New Rack, New Weather

I reviewed the Scoutset Bag Brace recently on Riding Gravel.

 Not long ago I was sent this titanium front rack-brace thingie from Velo Garage & Taphouse from Kansas City, Missouri. They call the thing the Scoutset Bag Brace. So, upfront here, the Standard Disclaimer applies. That's because the kind folks at the Velo Garage & Taphouse let me keep the rack/brace after the review was completed. 

So, I thought about which bike I wanted this thing to 'live' on. I had several choices, but in terms of using the SBB (short for "Scoutset Bag Brace), and using it as intended, I thought of a different bike than my gravel bikes. 

That's because if I ever get to bike camping, as I have threatened to do for years, I would use my Ti Muk 2 fat bike. So, I grabbed the SBB off the Tamland, which I used to review it on, and swapped it over to my Ti Muk 2 fat bike, which I think should be a great choice here. Basically, there was one big reason for going with this bike, but overall I still think it is the right choice. 

A little closer look at the SBB on the Ti Muk 2

As I used the SBB on the Tamland Two, I had a bit of a conundrum in getting a light to live on that bike in conjunction with the big Cycle Pro handle bar bag I intended on using. Even the dry bag would interfere with a handle bar mounted light. So, I had to use the old star nut in a steer tube trick to side mount a light off a fork mounted rack boss. 

While that works, I do prefer my light source on a bicycle to be somewhere closer to handlebar height. That wasn't going to work on the Tamland Two. But the Ti Muk 2 is a better choice from a few different angles anyway, so I wasn't going to keep that SBB on the Tamland anyway. 

The Ti Muk 2 has a Schmidt generator hub and front light which I have the handlebar mount for. There was plenty of exposed steer tube on the Ti Muk to allow me to deck the SBB on top of the head set and get that as low as possible hanging off the front of the bicycle. This will allow for a dry bag to be carried on the SBB and maybe a lower profile bag could work if I wanted to go that way. My hope is that my tent might fit there, but something will work out, and it won't be dangling off the handle bar either. The light head will clear most anything I want to carry for camping, at least, so no worries there.

The Ti Muk also made sense from the standpoint of touring/bike packing since I have a Salsa Alternator Rack on the back, which could haul anything that might obstruct my light up front on the rack instead. So, the bike makes more sense from a bag carrying aspect for camping or touring than anything else I have at the moment. Plus it has the Rohloff, so I can take this down about any road without fear of ripping off a derailleur. 

The full look.

Now, for an opportunity and some better weather! Fortunately it seems as though Winter's last gasp has been played out. Boy! What a doozy it was! Saturday morning it was wicked cold and windy, with temperatures in the teens and then by Sunday afternoon it was calm and mid-50's. It looks like from here on out we are out of the grips of Winter, but as has been noted in the comments, I thought that a while back too! 

I'm not sure when I'll get this out for the trial run, but at some point I do want to do a fat bike century, and there is a route I have in mind which features a ton of dirt roads and hardly anything for resupply until Mile 70. That would suit this bike well since I could carry a lot of stuff on it. We will see.... There has been another idea suggested to me that concerns a rail trail and camping too, so I have ideas to work with here. 

Anyway. I hope to be out on the gravel roads this week. Stay tuned...