Friday News And Views

Trek Dual Sport 2 Gen 5 (Image courtesy of Trek)

Trek Re-markets Dual Sport Bikes As "Gravel Bikes":

The Trek Dual Sport, a hybrid bike developed by Trek in the mid-2000's, is the "bike that saved 29"ers". That's what you'd hear if you talked to anyone at Trek that was there back then. The 29 inch wheel experiment was on 'life support' at the company in 2004 when sales of the wagon-wheeled MTB's were dismal. 

The Gary Fisher brand introduced 29"er MTB's to local bikes shops affiliated with the brand in the USA in 2002. However; retailers and salespeople didn't understand the then new idea of big wheels and how they were a distinct advantage over 26" MTB wheels. The wheel size, which up to that point, had been the standard in MTB riding. As a result, the experiment with these bikes, which was the brainchild of Gary Fisher, were up to be cut from the line-up in 2006. But a new hybrid bike, which was sort of like a 29"er, but wasn't, actually saved the 29"er from what may have been its early demise overall. 

That bike, as stated, was the so-called "Dual Sport", which had 29"er-like qualities, 700c wheels, but was positioned as a more dirt-worthy hybrid bike. Hybrid bikes, which were well understood by salespeople and retailers, were an easy sell, and the Dual Sport was the gateway to 29"er acceptance amongst that important link of the chain. Salespeople had to buy-in, and when they did, the lid was blown off for the acceptance of the 29"er side of MTB and well, you know the rest of that story.

Enter in the Gen 5 Dual Sport, a 27.5" wheeled bike with 2" tires and a very MTB-ish geometry and set up. Only now Trek is marketing it as a "gravel/adventure" bike, because, well.....gravel, don't cha know? That Trek is marketing, what is in all essence a MTB-lite bike as gravel, is fine with me. It's the details that I found interesting. 

For instance, the whole "Gen" thing. Trek has been working toward getting rid of model years for bicycles for at least 15 years now, and has recently enforced that messaging with its retailers. However; Shimano kind of has them held as hostages, along with the rest of the bicycle industry, due to the format of Shimano's component release scheduling. That said, the generational aspect of this marketing idea of Trek's means that consumers won't know that a Gen 4 Dual Sport is a 2022 model and that Gen 5 is 2023. Kind of..... Anyway....

The other thing? The price for this Dual Sport 2 with mostly Shimano Acera and a Chang Star hydraulic brake set is $849.99 (USD- MSRP) Acera at eight hundred and fifty bucks? I'm pretty sure that the bike which was analogous to this Dual Sport, the Trek FX 1, was about 500 bucks in the mid-twenty-teens. That's a big leap upward in pricing, which, as we all know, was expected. But sheesh...... 

The Bookman Monocle (Image courtesy of Bookman)

Bookman "Monocle" Head Lamp:

Recently I was asked to review a product for bicycle lighting by a Swiss company named Bookman. I agreed to take a look and when the package arrived it had another, non-bicycle specific light in there. 

It was a head mounted light for running called the "Monocle". Head mounted lights are nothing new, of course, but with the activity of running in mind, certain design criteria were more important than say, a camp light you might find at the checkout of your local big-box home and lumber supply company. 

And to be honest, I did not know it was a product for running when I received it. In fact, I did not learn that until moments before I wrote this when I researched the company. So, my thoughts on how to make use of this gizmo light were far different than what Bookman may have envisioned. 

Where I work in an old building at the Cedar Valley Bicycle Collective, and considering my workshop at home is in a basement that is over 100 years old and wasn't designed to be a workshop, it is no wonder that the lighting is less than desirable. Especially for my old eyes. So my first thought was to use this at work, and conveniently, the day I received it I had to work. I charged it up, strapped it on my head, and wore it for the next five-ish hours. It lit up dark places on bikes and allowed me to have less frustration in getting stuff done. It's "stepless angle adjustment" allowed me to get just the right aim on my work too. I also used it on the way home to see if it might be a good supplementary light for night riding. 

