Monday, March 18, 2024

Mid South Report: Preface

 As I write this I am still at the Air-B-n-B just outside of Stillwater Oklahoma. The trip has been great so far. The expo was fun. I got to meet a lot of new friends and saw many old friends as well. 

The event itself was a success for me also. Lots of interesting things to share about Oklahoma back roads and even more about the event itself. 

I’ve also taken plenty of photos which I plan to share. So sit back and enjoy the week as I unravel the tale of Mid South and what I learned about the event. Plus I’ll have a deeper review of the King Fabricatons Honeman Flyer. 

Sunday, March 17, 2024

Review: One Year With The Singular Cycles Gryphon M3

The current State of the Gryphon Mk3
Note: This review is of a bike that I paid for out of pocket. Singular Cycles has no idea that I am doing this and have no influence on my opinion. 

While I was piecing together the Honeman Flyer it dawned on me that I had been doing a similar thing almost exactly one year ago. That was when I was putting together the new Singular Cycles Gryphon Mk3.

The new Mk3 Gryphon was the culmination of years of searching for the bike with "plus" sized wheels that I could use for deep gravel, loose fluff, sand, light snow duties, and general off-road cycling. The wheels and the frame and fork clearance were key to my wanting this bike. The Mk3 Gryphon can clear up to a 29" X 3" tire. I decided on 2.8"ers from Teravail.  

A couple of notes on my particular build. First off, the Mk3 doesn't support a triple crank nor does it have cable routing for a front derailleur. I managed a workaround for that and mounted a 2000's era XT triple crankset with a bottom pull front derailleur. 

The build was supposed to be a gravel bike+ kind of idea, but when opportunities popped up with Old Man Mountain, the bike became a defacto off-road tourer/bikepacking platform for most of last year. So, with those two things in mind here, I will give you my one year take on this bike.

Before all the racks were installed, I did a gravel ride or two in on the Gryphon Mk3.

 The Gryphon was all I dreamt about from the standpoint of a fat tire gravel cruiser. It flattens deep, chunky gravel and soaks up vibrations pretty well. This makes for what would be normally be a tough ride on a 700c X 45mm tire a "no big deal" ride. 

Then all the racks came and I had the Gryphon loaded with a tent, sleep system, food, clothes, and spares. This is where the 9spd triple crankset came into its own. The Gryphon Mk3 handled "okay" with a load like I had on it. You could induce a fair amount of flex in the frame if you rode with a lack of skill and finesse. I think cycling requires a skill set, so this flex when loaded is no big deal in my opinion. 

The first loaded set up.

I have a trip planned over gravel for this bike but as of yet, I haven't been able to find time to get it done. This is still a trip on my radar for 2024 so perhaps, hopefully, I will get around to doing that. In the meantime I've done enough testing of the set up that I feel very confident in how the Gryphon will handle this. 

The final, and heavier, set up.

One thing about the Gryphon that I found was that those big, poofy 2.8" tires make for a nice, smooth ride if the bike is unloaded. So, you can kind of have your cake and eat it too with regard to ride quality. I don't doubt that this Gryphon is a lot stiffer overall than the original Gryphon model which I had as well. But that first Gryphon was limited to 2.4"ers and you could only squeeze so much compliance out of a tire set like that. Imagine a load like I was using, and the tube set of the original Gryphon probably wasn't stiff enough. So, unless all you wanted was a very niche, classic looking drop bar MTB, this Gryphon Mk3 is, in my opinion, a far better bike. And this version still carries over classic good looks. 

I could recommend this to anyone who rides off road mountain bike trails that don't require 140mm of suspension and are DH oriented. Double-track, XC-ish paths, primitive roads, buff single track, and more are right up this bikes alley. Obviously the Gryphon Mk3 is a gravel cruise ship you could while away the days on with its great ride quality. You probably are not going to win any races on the Gryphon, but in my opinion, that's not a bad thing. 

