Friday News And Views

Image courtesy of Salsa Cycles social media.

  "Salsa Cycles is the Bread" of this" FN&V Sandwich!

Salsa Cycles To Offer "Party Shirts" At Mid-South:

The Mid-South event and Salsa Cycles have had a working relationship for many years with bike introductions and the Chaise Lounge appearing on course. 

This year Salsa Cycles is bringing something a bit different as well as a newly recovered in purple velvet Chaise Lounge. They are bringing 'party shirts'. 

There will be a very limited number of these available only at the vendor demo area before the Mid-South event in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Salsa is celebrating the Chaise Lounge being inducted into the "Icon" category at the Gravel Cycling Hall of Fame ceremonies last year. The shirts, in two colors, will feature the now purple Chaise Lounge printed all over a Hawaiian style short-sleeved shirt. 

Salsa has no plans to offer these via distributors or dealers but they are not saying it couldn't happen either. So, the best bet is to find someone that is going to Mid-South and grease their palms liberally if you have the itch to get one of these shirts. 

I'll (hopefully) be seeing these in-person as I am to attend the festivities in a couple of weeks or so. Stay tuned for a report on this and all the goings on at Mid-South coming up here soon.

Image courtesy of Erik Mathy

A (Brief) Honeman Flyer Update:

Today is supposed to be the day that the Honeman Flyer frame and fork arrive at the illustrious Guitar Ted Productions headquarters. I have been in 'parts acquisition mode' for the entire week and I have parts coming in today as well for this.

I already have received the bottom bracket, the rear through axle, and two stainless steel water bottle cages. I am to see a pair of brake levers show up which were graciously donated to this build by a blog reader named "Charlie". (Thanks again!!!)

There will be a massive scramble tonight and tomorrow afternoon and evening to see if I can get this rig together. As of now, the first outing for the Honeman Flyer is to be a bike swap that the Cedar Valley Bicycle Collective is putting on Sunday at Second State Brewery in downtown Cedar Falls, Iowa at 1:00pm till 4:00pm. So, if you are a local, you might be able to peep this frame and fork in the flesh there. Assuming all goes well. 

And that's a BIG assumption! You never know what tiddly bits I might need and don't have, or surprises about the geometry or build that I was unaware of. I will say that I am pretty sure this bike will be somewhat analogous to the Twin Six Standard Rando v2 with a couple of important variations. I'll get into the weeds about all of that later on. Stay tuned.....UPDATE: 8:35am Friday Shipment delayed until Monday. Dang it! Oh well......

Balvindar Singh at the finish of T.I.v12 Tell me this isn't "winning".

Reaction To Cycling Weekly "Spirit of Gravel" Post:

Maybe you have seen a post making the rounds on social media written by a man named Josh Ross for "Cycling Weekly". The post is getting run because, well.....to be honest it is clickbait. Which is why I won't honor the post with a link here. Search out the thing if you must. 

But clickbait usually kicks off with a controversial statement, and this one has a doozy which has stirred up the gravel folk. What do you expect from an article that starts out by saying that the "Spirit of Gravel is dead and that's for the best".

First off, most people don't know what "spirit" even means, nor do they believe in it, or that spirits may even exist. So right off the top this gets messy when we speak of the "spirit of gravel". I'll leave my thoughts on that for another time. Other than being a mechanism for gaining attention for the author's post, it has no bearing on the message Mr. Ross is proclaiming. 

The real point here is that the author thinks gravel events should have categories so more people can stand on a podium. The author states, and I'm not making this up, that" "I don't participate in gravel events because I can't win."

Yep..... Amazing. If this statement doesn't tell you that the author doesn't understand gravel events nothing else will.  Question: If the author doesn't participate in gravel events then what makes him any kind of an authority on what the events on gravel should be? I guess the author is looking out for our well-being. I mean, I guess we aren't "winning" so something must change! Gosh! I had no idea! (sarcasm alert)

 "Winning" doesn't limit itself to standing on a podium. That's such a narrow and well....ignorant way of looking at competition and gravel events. Besides, there already are gravel events that have categories and podiums for classes. Obviously this author has not done his research. Gravel Worlds anyone? And plenty more besides that event. 

And finally, if the author of that post thinks this sort of event doesn't exist, he should start one that suits him. Which is also a thing we did to get gravel going. Until this person does that, this post is pretty much just hot air. 

Salsa Cycles Goes Electric:

Sea Otter 2023 had a big, unexpected surprise from Salsa Cycles. Their booth at the expo there was festooned with banners proclaiming that "Salsa Electric" had debuted with the first model being the Confluence gravel bike. This was a hub motor design and was very strangely not reported on by any mainstream cycling outlet. 

After Sea Otter there was no mention of the electric Salsa bikes at all. It was as if they never existed. Weird. Not at all like Salsa had been marketed previously, but you had to believe that at some point that Salsa would be coming out with motorized bikes. 

That point would appear to be now. The Confluence being the first up, but mid-motored off-road, gravel, and MTB product is following soon. There will be the Tributary, a "Fargo/Cutthroat" type electrified adventure/bikepacking bike. Then you will see the Moraine and the Notch FS bikes as well. 

Comments: Obviously this was a direction Salsa had to take with most companies having electrified bikes in their line-ups in the 2020's already. The question is, how will these late-comers to market be accepted and is this the right direction for Salsa Cycles to go? 

Okay, that's a wrap for this week! I hope that you het out and ride this weekend!