With its claimed 225 Lumens of light at High, which will last a claimed 1.5 hours, I can say that signs were lit up  and I could use it to read cues easily, if I needed to. In fact, 225 is almost too bright for that. Thankfully there is a half power option which lasts four hours that is a bit less brilliant and glaring to use as "cockpit lighting". My only beef so far is that the button to power it on and tab through its three modes is a bit stiff.

The thing costs about $55.00, weighs 40 grams, and the strap has a lot of little reflective details. So far? Impressed. Standard Disclaimer applies. . (More on this and the other Bookman product I was sent will be posted soon)

Titanium chainring from 5Dev (Image courtesy of 5Dev)

Titanium Chainring Promises Less Wear:

Titanium, that grey aerospace metal of fame and renown in bicycle circles, has not often been used for chain rings. But a USA company called "5DEV" may change that. 

The company, probably best known for their far-out designs for titanium stems and crank arms, now offers a 34t or 36T titanium chain ring in raw, or three other anodized colors including a teal (!!).

Benefits claimed are longer wear life, better toughness, and compatibility with SRAM or Shimano chains. 

Comments: I remember when Boone titanium cogs were the big deal for single speeders because they were (a) cool looking and (b) did not wear very much at all. I have a Boone Ti cog somewhere along with those weird wavy titanium spacers they made. I have to say that the cog has held up well over the years. 

That these are only $150.00 bucks isn't bad when you think about it. I know I could totally get on with one of these on my single speed or on my Ti Muk 2 fat bike with the Rohloff set up. I wonder though, how would this hold up on a 1X set up? That cross-chaining that you have to do with 1X usually wears cogs and chains out laterally instead of in the traditional way. 

Anyway, an interesting, if not a bit limited, option for some folks.

Image courtesy of Classified.

Classified Hub Gets A Big Shot Of Cash:

The Classified hub technology, which I first came across in  the Fall of 2020 as seen here in this "FN&V", has recently been infused with a reported 24 million USD in funding from the CEO of investment firm Active Partners and who is also Rapha's chairman. 

Cycling media outlets and commentators are suggesting that new wheel partners are also coming onboard with this technology. Speculation is that the investors want to see the Classified hub system on the same level as SRAM/Shimano in terms of market share and acceptance by the riding public. 

Comments: As always, anything that disrupts the "standards" which cyclists, mechanics, retailers, brands, and manufacturers hold dear is going to have a tough row to hoe when it comes to proprietary drive train ideas. Just look at Rohloff, Pinion, Gates Belts, or components that are slightly out of the main focus of Shimano's and SRAM's main fare. Sure, they are out there and available, but does anyone think that these ideas have taken a hold in mainstream cycling? I have a hard time believing that anyone would say "yes" to that. 

Essentially, if and until Shimano gets displaced as the de-facto arbiter of what is happening in mainstream tech for cycling, anything like Classified's hub will only ever be like a Rohloff Speedhub, or a Pinion system- Something that is an option for some people, but definitely not "the next big thing". 

That's a wrap on this week! Have a great weekend and get out and ride. Spring is coming soon!

Entry Fees Up

Entry for the 200m? $290.00

We used to say that gravel riding and racing was a cheap way to enjoy competition or to just have fun. Heck, many of the earliest gravel events of the 2000's were free or had a very low bar to clear to enter. I recall someone saying that it was such a good deal because many events were so cheap to get into and long enough that you could ride your bike all day. Choosing any gravel event as something you put on your calendar was often predicated upon whether or not the travel time was longer than the event riding time, not on race fees. 

My! Times have certainly changed! 

The old way I used to gauge expenses is out the window now. I just got off of BikeReg, which lists a little over 300 events as "gravel" on that site. I just randomly went through and picked out about eight or nine events to check on where race fees are at these days. I was shocked. 

Once upon a time, back when the Dirty Kanza 200 was getting "big" and raised their entry fees to just under 100 bucks, someone piped up and said to me that if race fees went over a buck per mile of the event's course, that they would quit going to that event. Well, let me tell ya, there are not many events you've heard of that are even close to a buck-per-mile anymore!

Would you pay more than a dollar/mile to ride on this?

