Friday News And Views

US Patent Office image of SRAM UBM

SRAM Universal Brake Mount:

SRAM, who promoted the UDH derailleur mount, which is being widely adopted now, has patented a new MTB brake mount called Universal Brake Mount. 

The patent was granted last year, and the idea was discussed a bit in certain circles of the bike industry, but now it is seemingly gaining some traction in mentions of a near future adoption by the industry. 

The mount centers the brake mount from the axle, and everything references off this point instead of being a jig for each frame, or a different set of parameters to be used. This does make the mount dependent on an attachment point on the seat stay. 

Obviously, this idea would be a bit more difficult if we were still in a quick release world. However; since through axles are ubiquitous on MTB, road, and gravel bikes now, this idea makes sense. Obviously, this is a post mount brake standard, but perhaps a flat mount standard could be developed as well. 

I can see how the design would require extra beef on seat stays and how it might limit some full suspension designs, or designs which employ seat stays as flexing members for comfort. So, I do not believe this is a "universal" solution for everyone, but I also see how manufacturing frames would be easier and more streamlined by using this standard. Saving factories and brands more money will be the motivation for adopting this. 

Image courtesy of Zirbel Bike social media

Zirbel Bike Offers "Electronic Grip Shift" Type Shifters

Grip Shift - Remember that? It was largely forgotten after SRAM moved off of doing mechanical flat bar shifters with the introduction of AXS. 

But a company called Zirbel Bike  has adapted a wireless twist ring style shifter reminiscent of Grip Shift to operate a SRAM AXS/Transmission rear derailleur.  

They also make a trigger style ring which has minimal mass and takes up little handlebar space. The trigger can be easily operated by a thumb.  

Some riders preferred a twist style shifter due to hand issues which make using triggers painful or difficult. This Zirbel product could be a solution then for such individuals. 

Prices look to be reasonable and the shifters can be purchased as a unit complete with flat bar and stem for a mountain bike.  

Comments: Now that I've seen this, it seems odd SRAM did not attempt to go in a similar direction with AXS for MTB/flat bars. The product Zirbel offers takes up little space which is a big deal now with MTB cockpits having dropper levers and shock lockouts competing with brake levers and shifters for space on handlebars.  

Image courtesy of Jay Petervary's social media.

IDITAROD Trail Race Sunday:

One of the older ultra-distance bicycle events in North America is set to occur this Sunday. The IDITAROD Trail Invitational will send off its riders on Sunday. 

I grabbed this image of Jay Petervary's fat bike set up from his social media to show just how far things have come in bicycle design for this event. It seems a longer wheel base, slacker front end, and different width rims are the hot set-up in 2026. 

Obviously a credit to materials technology and its application to fat bike components has to be recognized here. Without carbon rims, carbon components, and lighter weight, titanium tubing a machine like this would have weighed a silly amount 20 years ago. 

I would also think recent developments in tire set ups are making machines like this even more capable. I asked Jay about the wheels here. The tires are the same but the rims are different. I find it interesting that Jay is using differing rim sizes. The rear is 105mm wide and the front is a whopping 128mm wide. This gives the tires a truly different shape and, I would imagine, a different type of performance on snowy trails.  I don't know what the thinking he has is on this is, but I would be interested to hear is take on this idea. 

What do you think of Jay's bike set-up? Let me know in the comments. 

Image courtesy of fizik

The Arione Is Back!

Almost 20 years ago fizik introduced a very long, flat, kind of tear-dropped shaped saddle which was so different you could identify the model from a distance easily. It was the fizik Arione, a saddle which pushed the limits of UCI regulations, and which many riders grew to love for its allowance for several comfortable positions across its length. 

Now the Arione is back, and it has some features which are unique. The length has been trimmed back from the original's nearly aircraft carrier deck length to a more modern length. Not surprising there. However; the flat profile remains, as does the "boat-tail" rear extension. 

Of course, there are 3D printed covers, (shown) and there are more traditional covers available as well. The range features  rail choices, from carbon to fizik's "Kium" hollow alloy rails, and the S-Alloy rails. . Top range models get the Adaptive padding while there are EVA and PU foam padded models when you move down the range, which is reflected in the price. 