I believe the Gryphon is the bike for those who seek adventure at their own pace, unhindered by competitive barriers, and want to view the world at a "bicycle speed". Thanks to Sam Alison for making this machine a possibility for me to purchase. I highly recommend it as a drop bar MTB/gravel bike/bikepacking rig.

Saturday, March 16, 2024

Review: WTB Max-Flow Tubeless Valves

The business end of a WTB Max-Flow tubeless valve stems.
 Note; WTB sent over the Max-Flow Tubeless Valve Stems at no charge to Guitar Ted Productions for test and review. I always strive to be honest when I share my thoughts and views.

The suite of new WTB products I was sent to review, including the Max-Flow valve stems, were introduced HERE in case you missed that. This article will focus on the valve stems only. 

Today's riders that use tubeless bicycle tires have different needs and expectations than they did ten years ago, or even five years ago. WTB has responded with a new tubeless valve design which addresses many of these new concerns. The Max-Flow Tubeless Valve Stem's name should give you one hint about this new design.

Things have changed with regard to tubeless tires for bicycles and now the expectation is becoming more and more that a rider should be able to inflate a tubeless tire on a tubeless rim with a floor pump alone. WTB's Max-Flow design has a claimed 84% more airflow than their previous valves. Now, I cannot verify that, but as we will learn here, the valves did work nicely for me.

The Max-Flow valve, valve cap with integrated core remover, and the valve nut.

The Max-Flow also features a valve cap with an integrated core removal tool made in aluminum. This is great as a way to reduce weight and tools in your tool kit, if you aren't one to lose valve caps, that is! 

Finally, the valve nut, (Presta valve nut), is designed in a squarish shape with a machined in grip texture which aids in not only tightening the nut against a rim, which also helps seal the rubber stopper of the stem on the inner rim, but also aids in the tooless removal of the stem in case of a catastrophic failure requiring a tube, tire boot, etc. 

The length of the valve is a nice, but not overly long, 44mm. Enough to clear most average gravel rims. The core is removable, of course, and the Max-Flow design is also claimed to reduce clogging as well. The stopper is a sensible conical shape which should work in most tubeless rims. 

I liked the valve nut.

In Use: The WTB Max-Flow valve was used on my new front wheel for my new King Fabrications Honeman Flyer. The rim is a Velocity Blunt SS which has a 26.6 mm inner rim width. 

The tire I was trying to use is a Teravail 42mm wide Rutland model which had already been mounted once and ridden several hundred miles.

The squarish valve nut really was nice for tightening the stem into the rim. I usually have to gently use a pliers to snug up valves good enough to prevent internal sealant seepage. 

I was a bit concerned about the way the valve protruded into the inner rim well. The Max-Flow design is intended to work with those new-fangled rim inserts that are designed to help prevent tubeless tires from "burping" or pinch-flatting the tire against the rim when running lower air pressures. To enable the valve to clear these inserts, it sticks into the rim well area more. My thought is that without running an insert, you could hit something hard enough to contact the valve end and potentially break it off or damage it. Admittedly, the chances of it happening are slim, but....there is that chance

While the Max-Flow valve end does flow more air, it does also stick out into the area of the inner tire more.

When I mounted my used Teravail Rutland, I did so by keeping the Presta valve core in the valve. Obviously, this restricted air flow, so I wasn't enjoying "max" air flow, but regardless, the tire was inflated easily with my old Topeak Joe Blow floor pump. So, I cannot say that the Max-Flow valve did anything there for me, but maybe it did. 

I can say that since I have had the valve in that air retention has been excellent and that I have seen no issues with the valve stem at all. My sealant (WTB's own sealant in this case) hasn't caused any clogging either. That said, I am careful to always air up tires with the valve stem at around the 8:00 - 9:00 o'clock position which seems to keep all my valve stems clear of clogging. 

