The GTDRI Stories: A Look At Gravel Tech Circa 2011-2012

The first gravel-marketed tires I ever tried. March 2012

 "The GTDRI Stories" is a series telling the history, untold tales, and showing the sights from the run of Guitar Ted Death Ride Invitationals. This series will run on Sundays. Thanks for reading!

In 2011, things in terms of gravel cycling were still based in the experimental phase. There were no- up through the end of 2011- "gravel" oriented bits, accessories, or bicycles that you could readily purchase at retail. Nothing. Nada.....zilch! 

But the end of 2011 marked the start of the new era of cycling in terms of manufacturers and eventually, the riders, events, and cycling culture. Without the cycling industry's support, and belief in the promise of a return on investment, I seriously doubt that gravel cycling would exist as we know it today. Certainly, it would have remained mostly an odd-ball Mid-Western based activity. But by the end of 2011, there were things headed to market that would eventually aid in gravel cycling's growth and acceptance. Today, I want to talk a bit about this and how it eventually changed what I saw at the GTDRI over the years.

I wrote recently about tires and how this one component of a bicycle can engender a near religious fervor amongst certain cyclists. Obviously, we can look at a few tire introductions and see that, without these important rubber and fabric hoops, certain segments of cycling may never have happened at all. One great example is mountain biking. Early pioneers of the MTB were using cruiser tires which were heavy and less than good in many situations. Once true 26" MTB tread designs were made, the segment of MTB took off. In a similar way, 29 inch wheeled MTB's would never have seen the light of day without a few passionate folks that pushed for what became known as "The Tire". The 29" WTB Nanoraptor.  Think about fat biking. Would that segment of cycling exist without the venerable Surly Endomorph? 

Gravel cycling also has a "genesis tire" in the Clement, (now Donnelly) MSO 700 X 40mm tire. I first laid eyes on this gem of a tire in a box I opened in my "Lab" in 2012. (Read my post about that here) As stated in that linked post, I heard about this tire at the 2012 Frostbike show. I overheard conversations that Joe Meiser, an engineer at that time for QBP, was having with Donn Kellogg, the owner of the Clement tire brand. Through that eavesdropping I understood that Clement and Joe, along with a few others, had been testing prototype tires for Clement to be marketed toward gravel riders. That tire ended up being the 700c X 40mm Clement MSO. 

The Salsa Cycles 2012 Warbird gravel bike

 Of course, those tires were destined for the upcoming Salsa Cycles Warbird, the first, purpose-built gravel racing bike. Both the bicycle and tires had been battle-tested in Trans Iowa and the Dirty Kanza 200, plus at other venues. I'm sure that the GTDRI was also a minor influence here as Jason Boucher was Salsa's brand director at that time, and he'd been on a couple GTDRI's by this point. 

2011 Raleigh RX 10

But as exciting as all these developments were, it would be several years before the GTDRI would be mostly gravel bikes. Up through 2014, the mainstays of the gravel scene continued to be drop bar MTB, 29"ers, and cyclo-cross bikes. There were still "gravel mutts" aplenty as well, which made things even more interesting out there. 

Part of the reason for this latency for the "gravel specific" bike was that Salsa made a mistake in judging what the market was after. When the Warbird was announced, the titanium version was deemed desirable, but for many, it was a jewel that was too expensive and too precious to be thrown into the cauldron of dust, mud, and rocks. Less expensive, more "rough and ready" options were thought then by riders as being what was needed. I remember there being a bit of confusion and dismay at the aluminum Warbird. That was a budget price many riders could afford, but I think a steel bike was what most wanted and expected. 

The tire was a great option, but due to Clement's lack of "horsepower" in being able to produce enough tires, many riders still were going with the tried and true Schwalbe Marathon series of tires. Of course, the thought of a tubeless gravel tire was prominent amongst gravel aficionados, and that was another thing which kind of held up the process of acceptance as well. It wouldn't be until 2015 that gravel riders would see the first tubeless specific gravel tires on the market. 

From the 2012 GTDRI (Image *I think* by John Mathias)

So, it wasn't as though the gravel specific stuff took over in a big wave. No, it was more of an imperceptible creep that by, say 2019, had seen gravel cycling overtaken by gravel specific everything. In the meantime, we kept using drop bar MTB's like the Fargo, regular hard tail mountain bikes, mostly 29"ers, and the ubiquitous cyclo-cross bikes. 

Meanwhile non-tubeless tire choices quickly kicked out the heavier, ponderous Schwalbe touring tires as the tire of record. Clement had a surefire hit with the MSO, and in 2014 there were even more choices hitting the market in terms of tires. These were mostly all lighter, better riding, and slightly wider tires that made more sense to try to "garage tubeless" into being tubeless tires. 

I think the GTDRI was a great example of where the enthusiast market was at during its run and the bikes that showed up were always representative of what was most often seen on the gravel at the time. In terms of the exact time period I am covering now, it was all still a time of discovery, experimentation, and community shared knowledge that was driving the technology of the day. 

We were figuring out how to be self-supported, using frame bags, different styles of lighting, different set ups on bikes, and all of that. A few of us were riding more gravelly oriented bikes like the Salsa Cycles Vaya, or by 2014, the Raleigh Tamland, and of course, the ever present Fargo and Cross Check bikes. It was a fun time period, but I think it was also a time when the riders started to anticipate that the industry was now onto gravel and we were all waiting to see what would come out next.

Speaking of "next"... "The lead up to the 2012 GTDRI is on tap for next week.