Now, of course, gravel events are more than just riding on gravel/dirt/whatever roads they use for their courses at whatever events you want to name. You've got timing and scoring. Then you have all the pertinent "furniture"- barriers, finish line arches, podiums, etc. You've likely got insurance, materials to facilitate the event, race numbers, tape, etc. 

And maybe you've got merchandise, you've maybe got an event headquarters you need to pay for, permits to close down streets, police, ambulance, and medical staffers, maybe. I don't know everything about these massive productions like Unbound, but yeah- There is a LOT going on there to produce the event. I get that.

But I've said it before, and I'll say it as long as I am able to- Gravel events don't have to be like that. 

You don't need thousands of participants, you don't need twenty-five categories for race participants, you don't have to have finish line arches and big time concerns with cities, police, etc. The gravel experience exists outside of those confines, but the big events have put all that inside their own boxes and have put the focus on other stuff. Is that what you want? Cool.... Join the thousands of others that are all about that too. I understand I probably am in the vast minority of opinions here, but "big time gravel" has become just like "big time roadie events" and "big time MTB events". Crowded, expensive, harder to get into due to what perceptions are about equipment, and broken into so many sub-divisions of people that it becomes less about overall community and more about individual groups. 

And then you top it all off with really expensive entry fees. 

I took a look at several events, as mentioned above, chosen at random from across the country. Various distances were included. Plus, I also looked at pricing for sub-categories. Following are my 'not-so-scientific', random findings*. 

• The more well known the event was, the higher the entry fees were. No big surprise there, but what caught my eye was one of the events that I looked at, which is fairly new, is the most expensive per-mile-of-course I found and the hardest to get into as well. Due to a somewhat convoluted registration scheme where riders can defer their participation to a following year, giving them dibs on a roster spot, and due to this particular event focusing on diversity and inclusion initiatives along with a preference to entry for sponsor's athletes, the "regular person" takes a back seat. But it is their event to run, so.... 
• The longer the event, the cheaper it is per mile: This seemed to be universal across all the events I checked out. Some made sense, others, not so much. When the featured distance costs the same as all the other distances you offer, that's sort of odd! 
• Not all events are really expensive. In fact, I found one long-time Pennsylvania event was actually under  a dollar-per-mile of its course. But just by ten cents! 
• The average cost per-mile-of-course for all the events and categories I checked out? $2.05/mile. The cheapest, or if you'd rather, best bargain event I found, was a sub-event of the Swamp Fox Gravel Fondo which at 177.6 miles costs .28 cents a mile to enter. The most expensive? A 25 mile option at a Vermont based event that was $6.00/mile to enter!

*All figures and information for these findings was culled from currently available data on BikeReg.com for the events I looked at on 1/25/23

Now- Let me say this- I know that many events are cheaper per-mile. I get it. Don't get your hackles all up and come at me with your examples of particular events that don't fit my story here. I understand that for as many events as there probably are, most are not all that expensive. But you are not going to see any of those written up in mainstream cycling media, and many of those I checked on are those events. Some weren't, but most were. But of the events I knew of that are not what you'd call "big-time gravel? Even most of those were more expensive than a buck-a-mile. 

 Image from Trans Iowa v10 by Wally Kilburg

So, what do we make of all this?- Obviously, everything is more expensive as time goes on. Call it "inflation", evolution, or what have you. That's just the way things seem to go. Time goes by, things get more expensive. You can pretty much count on that. 

Well, according to the almighty Google, a buck in 2009 is worth a $1.38 today. So.....yeah. Inflation? I get it, but event fees have essentially more than doubled in the course of 12 years. It's got more to do with than inflation. 

Demand? Yeah, maybe.... That's part of this. I always said that event directors who were trying to make this gravel thing into a career were going to keep jacking up entry fees until they perceived a ceiling had been reached. And rising tides raise all boats to a degree. I mean, when smaller events see what Unbound gets out of racer's wallets then they see an opportunity to match "what the market will bear", I think, and that's natural. 

