Friday News And Views

Image courtesy of QO

 New Lightweight, Aero Carbon Cranks For Gravel:

A new company, founded by the original pair that started Rotor, has announced several new carbon crank sets, one of which is for gravel riding. 

The company is called "QO" and unlike Rotor, these chain rings are not ovalized. The crank set for gravel in the QO range is called "Grava" and features carbon arms reinforced with Kevlar strands to help protect the arms against rock strikes and chipping. 

Available with aluminum single rings, the crank set features aerodynamic "dimples" which help to break up air flow and allow the crank to move more freely through the air, much like a golf ball. The crank set also has a very slim profile to help the arms cut through the air. Spindle/ bottom bracket compatibility is based upon the SRAM DUB standard.

Crank arms will be available in three lengths: 172.5, 170, and 165mm. The arms are said to help reduce vibrations to the rider as well. Availability should be soon with US pricing yet to be determined. Expect these to be somewhere in the 700 - 800 dollar range. 

Image courtesy of Canfield Bikes

Canfield Bikes Debuts New Nimble Ti Frame:

Canfield, known for their multi-link full suspension designs, really pumped up the 29"er scene in 2011 with a long travel hard tail MTB. This sort of thing was unforeseen and very unusual back then. The frame was called the Nimble 9. That frame is still in production all these years later, albeit with an revolutionized geometry. 

Now that frame can be had in titanium as Canfield Bikes announced last week. The new "Nimble Ti" is based around a 150mm travel fork, 29" wheels, and has a sliding drop out set for adjusting wheelbase or for single speed set ups. 

The design is lifted right off the Nimble 9 steel hard tail with the exception of a change to the seat tube to allow more post insertion for today's longer travel dropper posts. 

Frames are going for $3,199.99 and there are complete builds available as well. If you are interested you might want to check this out soon as Canfield is only making 100 of these Nimble Ti frames available. Check out the webpage for the bike HERE. 

Gravel Amplifier: Dirty Disco:

 A new event for the gravel calendar is set to take place on Saturday March 1st. This event will happen out of El Dorado, Kansas, which is just up the turnpike from Wichita, Kansas. 

The event will have two competitive distances of 100 miles and 50 miles with a casual ride distance at 30 miles for those who just want to turn some pedals for a while. 

The price versus distance quotient looks good here and there are fewer categories to make things simpler. The vibe sounds about right and this is in the Flint Hills, so you really cannot go wrong.

The event promises a mid-ride sag, "dirty disco music" and more. Check out the BikeReg page HERE. 

Image courtesy of Ritchey Design

UCI, Ritchey End Licensing Agreement For World Champ Stripes:

The UCI and Ritchey Design had an agreement which ended in December 2024 which allowed Ritchey Design to use the rainbow stripes representing World Championship status. These stripes were used on the components Ritchey Design offers for sale in its WCS line. 

The UCI decided not to extend the licensing agreement, so Ritchey is transitioning its branding to reflect this change. Going forward, all WCS components will feature a gradient strip in grey tones. You can see an example in the image above. 

Comments: I'll be honest, I was surprised that Ritchey had an arrangement like this with the UCI for as many years as it had. It does not surprise me that the UCI did not agree to extend the arrangement. The UCI is pretty persnickety about things like the rainbow stripes. I found out this when the UCI mistakenly thought I was involved in using the rainbow stripes on the Gravel Worlds jerseys. I had quite the jaw drop when I received that cease and desist email! 

Image courtesy of Salsa Cycles

Cutthroat Gets GRX, UDH Hangar - Fargo Updates:

Salsa Cycles doesn't really do a lot of major overhauls of older models nor do they offer many really new, innovative bikes anymore. (Yes - you might say those eBikes are "innovative new models", but they are not, really)

What Salsa does, and it is not a bad thing at all, is evolve their already really good platforms. Take for instance their Cutthroat, which is the most commonly used bike at Tour Divide, according to Salsa Cycles. (Probably in no small part due to the influences of Jay Petervary, by the way) 

Well, now Salsa has offered a new colorway with Shimano GRX 600. The new model also features SRAM's UDH hangar which is swiftly becoming a standard for replaceable hangars. I have to say that the leaf green to sky blue fade paint job is not something I would have ever dreamed up, but it might be growing on me. Hmm...  You can check out the details on Salsa's site HERE. 

The new GRX Fargo in "Brass". Image courtesy of Salsa Cycles

 Also, for 2025 the Fargo will also be only available with GRX 600 and now will feature flat mount brake mounts on the frame (on the Alternator Flat Mount 1.0 drop outs, actually) and on the Cutthroat Carbon Deluxe fork. The fork features inserts to guard against abrasions, much like those found on the Stormchaser gravel bike. The bike is priced at $2,999.00 USD. You can see more details on the Fargo GRX HERE. (Note- There also are Fargo Apex 1's out there yet, but those will feature the post mount brakes and no carbon guard inserts.) I've updated my Fargo Page accordingly.

Annnnnd......that's a wrap! Get out there and ride those bikes this weekend!