Conclusions: The Max-Flow Tubeless Valve Stems have a unique, high airflow design which may come in handy when setting up a tubeless tire or while dealing with a tubeless tire in the field. The valve cap with the core remover is nice, albeit not unique to WTB, and I really liked the square valve nut which has tons of grip and better leverage than a standard Presta valve nut does. 

The aluminum construction is well anodized to prevent the valve from corrosion from ammonia which is a common ingredient in sealants. The 44mm length is very good, but if you are running some of the newer aero profile gravel rims you may need to look elsewhere for valve stems. 

My concern is for the protruding valve head in the rim area. Yes, if you run a tire insert, this is a good thing, but what if that is not necessary? Hmm.... As I stated, while potential for hitting the stem inside the tire while riding is there, it probably is a low percentage failure mode. That said, that potential does not exist with some other high-flow design valve stems. 

So, I like the Max-Flow valves and the idea of the design from an airflow standpoint is sound. I would be reticent to use these without a tire liner in a gravel sized wheel/tire combination. I think anything 29"er sized would be fine. Bikepacking set-ups, and the like, with their larger volume tires are not going to be an issue. However; I would like to see a "low-profile" Max-Flow design which would address my concerns when using tires in narrower widths than two inches wide.

Friday, March 15, 2024

Friday News And Views

Image courtesy of Industry 9
 I'm gone, but the FN&V rolls on!

Industry 9 Announces SOLiX Wheel and Hub Range:

Yesterday it was announced that a new range of wheels and hubs are now available from Industry 9. Dubbed "SOLiX", these wheels cover the needs of gravel, cyclo cross, and road riders. 

The range comes in two flavors - SOLiX SL and SOLiX G. The SOLiX SL wheels feature the new SOLiX hub with straight-pull Sapim CX-Ray spokes. The range of SOLiX SL wheels includes carbon and alloy rims with weights starting as low as  a claimed 1270 grams per set (carbon rims) to as much as nearly 1500 grams per set (alloy rims) and everything in between. Prices range from  just shy of 1300 bucks to around 2200 bucks. 

The SOLiX G wheels are the traditional aluminum Industry 9 spoked wheels you may associate with I9. Available in several anodized colors, these spokes make any bike 'pop' with their intensely colored aluminum spokes.  These wheel sets range in price from around 1500 bucks to a little over 2500. Weights go from a claimed 1320 grams per set on up. There is also a 650B option in this series as well. 

SOLiX hubs can also be purchased separately as the SOLiX Classic, which comes only in black and for "J" bend spokes. The new SOLiX hubs in all ranges are made with a new design that incorporates different pawl spring design, a new sealing design, and a new ratchet ring design which I9 claims makes the new SOLiX hubs quieter and better free-coasting than previous I9 hubs.

Rim, hub, and wheel spec can be seen at the Industry 9 website.  

Image courtesy of Salsa Cycles

Salsa Cycles Tributary e-Bikepacking Bikes:

Salsa announced the availability of its new Tributary models last week. Powered by Bosch mid-motor designs, the Tributary is an aluminum framed bike with 29" X 2.4" tires and is intended for gravel and bikepacking pursuits. 

Two models are offered in the range. A GRX 600 equipped rigid fork bike which goes for $5,499.00 or a Apex 1 equipped bike with a Rock Shox 35 Gold fork with 120mm of travel. This one goes for $5,999.00.

Tributary models can be accessorized with a range-extender battery pack at an extra charge. Maximum tire clearance is 29" X 2.6". The frames are internal dropper post routing compatible and SRAM UDH compatible. 

Comments: The Salsa site lists a "Canada" version and a separate US version, but I did not see an obvious reason why. I would have guessed the prices would have been different but the spec sheet looks the same between both. Anyway.... 