And again- people are paying these fees gladly. Well, I assume that they are, because I don't see rosters and field limits less than full. So, I have to adjust my expectations as well. A buck-a-mile is dead. Entry fees are up, and they are not coming down anytime soon, or so it would seem. There are still cheaper events- I was invited to such an event in Minnesota a few days ago. Twenty-five bucks to enter and I could ride whatever distance I wanted up to 300+ miles or as little as 25. There are still events that are free, just not very many! So, I have options. 

And I can create my own adventures. The roads are free to ride. I don't need a permit, finish line amenities, or aid stations to do a fun, adventure filled gravel ride. I can even compete on a personal challenge level. You can too if current event prices have you down. The "gravel experience" doesn't have to be a wallet-draining one. It was never meant to be like that. 

But if the thrill of all the things those big events bring to the table tickles your fancy? Go for it. We've got plenty of choices.

Winter Views: Birthday Ride

Escape Route: Green Belt Trails

Well, first of all, I want to thank all of you that bothered to take the time to offer your well wishes and cheers on the occasion of my birthday on Monday. I very much appreciated those comments both here and elsewhere on social media and in messages. 

Many well-wishers advised that I go for a bicycle ride, and of course, that is exactly what I did. The "frosting" we had on the tress and shrubs was still in effect, miraculously so, and with the addition of Sun, which we hadn't had in quite some while, it was a glorious day for a ride.

It was also frigid cold. 

So, I took out my Blackborow DS since it is currently set with pogies, and off I went. Spinning like a hamster because I left the bike in 'low-range', which if you don't understand, well that refers to the 'dinglespeed' nature of this bike. (Click the link for an ultra-nerd-out on dinglespeed gearing) Anyway, "low" range on the Blackborow DS is pretty spinny, but not low enough to winch yourself up a steep incline, such as the dike entrance to the Green Belt. At least not with snow involved.

But once I scaled that and got down the other side, the Green Belt presents no inclines worth mentioning. So, the gear was perfect for negotiating softer, churned up sections of snow and stable as you can get when it came to off-camber bits due to the wide 4.8" tires. 

It is hard to find the best of the trail to ride at times due to the multi-use nature of the Green Belt

Frosted trees overlook a free-running Black Hawk Creek

The low angle of the Sun made the snow and frost stuck to the tress yet glisten and glow like crazy. Again- a super-unusual state for things here and we have had the luxury of living in this wonderland-like atmosphere for several days. However; later on this day that Sun burned off the frosting, so to speak, and things look a little less awe-inspiring now. 

Headed out towards the Green Belt lake.

There were sights to see that just demanded I stop and soak in as much of it as I could.

It turned out to be a perfect day, or at least morning, to be out in the Green Belt. there was not a soul in sight, (other than the ice fisher I saw), and the sky was a clean, washed blue with some wispy contrails from jet traffic here and there. The contrast between shadows and brilliant snow-scapes was spectacular. The dreary, wild, unkempt Green Belt woodland looked beautiful in its new snow-white clothes. 

A lone figure pulls a sledge across the frozen Green Belt lake.

Simply stunning views!

That was most likely the most beautiful, peaceful, and precious Winter ride I have ever experienced. What a gift! And by far the best birthday ride I've yet had. I hope that you enjoyed the bit I was able to share here. 

Thanks for reading.

Winter Views: Wonderland Ride

We don't often get conditions like these.

We had another snow storm last week that was quite unusual for a January snow storm. In fact, it felt a lot more like something that would have occurred late in February, or even better- early in March. A snowstorm which occurred at the freezing mark for temperatures. 

January has been atypically warmer than usual. Not by a lot, maybe more December-ish than it would be on a typical year. Nothing crazy like we've seen for short moments during past Januarys where it has been in the 50's for a day or two max, then it goes back to under zero or near to that with below zero nights for weeks. 

Last week it had been so warm everyday that almost every iota of snow we had was melted and gone. Then the weather folks were ballyhooing this big snow event with "six to ten inches of snow' which was to fall overnight Wednesday into Thursday. It snowed alright, but only maybe four inches of thick, heavy snow which, due to the high temperatures it fell at, stuck to every tree, wire, and pole it hit. 

