May 21, 2018
Very excited to introduce Scott Bryan as the newest member of the Mosko team. Scott is an Industrial Designer with 14 years of experience in the outdoor and action sport industries. His official Mosko title is ‘Director of Apparel.’
Scott joins us from DaKine in Hood River – a designer and manufacturer of outdoor accessories and apparel – where he was Senior Designer and Design Lead for the snow and mountain bike segments. He’s exceptionally experienced with all facets of the design process, from concept development and forecasting, to materials, tech packs, construction, costing, and fit. Plus, he can sew.
Before DaKine, Scott was at Patagonia, Inc. in Ventura, CA, where he worked with a team of developers, contractors, and factories to design cool new products for the alpine, snow, surf, and sportswear segments. Earlier in his career he designed outdoor products for leading brands like Mountain Equipment Co-Op, Outdoor Research, Mountain Hardware, and Raceface.
Scott has a bachelor’s degree in industrial design from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver, BC (the same school as Andrew). His hobbies outside of work include mountain biking, backcountry skiing, ultralight hunting, surfing, kiteboarding, rock climbing, fly-fishing, backpacking, and travel. Scott rides a DRZ-400 with an oversize tank that’s all setup for backcountry exploring in the Northwest.
Scott passed his license test and joined the team just days before we headed out for our company ride. Here’s what his first day at Mosko looked like.
Scott: welcome aboard!!
During Scott’s first week, Roel Bremmers (who is helping develop Mosko’s international distribution) was also in White Salmon, learning the various Mosko systems and getting ready for our company ride. Thanks for the help Roel!
With both Scott and Roel in the office, we had our biggest staff meeting ever.
Company Party
A few weeks back, we had a small party & BBQ to celebrate the new Mosko shop in White Salmon. Huge thanks to everyone who made this such a fun night, and especially to those who rode/drove long distances to be there.
Harry Hatton stole the show with this awesome outfit.
Brooks: thanks for the awesome fire starters. We used them on our trip last week.
Dan Cox (graphic design) and Rick Lieberson (screen printer) were both there. Rick brought samples of the latest Mosko tees with Dan’s designs on them. Really happy with how these turned out.
Stock Status & Pricing
We’re low on inventory at the moment.
Backcountry 35 Panniers: We briefly ran out a few weeks ago, but now they’re back in stock. We received a shipment via air freight last week, and there’s another on the way, with a water shipment expected a few weeks later.
Scout 25 Panniers: We’re currently sold-out of these. We’d planned to get a new delivery in early June, but we ran into some challenges with an important fabric supplier, and now that delivery has been delayed until July.
Nomad Tank Bag: We’re temporarily sold out of these. There’s an air freight shipment scheduled for mid-June, with a water shipment arriving a month or so later. They should be in stock consistently after that.
Reckless 80 Pricing: The Reckless 80 price just increased to $599.99. The increase is directly proportionate to an increase in our factory cost on the drybags, due to a new custom fabric we’re using. The new polyurethane fabric is more durable, more malleable in cold temperatures, more environmentally friendly, and features a cyan blue interior so it’s easier to find things inside. It is also a lot more expensive. Our factory cost for the drybags nearly doubled. We think it’s worth it.
In the pic below, the new fabric is on the right (note the blue edges along the black panel on the front of the bag).
It’s on the left in the pic below.
Summer Shows
Sadly, for competitive reasons, we were not invited to attend the Touratech Rally in Plain, WA this year. Touratech makes luggage products and so do we, and even though our products are quite different from theirs, they are also somewhat competitive. While we’re not invited to attend as a vendor, we are invited to attend individually, and maybe we’ll elect to do that in future years. In the meantime, we completely understand their decision and we’re grateful to have been included in prior years. We remain enthusiastic supporters of the Touratech brand and happy users of their products.
Ash & I are currently in Flagstaff, Arizona for Overland Expo West (more on that in the next post). After this we have the UNRally in SE Oregon, and then the BMW MOA event in Des Moines, Iowa.
We’ve been working on some new show displays.
eVent Fabrics Visit
Glenn from eVent fabrics was in Portland a few weeks ago, and he visited us in White Salmon. eVent makes the waterproof breathable membrane we’re using in our riding apparel. Glenn walked us through the main differences between Gore and eVent.
In particular, we talked about how eVent uses a similar membrane technology while achieving substantially better ventilation. This stems from how the two membranes achieve protection from oils and dirt. Gore blankets their membrane with a protective coating that blocks both water and air (but not moisture vapor), while eVent coats the individual fibers, which allows both air and moisture vapor to pass, while blocking only water.
Mosko Company Ride
Last week, we shut down the Mosko office, and the entire team went riding and camping together. We were joined by Roel, Dan Cox (our graphic designer), and Jesse Felker of PNW Dualsport.
We had 6-7 sets of the new riding gear on the trip, and we uncovered several issues to be resolved in our next (and hopefully final) round of prototypes. From my perspective, finding issues like these before production pays for the entire trip.
Ash found a great way to mount a DSLR camera on her Scout 25 duffle. Finding a reasonably protected but easily accessible spot for a big camera on a bike is always a challenge. A MOLLE compatible camera bag would make this even easier, this camera bag was mounted on the MOLLE using a belt loop.
Because we were traveling on an offroad route that criss-crosses between Oregon, Nevada, and Idaho, I was carrying 5 folding maps and maybe 20 folded Gazetteer pages from three different books. to keep all those maps dry and clean, but still accessible, the removable map pocket on the Reckless 80 came in handy.
This trip I tried a different method for keeping electronics charged. Rather than plug everything directly into ports on the bike during the day – which is always a hassle – I left a battery pack connected to the bike all day (using the charging port on the Nomad tank bag), and then recharged my phone, kindle, and InReach off the battery pack at night. This turned out to be a whole lot easier.
Andrew rigged the latest prototype of the Pinner Tool Roll on the crash bars of his Africa Twin using Voile straps. This is a handy spot, although it’s also the first thing to hit the ground in a crash, as Andrew demonstrated several times…
Andrew was using the latest version of the Reckless 80 v3.0 prototype on his AT.
Roel put the Fatty Tool Roll to the test with this complete RTW assortment for his 1990s Africa Twin.
^ Anybody need a caliper?? As it turned out, I did, in the middle of the trip, for my clutch.
Lots of thinking, discussing, & sketching. Lots of new ideas.
Nothing says ‘family’ like a week in the desert. Love this crew.
UNRally 2018
The second annual UNRally is happening June 7-10 on the Alvord Desert. We’ll meetup there at a GPS coordinate (still TBD) to camp, ride, and chill for three nights. Everyone is invited, but the total number of people is limited by the BLM. Last year we had 60, this year we can have up to 100. The UNRally is a leave-no-trace, wilderness event. It’s organized around the principles of participation and self-reliance. There are no group rides, check-ins, raffles, vendors, trip reports, or classes. The participants, and our stunning surroundings, are the only entertainment. Donations go toward firewood, permits, and restrooms. If you’re interested in joining us, more info is available here.
Here’s a little side project I’m working on for this year’s UNRally. See ya there!
Note: due to an unexpected family emergency, we are temporarily shorthanded. We will do everything possible to keep up with emails and phone calls in the meantime. We’re sorry for any inconvenience, and we truly appreciate your patience & understanding.
Mosko Moto 