then had a single layer of yellow rim tape over top. Sun Ringle is working on sourcing their own which will be wide enough for the 80mm rim, but in the mean time you can use other tapes available.
Once taped up, each tire was filled with 2 of the single use bottles of Stan’s and aired right up. For now there will be a single model of the MuleFüt available which is a 32h rim with dual drilling for centered or offset wheel builds. The 26″ rim itself uses a partial dual wall construction with small box sections on both sides of the rim under the bead. MuleFüts are made from 6061 aluminum that measures 80mm externally, 74.4mm internally, 15.5mm tall, and uses a pinned joint.
Rims come in exactly at 800g and will be sold as rim only for $170 a piece.
The other rim news from Sun Ringle is the new Helix line which includes the XC/Trail oriented TR25 and Trail/AM oriented AM27. Both rims are welded disc only and include STR technology and are available in 26″, 27.5″ and 29″ wheel sizes in 28 and 32h.
Rim profiles reflect the use with the smaller TR25 measuring 20.8mm int./24.8mm ext./18.2mm tall and the burlier TR27 measuring 23mm int./27mm ext./19.9mm tall. We had a chance to weigh the TR27 in 27.5″ and 29″ and they clocked in at 490 and 540g respectively. Claimed weights for the TR25 are 434g/457g/488g and 465g/489g/522g for the TR27.
All of the new rims are available now.
No these aren’t work gloves, they’re the new Trail Builder Series from Answer. The Big John on the left and Grit on the right feature a pre-curved Amara palm with imitation leather and fleece thumbs for absorbing your snot, sweat, or blood. The gloves also feature Answer’s Answer-it index finger and thumb for using your smart phone without removing the glove. Retail on the Trail builder series is set at $29.95.
The Grit also has a new cold weather sibling in the Chopper Mitt which is rated down to 20 degrees f thanks to the Primaloft insulation. The separate index finger allows for easy brake operation, and they will cols $39.95.
Finally, you’ve seen the Manitou McLeod, but now that Manitou has a front and rear suspension option for your trail bike they company was emphasizing the tuneability you’ll find in each. Thanks for the similar shim stack damping systems found on the McLeod and the Mattoc, each can be custom tuned with the right know how. The shim kits and diagrams above are for the older Absolute + damping system, but Manitou is working on similar options for the future to make tuning your suspension or your customer’s suspension as easy as possible.