Definite Cutthroat vibes here. You are left to wonder "what if?" As in, "What if an aluminum Cutthroat 100% human powered bike been offered?" Gotta think that could maybe have been your entry level adventure bike, kind of like the Journeyer.  Squint hard and imagine the Tributary as a 100% human powered bike and you might see what could have been. But now you have a 5K+ rig that needs a 5 hour rest to recharge when the battery gets depleted. 

Image courtesy of Gravel Worlds

Gravel Worlds Registration Opens:

The Garmin Gravel Worlds registration announcement went out last Thursday and can be accessed HERE. The event is run out of Lincoln Nebraska and will occur on August 23rd - 24th. 

Many categories are available for contestants to choose from, and there are the Land Ho! running events also. The main fare consists of the traditional 150 miles of Nebraska rolling hills and gravel and will cost $165.00 to enter for 2024. The longer "Long Voyage" event of 300 miles will cost $180.00. 

There are shorter distances as well including the 75 miler and a 50K. Extra chippy folks can enter to do the 25K run on Friday and the 150 mile ride Saturday. 

Image courtesy of The Heywood's social media.

The Heywood Ride Registration Is Open

If Garmin Gravel Worlds is a little too spendy and "processed gravel" for you, check out The Heywood. It's coming up soon, (May 18th) and offers the rider a gravel course in several lengths and a much more grassroots, laid-back attitude. Registration is $25.00 and you can reserve a spot HERE

The Heywood is the spiritual descendant of the former Almanzo 100 event. (Chris Skogen pretty much handed over the reins to the Heywood's organizers back in 2019.) 

That should tell you that this event based out of Northfield Minnesota is not going to have the hoopla and high-competitive atmosphere of a Gravel Worlds. Not that you cannot race the Heywood, you can, but you don't have to, and honestly, you'd miss the point of the event if you did that. Anyone who rode the Almanzo could probably vouch for that. 

I will be hanging with the organizers even as you read this at Mid-South. Look for some reports headed to this channel coming up on Tuesday next week.

Leaked on Chinese social media.
Will SRAM Gravel Groups All Be "Transmission" Going Forward?:

Leaked on Chinese social media this past week and seen around many YouTube channels, this image of what looks to be a SRAM Red XPLR group was being talked about a lot. 

It is pretty obvious that it is a Transmission/UDH only compatible rear derailleur. This might be a sign that many new gravel bikes going forward will support this new standard. 

It also is speculated that the new Red level group will be lighter than Dura Ace and cost just shy of 5G USD. Others speculated that the brakes will be mineral oil, which would be in line with SRAM's latest enduro/DH brake introduction recently. 

Whatever it is, apparently all signs are pointing to a mid-May release date, so we won't have to wait long.

New Podcast Is Up!

The Mid South trip gets talked up a bit but N.Y. Roll and I ramble on about several other topics as well. 

We get on about why people ride gravel (Experience vs winning/podiums) We talk a bit about those WTB TPU tubes. We discuss an event that has a burrito bag as schwag and ask if a burrito should come with that. 

Yes, it gets weird in places, but ya know..... This IS N.Y. Roll and myself we're talking about here. If you want to - or dare to - listen, here is THE LINK.

That's a wrap on this FN&V! Have an awesome weekend and thanks for reading Guitar Ted Productions!

Thursday, March 14, 2024

Inspiration And Some History

The page posted on Facebook that started this journey.

 The Honeman Flyer project has taken up a lot of space here on the blog of late. However; you may not have read what the reason for the project was, or how this all came to be a thing. So that's the point of this post.

Today I am traveling to the Mid-South event mainly because of an idea that germinated last year when I saw a post by frame builder Steve Garro on Facebook. The image Steve posted was from an issue of "Popular Mechanics" from the mid-40's (1940's) which showed an advertisement from a frame builder by the name of Willie Honeman. (Image to left here)

The name of the builder did not catch my attention, but what Steve said did. He essentially noted that the geometry of the frame drawing in the ad was eerily close to gravel bike geometry. He wondered what such a bike might ride like. So did I, along with other commenters on the image. 

