Starting off this FN&V with a gravel event in Kansas called the Flint Hills Gravel Ride and Run. This event will happen on April 12th, 2025 out of Americus, Kansas.
The event will feature a tweaked distance line-up of 20, 40, 80, and 120 miles. As event director Bobby Thompson says though, these distances are "ish", as in 20-ish, 40-ish, etc. Ha!
The event also holds the distinction of being the opening event of the Great Plains Gravel Cup series, which will be in its inaugural season next year.
Find out more at: https://flinthillsgravelride.com/
Recently a Velo.com story was published revealing that Mammoth Tuff, a gravel event in the Eastern Sierra, has agreed to become one of two events in North America slated to be in the 2025 UCI Gravel World Series.
The event will host that race but will retain other distances and categories which will not require a license to participate in, according to the article on Velo. Also noted there was that Mammoth Tuff reached this decision to partner with the UCI, in part, due to falling participation numbers since the event's inception in 2020.
Interestingly the fee the UCI is asking for putting their stamp of approval on an event in the Gravel World Series was revealed to be $10,000.00 which was reportedly cut in half for Mammoth Tuff. The Highlands Classic will be the other event in North America included in the series.
A friendly reminder to those loyal readers here and maybe news to those of you who are new here. The "end-of-year" blog schedule is about to begin!
So, here is a brief round-up of what you can expect to see here soon:
- Bikes of 2024: A brief review of the bikes I used throughout 2024 with a list of any changes and future plans. Just a fun look at what I ride.
- Rear View 2024: This is a quarterly review of all the highlights (and maybe some low ones!) from the year. Mostly focused on the blog here but I often pull in other life events as well. These are broken up into four parts and one will be seen each week in December.
- Top Ten Posts of 2024: A list of the most viewed posts on the site for the year. I always am surprised by what gets looked at here the most, and I think you might be surprised as well!
- Top Images of 2024: I choose the best 12 images, one from each month, and post them in one post with some commentary where I deem necessary.
- NEW! Top People of 2024: I decided after reviewing the year for these upcoming posts that I needed to fete those individuals who had a major impact on me and what happened during the year. So, these will be rolled out as single posts, some covering a single individual, some about groups. Stay tuned! I think this addition will be a good one!
- A Look Ahead: The last post of 2024 will be dedicated to looking at what I see for myself and cycling in general for the upcoming year.
- The Regular Stuff: There will be "FN&V's", the continuance of the celebration of 20 years of blogging, and the random current content posts.
- NEW! The Best Podcasts of 2024: I'll do a single post concerning the most listened to podcasts of the past year with links in case you need to kill some time over the Holidays!
So, as you can see, there is a LOT of content there! I'll start rolling some of this out next week because as things stand now, I have 47 posts accounted for and as of today there are 45 days left in the year! So, with anything current inserted into the mix, that will mean some days will be double post days. Make sure you scroll all the way through any upcoming posts because you might miss something if you don't!
As always, THANK YOU for reading Guitar Ted Productions!
Don't Forget To Nominate The Next GCHoF Class!.
The Gravel Cycling Hall of Fame is still looking for good write-ups for their next class of inductees to be enshrined this coming May of 2025.
The task is relatively easy: Ask the person you want to nominate if it is okay. Go to the GCHoF Nomination page. Then write a good, well written two paragraph article on why this person deserves to be feted. Send it to the GCHoF before November 30th. That's it!
Nominees will be named after voting by the electors. Thanks for considering this!
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| From a recent patent filing by Lauf. |
Is Lauf Going To Change Freehub Design Radically Soon?.
Mid-week news broke on a patent filing Lauf filed for a design using a radical new idea for how hubs are mated with a cassette and how those two components work as a freehub.
There are two ideas which are very 'outside the box' going on here. first, as seen in the first image, Lauf proposes a set of "pawls", or more like springs, really, which would be attached to the carrier for a traditional cassette. These springs are drawn in a way which makes them look like serpents, but the squiggly looking bits are actually meant to give a bit by stretching those elements which have the serpentine look out a bit, giving a bit of a softer engagement when the rider returns to pedaling after coasting. In another drawing on THIS PAGE those serpentine spring elements are drawn straight, so it appears that Lauf has not yet decided which way to go there.
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| Again, from Lauf's patent filing. |
This would mean that the entire inner hub shell would be a machined drive ring, essentially, which the serpentine elements would engage with. Furthermore; if the serpentine elements are staggered, as it appears is proposed, the engagement points could well be in the hundreds, if not thousands!
Lauf apparently proposes to 3D print this according to a report I read HERE. Will this come to pass? If it does, I would think it would have a major impact upon the market, if it should prove to be more efficient and lighter in weight than traditionally designed free hubs.
Sometimes crazy looking ideas end up changing the world, and then again, sometimes you see something that looks wild and it disappears. Which this will be is anyone's guess, but kudos to whomever designed this, because it is a very different take on a freehub design, at least as far as I know, it is.
That is a wrap on this week! Look for 'end-of-year' posts to crank up starting next week here!
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