Not The Kind Of Anniversary You Want To Mark

 In celebration of the twentieth year of this blog, I have a few tales to tell. This post is one of them. This series will occur off and on throughout this anniversary year, I hope to illuminate some behind-the-scenes stories and highlights from the blog during this time. Enjoy!

 Today marks an anniversary of an event in my life that I would rather not have had happen. An event that still affects me to this very day both physically and mentally. Many of you know the story, but in case you don't, here is the post from ten years ago describing that day. 

The hills North of Edgewood are spectacular.

I was struck by a drunk driver behind the wheel of a 4X4 GMC pick-up truck and flung through the air about 8ft, (according to eye witness account), and landed on my butt in the ditch. Funny thing was, I wasn't actually riding my bicycle. I was walking it alongside the gravel roadway. 

Major injuries were avoided, but ever since then my digestive tract hasn't been "right'. I think things got jumbled around inside of me and well, by this time all of that is 'normal' day-to-day life for me now. So, on this weekend ten years ago, my life was forever changed. 

I'm not complaining. I've got nothing to complain about regarding that incident. Like the title of the blog post ten years ago states, "it could have been worse'. Very much worse than it was.

From July 4th this year.

Like Elton John, "I'm Still Standin'", and I'm blessed to be out there on two wheels yet. I shudder to think of what may have been, but it wasn't meant to be that day. So, a lot of things are still going because of that. One of them is this blog. 

I did not say a lot about the aftermath of what I went through mentally immediately afterward ten years ago. There was stress over the fall-out from the crash scene. I wasn't the only person affected. Aaron Schnee had his helmet crushed and his titanium Fargo run over. Dan Buettner was also flung into the ditch. The others had to witness that and deal with the drunk driver afterward. Their memories are marred by that incident as well as mine. 

Insurance issues went on for several months afterward. Hospital bills were being pursued and we were waiting on the insurance that the driver had to take care of this. Thankfully the driver actually had insurance. These are things that you don't immediately think about after a crash with/on your bicycle. But it is more than just 'that day' that haunts you. 

Aaron Schnee at Gravel Worlds in 2021

Ironically I have found that these incidents kind of have a way of bonding you to people that were a part of the event. A great example of this happened in 2021 at Gravel Worlds. 

I ran up upon Aaron Schnee. He of the run-over Ti Fargo from the 2014 incident. Turned out his bicycle was okay. In fact, it was the same bicycle he was riding that day! 

This was fantastic news for me at the time. Catching up with Aaron, who I hadn't seen or spoken with since that incident in 2014 until that day at Gravel Worlds, provided a bit of closure for me. I was happy to know his bicycle was intact, still around and being ridden, and that I actually got to see Aaron riding it. 

As for my bicycle, it wasn't damnaged significantly. A bit of bar tape rash, really, was all it had done to it. But I was hesitant to go out on a ride on the Tamland Two for a couple of months afterward. Finally I forced myself to ride the bike again. I'm glad I got over that hump, but I still find it troubling that I went through that due to a random act of a drunk person behind the wheel of a vehicle. 

Probably one of the most confusing and troubling aspects of this being struck by a motorist event for me was that I was informed that year that my name would be read at the annual Ride of Silence. The ride which honors cyclists that have been killed at the hands of motorists. Apparently if you are struck by a motorist, you also get on the list, but I found that to be confusing and - in my opinion - unnecessary. I felt that took away from those who actually lost loved ones. But I don't make the rules for that. It just was one more thing I had to wrestle with. 

Maybe I'm not alone in this, but I think about dying at the hands of a motorist almost every time I ride a bicycle these days. Sometimes I almost don't ride because it would just be easier not to deal with the crazies. But I keep going..... 

Be careful out there. 

Friday News And Views

Image courtesy of Mondraker

Olympics And Bikes!

Mondraker Shows Off Olympic Liveries:

Tuesday Mondraker Bikes showed off two Olympic liveries for two of their sponsored riders who are contesting the games in the XCO MTB category. The bike shown is the Mondraker F-Podium and this one is done up in a special livery for rider Bec Henderson who will represent Australia. 

Comments: The Olympics are a big deal in cycling and especially for MTB. I don't really follow Pro MTB anymore, so what struck me about this announcement was how much XC-ish bikes have changed in the last ten years or so. 

