Wolf Tooth B Rad - Introduction

The Wolf Tooth B Rad 2 and Double Bottle Adapters.

Wolf Tooth is a company that is perhaps best known for drive train bits and pieces, like those fancy derailleur adapters or ginormous cassette extender cogs. That's all great and stuff, but I never really was too interested in those things. Then they recently announced a new product range dubbed "B Rad". It is a system of bits and pieces that allow a rider to mount things on the bike and get them off the rider's back. Literally. Like water, for instance.

Okay, now you've got my attention Mr. Wolf Tooth! I checked this out and found that it may be something worth getting for my gravel bikes. With my "DK My Way" ride coming up, I figured that I would try to graft that gizmo on to my Gen I Fargo. That's my adventure bike and it carries a lot of water as is.

The B Rad system is modular and you buy the system parts separately. I chose the B Rad 2 rail and the Double Bottle Adapter since what I wanted to do was add an extra water bottle. Actually, I was also making a difficult to get at bottle easier for me to access and add another bottle. You see, the original Gen I Fargos in size Large, XL, and XXL had two down tube mounted bottle cage options inside the front triangle. I can put two bottles there, one on the seat tube, and one underneath the down tube. That's four bottles plus the two I can mount on the fork blades.

With the B Rad parts mounted, I can run seven bottles on the Gen I Fargo.

The trouble was that the upper most down tube mounted bottle was really hard to get out and remove. It was possible, but it wasn't ideal. Last year I ran a frame bag and stuck bottles in there. For Gravel Worlds I ran a top tube bag with an extra bottle in there. This year I am maxing out the water carrying capacity for what I anticipate will be a hot, drier Kansas trip. The B Rad gets me the water I need without dealing with a hydration pack.

Here is a good look- The rail mounts to the bike and the adapters to the rail.

I still need to work on my storage for other items. I have been using the under the down tube bottle as a tool kit. (That's what you see here in the image, by the way.) That leaves six other 20 ounce bottles for water so I figure that if I can plan resupply points at four to five hours ride time I should be okay on water. The new-to-me black Carousel Design Works bag on the top tube will be used for some food carrying duties and I have yet to add my Bike Bag Dude Garage Bag on the top tube which should also be handling food and some personal items. I will likely also use a couple Chaff Bags from Bike Bag Dude as well for easy access food or possibly a wet weather jacket storage.

But back to the B Rad..... I have only done a short test ride, but out of the saddle pedaling shouldn't be an issue. I noted that I had the B Rad mounted up the down tube far enough, (due to an interference issue with a cable stop more than anything else), that it places the bottles far enough forward that I have plenty of clearance for my legs. The bottles are easily accessed while riding, as you might imagine, and the extra clearance gained above the lower down tube water bottle will now allow me to use a larger sized water bottle in that position, as well as a large sized bottle on the seat tube. Actually, if I decided against the Chaff Bags, I could use large sized bottles on the B Rad mounted cages.

Speaking of wet weather. If I am wrong and the weather looks to be more like the way it was two years ago, I may use a Bar Yak mounted dry bag with spare clothing. But I won't make that call until closer to the event. Late next week I should have a better idea about that, but either way the B Rad set up stays.

Stay tuned for a full review post DK.......

NOTE- The B Rad bits were bought with my own damn money and I was not asked, paid, or bribed for this post.