Back in April, some friends and I spent three nights in Henry Coe State Park. Spring flowers were still abundant but many of them were drying out and the rolling green hills were changing to the iconic California gold.
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Shop visit! Our friends from Mission Bicycle came by to document some scenes from the shop and we showed them what its like to make a handlebar bag start to finish.
We are making custom branded bags for their new bike: The Stinson.
From the city, to the trail, then back to the city, and all over again, Mission Bicycle Company’s newly announced Stinson frame is a great all-rounder for you city dwellers who like a get out there when nature calls. Check out their page and help back their Kickstarter to get this frame funded!
https://www.missionbicycle.com/stinson
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Newly updated Pico Panniers
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New video starring our newest additions to Outer Shell: Jim Santos and the Mini Saddlebag
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Inception of the trip occurred, as many grand adventures do, over one too many bottles of wine in our friend Ben’s Vancouver, BC apartment. The idea was to explore a remote archipelago off of Northern British Columbia’s notoriously rugged coastline via bicycle. It’s called bikepacking, and yes, it’s a thing. Our rookie status required us to start with the simplest of tasks. First up, discover what the hell this thing called bikepacking actually is.
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To preface, I was invited to ride the OTT by my friend Rie, who immigrated to the states recently and runs Simworks USA. Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to do the tour, but thought it would be a good opportunity for me to ride with her two friends from Japan: Keita and Innochi. Keita is a Chef that started Earlybirds Breakfast and Innochi makes really cool backpacks under his brand, Welldone Nagoya. There was only one issue: they didn’t speak English.
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🚨OUTER SHELL’S FIRST POP UP IS COMING TO @boxdogbikes 🚨😱 Come celebrate with us at the launch party! Friday Sept. 21st 6-9pm. There will be pizza, beer, and a whole ton of bags for sale in every color we offer.
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What happens when you take three inexperienced “bikepackers” and embark on a 5-day trip in the PNW wilderness? Imagine three dudes standing over a pile of Pro Bars, arguing over how many they can pack in their bags while still making room for the all important 6-cup Bialetti??
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Pure Cycles is launching the CAPACITA cargo e-bike and Outer Shell made some custom panniers for the back. They're also offering the 137 Basket Bag up front, which fits perfectly in their integrated basket. This bike has a much shorter wheelbase than most rear loading cargo bikes, so its easier to transport and fits on most bike racks.
Still a week left to go fund them and receive over 40% off!
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/capacita-the-most-affordable-smart-cargo-e-bike#/
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Colombia had been on both of our minds for awhile, so this year, Karen and I finally decided to make it happen! Once tickets were booked, the planning started. As much as we love bikepacking, we decided to stay at one location and do local rides from there. This allowed us to enjoy a nicer place to eat and sleep - after all, this was still a vacation - and a place to store our luggage (we had flown with bike bags, after all). Also, day adventures meant we didn’t have to carry a ton of gear— if you weren’t aware, Colombia has a lot of mountains!
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This post got published on The Radavist!
Day 1: Mid March 2018. Me, John Blackwell and Jason Silverek meetup in San Diego one morning to ride the Stagecoach 400 route, a 400 mile bikepacking race that was supposed to start the same day. We were starting in southern San Diego, at the midpoint of the route. The actual race starts and ends in Idyllwild. Unfortunately for us, the race start was delayed due to a big storm coming in and the prospects of precarious mud conditions. Our plan was to hightail it all the way to the desert, getting through the would-be muddiest sections outside of San Diego before the storm came. We were all hung over.
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Whatever we have left of Marigold X-Pac is mostly made into bags and on the website now. Still some scrap left for Zip Wallets and Zip Pouches, but thats it! When this fabric came in, it was the last 75 yards of an 1800 yard batch made 15 years ago. Now that stock is depleted.
We might have more made but the minimum is very high so if you want to see it happen, we need about 100 people interested. Any other bag makers wanna go in on some? If you want to bring this fabric back, let us know in the comments here:
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Professional world bike wanderer Cass Gilbert gives the 137 Basket Bag a good beating and tells us what he thinks. Check out the article here:
http://www.bikepacking.com/gear/outer-shell-137-basket-bag/
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These high density foam spacers have been in the works for a while and now they're newly designed and die cut! They space out your bag, if needed, leaving your brakes, brakes levers, and cables uninhibited. I've cataloged almost all the common front end bike setups with the Drawcord Handlebar Bag and Stuff Sack Harness attached, so compare it to your bike for optimal cable routing and spacer configuration.
Here it is: http://www.outershelladventure.com/shop/foam-spacer
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Russ over at Path Less Pedaled has been making video reviews of our products over the past year that really shows the details from a different perspective. Check em out here:
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USE CODE 'VACATION' FOR 15% OFF THE ENTIRE STORE (11/22/17 12:00 PST - 12/12/17 12:00 PST)
I'm going on vacation for three weeks so ANY ITEMS PURCHASED DURING THE SALE WILL NOT SHIP UNTIL 12/13/17
Sorry! At least its still plenty of time to receive your package before the holidays. I have limited inventory and will not restock immediately after I get back, so get your gifts early!
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New optional feature: a modular Foam Spacer Kit for the Drawcord Handlebar Bag can be included at no extra cost! Just select the box at checkout. These spacers work on both the upper and lower attachment points. Many bikes won't need these, but if you find your bag squishing up some cables, this is the answer. You can even run a cantilever brake cable through them!
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Spencer did an awesome piece on the birthplace of Outer Shell. Check it out here:
http://theradavist.com/2017/08/inside-out-at-outer-shell-in-san-francisco-spencer-harding/#1
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This is a tutorial showing how to secure the Stuff Sack Harness for a bombproof mountain bike setup. The trick is to find the right size stuff sack so that it will rest on your suspension fork (may work with some rigid forks as well). The Oval Dry Bags can be rotated to get different dimensions. Measure the distance from the bottom of your handlebars to the top of your fork crown and match that to either one of the base dimensions.
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