This left behind a "Winter Wonderland" effect where every branch on every branching thing was coated with a thick covering of snow. Since there was little to no wind associated with the storm, or its aftermath, this stayed in effect for more than a few hours. Typically when we see this sort of thing it is gone right away the same day. That I could wait until Friday, when it was colder and the snow had set up to ride, was a big-time luxury.

It was colder than it had been, but not bad. 20 degrees is fine for riding fat bikes, and due to the high moisture content of the snow we got, it was easily rideable even without grooming. That said, anywhere there had been compaction it made the snow as fast, or maybe faster on a fat bike, than pavement. It was fun yet still a challenge. 

There is a road here, a two-track. (The downed tree is laying across it)

A view of the recently completed "bridge" on the Sergeant Road bike path. HWY 63 is in the background.

I plunked and trundled along for a bit longer than an hour. Got my heart rate way up there a couple of times! It was fun to actually have fat biking in great snow as opposed to the last snow we had which was all drifted in snow. That stuff is like riding through hour glass sand. No consistency or stability to that sort of snow. This high-moisture content snow is far more fun on a fat bike. 

This might stick around for a while as well since it is not supposed to get too warm for a while. I doubt the "frosting" will stay once the Sun reappears for any stretch of time, but this was a lot of fun to ride through and experience for me. Like I said, this is rare here and this probably won't happen again anytime soon.

Another Trip 'Round The Sun

GT and his cat, Felix The Cat.

 Well, it is that time of the year again, for myself at least, to mark the day as another trip made 'round the Sun. The day when you either pass off things as "no big deal", escape by "celebrating" in some way, or take stock in the passing of time and what it means in your Life. Maybe you do all three in their appropriate measure.

I think as one grows older these special markers of time start to become less frivolous and centered around fun and more serious and considered. I suppose that is only natural. At one time I would have expected a cake, candles to blow out, and presents.Then later on in life I might have thought I should expect drinks, a card or two, and some frivolity with friends. Now? 

I just want to spend time with my immediate family, and then a bike ride on top of that might be nice. I think that's exactly what I'll do. 

It's another day, in the grand scheme of things, and what I do maybe doesn't really matter in the end when it comes to the 23rd of January. But it is my day, and I will mark it as long as I can. 

Hopefully you all out there have a spectacular day and are able to do something meaningful today. Not because it is "my day", but because this day is a gift to you. Make sure you unwrap it and try to give thanks for the things that bless you, because we aren't guaranteed to see another one of these come our way. 

Thanks for reading.

The GTDRI Stories: Death Cookies

"The GTDRI Stories" is a series telling the history, untold tales, and showing the sights from the run of Guitar Ted Death Ride Invitationals. This series will run on Sundays. Thanks for reading!

After the fourth Guitar Ted Death Ride Invitational was over, I was pretty dejected and saddened that I didn't ride the entire route. That loop out of Echo Valley State Park is crazy hard though. And I may have been a bit hard on myself, this is true. At any rate, I was determined to come up with a course that was a bit less arduous and one I thought I could do in its entirety. 

As always, I was busy with a lot of things in 2011, not least of which was the seventh running of Trans Iowa. That was, as I have written elsewhere, a very stressful Trans Iowa and the aftermath of it was stressful as well. This affected the GTDRI to a degree as I didn't get around to doing most of the recon for several bits of my route until July, weeks before the actual event. 

The date of the event was also something that is notable here. For a few years, I had been changing the date around for this event. Early on, I was trying to fill a spot in August, but in 2008, the Pirate Cycling League fired up an event dubbed the Good Life Gravel Adventure. They chose mid-August as their date. I had attended and ridden in the 2009 (and last) version of this event so that made me move the GTDRI up into July. By 2011, that Good Life Gravel Adventure was now a big deal and was called "Gravel Worlds". I tried pushing the GTDRI back into a second/third week of July thing, but that prompted feedback from riders that told me this interfered with their RAGBRAI plans. That event always being on the last full week of July. 

