2 Wheels And a Chain by Gimi Costin Palada

from: bikepacking.com Other than being painted “Pile of Bricks” red, the biggest change—which likely won’t matter to most of us—is that Surly finally 86ed the canti brake studs on the frame. Disc brakes only. The reason they gave is that rim brake 29er rims are becoming increasingly harder to find. So, if you need rim brakes, check out the Troll. The good news is that if you’re running 27.5+ tires, you won’t have any issues rubbing the sidewalls when removing and fitting the rear wheel. As far as other updates to the frame go, that about sums it up. Ogre still has everything else you’ve come to know and love: two water bottle mounts, four sets of three-pack bosses, mid- and low-blade fork eyelets, threaded holes for racks, fenders, and trailer mounting nuts, and a Rohloff OEM2 axle plate slot. It still features horizontal-slotted dropouts with Gnot-Boost spacing, a tweaked non-suspension corrected geometry, and a beefy tire clearance. It’s still fully compatible with both 29 x 2....

repost from bikemag This feature originally ran in the May 2018 issue of  Bike .  Click here  to watch the feature’s accompanying film. My eyes burned as a salty stream of sweat flooded them. With a fully loaded bike on my back and DEET-laden insect repellent dripping onto my hands, I tried to squint through the deluge of lost fluids coursing down my face. The frenzied nebula of mosquitoes buzzing around me was doing a stellar job of stymying my progress, landing on every inch of exposed flesh and piercing my skin with their needle-like proboscises. "This is pure agony," I grumbled, resting my bike against a cluster of bamboo and swatting irritably at the shadowy veil of vectors. "At this rate, it's gonna take us ages to climb out of this mess." "That's for sure," affirmed my teammate, Sam Seward, squashing his helmet against his forehead and sending a cascade of perspiration down his cheeks. "Maybe we should have started higher up....