Image courtesy of fizik

Interestingly, fizik addresses how many racers want there saddles positioned as forward as possible in relation to the bottom bracket by attaching the rear of the rails to the saddle base in a unique way. This allows for a very forward saddle placement which is not available in any other saddle model I am aware of currently. 

Times have certainly changed! I recall a day when we could not get our saddles far enough back on a seat post. So, this is an interesting development in saddles and rider fit. 

Arione R 5 (Image courtesy of fziik)

The Arione is available in available in five models. The top of the range features the Arione R1 Adaptive with carbon rails. The Arione Adaptive R1 Light has EVA padding instead of a 3D printed cover. This model also features an ergonomic cutaway central channel for pressure relief. Next we have the Arione R3 Adaptive which has the same 3D printed cover as the R1 but has Kium alloy hollow rails. 

Then we move to the Arione R3 and R5 models which have the PU foam padding and differ mostly in the rail choice with the R3 having the hollow Kium alloy and the R5 having the S-Alloy rail. 

Prices range from $399.00 for the range topping Arione R1 Adaptive to $99.99 for the Arione R5. All saddles come in two widths - 145mm or a narrower 135mm. 

For more details see fizik's site HERE

Life Time Announces Wildcard Rosters

Last year the Life Time Grand prix announced a "wildcard" category which allowed racers who qualified to enter into the opener for the series, and any man or woman in the top three placings for either category would get on the Wildcard chance at Unbound to possibly race their way into the Grand Prix series. In fact, the Grand Prix Men's overall winner, Cameron Jones, came out of the Wildcard category. 

A press release received Thursday here at Guitar Ted Productions lines out the rosters for possible Wildcard entrants. There are 27 women on that side of the roster. Notably in this roster I see Haley Smith, former Canadian Olympian and Grand Prix rider. 

On the Men's side there are 59 individuals listed with several notable names in the running. Russel Finsterwald, Dylan Johnson, and Adam Roberge being but a few of the names listed . 

My reading of the press release may be off, but as I understand this, the rosters listed must race Sea Otter where the top three in Men's and Women's categories from the WildCard rosters can then compete in Unbound and then whomever is the best of the three in each category there will be added to the Grand Prix riders. 

Again- apologies if I have this wrong but the press release wasn't 100% clear to me on these points. 

So, the bigger question is, does any of this matter to you? (I already know what N.Y. Roll will say!)

Image courtesy of Surly Bikes

 

 Disc Trucker Update:

Surly released an updated Disc Trucker complete and frame set available now through your Surly dealer. As before, smaller sizes are available in 26" wheels and 56cm and up is 700c. 

The Disc Trucker is an amalgamation of old touring bikes and new technology/components. You've got that steel frame, a spoke holder, rack mounts galore, fender mounts, and good ol' touring bike geometry. 

Modernization come in the form of tubeless ready tires, disc brakes, and through axles. Honestly, all good things. 

Gotta give a shout out to the externally routed cables and dynamo routed fork. There is a nice, upright seated position here also, which is great for long, all-day riding. 

Touring nerds will probably sniff at the 2X crank set with 46T/30T gearing. Not that it doesn't provide a low enough gear with a 39T low gear in the cassette, but because you don't get that nice "transition" range with, say a 36T middle ring. Ah! ..............But triples are too confusing. Hmm..... Okay. I believe cycling is a skill set. This stuff can be learned. But I digress.... 

And did you notice you could put a set of down tube shifters on this frame? Now that is old school right there! Ha ha! Also of note: 36 spoke wheels. Nice! 

That is going to wrap things up for this week here at Guitar Ted Productions. Thank you for reading here and please, get outside and ride a bicycle this weekend!

Road Bike Trends Toward "All-Road" Territory

GP5000's now available in 700 x 35mm (Inage courtesy of Continental Tires)

 Maybe you are a reader here who does not pay attention much to the latest trends in road bikes. That would be understandable if you are a regular here because I do not cover road bikes much, or at all during many months. I may make a mention here or there, but by no means do I tend to bring a lot to the table in regard to this category of bicycle. 

