Idaho’s Tumbleweed Bicycle Company offers best-in-class bicycles and bike bits specially made for bikepacking and mountain bike touring. This week, they add another steed to the line, introducing the Sunliner. This is a fully rigid, flat bar, mountain touring bike. Tumbleweed says the Sunliner “fits into their ethos as an off-road touring bike built with top quality materials”.
Daniel Molloy, Tumbleweed Bicycle’s founder, is no stranger to offering iconic, capable, and purpose-built bikepacking bikes. Bikes like the award-winning Stargazer and the stout and trusted Prospector have been ridden thousands of miles across many continents. The new Sunline sits right in between those models.
The Sunliner came about as a way to offer the customers who wanted a Prospector with a derailleur spec, and a Stargazer with a flat bar. The Sunliner looks to be a versatile, and all-around touring bike. And if ridden unloaded, it looks like a great all-terrain bike.
The Sunliner can be run with modern 1x mountain drivetrains, along with a variety of different tire and rim combinations. It has a comfy upright riding position and a ton of mounts for racks and bags.
More Than a Stargazer/Prospector Mash-up
The Sunliner is built using a unique tubeset that is lighter than the Prospector, rigid specific, and optimized for traditional boost drivetrains. When compared to the Stargazer, the Sunliner’s frame tubing is optimized for the longer top tubes needed for flat bar geometry. It can fit 29×3.0 tires and still run a 38-tooth chainring, so tire clearance is great.
When designing the chainstays for the Sunliner, they were made to give great tire clearance while also eliminating heel strikes if panniers are in use. M6 mounting points are used all around for added strength mounting racks and securing gear.
Sunliner Retail and Frame Specs
Retail: $1400 (frameset)
Retail: $3775 (complete with standard spec *see below*)
The Sunliner is sold as a complete bike, built to your specifications, or as a frameset. It comes in two colors, British Racing Green and Rhubarb. They are available either directly from Tumbleweed Bicycles or their retailers.
Frame Specs
- Sizes: Small – Medium – Large – Extra Large
- Tubing: Heat-treated, size-specific Cromoly tubing. Oversized triple and quad butted main triangle with integrated gussets
- Colors: Forest Green or Rhubarb (dark pink). Both with gold Tumbleweed graphics
- Tire Clearance: Optimized for 29×2.6”, clearance for up to 29 x 3 (Tested with WTB Ranger tire on 40mm internal rim width)
- Head Tube Diameter: 44mm I.D. for ZS44 upper, EC44 lower cups
- Bottom Bracket: 73mm BSA threaded
- Spacing: Boost 148mm x 12mm thru axle (included)
- Seat Post Diameter: 31.6
- Seat Collar Diameter: 35mm (included)
- Dropper routing: External routing on the down tube with internally routed seat tube
- Driveline: 1x drivetrain specific. Not designed to accommodate a front derailleur
- Chainring Clearance – 38 tooth max
- Brake Compatibility – 180mm or 160mm IS mount, front and rear with external cable routing
- Cage/Bottle mounts – 2 bolt/H2O mounts on seat tube (all sizes), one 3 pack on top of down tube (small only 2 bolt/H20 ), one 3 pack mount under down tube (all sizes)
- Rack (6mm lower mount) and Fender & seat stay mounts (5mm)
Fork Specs
- Tire Clearance – 29 x 3 (Tested with WTB Ranger tire on 40mm internal rim width)
- Spacing: Boost mountain – 110x15mm thru axle (included)
- 3 pack mounts angled rearward
- Low rider mounts
- Upper fork crown rack mounting points
- Center hole on the fork crown
- Generator wiring port on the lower right leg
- Rack & Fender mounts
- Same fork specifications as Stargazer – 440mm Axle to Crown with 55mm offset
Sunliner Geometry
| Sunliner Geometry | Small | Medium | Large | Extra Large |
| Effective Top Tube Length | 600mm | 620mm | 640mm | 660mm |
| Seat Tube Length | 380mm | 430mm | 480mm | 545mm |
| Head Tube Angle | 69 | 69 | 69 | 69 |
| Seat Tube Angle | 73° | 73° | 73° | 73° |
| Bottom Bracket Drop* | 65mm | 65mm | 65mm | 65mm |
| Chainstay Length* | 456mm | 456mm | 456mm | 456mm |
| Head Tube Length | 130mm | 150mm | 175mm | 210mm |
| Fork Length | 440mm | 440mm | 440mm | 440mm |
| Wheelbase | 1131mm | 1153mm | 1175mm | 1197mm |
| Fork Offset | 55mm | 55mm | 55mm | 55mm |
| Recommended Rider Height | 5’2″-5’7″ | 5’6″-5’10” | 5’10”-6’2″ | 6’1″-6’7″ |
| Recommended Rider Saddle Height | 63-68cm | 67-73cm | 74-81cm | 80-88cm |
Sunliner Standard Spec
| Part | Description | (Parts subject to change based on availability) |
| Frame | Sunliner | British Racing Green/Rhubarb S/M/L/XL |
| Fork | Steel Unicrown | 110mm Thru Axle Unicrown |
| Headset | Cane Creek 40 | ZS upper, EC lower, 30mm Crown Race |
| Crankset | RaceFace Aeffect | Black, alloy |
| Chainring | RaceFace Aeffect, steel | 32t, black alloy |
| Bottom Bracket | RaceFace | BSA Threaded |
| Front Hub | DT Swiss 350 | Black, 110mm Thru Axle 32 hole |
| Rear Hub | DT Swiss 350 | Black, 148x12mm 32 hole, XD Freehub |
| Cassette | GX Eagle, Lunar | 10-52t |
| Shifter | SRAM GX Eagle | black |
| Rear Derailleur | GX Eagle, Lunar | black |
| Rims | RaceFace ARC30 | 29 x i30mm |
| Spokes | Sapim Race | Black 2.0/1.8 w/Brass nipples |
| Brake Levers | Avid FR5 | Black, alloy |
| Brake Calipers | Avid BB7 | Black |
| Cables and Housing | Jagwire Pro Compressionless | Stainless Cables, Black Housing |
| Disc Brake Rotor Adaptor | Promax | Black aluminum |
| Brake Rotors | SRAM Centerline | 180mm front and rear |
| Tires | Maxxis Rekon Race | 29 x 2.4 EXO 3C TR |
| Chain | SRAM GX Eagle | silver |
| Grips | SQLabs 710 | black |
| Stem | Zoom | Black 31.8mm 4 bolt |
| Handlebar | Tumbleweed Persuader | Black 20 or 30 degree |
| Seatpost | PNW Loam dropper and trigger | Black, travel length based on saddle height, frame size |
| Saddle | WTB Pure | Black, Steel Rails |
| Tubeless Parts | Tubeless Sealant, Valves and Tape | |
| Headset Spacers | Black, Aluminum |
Get your dirt tour on at the link below.
