Friday News And Views

2022 Giant Trance X

More Bicycle Piracy In The News:

Last week, from the industry news source, "Bike Biz", it was reported that a container load of 127 Giant e-MTB's were stolen from a carrier on the A12 highway. 

Thieves cut open the container, transferred the load to another vehicle and drove away. Details of the heist were not provided, but authorities were quick to warn people to be on the lookout for the bikes on the black market and to report any suspicions activity to the authorities. 

Comments: Supply chain issues, theorized by experts to continue on throughout the year, and perhaps longer, are causing these high end bikes to be targets of thieves. I suspect we will be hearing more about such heists in the coming months as the cycling season gets underway.

As spectacular as these heists are, let's also not forget that thieves are watching cycling teams and events as targets for their nefarious schemes. I've read stories about entire Pro team bike fleets being stolen and last year I heard about stolen bikes at a major gravel event. 

If you have a high-end, late model gravel rig or MTB and you are going to a big event, it should be on your to-do list to be extra vigilant when it comes to watching over your bicycles and in terms of security.  

Wolf Tooth's new rotor lock rings come in many colors.

Wolf Tooth Announces New Rotor Lock Rings:

Wolf Tooth Components announced on Tuesday that they were making rotor lock rings for Center Lock rotors in alloy. These will come in several colors including black, silver, green, orange, blue, red, purple, and gold. 

They fit 12, 15, and 20mm axles. The rotor lock rings are made in the USA and cost $15.95 each. 

Comments: Back in the 1990's I remember bike shops had cabinets full of anodized bits and baubles to accessorize your bike. Things went 'dark' in the late 90's and for most of the 'aughts' as black anodized stuff was about all you could find, unless you bought stuff from King or Hope! 

Things changed slowly over the ensuing years and now it appears that one can get all the colored bits they want and have a 'matchy-matchy' look or a 'unicorn vomit' look, depending on how "OCD" you are about anodized accessories. Maybe I ought to grab a pair of the purple ones for my pink BMC! 

UCI Pro Gravel World Tour Dates And Venues Leaked:

According to a "Cyclingtips" article online dated 2/22/22, the UCI Pro Gravel Wold Tour calendar has been leaked. The series has 14 dates and apparently it will kick off in April in the Philippines. 

There are three dates in North America. Two in the US and one in Canada. Interestingly the last date is listed as the "Jingle GX Gravel Race". The series is sponsored by Trek. Another look at this story can be found here on "Cycling News".

Comments: A lot of this was known ahead of these specifics, but the last date is intriguing. It is in Iowa City and the event has been held there for a few years already. Interestingly, Jingle Cross lost its World CX event status and this plumb event on the Gravel World Tour would be a nice alternative. 

Will that final event be the World Championships?  No. That honor will go to Tuscany where the Gravel World Championships will be held, reportedly in mid-October.

Southeast Gravel Series Announces Docu-series Project:

The Southeast Gravel Series, a six event series of gravel events held in the Southeastern USA, has announced a 'docu-series' to cover these evnts which they have dubbed "What Pressure". Here is a bit from the press release I got for this:

" What Pressure will follow gravel cyclists, from pro to amateur, involved in the world of gravel racing within the Southeast Gravel race series. Each episode will run approximately 20 minutes and will highlight a variety of cyclists that makes gravel racing such a unique demographic. "

The event series also announced a hand-cycle category for all of its events as well, marking it as the first event series to feature such a category offering in the gravel events genre'. 

You can see more about the series here: https://southeastgravel.com/ 

Comments: Ever since Tour Divide was documented in "Ride The Divide" gravel event directors and film makers have been eager to promote their events similarly. Of course, gravel event documentaries were done before 2012, such as the one about Trans Iowa in 2008 called "300 Miles of Gravel". But "Ride The Divide", in my mind, was the watershed creation from which this kind of marketing/entertainment idea for gravel events sprang forth from. 

The feature of the series that is probably more important than the docu-series, in my opinion, is the hand-cycle category for these events. That will be interesting to watch unfold. Undoubtedly this will expand the scope of participants even more in the realm of gravel events. This, to my way of thinking, is a bigger deal than a self-serving film series which- in all likelihood- will not be as far-reaching in its impacts as a hand-cycling category could be. But perhaps I will be proven wrong there. 

Be Kind To Your Tires:

Wednesday I saw this Tweet from veteran cycling media writer, James Huang. If you cannot read it, basically what he is saying is that new orders into Maxxis Tires for bicycle tires will be delivered in TWO YEARS from now. 

Let that sink in for a moment.

I also saw another article encouraging cyclists to run their tires longer and to always patch tubes before throwing them out. In other words, expect shortages, and higher prices, on new wheel goods. And as well- shouldn't we all be using up tires and tubes until they are worn out? That's another thing to be thinking about as well. 

I'm seeing people asking about maintenance, where to buy chains and cassettes, and more. This situation is far from over, and with all the events kicking into gear this year with new ones being added seemingly daily, pressure on the supply chain will probably remain at a very high level throughout 2022 and 2023 by the looks of it. 

Some experts were saying that by the end of this year we'd be seeing relief. Ah........I am not so sure about that now anymore.
 

That's a wrap for this end of February "FN&V". Will March come in like a lion, or a lamb? I don't care as long as it gets warmer! Thank you for reading G-Ted Productions!