However; I feel this is going to be changing soon now due to where road bikes trends are heading. Just this week Continental announced a 700 x 35mm GP5000 tire. A tire which, just not that long ago was only available in up to a 28mm width. Pirelli has already breached the mid-40mm barrier with one of the their road bike tire models. Vittoria just announced a 700 x 32mm road tire this week as well. 

Trek Madone (Image courtesy of Trek Bikes)

It is also rumored now Trek is considering opening up tire clearances for the next generation of their Madone aero bike. If, say, one could put a 700 x 40mm+ tire in a Madone with confidence, well, does this make a Madone a gravel bike? 

It is a fair question. Take as an example what my parameters for a gravel bike were when I was talking about building a custom gravel bike in 2010. 

I wanted, amongst other things, 700 X 42mm tire clearance. With fenders. Now, since some road tires are being released in nearly this width, and in the case of Pirelli, beyond, how does a road bike from 2026 measure up as a possibility for what I wanted in an "all-roads" bike back in 2010? 

Well, frankly the Madone sucks as an all-road choice from the standpoint of geometry. Another Trek bike is much, much better, and it is the Domane. Current maximum tire size on a Domane is 700 x 38mm. So, I'll use this model as my cross-reference to what I was looking for in an all-roads bike back in 2010. 

The Domane features two of my critical geometry desires well. The bottom bracket drop is listed as being a healthy 78mm in my size 58cm. The head tube angle is listed at 72°. The chain stays are listed at 425mm.

In 2010 I was hoping for a 71.5° head tube angle, something in the realm of 72mm - 75mm bottom bracket drop, and 435mm chain stays. So, the Domane is tantalizingly close. Very close. And if Trek also opens up the tire clearances on the Domane, well.....that's a viable all roads bike right there. 

I'm sure other brands are looking into this trend or the tire makers would not be making such big road tires. It kinda blows my mind when I think about all the customers who balked at 700 x 25mm road tires in the 2010's. Wow..... What a sea change! 

So, yeah. You might start seeing "road bikes" showing up on this page in the near future if this trend continues as I am seeing things go. 

Current Carbon Gravel Bike Design - What I Would Change

Today I thought it would be a fun thought exercise to take each part of a carbon bike design for gravel and critique it with my take on what could be different. My thoughts are going to be constrained to keeping things optimized for what I believe is in the best interest of the average rider, not necessarily for racing.

My opinion being that most brands make bicycles their racers want, or the bike a designer would race, and these designs are not focused on the everyday rider. Racing many times eschews comfort, practicality, and value. Media focuses on these "halo bikes" as being the thing which is "most interesting" to the reader. It would be as if every bicycle rider only rode what the equivalent automobile in racing is for a daily driver. An unaffordable, expensive to maintain, impractical car. Why do we do this in the bicycle industry? It's stupid. 

Anyway....

Image courtesy of Factor Bikes' social media.

I'm going to use this image grab from a Factor Bikes' social media post showing a racing bike from the recent Traka gravel event in Spain which shows a reportedly new Factor gravel bike model. This will serve as a model for the misguided racing focus on gravel bike design. 

Let me first say I am not against having racing bikes. What I am saying is the influence these designs have on everyday gravel rider's bicycle choices is far too great. In fact, it should have little if any impact on gravel bike design. Why? Because the vast majority of riders don't race, and do not need racing bikes. 

My thoughts will correspond to the numbers I have placed on the image starting with the seat post at #1 and going in a clockwise rotation from there to number 7 which will end my thoughts on current design for gravel bikes. 

#1 - Seat Post: This is easy, but any design using an aero seat post generally is adding more discomfort to the rider. This is because most aero seat posts are not designed to flex along their length, like a good carbon seat post does.  