This prompted myself to go into research mode and I found a site that had a page on Bill "Willie" Honeman, a much decorated national champion track racer.  The site, called Classic Cycles, has a wealth of obscure track cycling information from the turn of the 20th Century to the 1950's. Searching further, I found out that Iowa figured into track racing lore. 

There was a racer who took up crafting racing bikes and running a shop out of Davenport, Iowa named Worthington Mitten. Worth, as he was known by, was himself a well accomplished six-day racer from the time when those contests were actually ridden for six consecutive days by one rider. Once he took up a torch, he made a small number of frames and forks out of his Davenport shop under the "Mitten" brand. One of his clients was an orphaned paper boy who made his rounds by bicycle named Victor Hopkins

Vic was an Iowa native, and his story is compelling. From a tough childhood he was eventually moved to try racing bicycles after he discovered Worth Mitten's Davenport cycling club. Vic immediately was successful. Some of his exploits were something which might resonate with ultra-distance, self-supported gravel riders today.

Willie Honeman's track racer (Image courtesy of Classic Cycles)

Vic apparently went at least once to Chicago to race. He didn't take the train, nor did he drive a car. Instead he rode to the event and back. Then, in an effort to qualify for the 1924 Paris Olympics, he did a similar thing, only this time he rode over 1000 miles from Davenport. Most of the roads he used to get there were dirt. It turned out that he qualified for the Olympics since he won the event by 20 seconds. 

I assume Vic did that self-supported as well. This got me to thinking - these bicycles must have been pretty decent for rough roads.  

Examining the Honeman geometry, and then realizing that it was a design from the 1930's led me to Pop Brennan, who was the maker of Honeman's track bike. Reading further I found that Brennan's bikes were quite popular with the major star track racers on the circuit back then. Many of the other builder's bikes seemed to be of a similar geometry as well. Finally, the Mitten model built for Vic Hopkins was especially meant for rougher roads found in Iowa and Illinois at the time. 

So, how would a modernized version of these bikes do on gravel

Fast forward to 2024: The "Honeman Flyer" project came to life, as I have detailed here on these pages. The project culminates with this trip to Stillwater, Oklahoma as I will be riding (hopefully) on Oklahoma's red clay roads and getting to be a part of the story Erik Mathy is crafting around this idea, and more than that. 

The finished Honeman Flyer by King Fabrcations made to the geometry of a Brennan track bike from the 1930's.

Was It A Good Idea? There was a huge risk involved in doing this project, that mainly being that my resources for this experiment were based on a paltry amount of evidence and a lot of my past experience and my own guesswork. There was a good chance that I paid out of pocket for a pretty wall hanging. 

The price for admission to this deal was not cheap. Yes - there also was the chance that I would have "confirmation bias" and think it was a fine bike even though it might not be. But if you really knew me you'd know that I cannot stand a bike that handles poorly. Most bikes have "pretty decent" traits, but there are some that have some bad warts and I think that in the past I have been pretty honest about those things. 

 The point of the experiment is to find if we, as a community of cyclists, can take anything from history and apply it to today. This is not easy to do. Today it would be difficult to ascertain "why" things were done the way they were done without direct evidence from builders and period riders, most of whom, if not all, are deceased. Then there is also the factor with materials technology. Certain things could not be done back then and have reliability. Things which we can do now and not worry about. 

But did we, (cyclists, designers, brands) cross a line at some point and start doing things "because we could' or because "rules" disallowed certain aspects of design? I think fashion and marketing also have affected cycling design. Think about Worth Mitten. He probably wasn't as concerned about how his product made people feel when they looked at it as he was concerned about how his product worked for a cyclist training and racing. Mitten's designs were most assuredly executed accordingly. 

