$120 Musette Bags, Colorful Headsets, and A New Aero Cargo Base Layer

Australian kit company MAAP has released a line of bags with a tote, pouch, and musette. The line, called the ALUULA Tech Bag Collection, used 100% recycle-ready ALUULA Graflyte fabric giving the bags a silver, distressed look. The three available bags are the Tech Pouch, Tech Musette, and Tech Tote available for $60, $120, and $145 USD respectively.

Unlike musette bags that you might see typically employed at professional road racing, the MAAP Tech Bag Collection is meant to function in everyday use, with the Graflyte fabric providing durability and strength in a lightweight construction. The fabric is also waterproof, which positions them as tools for commuting or packable day bags for travel.

All that being said, a $120 musette bag is a bit of a curveball from MAAP that we didn’t see coming.

Alongside the new Otso Waheela R from Wolf Tooth, Otso’s sister company, has released a semi-integrated head set to allow for easy cable routing through the headset rather than through the stem. This allows for one simpler step in the cable setup process, compared to either fully external or fully internal orientations.

Like all Wolf Tooth headsets, these newest headsets are machined with aircraft-grade 6061 aluminum in Minnesota, use large Enduro bearings to maximize longevity, and have custom seals at the cable entry points to prevent moisture and debris from getting into the headset through the cable ports.

Additionally, the IS52 and EC44 headsets are available in seven colors through Wolf Tooth’s color shop. The IS52 option is listed at $179.95 USD while the EC44 is priced at $219.95.

Muc-Off, popular for their oil-based lubes, degreasers, and bike cleaning tools, has released a new wax-based lubricant. The Muc-Off Dark Energy Chain Wax is not a hot wax immersion treatment, which is the most common way of waxing chains, but instead is applied through a drip bottle.

While drip wax sounds like a simple elegant solution, its formulation is actually quite tricky to get right. Muc-Off underscored that difficulty through their R&D process they used to find the right formulation. In total, the R&D took four years, 90 formulations, 8,600 hours of lab testing, and 100,000 km of real world testing through Muc-Off’s partnerships with professional teams across the cycling spectrum.

The Dark Energy Chain Wax is formulated to work successfully for road, gravel, and mountain biking, with more reapplication and cleaning needed the grittier the conditions get. The wax is available in 50ml and 120ml formats, priced at £15 / €20 / $18 for 50ml, and £23 / €30 / $25 for 120 ml.

Soeckloen has introduced an aero cargo base layer which is a small, but interesting, progression in aero tech. The brand is a small outfit based in the Netherlands run by pro gravel cyclist Jasper Ockeloen. They started out with socks, but have since branched out to other aero accessories, including their newest aero base layers.

Aero base layers are becoming more and more common as the science around the most aerodynamic fabric continues to develop. The concept is using a base layer as a means to create textured fabric around the arms and shoulders of a rider to produce a small amount of turbulence to create better overall air flow across key body parts of the rider.

Soeckloen goes even further by adding a front pocket right in the middle of the chest of the rider for extra storage. This is also meant to provide additional aero benefits as it closes the gap between the rider and their bike, reducing their overall CdA (the coefficient of drag multiplied by the frontal area) and improving aerodynamics without compromising fit. This is similar to the method many WorldTour riders are using to store their radios in the front of their jersey to create that aero gain while staying within the UCI rules.

Fizik is back with a new road shoe called the Lyra. The new shoe is an affordable model designed for “modern riding positions” with a zero drop profile and a wider, rounder toe box.

The Lyra comes in three colors — white, black, and a green/lavender two-tone scheme — and has a classic Dual-Dial Li2 BOA Fit System that is becoming more and more popular for modern shoes. Conversely, the Lyra is priced below the premium level at 249.00€ / $249.99 / £229,99, but it still has the precise fit of a dual-dial design, a reasonably stiff carbon sole, all at a decent weight.

While this is likely not a high-performance race shoe, it will be interesting for people looking for long-ride comfort, nice clean aesthetics, and a competitive price point.

The folks at Wolf Tooth and Otso have been very busy recently with the Waheela R, the new headset, and now an updated version of their titanium bikepacking bike, the Fenrir. Rather than fitting neatly into a specific category, Otso offers the Fenrir as a true swiss army knife bike that can be built in a wide variety of ways. It works with drop bars or flat bars, a suspension or rigid fork, a dropper post or rigid seatpost, and both electronic and mechanical drivetrains.

Beyond the high level of customization, the frame itself is unique. With a polished titanium finish, the frame has a unique look with a long and slack geometry, built to hold plenty of weight and provide stability over rough terrain. Compared to modern gravel bikes, the Fenrir has a long chain-stay length of 430mm, a seat tube angle of 75°, a ton of frame mounts, and clearance for 700×2.6 inch tires.

The bike is no gravel race machine, but the Fenrir is the kind of future-proof, forever bike many die hard bikepackers could be considering. The frame starts at $3,500 for the frame minus the fork, $5,530 for a flat bar build with Shimano XT, and $6,550 for the SRAM Force XPLR AXS 1×13 among other spec options and customization.