First of all, Bec Henderson is 5'2" tall, and she is on a 29"er. Now, I have been amazed by all the places 29"ers have made inroads, but the smaller riders still racing 29"ers has been something of a ongoing surprise for me. I know many women were really into the stability and safer feeling of the big wheels having been told this straight from some high-profile female racers back fifteen years ago now. (15 years ago!! What?!!) 

So, it's really something when you consider many would have said "No way women should be riding 29"ers, especially shorter women!", which is something I used to hear back then. Given the existence of performance oriented tires and wheels in 650B, that's even more crazy to consider. (And yes- I am aware some folks do use those wheels) 

And then there is the bike, a dual suspension model. A dual suspension XC racer wasn't super common, back in the day, but now it seems to be at least a fairly commonly chosen option. Anyway, just noting how things have changed in that scene.  

Image courtesy of KASK Helmets.

KASK Shows New Nirvana Aero Helmet:

Tuesday also saw the announcement by KASK Helmets who now offer a new aero helmet called the Nirvana. 

KASK used CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) programs to develop the Nirvana which KASK claims has displayed a 35% more reduction in  aerodynamic drag and a 19% increase in air-flow through the helmet to make this their most aero and comfortable helmet in the category. (Compared to "best aero helmets in the category" according to the press release)

KASK does its own internal safety testing which has resulted in their exclusive Multi-Pod Technology. A new design which incorporates a 3-D printed pad which KASK claims is resistant to rotational and linear impacts, yet allows direct airflow to the rider's scalp. 

The Nirvana is available in matte black, matte white, Cherry Burst, Blueberry Fade, and Ultraviolet. The US price for the Nirvana is $400.00.

Comments: Aero is a thing in gravel, although KASK doesn't market the Nirvana helmet as being a "gravel helmet". My bet is that the fast folks will show up with these at gravel events. Notice in the image how the helmet covers the tops of the ears? That's right folks! Your ears are not aero! (HA!) Of course, anyone who has noted the time trials in the TDF recently, or at any point in the last 40 years, has already been well aware of this. It is kind of strange to me that this sort of treatment and design hasn't been utilized in road helmets much, if at all. 

No MIPS here! And did you see that price? Ouch!  

Image courtesy of State Bicycle Co.

State Bicycle Co. Debuts Titanium AllRoad:

State Bicycle Co. announced a pretty compelling AllRoad variant in titanium on Tuesday of this week. The bike features double butted, "Gr9 3AL/2.5V titanium", according to State Bicycle Co. The frame also has internally routed cables, room for 50mm 700c tires, or 2.2" 650B tires, and it has PVD graphics over a sand blasted finish. 

The carbon fork has a stealth through-axle and flat mount brakes with a internally routed cable port. 

The bike can be had as a complete starting at $2,499.00 on up or as a frame only at $1,299.00 (no fork). There are a lot of options so check out the page for the bike HERE. 

Comments: Notice the maximum tire size? This will be the new gravel bike standard going forward. Long gone are the days of maximum tire clearances being under 45mm. These new gravel bikes will be criticized and said to be "drop bar MTB's" by many folks but that just doesn't quite fit here. Too many small details separate the two things. 

I like the aggressive pricing on this bike and most of the details. I do not see 650B as being a big deal for buyers anymore and while the ability to swap in those wheels once made sense it really doesn't anymore. Once you could get that 45+ millimeter tire by going to a 650B X 47mm tire, and maybe a bit larger, but with these new rigs handling 50mm+ sized 700c tires, the question becomes more about the size and height of the rider when it comes to using 650B wheels. I still think 650B makes a lot of sense for shorter riders, but most folks that can should ride larger diameter wheels for their inherent benefits. 

Because State doggedly sticks to their "two wheel diameter - one bike" marketing schtick they have to compromise on bottom bracket drop to allow for smaller diameter wheels. And that is the only thing that would keep me off this bike. There are just too many bikes hitting all the numbers for me to compromise on a design like this State AllRoad Ti. But that's me. I still think it is a smoking hot value. 

USA Gravel National Championships Adds Spots For UCI World Gravel Championship Race:

Besides a $40,000.00 prize purse split equally between the Men's and Women's Elite classes, now it has been revealed that there will be ten spots to the World Gravel Championships to be held in Belgium for those who win those spots. 

The USA Gravel National Championships will be held on a 131.1 mile course with an estimated 5,715ft of elevation gain. The event will be held again in Gering, Nebraska on September 8th. There will be three shorter courses available for amateurs as well. 