Checking out the route in late June after a derecho had blown through this area.

Eventually I was advised to put the ride on the last weekend of RAGBRAI, if I had to have it in July, because that would likely be a better way to do it for riders that also wanted a big portion of RAGBRAI riding.

So, that's how this ride ended up on the date on the calendar it was held on afterward, with the exception of the very next GTDRI, for years. I got a little gas about it from those who wanted to do the entire week of RAGBRAI, but overall it seemed to work. I remember a few riders telling me that they had done a portion of RAGBRAI and then had a "cleansing" with the riding of the Guitar Ted Death Ride Invitational. 

The "Missouri crossing" of Salt Creek on P Avenue

Another remarkable thing about this particular GTDRI was that it occurred shortly after a major straight-line wind event that happened across Iowa on July 11th of 2011. It was the first time I ever recall meteorologists using the term "derecho" for this sort of storm. 

This was a bad event in Iowa, but at that time, I hadn't heard about it at all. I discovered the after-effects of the storm on my first big recon of the new GTDRI route in mid-July via bicycle. I started out in Traer, went South, and suddenly I was seeing trees ripped apart, snapped off mid-trunk, and lots of bits of tin roofing, siding, and the like all wadded up against trees and fence lines. 

Now, localized damage from a severe thunderstorm that looks like what I saw is common. But I noted that this seemed to go on for miles. That was weird! It was eerie, and I felt a strange unquiet within, and sensed a bit of despair without, as I saw people cleaning up the mess. Many fires were burning on different farms as farmers were trying to dispose of all the downed tress and branches, and other refuse.  You could see columns of smoke rising all around out on the prairies of Iowa. 

I had to dodge utility poles and wires for miles heading back to Traer on this recon.

This all hit me the hardest as I rode through Clutier where the wind speeds had reached nearly 100mph for a sustained amount of time. Buildings, houses, and grain bins were destroyed. The roads leading into the village were all blocked off to traffic, and big trucks, cranes, and chainsaws were busy helping to clean up the area. 

As I rode through on my bicycle, I was aware of a feeling of guilt. People glanced at me and I perceived their looks as being not very friendly. As if I were an affront to the desperate times these people were experiencing. The contrast between my joyful cycling activity and the efforts of these concerned, sweaty, toiling men and women, was a stark one. I wanted to hide. 

National Weather Service map of wind speeds in the damage area for the 7/11/11 derecho event in Iowa.

That was a very memorable experience and one I was not at all prepared for. On the way back to my vehicle, I saw entire groves of tress which were blown down by the winds. I had to dodge utility poles for miles and crawl under hot lines with my bicycle. It was a weird obstacle course! 

When I returned home I had a message from Tim from North Dakota saying he wanted to know how many people might be showing up. He was planning on coming and was going to bring home made cookies for everyone! 

Death cookies? Sure, why not! 

Next: Fat Tires And Zebras

"Managed" Finishes: Good Or Bad?

The Gorge Gravel Grinder has three distances

Over the past week a few media outlets in the realm of cycling have been promoting a story about a new "managed finish" (my words) element to an event in the Oregon Gravel series called the Gorge Gravel Grinder. 

Essentially how it works in a nutshell is that people who sign up for this will get a lead rider who is to set a predetermined pace and there will be a follow-up rider who will help to keep said paced group together. 

This is being done to, "help participants stay on track to reach a specific finish time, help take the nerves out of gravel riding and racing by offering an inviting and inclusive, beginner-friendly supportive riding environment while promoting the camaraderie that makes the gravel community so spectacular", according to an article from Cyclingweekly.com. 

They call these "pace groups" and they market them as "freight trains of fun". Other objectives of this initiative are to "... ensure participants complete the course and meet their goals", and to raise the level of female participation to 50% of field limits.  

Comments: First off, I was a bit puzzled by the author of the linked article when the so-called "pace groups" were suggested to be analogous to gravel riding/racing because, "The experience of gravel racing is often likened to running a marathon."

I've been around gravel riding and racing for many years and I have never heard this before. If anyone reading this can give me some context for this quote, I am all ears and eyes here. Maybe I am out of touch....