#2 - Integration: The fad these days is to tuck away all the cables out of the wind. This is easier with today's penchant for wireless shifting, but those pesky brake cables still need to be hidden, apparently. This seems fine until you want to change your handlebar/stem combo for reasons of fit, comfort, choice, or all of the above. Integrated bars and stems take away all those choices. Fine for racers. Dumb for everyone else. Let those cables be free! Losing a few watts to air drag is nothing for the average rider, but they will gain choices, and less expensive maintenance costs down the road.  

#3 - Carbon Forks: For the sake of this exercise, metal forks will be excluded. Carbon is wonderfully light, strong, and supposedly "tunable" for ride qualities.  However; no carbon fork manufacturer has decided to take advantage of the tunability of carbon for rider comfort when it comes to forks. Either it cannot be done at all, or it cannot be done without assurance of avoiding failures and thus, liability for injuries, or designers just don't care about comfort in fork designs. I'm choosing the liability fears here, but that is purely speculation on my part. Whatever the case may be, carbon forks are overly-stiff and this is especially true on race designs. 

#4 - MTB Sized Tires: My theory on this is in relation to the point above concerning forks. These big, poofy MTB tires are being employed because forks are too stiff and stems with any built-in forgiveness are not possible due to integration and weight concerns. Ditch the heavier tires, use a commonsense approach to cable management, and maybe make the fork nicer to ride for we who are not the less than 1% of riders who are top-tier racers.  

#5 - Front Derailleurs and 1X: Chain management for a 2X system is now programmable on wireless drive trains. You don't even need to think about "when to shift" anymore, and so, why do we stick to the thought that a massively out of whack chain line on 1X is okay? It isn't. Racers feel 1X is more aero. This is laughable to the ordinary cyclist.  Even if aero is a thing with front derailleurs, and even if a mechanical system relies on the rider to make shifts, a 2X system is more efficient, does not rely on huge jumps in rear cog spacing, and can be made so the parts are less expensive, especially in regard to the cassette. 

#6 - Chain Stay Length: Racers want the rear tire tucked right up underneath their rear ends. Fine for racing, perhaps. It certainly will make you feel faster because, well......you'll feel every bump. Where is the seat on a bus with the roughest ride? Right over the rear axle. Average riders do not need short chain stays. I'm not saying we need really long chain stays either. Just don't put me on a bike with a rear wheel tucked right underneath me. 

#7 - Tire Clearance: Just a thought here on tire clearances. I enjoy my 45mm and 50mm tires, but I also really like lightweight tires. There is a point of diminishing returns with regard to tire width. Especially if you want some kind of tougher casing or puncture protection. I'd rather ride a narrower tire which falls under 600 grams for my do-all roads bike choice. (Note - I did not say "gravel", although that surface is included) If I am mountain biking, I'll choose a proper MTB. I think a distinction is already there and trying to blur those lines is not only unnecessary, but confusing to consumers.  

Okay, those are my takes on current top-end gravel bike design and why I think much of what is being done is the wrong direction for most people.  I know not everyone will agree. I'd love to see what you think about these ideas. Let me know in the comments. 

 Thanks for reading Guitar Ted Productions 

The 32" Watch: Some Background On Those Bigger Big Wheels

Not really a novel concept. (Image courtesy of Baum Cycles)

 The 32"er wheel thing is all the buzz in certain circles of the cycling innerwebs. I decided today to take a cruise through the archives of 20 years of information logged on this platform to see if anything might pop up concerning bigger big wheels. 

Like so many other times I research this blog I found things I had forgotten about. Stories about 36'ers and 32" wheels which might surprise you from the standpoint of how long ago some of this stuff has been percolating in the background.  

My first introduction to anything larger than a 29"er wheel was back in 2006 at Frostbike when Ben Witt had brought his creation to the show to share with the bike nerds in attendance. It was a frame welded up by Mike Pofahl with Ben's 36" wheels attached. It was a raw, unpainted idea, and it was very impressive. 

The first 36"er. I had a chance to buy this thing. 

To my knowledge Ben's bike was the first 36" wheeled bike around. I knew of a 32"er cruiser made with Coker branding, but not a 36"er. The bike was an amazing experience. But a parking lot ride does not tell the complete story. 