Comments: Interesting that the USAC event now is $20,000.00 poorer than last year's event was. But how does USAC/UCI fund racing in the USA with this kind of total competitive flavor? This has been the perennial issue with racing at this level for road for decades. I see no reason why gravel should be exempt when the pattern for everything USAC is doing in gravel mirrors everything they were doing with road events.

The pot was sweetened (or was it?) by the offering of spots to the 2024 World Gravel Championships to be held in October in Flanders. Of course, that sounds all good, but I'm betting the dime to get there is on the competitors, and you'd have roughly a month to come up with the dollars to fly back and forth, get lodging, and of course, food and drink. So, it isn't that big of a deal unless someone else is footing the bill, and I suspect no one is sponsoring this. Maybe a brand of one of the lucky winners would chip in, but with the cycling industry strapped as it is? I doubt it would happen.

Okay, that is a wrap on this week! Thank you for reading the Guitar Ted Productions site!

Finding Purpose

Last May I had a plan to go fixed gear on my Black Mountain Cycles "Monstercross" bike better known as "Orange Crush" on these pages. I've written a ton about this bike over the years, but if you are not familiar with it, see THIS post. 

Well, I think I am abandoning those plans to go with a fixed gear set up. The wheel set I was going to use is set up for 1/8th inch pitch chains and chain rings. That means I'd have to spend a bit of money on a chain ring and a chain and..... Well, I rode the bike again recently and thought I'd like to keep it as it is as far as the drive train goes. 

The plan a year ago was to make this bike a flat bar bike, and that fizzled out as well. I still have the brakes and levers for that project in the basement still in their boxes. So, why has it been so hard for me to get going with....anything, having to do with this bike?

The answer: Progress in this gravel bike field. The bikes I have now are light years better at what I am using them for and the Orange Crush is 'just okay'. That breeds apathy for the bike and that's not good. It makes it hard for me to find a purpose for the bike to hang around here. 

The big thing on this bike is the geometry. That's the deal-killer for me. The bottom bracket drop is 65mm, and that's ridiculously high these days. The front stack height is pretty low as well. To be perfectly fair, Mike Varley wasn't designing a "gravel bike" when he designed the Monstercross. It was, as the name might suggest, a variant of cyclo-cross bikes with wider tire capability allowing this bike to do some MTB-like trails.

Before there were "gravel bikes" this was my gravel bike.

But I got the Monstercross because there weren't any gravel bikes in 2011. You used whatever you could get that made sense at the time to ride gravel with. I used the Orange Crush. At the time, it made sense. Now? 

I would love the bike if it had about 10mm more bottom bracket drop and a degree slacker head tube angle, but it does not and will not ever be like modern gravel bikes. 

So I have spent the better part of three years trying to find purpose for this bike. I just cannot justify spending any money anymore on the bike. It has become an antique, of sorts, and even newer Monstercross bikes are not like mine. They changed, got better with the times, and maybe if I had one of those frames I'd just transfer over the parts and then ride on. But that would also be a big investment into a bike that still isn't quite what I'd want these days. 

Maybe it is time to retire this frame and fork. I might have to look into something I could transfer the parts to, or just get out of it altogether. I mean, it isn't like it is 2011 anymore around here. I've got plenty of gravel bikes. I don't really need a rim brake gravel bike. But if the right thing came along? 

Maybe then.

What's In A Name?

Video image grab from THIS YouTube video.

 NOTE: Large doses of "my opinion" will be handed out in gloppy dollops today. You've been forewarned.....

Recently at Eurobike Scott Bicycles had a little surprise that was posted on a couple websites. This bicycle is interesting for one reason only. It is notable because of what Scott called the bike. The Scott Scale GR. (GR = "Gravel")

The bike caused an immediate uproar in the comment sections wherever it has been written about. Folks are arguing about what it is and how it should or should not be used. 

Look - this is all about names. That is all. It has absolutely zero to do with riding the bike the name is slapped on. We only have ourselves to blame for all of this nonsense. How certain bicycles came to be known in a general sense has done more to cause confusion, disruption, and unnecessary arguments than anything else about cycling has in the past or present.

Remember when these were called "snow bikes"?

One of the best and most rare examples of where a bicycle was named incorrectly and subsequently was renamed was when the fat bikes were first introduced in mass retail as "snow bikes". 

The name made sense because, at the time, fat bikes were revolutionizing Winter riding. However; consumers weren't getting the idea that Winter riding was "fun" and were relying on their shallow take, which was, 'bicycles were not ever ridden in Winter' and "Who would want to do that anyway?" The bike was discounted as a non-viable choice before a test ride could be offered. 

