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| The 2025 Gravel Earth Series Calendar |
The Gravel Earth Series has expanded its palette of offerings to the competitive gravel rider to include several new events to the series.
Events now span the globe from the Philippines, South America, North America, Iceland, Europe, and Africa. The USA has six dates on the 26 event calendar alone.
Most interesting to my local readers is that - as reported here previously - CORE4 in Iowa and Gravel Worlds in Nebraska are both Gravel Earth Series events. This will mark the first time that Iowa has figured into any international series or has gotten any spotlight in a world-wide stage, such as the Gravel Earth Series brings.
More details can be found at the Gravel Earth Series site.
Comments: This series is ambitious and seems to be aiming to be the preeminent series for gravel racing worldwide. There is, of course, the UCI Gravel World Series, but at this point, if plans come to fruition, the UCI series will have half the events that Gravel Earth Series has in the USA and the UCI has nothing in Iowa or Nebraska at this point. At least the Gravel Earth Series seems to place a heavy emphasis on the birthplace of the modern day gravel scene, both in having events on its calendar and in allowing those events to be what they are uniquely suited to be.
Now the outlier here is the Life Time Grand Prix, which is a mix of MTB and gravel, but within its smaller series of events, it has a very lucrative payday and the "crown jewel" of gravel, the Unbound event in Emporia, Kansas. "Crown jewel" in that it is regarded as the most prestigious Pro level event, but that is all. Whatever charm the event had in its early days is being heavily overshadowed or eliminated in favor of a focus on the highest levels of competition, media access, and prizing.
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| Schwalbe G1 RX gravel tire (Image courtesy of Schwalbe) |
On Tuesday of last week, Schwalbe announced new G1 RX gravel tires. The tread pattern is Schwalbe's most aggressive pattern for gravel tires.
Schwalbe also considers this tire as the gravel tire in its range with the best traction and best cornering traction. They also claim good mud clearing abilities, but I wouldn't hold my breath there when it comes to Kansan clay or Iowa's black dirt.
The G1 RX comes in 700 x 38mm, 700 x 43mm, and 700 x 50mm. Black or tan side walls. Webpage for the black version HERE.
Comments: I am not all that familiar with Schwalbe gravel tires. I did try a set of their lighter weight MTB treads for my Fargo one year and had a poor experience so I haven't been all that interested in Schwalbe's offerings. There are a LOT of fans of Schwalbe tires, however, so they must be doing some things right.
I'll have to try a set again someday just to see what the hype is all about.
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| Image courtesy of Good Grief Bicycles |
I follow "Fixie Dave" Nice on several different social media platforms. He has done Trans Iowa in the past and he really does ride fixed gear off-road and everywhere else all the time. Anyway, he was showing these handle bars recently and they struck me as being very familiar looking.
In fact, they are a dead ringer for the original Jones H-Bars. I first saw those handlebars at the very first DK200 in 2006. I always thought those were cool, but they were expensive, being made from titanium, as they were.
I ended up buying some Titec H-Bars, which were made out of aluminum and varied a bit from Jeff Jones' design by using a riser center section instead of a plain, straight section of tubing like Jeff Jones had been doing. It was ugly, but man! It was sure awesome on my OS Bikes Blackbuck.
One thing led to another and those bars came off, others went on, and the Titec bars went to the recyclers. But when I saw these "Nice Bars", (yes- named after Fixie Dave, it seems), I thought I should try a sample, so I have purchased them.
These are made from steel, not titanium, but the effect will be similar, I hope, to my old Titec H-Bar experience, which is when I thought the Blackbuck was at its best. I'll have more to say when I get them, but if you are curious, here is the website page. And it looks like my handlebars will be here on the 23rd. So, that's pretty quick service from a small fabricator/business.
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| Rocky Mountain Solo Carbon 90 gravel bike. |
Rocky Mountain Bikes Files For Reorganization:
News broke yesterday that Rocky Mountain Bikes has asked for a "Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act" from the Canadian government, according to this report on the "Bicycle Retailer and Industry News" website.
Citing the all too familiar story of a crash in sales post-COVID and a market-wide drop in pricing, Rocky Mountain hopes to avoid interruption of its business with this move.
Comments: This was the sort of thing I thought we might have seen more of earlier in 2024, but it seems that the end of the year has pushed some companies to the brink and now we are seeing the results expressed as financial troubles.
One has to wonder when you see the brand being "closed out" on internet sites like Jenson USA where you can buy a Rocky Mountain gravel bike for 50% off. In fact, that retailer can sometimes be used as a barometer for what companies aren't doing so well by looking at the deeper discounted brands.
Rocky Mountain isn't the only brand with recent troubling news. I'll have another brand featured in next week's "FN&V".
That's a wrap on this week. Thanks for reading Guitar Ted Productions and remember: Get out there and ride those bicycles!
3 comments:
A few pontifications:
- Schwalbe had a great gravel tire for racing a few years back the 37mm wide Sammy slick. It came stock on the carbon warbird. I liked it a lot, however it wore out quickly. With that said, I am struggling on buying tan wall tires. I really dislike them from a functional aspect.
- PON seems to be resting, slumbering on a iconic brand in their line up. All-City under QBP should be closed by now under the QBP umbrella, I wonder what lines will close up this year as well? I am thinking companies will have to reset their management staffs and reduce costs in order to go forward. At some point we will be back to Jumbo, Family Pack, and Best Value labeling on products to sell the idea of being thrifty. The days of charge what you want and when you want are gone for now.
@N.Y. Roll - In response to "A Few Pontifications" (Ha!)
Schwalbe Sammy Slicks were pretty much a knock-off of the Challenge Tires' Gravel Grinder tire. Both wear quickly due to the nature of the design which has only a thin cap of rubber right where the wear is highest on any given gravel tire. I still like the idea of that design for loose gravel though.
I seem to have no issues with most tires, skin wall included, so maybe I cannot relate to your statement on the skin wall issues you have had. However; I will say that there have been a few tires in the past that I haven't been happy with, both skin wall and black wall. One being the Schwalbe I mentioned in the post, the other being those Challenge Getaway skin wall tires which did not like the sealant I used.
PON and some other brands are definitely in some bad financial situations. You mention All City being shuttered, but I would not be at all surprised to see Salsa Cycles cutting way back. I noted that they are giving some hefty discounts yet on all their MTB bikes and even on their new eBikes they just introduced. Not a good sign! But yeah - there will be more troubling news in 2025 and the bicycle industry, along with other outdoor industries, is in for some shocking times, I am afraid.
I have a set of those bars that Eric Baar at Groundup brazed for me in 2005. We called em Eric Bars! Super light, super comfy. Spent their life on my old 1x1 until I sold it. Now I think they will end up on my Black Mtn.
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