Fortunately, I was afforded the chance to try the big 36"er out for a couple of months when Ben was considering selling the bike. By this time it had been painted red. This would have been back in 2009. I used it primarily for commuting, and a lot of what people are saying about 32"ers is very true for 36"ers. Big stability, major roll-over capabilities, lots of steering inertia. I was thinking hard about buying the bike and doing gravel on it, but in the end I passed on the offer. 

Eventually someone did do a proper gravel bike with 36" wheels. I wrote about this in 2021. So, yeah.....big wheels on gravel has been a thing for a while already. And if you click the link and read my post from back then, you'll see reference to the idea dating back to 2006. Right about the same time Ben made his first 36"er, and in fact, the idea was spawned by Ben's bike. 

Even as recently as two years ago, Curve Cycling from Australia was producing a big wheeled gravel bike. I posted about that and made my case for Ben Witt's pioneering influence then. So, I think it is a good perspective to give Ben some props for sparking interest in larger than 29"er wheels. Would it have happened anyway? Yeah.....probably. But it happened the way it did. 

And I think that is worth noting. 

Brown Season: Rare Air

Escape Route: Gates Park

February is a month when I would expect it to snow a lot, be not so great for cycling out in the country, and a month which would test my patience knowing Spring is just around the corner. I do not expect February to act like Spring! 

But ever since the beginning of the month we've been getting warmer and warmer until at the beginning of this past week it was evident we'd end the week with absolutely no snow on the ground at all. None. Like mid to late March, but a whole month earlier than that. 

With temperatures sneaking above 50 degrees by the end of last week, I decided I had to get out and see what was going on in the country. At the rate things are going the frost will begin to start coming out of the ground. When this happens the roads get messy and gooey. I wanted to get out while the roads were still firm. 

North of Waterloo. The roads were perfect.

Even the ditches were mostly clear of snow in many places. 

I went out on the Singular Peregrine Mk4. A bicycle relatively still new to me and one I am still getting used to. I had the Pirelli Cinturato H tires on this time set at 30psi. I think I could go lower, but during cold weather it isn't a good time for me to experiment with air pressure unless I plan on stopping to check the tire pressures a lot during the ride. I don't plan on this, so I lived with 30psi for the time being. It was okay. 

 

This was probably an impressive snow drift three weeks ago. 

I decided not to try to ride too fast or go too far on this first outing for 2026 in the country. Especially so since I am still dealing with the bruised rib from my crash two weeks ago today. So, I went slower than normal and I did just a minimal loop and went back into Waterloo. 

 

I stopped at the Big Rock. The atmosphere was calm. There was barely a breeze blowing. I could hear the mournful cry of some bird or another a long ways off in the distance. I've come out to this rock many a time before. This was different. It seemed very peaceful. 

 

For a first country ride it was good. Not too long, not over the line to the point of being trashed, and the weather was super rare. I shake my head at this when I think about it being February. You have to wonder, is March going to be awful? 

Hmm..... I don't know, but this is a rare treat and I'll enjoy what I can of it.  

When The Answer Is "Yes"

Portrait of Ken Yokanovich by Ari Andonopoulos

 I was often about to say "To hell with it all!", when I was an event director of the gravel race known as Trans Iowa. Many times it was quite a frustrating labor of map reading, route finding, logistics planning, and dealing with people who were stretching my patience to the breaking point. I often wondered aloud why I was even putting myself through what it took to do the event in the manner which I believed it had to be done. 

To be perfectly fair, this was all mostly of my own doing. The frustrations, the road blocks, and the hurdles were mostly of my own making. I did not have to do it the way I did it. 

I chose to do it the way that I did it.  

Why? This is a question which would take a longer form to answer fully. I won't get into the weeds here on this but suffice it to say I did it the way I did it for the best possible experience for the participant I could devise. My goal? To ensure each rider would experience a soul-searching, mind bending, physically and mentally challenging experience. I also wanted to afford opportunities for human interactions which might lead to life-long impacts. 

The cost to myself and my family was not insignificant. Was it all worth the14 years I put myself and my family, volunteers, and friends through to see this event happen? 