We also have lost a lot of wisdom and information about cycling from days of yore. For example, I think it is fair to say that most of us unfamiliar with wooden rimmed wheels would be quick to say that today's carbon fiber rims are lighter. If the Classic Cycles site is to be believed, a claim is made there that they have examples of racing wheels from the 20's and 30's that rival the weights of today's carbon wheels. Maybe something along those lines goes for geometry also. Maybe our own assumptions about "what is old" affects our views of those old bicycles as well. 

So, can we learn anything from the past by having a modernized version of what was raced and ridden on rough roads back then?

So far I would say - Yes. I need to ride it more to really know if anything will crop up that bugs me. I need to get into various situations with the bike. I need more time to decide. But I don't think I wasted my money, if that is what you are wondering out there. I have wasted my money on custom design before, so I am not necessarily going to hold back judgement on the King Fab bike because it is "custom" or cool, or because the geometry is whatever. In fact, I have already pointed out a few things about the process with King Fab that weren't ideal and that I found a flaw in the paint job, if you were paying attention. 

So, in the future I think you'll find an unvarnished take on the bike and the point of it being this experiment. Until then I'll point out again that back in the first half of the 20th Century there were a lot of bicycles like this and there were good reasons for their design. You'd have to be pretty blind to ignore those facts. There is something to this. The question is, should we be looking at this sort of design for gravel in the 21st Century? 

Anyway... stay tuned.....

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Headed South

 The culmination of months of planning, spending, and gathering of parts will occur over the next few days as I am to head South on a trip. The point of it all will be two-fold: First will be the Honeman Flyer Project. I will be bringing that bike along and then Erik Mathy will photograph it, myself, and possibly the frame builder as well at the venue. Then I will be getting interviewed for a story about the bike and the idea behind it all. 

Secondly, I will be exploring behind the scenes at the Mid-South event. I've never been to this event but I have met Bobby Wintle on several occasions. He has been said to be the "soul" of the Mid-South event (Formerly known as the  Land Run 100 for you old school riders.)

I suspect I'll ride a bit, hang a bit, and talk to many folks. I plan on getting a lot of images and maybe an interview or two. I will be starting my reports on Mid-South on Tuesday of next week as Monday will be a travel home day. On Monday I may have a preliminary report with no images as I will be posting from an iPhone and I don't get on with the interface with Blogger on the iPhone. So, no promises there. If I can figure it out, you'll get an image. 

There may even be a random post or two thrown in while I am down there. We will see. I plan to arrive in Stillwater sometime Thursday and will be there through Sunday. If you follow me on social media I am on Instagram and "X" (formerly Twitter) as "guitarted1961". 

This will be the first multi-day trip I have taken since last year's GCHoF trip to Emporia, Kansas, which I am also supposed to be doing again this year. Woo! See ya later....

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

A Curious Case Concerning A Cancellation

Grinduro!, a gravel event combining elements of gravel and enduro, has been a staple event in Northern California since 2015. This year their organizer, SORA, had to pull the plug on the event due to "... rising costs, economic pressures on regional partners and sponsors and the challenging state of the bicycle industry in 2024."

I've written on these pages and recorded podcasts on the state of things in cycling as a whole before. We (N.Y. Roll and I) theorized that financial stress on sponsorships would be affecting events and athletes. The cancellation of the 2024 Grinduro! would seem to be a casualty of this effect. 

Along with this story, on March 4th a story was published in "Bicycle Retailer and Industry News" which stated that any person who had lost their job in the cycling industry recently was going to be offered a free entry to Grinduro!. Obviously, that won't be happening in California, where Grinduro! got its start. That said, the UK based Northern Consultancy company now runs Grinduro! events in Pennsylvania, Italy, Japan, Germany and France. So, I suppose the offer stands. 

A messy affair, but this is indicative of what we will probably be witnessing over the course of 2024. While there are many factors that could have prevented Grinduro! from happening in California this year, a major one has to be the cutting back on sponsorships throughout the cycling industry. This won't be the last time we hear about something like this.