Back in February the UCI's calendar for the inaugural Gravel Worlds Series was leaked and dates were talked about, with the Jingle GX Gravel event listed as the final event in the series, Well, apparently that was not correct. Now the calendar has been officially released by the UCI and it would appear that the Jingle GX date is actually in August. August 6th, to be precise.
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| Here are the dates for the UCI Gravel World Series |
Interesting that the UCI dates in the USA coincide with each other but the rest of the calendar is kind of a logistical nightmare. We'll see how many athletes manage to actually make all the series. The second, Iowa date is two weeks before the Pirate Cycling League's Gravel Worlds, which is also interesting to note here.
All this hoopla and the UCI says that the rules will be lax for a couple of years until they can "evaluate things" regarding what constitutes legal bicycles to use and whatnot. What?!! As if it already hasn't been "figured out". Wow... Pretty lame statement, UCI people. Read the room here. It wouldn't take a rocket scientist to actually - you know- make rules today. It isn't as if the UCI is going to go all in on being "inclusive" with all the other socially conscientious efforts of the day seen in other bigger gravel events. Whatever..... My confidence that this will be anything but another UCI circus show is pretty slim to nothing here.
American Classic Tires Upgraded:
American Classic announced Wednesday that they have upgraded all their gravel tires with new "Stage 5S Armor" puncture protection, new changes to the Kimberlite model to make it roll faster, and that the Kimberlite will also come in a 35mm width now. All the rest of the gravel tire range will be available in 700 X 40mm, 700 X 50mm, and 650B X 47mm. Prices have also increased slightly across the board, but are still far less than most mainstream company's gravel tires.
In addition, American Classic now offers a brown sidewall in the gravel range alongside the tan and blackwall versions already on offer. American Classic also claims weights have been slightly reduced across the range.
Comments: I reviewed a few American Classic gravel tires here last year. These new updates would give me reason to have a slightly better view of these tires if the claims are true. I like the Kimberlite, actually, and it reminds me a lot of the Donnelly Strada USH. So, let's compare....
The Donnelly has 240TPI casings, (okay- they add layers to get that number, most likely, but still...) and their tires list as being slightly lighter. The cost is listed as being $85.00, which compares to $45.00 each at American Classic's new price.
So, are the Donnelly tires worth it? Well, I have the Strada USH tires and they do have a puncture protection layer, maybe not to the extent that American Classic does, but it is there. Despite the belt under the tread, the Donnelly is one of my favorite tires from the standpoint of "ride feel". The American Classic tires did not have that same feel, but.... Now they are supposedly upgraded.
I'll have to see about getting some 700 X 40 Kimberlites in and then I'll find out....
Tomorrow I am to be a participant in what has been billed as the last Renegade Gents event. It will be a bittersweet experience, I am sure, but in the end, I hope that our team has fun and completes the route.
I've told the story before, but since this is the last Gents Race, I will hazard one more retelling- I was invited to be on a team at the inaugural "Renegade Gentleman's Race" back in 2011. I was invited to be on the five man team by Steve Fuller, who I knew through Trans Iowa. But I had no idea who the three other team members were, and being that they all were from the Des Moines area at that time, I was the odd man out.
So I went in with the attitude of just being as compliant to the team's will and doing so as quietly as I could. Seeing as how this was basically a blind date with three guys I had to adapt to on the fly. It was a bit daunting and I was certainly anxious about it, but after about the halfway mark of that first Gents event, I was feeling much better about things.
In the end I gained three new friends. Over the years that I have done the Gents Race I have made a lot of memories. So, now it all comes to an end with this weekend's event. I'm really glad I was a part of the run of Gents Race events. I am happy to have made a lot of new acquaintances and friends out of the deal. Now for one more time at it.......
Hopefully I'll have a report up this coming Monday.
Wheels And More Wheels:
Reynolds G700 wheel. Image courtesy of Sun/Rigle'/Reynolds.
Sea Otter is about to happen so the taps on the news faucets are opening up again. We really haven't seen the likes of this for the last couple of years due to "you know what".
Sun Ringle', Reynolds, and Industry Nine all released news about new wheels for crushed rock roads within a couple of days of each other.
Sun Ringle', who are best known for value driven aluminum wheels, have a new hoop set out dubbed the Duroc 30. It's a 26mm inner rim width wheel and comes with the newly designed Ringle' hubs. Through axle, Center Lock, blah, blah, blah... You've heard it all before. Pretty decent wheels. Then you have the Reynolds "Black Label" G700's in carbon. Offset spoke bed, low spoke count, 25mm inner rim width, light, new hubs.
Both models come in 650B as well.
I didn't get pricing, but I would assume that will be available soon from the Sun Ringle/Reynolds sites. (Both companies under the Hayes banner these days)
Then you have the new Industry Nine wheels called the 1/1 Ultralite Carbon. Yes....carbon rims, and the wheel set weighs in at a claimed 1440 grams and comes with a lifetime warranty. All that for 1600 bucks.
The carbon wheel market for MTB and gravel has really heated up over the past couple of years. It used to be that carbon wheels meant an instant 2K addition to the bike price tag. Not anymore. While I know of some carbon wheel sets hovering around 1K, most are now around that 1500 dollar range with pretty low weight and durability.
That's a wrap for this week. Get out and ride if you can!
7 comments:
Funny you mention American Classic Kimberlites. I bought a set of 40s in February. I just check the box as it I mounted this past weekend. I checked the box and yes it says Stage 5S protection. I paid $35 on Amazon, so free upgrade for me. When mounting them I felt they were thick tire compared to a Vittoria or Maaxis. I only have one bike path test ride on them, so I can not say much about them. I also had them at 40psi for the bike path, so again any conclusions I would have are null. But these are the tires I plan on riding for Rule of 3 in May.
@N.Y. Roll - Yes, those Am Classic tires have a thick bead and a weird casing that I associate with a certain tire company that does things similarly. If Am Classic has their tires made by this company I have in mind, I am not aware of it, and they claim that they "have their own factory", but that may be a case of semantics.
Regardless, the tires I have seen, ridden, and tested have been merely "okay". These claimed improvements might change my mind, and there is a possibility that I will soon find out.
Stay tuned.....
Looking forward to seeing you this weekend!!
Side note - The Jingle Cross Gravel Race and the Jingle Cross Cyclocross Event will be different weekends. The cross event is scheduled for October 14-15 and will not be a WC event this year, just a C1/C2 race.
@S. Fuller - Regarding the Jingle GX: Your comment further reinforces my point that calling the gravel event "Jingle" anything is just weird. It's not even really connected to the CX event, so.....? A new name would have given this event its own identity and caused less confusion.
See you soon!
Greets GT, A geological definition of gravel is “a natural material that consists of water-transported materials and usually has a rounded shape as a result of the water transport.”— so (gotta say so first), these probably really are crushed rock races.
@Skidmark - We used to use both terms interchangeably when I was a child. (I heard the "Adults" using those terms) But again- the whole thing started off from roadies who called rural, back road training rides in the Mid-West "gravel grinders" or said they were out "grinding the gravel roads" as a descriptor of what they were doing.
We picked up on that early on and adopted "gravel grinding/gravel grinders" as the name for our events. THAT got co-opted by the marketing folks early on and morphed into the "gravel" term as we know it today.
Of course, they ARE crushed rock roads. You are correct. But good luck stopping that freight train which is called "GRAVEL™" from continuing on into the future. I've always said it was a bad name for what we have for bikes, events, etc, in a larger sense.
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