Ken Yokanovich (L) and Ari Andonopoulos

In 2007 author Zach Dundas shadowed me during the Trans Iowa v3 event to gather material for a book he was going to write covering the underground sports scene in the USA in the mid-2000's. The book, "The Renegade Sportsman", (You can find used copies on Amazon), contains a full chapter on Trans Iowa and is well worth tracking down if you are a Trans Iowa fan or are curious about the event. It is, in my opinion, the most concise, entertaining, and thorough description of the event and its ethos I have come across. 

In the chapter on Trans Iowa Zach has this little bit concerning Ken Yokanovich, a veteran of three Trans Iowa events. Zach, along with other T.I. riders, were checking out some of the bicycles to be used in the event. Here is the bit from "The Renegade Sportsman", Chapter Three, "Ira vs Iowa":

"I particularly admired Minneapolis rider Ken Yokanovich's orange-Creamsicle-colered Quickbeam, outfitted with roomy, old-fashioned olive drab pannier bags and a custom cylindrical handlebar clip that held a tube of Blistex. Yokanovich would ride fixed gear. Other Trans Iowans tended to greet that decision with studied nods of approval, as if spurning one hundred years of bicycle evolution was indeed the most honorable course of action."

Ken finished that year, the first to do it on a fixed gear bike. One of only three who ever finished a Trans Iowa in the event's 14 years on a fixed gear bicycle. So, it is understandable why I might remember Ken with fondness, and why he is held in high regard by Trans Iowa veterans who know. 

But you never know if the feeling is mutual. Maybe this is not a big deal to people like Ken. Maybe he's moved on. This was nearly 20 years ago, so yeah..... I could see it. But people are sometimes amazing and surprising. Such was the case with Ken, who recently was motivated by a meet-up with fellow Trans Iowan, Ari Andonopoulos, to reach out to me via email last week. 

Ken wrote and told me the following: "Thank you for sharing your thoughts, bringing us together, and challenging us to be something we never knew we could be."

When I get messages like this, I sit back and I smile. Were all the days and years of toil and worry worth it? 

The answer is "Yes".

Breakdown

Happy Valentines Day. This post is about a breakdown, not a break-up. Just so we are clear. It also is not about the Tom Petty song by the same name. Although that is a great tune. Anyway.....

 I've been trying to do some local training rides on the fixed gear Twin Six Standard Rando v2. (From now on called the Fixed Gravel Bus, or FGB for short) I figure slower, steady fixed rides to help build a base of fitness is a good place to start on top of my walking and some other minor isometric type body weight things I do in the house, (when I'm not injured, that is!)

Anyway, this post isn't about training. This is about what happened to the FGB the other day while training. I was out on my usual graveyard loop which is nearly always carless and quiet when I felt something odd in the left crank or pedal. 

 I pulled over thinking maybe I had a pedal coming out only to find that my crank arm was loose! The little preload screw was missing too. Dang it! 

So, I grabbed my tool kit and tried to shove the crank arm on the spindle best I could, then I tightened the pinch bolts on the crank arm down, and hoped it would get me home. 

It did!

Now I had a problem to solve and I am thinking about this style of crank as well. First, I assumed the little preload screw, in this case a metal one I picked up from N.Y. Roll somewhere along the line, was gone. I didn't even bother trying to find it. I just went into my stash of parts and found one off an Ultegra crank set and tried it out on the 105 crank.

 Hmm.... No go. Seems as though there are different lengths to these screws/preload bits. I think the one from the Ultegra crank is too long. I need to find a shorter one. I dug around in my crank stash to see if I could find this screw. (Or is it a bolt? Whatever....) I did find one which was shorter but it had a smaller diameter for the threaded portion. Oh..... So there are three different preload bolt types. Nice! (Part ordered and on the way)

But perhaps more importantly, I wonder if a two piece pinch-bolt style crank even a good idea on a fixed gear bike? I'm beginning to have doubts about the ability of this design to hold up to the rigors of fixed gear riding. This might require a move to a threaded, square taper crank/bottom bracket set up which I have full confidence in as far as holding up to this sort of fixed gear set up.  

Stay tuned...