Rawland Ulv 650B+ Dirt Drop

Sean over at Rawland Cycles finally loaned us the prototype Ulv 650B+ trekking bike.

The frame is a little on the small size, so I swapped out the cockpit and the seatpost to approximate a slightly longer frame.

Normally with the Gator bars I would go with an even shorter stem, but for this bike an 80mm feels about right.

This frameset is designed around large volume 650b tires, and comes stock with the Panaracer Fat B Nimble.

Since the Ulv is a low trail bike, it works great with a loaded mini rack. We mounted the Ostrich F-702 handlebar bag to the Rawland Raido Verks rack.

The bag straps directly to the bars and rack tombstone and since the bars have such a generous amount of sweep there's no clearance issue on the hoods or in the drops.

We went with the Ostrich S-2 seatbag for a bit of extra storage space, since I'm running bottle cages in lieu of a frame pack.

This bike comes standard with wide range 1x11 Sram Rival components. We've used this kit for a number of Wolverines, so it was a welcome sight for this adventure focused build.

Rawland uses solid steel plates to keep the Q-factor very low without resorting to Boost specific cranks or a heavy chainstay yoke. The Panaracers have a decent amout of clearance mounted to WTB Scraper rims.

Although it's built up as a 1x11, it does have a cable stop should you ever want to run a wide range double or a MTB triple crankset.

Rawland specced their own Raido Verks 12mm thru axle hubs for these builds. The updated graphics were inspired by Runes, and carry the tradition of Norse mythology that has been a theme of Rawland's models since the original Sogn was announced in 2007.

The Sram Rival disc brakes are unbelievable. They offer so much control with a fraction of the hand strength required to stop mechanical discs. While not an aftermarket option, Rawland used post mount brake mounting to ensure backwards compatibility with mechanical calipers like the Paul Klamper should you ever need to swap them out.

Rawland plans to release 100 complete bikes this year, but we can expect framesets to be available through shops after the first run is delivered.