It’s been a while since we’ve posted, and part of that has been because we’ve been working on getting things ready to be released. If you’re reading this, it must follow that we’re releasing them now, so let’s see what we’ve got!
The new Jones Loophole Packs arrived recently from Revelete Designs, pre-orders have been filled, and now they’re available in our store. If you’ve been wanting a great pack to fit in the loop portion of the Jones Loop H-Bar, this is it! The construction is superb, as we’ve come to expect from Revelate, and the design has a surprising amount of room for the small space it occupies.
As noted in the post about the pre-order for the pack, it’s larger than the previous design, which we like because it allows us to have more storage in this easy-to-access spot. We’ve made a very small, but important change to the final production version that brings the rear crossbar buckles back to a lower position so that they’re out of the way of your hands when resting them on the crossbar.
If you’ve been reading the blog during the last few months, you may remember the post about Interbike with a photo of the Jones Plus that we set up for bikepacking. It had a bottle cage on the fork, which used the new clamps we found just before Interbike. Well, after testing them out and finding that they work in many configurations, we’re offering them for sale in our store! We’ve been really impressed by the strength of these little clamps, and have used them to mount the Salsa Anything Cage HD, in addition to the King Cage we tried initially. After testing the various configurations, we’ve decided that in order to make them adaptable to the full range of cages, we needed to include an extra-long bolt, as well as some washers for use with the Anything Cage HD. Below is the complete set that comes with one clamp. Some suggestions for use are included with the clamps as well.
The clamps have a machined-aluminum insert and high-quality stainless steel bolts and washers, which makes them cost more, but we feel the result is worth the price. We’re selling them individually so that you can buy two or three per side, and we’re including longer bolts, an over-sized washer to use under the bolt head on an Anything Cage HD, and three small washers to space the Anything Cage HD out, off of the clamp. You’ll need to make sure the bolt you use has enough threads engaged, but it’ll be easy with the extra hardware. Be sure to use three clamps per Anything Cage HD, and two per water bottle cage! Finally, check out the photos below closely, because we’ve found that putting a single zip tie around the front-bottom of the Anything Cage HD and the front leg of the Truss Fork makes this setup solid.
Another product that we’re excited to put up for sale is the Gnarwal! We told you about it before, and like the clamps, we’ve been testing it out since we first mentioned it. Now we can say that we’re happy with it, and we think that you will be too! The Gnarwal allows you to really stretch out in the full aero position that the Loop H-Bars give you, and it does this while giving you excellent control. We foresee this being most popular on rides like the Great Divide Race and similar long-distance events where an aerodynamic advantage is useful. Of course, if you rest your arms across the crossbar and loop portions of the Loop H-Bar on a regular basis already, you’ll probably appreciate the extra control that this extension gives. We highly recommend double-wrapping the crossbar and wrapping the loop portion of the H-Bars when using the Gnarwal!
Last, but of course not least, we have been working on a new manual for the Jones H-Bars, and now it’s finally done! We will be working on more manuals in the future, but for now, head on over the the Jones Bikes support page to take a look at the manual! While we realize that the release of a manual is hardly anything most people would get excited about, we spent time on this one in an effort to give everyone a clear guide on how we recommend setting up the H-Bars. We hope that this will help more riders get the most out of the H-bars, which will make for a better ride!