Retailers very quickly moved to "fat bike" to describe the corpulent-tired bicycles and focused on capability, fun, and stability as the message. And "...oh yeah, you can ride these in Winter if you want as well." This put the correct idea in the heads of many consumers and the fat bike revolution took off for a while there. Had we stuck with "snow bike" the amount of bikes sold would have been far, far less than what has been sold. 

And to the fat bike's benefit, the name it was finally saddled with did not describe where you rode it, which - in my opinion - is probably a good thing. Names matter. Words have power. Naming your bike a "snow bike" or a "fat bike" does different things in the mind of a human being. So too does "gravel bike". This is where the Scott Scale GR comes back into the story here. 

The Scott Scale GR obviously comes from a completely different evolutionary line of bicycles than does your typical "gravel bike". It doesn't take a genius to see that it is an XC racing MTB with a rigid fork that has "adventure nipples" attached to its legs. Scott can call their bicycles whatever they want as far as trademark law is not violated. And why wouldn't they call it a "gravel bike"? It is one of the hottest categories in cycling. Especially when one of their own has stated that they like using a MTB for gravel riding. 

Originally called "all-terrain bikes", these became known as MTB's.

So, what the heck is it anyway? Well, to answer that question, we have to go all the way back into early mountain bike (MTB) history when a company called "Mountain Bikes" existed. 

Yes, the term was a brand name. All other bikes of its ilk were known as "all-terrain bikes". However; the brand "Mountain Bikes", started by fat tire pioneers Gary Fisher and Charlie Kelly, had too cool a name for just one brand to "own it" and suddenly everyone was calling their "all-terrain bikes" Mountain Bikes. Soon to be abbreviated to "MTB". 

Once again, a bad choice. Had "all-terrain" stuck instead of mountain bike, we maybe would have seen an even wider adoption of fat-tired 26" wheeled bikes across the nation, not just where there were mountains, or where younginz thought they could do "mountain bike things". Had all-terrain stuck I think "all-road" would have followed. But "gravel" got stuck to this drop-bar, all roads type of bike and so, well...... What the heck does "gravel" even mean? 

Getting back to the Scott bicycle. It is really an "all-terrain' bike, but yeah.... Good luck with that! It will never be known as that and people will attach "gravel" to a bike these days just because it gets the eyeballs and the comment sections going. Mountain bike? That would have done little to attract any attention. Scott marketers did exactly what a good marketing department should do. Use a name that gets attention. Whether that makes sense or not doesn't really matter.

Review: Delium Tires - Mid-Term

 Note: Delium Tire sent over two pairs of tires to Guitar Ted Productions at no cost. I am not being paid, nor bribed, for this review and I will always strive to give my honest thoughts and opinions throughout.

A few weeks ago I received these Delium Tires and now that I have ridden them in some I have a bit more to share on them. If you missed my introduction to these tires you can find that HERE. Keeping in mind that these tires are more of a value oriented type tire I will be adjusting my review take slightly to accommodate that fact. These tires aren't equal to tires costing much more. They should do a decent job for those who cannot, or will not, spend a lot on tires. This is my expectation for the Delium Tires. 

In this post I will cover how the tires have been to 'live with' and how they have been performing so far in my testing. I would assume these tires would be upgrades from a stock entry level gravel bike, and perhaps going home to a first time tubeless user as well. The review will take a viewpoint from such a stance. 

Alright, let's take on that very derivative AllRounder model then. This 700c X 43mm tire is a dead-ringer for a Panaracer Gravel King SK. I happen to have a set of 650B X 50mm Gravel King SK's on a set of wheels in my possession, and so I was able to make a direct comparison. The resemblance is uncanny. So, does this AllRounder do the Panaracer dance? Well.....yes, sort of. 

It will fling a bit of small stone, it does pack up with tacky mud/dirt when that is encountered, and it rides well enough. So, in many ways, the experience is similar. However; you have that break-in period to get through which might be a bit depressing as this tire felt odd. Like a dragging brake was causing you to work a tiny bit harder. But miraculously the feeling changed during one ride recently and the tire felt just average from that point onward. 

Weird! But I'll take it. I tried the roll-down test again and it performed slightly better. What is going on here? My belief is the tire casing, which is fairly stiff when new, broke in and became ever so slightly more supple.
 

