Sluggish sales in many categories have plagued the cycling industry all of 2024. So-called "Black Friday" sales offers and discounts have been piling up in this writer's inbox the entire month of November. I've even seen discounts on already discounted bikes! Deep discounts are tempting, but many seem to be reticent to let go of those funds in their accounts.
Further muddying the waters are the results of the recent national election which many fear will increase costs to consumers of cycling goods by way of proposed tariffs. Seeing as how most of the stuff cyclists want and consume come from foreign manufacturers, this seems to be a reasonable fear for the cycling consumer.
Since many consumers are already saying prices are too high, it would seem that any actions taken by the government which would end up increasing the costs of foreign made goods would only further erode consumer's motivations to buy in 2025. Of course, nothing has happened yet, and it may not happen, in regard to the proposed government actions on tariffs. So, we will just have to wait until 2025 and see what really happens.
In the meantime, are you considering buying now instead of later due to this fear of tariff action? Respond in the comments if you care to sound off.
Trek Lime ...Or Is It Lemon?:
In the late 2000's Shimano introduced a three speed internal geared hub which was shifted by a control box electronically. The power to make this work was from a generator hub in the front wheel. The rider only had to pedal and when certain speeds were met the shifter control box would make a gearing change by way of a servo motor than pulled a short length of cable to work the hub gears.
The system had one of Shimano's roller brakes for stopping power. The design also incorporated several visual cues, the most obvious being big, shiny spherical covers over the axles. Shimano marketed it as a group for everyday cycling and for fun. They called it "Coasting". While several companies may have bought into this idea, I only ever saw Treks and Raleighs that were outfitted with the group.
Recently a Trek Lime with this Coasting set up was donated to the Collective. I noted that it was not shifting. So, as a guitar player I am thinking, "Check all the electronic connections first!", because it is something which can easily be addressed and usually is the issue. Okay, the front generator connector was simple to check. But not so for the shifting mechanism. The shifter box has a cover which has two small Phillips type fasteners, one on each side. Trek put the shifter box under the bike and slightly behind the bottom bracket. They also designed a chain case for this model. The chain case is held on by the flange of the bottom bracket cartridge, and guess what I had to do to access that inner screw on the control box.....
My finger is pointing to where the screw is under the chain case. Had Trek designers just given a bit of access to allow for removal of the shifter box cover, "all I would have had to do" was remove the outer part of the chain case and the crank arm, but noooooo! You have to take the bottom bracket and left crank arm off as well.
Dumb!
By the way, the connection was fine. It turns out that the shift point adjustment screw can be adjusted so the bike will not shift.
Also dumb.
I won't mention the absolutely fantastic rear wheel retention system which utilizes eight fasteners you must remove to get the wheel out to fix a flat tire. Yeah..... This isn't a Lime, it is a lemon! But it works now, so.....
Unbound Announces Qualifying Events :
Last week Unbound sent out a press release showing the qualifying events for a spot in Unbound Gravel events in 2025, 2026, and 2027. Those events that will be a part of the qualifying for Unbound Gravel are as follows:
- April 11, 2025: Life Time Sea Otter Classic Gravel (90 mile) in Monterey, California
- July 12, 2025: Life Time Crusher in the Tushar (70 mile) in Beaver, Utah
- August 10, 2025: Heathland Gravel (100 mile) in Lindburg, Belgium
- September 27, 2025: Life Time Rad Dirt Fest (70 mile and 110 mile) in Trinidad,
Colorado
- October 18, 2025: Life Time Big Sugar Gravel (100 mile) in Bentonville, Arkansas
How it works: Each event will have 50 spots up for grabs. Half of those will go to the top finishers in each category of the event in question. Then the other half of available entries will go to winners of a random draw from a pool of the race's competitors. Winners of entries will be guaranteed a spot on the roster of the Unbound Gravel event that follows the event in question on the calendar. So, as an example, if you won an entry in the 2025 Heathland Gravel event you would be getting a guaranteed entry to the 2026 Unbound Gravel event.
According to my source at Unbound Gravel this system will carry through at least until the 2026 qualifier events have been held. So the 2027 Unbound Gravel event would be the final event that would carry on with winners of these qualifiers in this format unless things get renewed/changed.
Comments: This is not "Earth shattering" news by any stretch, but the time stamp for the format is an interesting tidbit. Without saying so, this would indicate to me that Unbound Gravel has no plans currently to become a UCI affiliated gravel event. And from what we already know, it could not carry on as the event is currently formatted if it were a UCI sanctioned event for many reasons, not the least of which is that Unbound's premier distance is about 75 miles too long for the UCI's tastes.
With the prestige which Unbound holds in gravel cycling's professional ranks, and the allure which it has for the under-classes, the current formatting of Unbound seems prudent to continue. It would appear that will be the case for at least a few years.
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| Image by Ben Witt |
New Teravail MTB Tire Soon?:
Ben Witt of Heath Creek Cycles showed off his new Sklar mountain bike recently on social media. It was noted that the tires are Teravail "Prototype" tires. When a commenter asked Ben about these his reply was that there would be more information coming soon.
Comments: There are not a lot of "new" 29"er tires coming out anymore because we've had a solid 20 years of development in the size and most "good" tread designs have already been done and copied several times by this point.
So, it will be interesting to read about what will set this aggressive appearing 29"er tire apart from the crowded MTB tire market. I'm sure there are some interesting details, but from what I can see of the tread design, it doesn't seem that radical or innovative.
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| Cropped from an image by Ben Witt |
I will say that these Sklar bikes look really cool. Ben is selling them through his Heath Creek Cycles shop and you can check out this bike you see there at Heat Creek Cycles.
The danger for me would be that I happen to know that Ben sets his bikes up almost to the gnat's eyebrow to how I would, so this bike you see would most definitely fit me as it sits. But don't dismay if you are not a size Large person because Ben has some other Sklars in the shop as well as his being able to order you one if you'd like.
Interesting note: The 'tall bike' Ben had at Mid-South was built by Sklar but is not a "Sklar Bikes" frame. I know.....weird. But it seemed pretty dialed in and it looked great, so I can only imagine how well these real Sklars are to behold and ride.
PSA: The Blog Is About To Go Chaotic!
Next week will be double posted almost everyday. This will be due to the addition of the Virtual Turkey Burn Ride Reports, some breaking news on Tuesday, and regular end-of-year stuff I have to squeeze in as well.
This means you probably will need to scroll down the page to make sure that you do not miss anything. You may need two cups of coffee and toast to get through it all. You may roll your eyes and click off to go to another site.
I don't know, but this message is to let you know one last time that there will be a LOT of content from here on out. So hold on and get comfortable, because things are about to go nuts here!
That's all for this "black Friday" edition of the FN&V. Get out there and burn off a few calories by riding a bicycle this weekend. Thanks for reading Guitar Ted Productions!
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