Friday News And Views

Hey, we should lace these old XC racing rims to road hubs and call it a gravel wheel!

Enve Wheels Debuts Gravel Wheel Set:

When I started messing around with disc wheels for gravel bikes I found that old 29"er wheels which were laced with narrow-ish mountain bike rims worked really well. Many of these early 29"er rims were maybe 25mm or if they were wide, 28mm on the outside. Of course, that's positively skinny now for even XC mtb bikes.

Gravel tires have ballooned to the 45mm range now so a wider rim is totally necessary for tubeless use, and even for tubes, to be honest. The lower pressures you can use and the way the tires set on those wider rims make them more stable on rougher roads and dirt. So, I even played with 25mm inner rim widths and found that worked quite nicely. Then you hear about companies making "gravel" oriented wheel sets and you see something like the following from Enve's site:

"The M525 is a lightweight, full carbon tubeless compatible clincher that has been developed specifically for the demands of world cup cross country racing. Consequently, many of the same attributes that make for a great XC race wheel also deliver a ride quality that inspires confidence for off-road drop bar endeavors."

See? Even these wheel companies are catching on. Well, at least their marketing departments are seeing how this could work. That said, a claimed 1320 grams for the set is very attractive. Only cost ya $234.00 a month! (HA!) We used to, (and many of you still might be), riding wheel sets that cost $234.00 for the set! 

Old mtb wheels are the "new gravel wheels". 

 

The new camera would have been fast enough to get this shot.....O well!

  The New Camera Has Arrived!

 As I walked in the door Wednesday evening I was told by my son that about 15 minutes after I walked out of the door for Trans Iowa v14 recon my new camera showed up.

Dang it!

They say that you don't know what you got till it's gone, and boy howdy! Did I ever figure that out Wednesday! That Nikon point and shoot I used probably does okay for the family reunion and the odd image of the National Park one might be visiting, but for quick, on the fly shooting, it sucked! 

I missed quite a few shots just because the start up speed was so slow. Then the auto focus was bad as well. That caused a lot of unusable shots and the ones I kept were blurred, but I guess I have to take what I have. Had I been shooting with the TG-5, it would have all been cake. I would have nailed every shot. 

But the main thing is- I have the TG-5! I am pretty stoked. And it came to me in black, so it looks great as well. Personally I liked the red, but hey! For what I paid I cannot be choosy. So, black it is. It looks classy and more like a "serious camera guy's" camera, I suppose.  I plan on having a bit of a review up after I've used it some here.

 Merry Christmas!

Since Christmas falls on Monday this year many of you will be gone and not checking in here, so I wanted to say, "Merry Christmas!" before you all flew out for wherever it is that you may be headed to this weekend.  

I'll be around here posting, so you can always check in whenever you get a chance, but here is a challenge: "Tune out from social media this weekend!" Try it and tune in to your friends and family instead. You can always catch up on things next week. 

That includes this blog, so if you are off to see friends and family, well, be intentional and spend some good, attentive time with them. If you are just doing the "regular ol' things", well, I'll be around. Oh, and thanks for reading my scribin'.

So, with that, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all!