Now on to the Speed-X which has some slight similarities to a WTB Riddler. This tire, ironically, never felt 'draggy' like the AllRounder did. This tire did have a LOT of those mold-release "whiskers" on them which made the tire perform below average initially on the roll-down test. Once I rode the "shine" off them though, these tires picked up a lot on the roll-down test and are fairly impressive in that regard now. 

This tire also seems to have a bit better grip in hardpack corners and it also has a flatter crown which I prefer in loose, deep gravel. The ride is supple for such an inexpensive tire. (Same with the AllRounder) But both tires have a couple of traits that are a bit concerning.

One I mentioned already, and that is initial tubeless set up. Frankly, these tires would probably frustrate a new-to-tubeless user so badly that they'd likely swear off tubeless for good. I've set hundreds of different bicycle tires up tubeless and these Delium tires are some of the most difficult to set up tubeless I've ever dealt with. 

Then there is air retention. The Delium tires are not great in this regard, and each model has displayed a tendency to lose all of its air in the span of a few days time. One tire from each pair, so I am watching for this so as to see if it maybe is an actual characteristic of Delium gravel tires or if I just hit the flat tire jackpot within two days time. We will see.... 

So Far... Okay, I like the ride quality and the handling of these tires is fine, really. But these issues with the casings being hard to set up tubeless and the mysterious loss of air I noted in two of the tires is a bit concerning. Stay tuned for a few more weeks and I hope to get to the bottom of it all and have a final verdict for all of you that may be interested in these tires.

Review: WTB 700 X 50mm Resolute

 Note: WTB sent over one set each of the Vulpine S, Vulpine, and Resolute tires for testing and review to Guitar Ted Productions at no cost. I was not paid nor bribed for this review and I will always strive to give my honest thoughts and opinions throughout.

I did a review of the three new WTB tires back in early July and now I want to break down the review into parts focusing on each tire in the release. In this post I am focusing on the Resolute in its new 50mm size.You can go back and see my previous take on this tire HERE.

The 700 X 50mm WTB Resolute with its familiar alternating tread block pattern

What About That Width?: The tire market for gravel has slowly been getting to the point where wider tires are more the norm than not. Ten years ago anything made for gravel tires was well under 45mm in width, with 38mm being the center of the width spectrum for tires made specifically (or marketed ) for gravel use. 

This was likely due to the fact that many companies were pivoting their cyclo cross frames to being marketed as "gravel" bike frames. The tell-tale was in the geometry charts and with regard to tire clearances, which limited these sorts of bikes to 40mm or so. However; savvy bike designers soon saw that wider tires for gravel were a good thing and bikes started being made to handle wider tires. We saw a surge of tires in the 43mm - 45mm range become available in the late 2010's. Then things slowly but surely have made their way to where now we are noticing even more bikes that can take 50mm+ wide gravel, or skinny 29"er, treads. 

The Resolute was introduced as a 42mm tire, but often times would end up being more of a 44mm tire on wider internal width rims. So, WTB jumped this tire straight to 50mm and as of now it stands as the widest gravel tire the company offers at the time of this writing. But if you read my previous update, you already know that the Resolute wasn't "measuring up". I was promised that it would stretch after usage. Did that happen? 

It took a while, but the Reso made it there!

As you can see by the image here, yes, the Resolute did actually make it to a 50mm width. It took a lot longer than I would have hoped and a lot longer to reach its stated width than the other two tires from WTB did which are in this test. 

If I were to venture a guess as to why that was, my guess would be that the full SG+ bead to bead puncture protection casing would be the reason why. The Vulpine and Vulpine S do not have a full layer of puncture protection, theirs is only a sidewall layer. My belief is that the full layer in the casing of the Resolute gave that tire a casing less prone to stretching. I could be wrong there though. 

Ride Performance: The Resolute was designed as an all-around conditions tire. I have had several Resolutes in the 42mm size on various bikes before and the overall impression I got of the Resolute was a tire that was kind of a jack-of-all-trades type tire. It did okay on pavement, but was probably best suited to dealing with loose, deeper crushed rock roads. 

I attributed this to the Resolute's flatter crown to the casing which helps the Resolute not cut into loose gravel and "hunt for the path of least resistance" but rather it seems to ride up over the top a bit better where the bike seems to react as being more stable. There is definitely a calmer ride quality to the Resolute in these situations. The wider Resolute does this even better. 