Riders in a group from T.I.v10

Secondly, the idea of "pace groups" in gravel racing is not new at all, despite what the article, the event, or anyone else seems to think.  It's just that previous to this event's announcement, those "pace groups" were allowed to form organically. There never has been any need to make "pace groups" a managed part of an event because event organizers did not make rules against this, and in fact, many early gravel races and rides actually encouraged such behavior. 

Also, having been in these groups inside events before, and having observed how they have worked in Trans Iowa over the course of 14 years, I think I can speak to a few points concerning this effort by Gorge Gravel Grinder.

First of all, let me say that I have no real problem with the idea of "pace groups", but trying to manufacture and manage such things is a bit of a problem, in my opinion. I have done "managed pace groups" while doing several "no-drop" events over the years, and so I think I can speak to this with some authority.

And that's a great point here. That being that, whatever you want to call this which is to occur at Gorge Gravel Grinder, it is essentially a "no-drop" ride within the event. Or, maybe several no-drop rides, depending on how they break things up. No-drop rides are not at all uncommon, and they do exactly what the organizers are after- They help ensure riders meet goals and finish rides. So, really, that's all this is. 

The problem is that if their groups get too big, they are going to need more leaders and more sweepers for each "pace", or speed of group. And I would imagine Gorge Gravel Grinder has a time stamp, (they mention "specific finish times") so you need to herd all these cats within a certain time frame. What is "too big" in terms of a group? Well, for best results? I'd say 20 riders, or less, for a leader and a sweeper. Especially if you are rolling within a larger group. 

But I have even more questions about this idea. How does a time limit affect riders? (Gotta pick up the pace if there are too many stops?) Can groups stop or is that not allowed? What if one or two have mechanicals? Does the rest of the group stop? Do you lose your sweeper if that happens? What about a rider that is having a bad day? Or a rider becomes too slow for the group because they over-estimated their ability to hold the specified pace?  Do you shed riders and leave them to fend for themselves? (Doubtful, given the stated goals here for the Gorge Gravel Grinder)

A "pace group" ride I used to put on called "The Geezer Ride'.

Here's a "for instance" from a "pace group" ride I used to put on called the "Geezer Ride". It was for those who did not want to race, who wanted a "no-drop", no rider left behind experience, and at a casual pace. I ensured people would finish, and at whatever cost that came at, that's what was going to happen.

At one particular Geezer Ride we had a rider that was inexperienced, a "virgin" gravel rider, and was not a finely tuned athlete. In fact, this rider was already telling me to go ahead and leave them behind at the ride's start because they did not expect to be able to keep up. But I was committed to seeing this person finish. And I was successful in managing this for that rider and all the others there that day. 

But we were sloooow! We stopped. A lot! So, because a Geezer Ride had no time stamp, no "finish" to make in a certain time, I could leave that part to chance. But when you have event volunteers, infrastructure to tear down after an event, and after-event things like social activities or podium ceremonies, can you allow a managed group to have that sort of luxury? 

To my way of thinking, you have to game plan for things like slow riders, over-zealous riders, mechanicals, and making time cuts for end-of-event reasons. You cannot expect volunteers to just hang because a managed pace group is slower than they thought they would be, unless.....

Unless you are willing to allow for failure. In my mind, in an event like Gorge Gravel Grinder, the element of failure should be a part of that event. Failure to finish should never be seen in a negative light, and actually, it can be the best thing that ever could have happened for some riders. At the worst, it should be a lesson for a rider to learn from. But, if the goal is to "make sure everyone finishes", then you lose a valuable asset that gravel grinding, and well, life, has in store for us. That being the chance to learn, to grow, and to have clarity from failures that you otherwise wouldn't have gained. 

And that is an essential element of gravel grinding. Without failure, you lose a big part of what makes gravel riding and racing what it was, and has become. That said, I think there is a part to play for no-drop rides as well. It just shouldn't be considered a part of, or analogous to doing, any racing event or challenge. Failure should be an option, and it shouldn't be feared, or held against anybody. That's being "inclusive".