But a surprising result in my roll-down test was that this wider, heavier tire actually tested out as average on the paved section and above average on the gravel section. Resolutes have always been better on gravel than pavement, but I was expecting a below average paved test and maybe an average gravel test. So, that seemed to be a bit of a surprise for me there. 

Air pressure maters as it does in any tire and situation. What the wider Resolute allows you to do is to have a wider range of pressures to play with. Since the new Reso is almost a 29"er tire, I have been running it from around 30psi all the way up to around the high-30's psi. As the tire has broken in, and stretched a bit, this has allowed for an ability to make the tire fit the situation better. Lots of pavement? Go higher. Lot's of loose, silty, sandy dirt? Go lower. I have no doubt that this Resolute, with its higher volume of air in the casing, could be run in the upper 20's psi in the right situations for my weight and riding style. 

I cannot get away with that with a 40-43mm tire. Maybe with a 47mm tire, like the Teravail Rutland, which I think is really similar to the Resolute, I could get close. But now with an even wider, more voluminous Resolute? I think I have a Swiss Army knife of a tire now.

So Far... Now it will be time to play around with that ability to tune this tire to certain situations and conditions. I am excited to get out and try a few things with the 50mm Resolutes. Now, of course, this probably isn't the all-around tire in the sense that you could go fast and keep up with a paved group ride, most likely. No, that doesn't make sense, but with regard to all situations off-pavement, I am liking this tire's versatility and voluminous casing. 

I'll be back later in the Summer with a final word.

Some Musings From The Latest Podcast

The latest podcast from the "Guitar Ted Podcast" is up now and it is a pretty interesting show this time. My guest on the show was Kevin Lee of The Spinistry, the Texas based gravel event promotions company which has been doing gravel events since 2010. If you haven't heard this show you can listen by clicking THIS LINK which will take you to the Spotify home site for the podcast. 

If you don't listen to the episodes I have a few points to share today that I thought stoood out. It's interesting to see where the UCI is at with how they want to pursue the gravel scene in North America. 

I wrote a lot about this subject already HERE so I will try not to tread on the same ground again in this post. But the podcast is based upon a lot of what I wrote in the linked article. 

Okay, so with all the previous said, one of the more interesting tidbits for me was being told by Kevin that the UCI had actually pursued The Spinistry to have one of their events be a UCI sanctioned gravel event. I also know many other promoters had been asked to partner with the UCI and this was confirmed by Kevin as well as something which is true. I fully believe the UCI is still trying to convince event promoters to partner with them. In fact, the oft referenced "Marginal Gains" podcast with Erwin Vervecken as guest confirms this as well. 

Another interesting tidbit was the price to have a UCI sanctioned event, the fee for the UCI to even partner up with an event, was $40,000.00 in 2019. Forty thou?!! This doesn't include what you, as a promoter, would have to pony up to get your event up to UCI standards either. So, just from this point alone, it is pretty easy to see why there hasn't been a UCI sanctioned, large scale gravel event in the USA. And as Kevin Lee states in the podcast, the UCI isn't bringing anything to the table for the 40K licensing deal. Apparently prestige and legitimizing your event is what that does for you as an event promoter? Man! I can totally see why no event has accepted that offer! 

Then something Kevin was saying, (at about the 1hr mark of the podcast, by the way) struck me as one of the best descriptions about why the gravel scene is what it is and how the semi-Pro and Pro riders should regard that. I'm paraphrasing Kevin here, but essentially what he said was this gravel cycling scene isn't reliant on competition alone. It has an element of competition, but this is not what is most important. The sense that one can ride a bicycle on gravel - or anywhere, really - and have fun, is what is most important. This "fun" can be an adventure, social gathering, going fast, stopping often, and could include parts of some of this or all of these things. 

Actually, THIS is the latest podcast now!

As Kevin said, and I agree, the upper echelon of talent in today's gravel scene should never forget what they are privileged to be able to do at gravel events is built upon the foundation of those "12mph riders", as Kevin put it, making the events what they have become. It is this and the variety of events, which has always been a part of gravel, that makes "gravel" the sort of riding many are attracted to. 

Charging a lot of money to promoters to sanction an event is not going to work. Making events all similar in length and style, and forcing riders into a situation where it is all about top level competitors and "cat'ing up", as Kevin put it, is not going to foster growth in cycling here in the USA. It never really worked for road racing, MTB, or cyclo cross. How in the world does anyone think it would work in gravel cycling? It wouldn't. It would end up killing the gravel scene. 

Thanks again to Kevin Lee and The Spinistry for their support!