Friday News And Views

 Rene Herse TPU Tubes On Test:

I went ahead and took shiggy's suggestion in the comments last week and ordered a set of Rene Herse TPU tubes for testing here. These will be going into a set of wheels with tires which will remain constant throughout this riding season to see how TPU tubes hold up. 

The Rene Herse TPU tubes, besides being clear, have the distinction of having aluminum valve stems with removable cores. So no flimsy plastic/TPU stems here! Hooray! 

However: I am going to ding Rene Herse's shipping department. They threw these two boxes into a bubble interior paper envelope and shipped them USPS. This flimsy envelope allowed the boxes with the tubes inside to get crushed. The boxes looked a bit beaten up coming out of the envelope. I actually adjusted this one seen here for the image to make it look not so sad. 

Hopefully the tubes are none the worse for wear! I'll be finding out soon enough. I'll have a full opening review on these soon. I expect these will work out well. I've been having pretty good experiences so far with TPU tubes and I am considering swapping over a few more bikes to these tubes. They are radically light, ride like tubeless, but do not need topping up with sealant after six months and these hold air even better than a tubeless tire typically does. 

So, I expect "great things" with these tubes. Stay tuned... 

Image courtesy of J. Zuniga

Running Back The R.A.G.?

N.Y. Roll and I are thinking about running back this t-shirt design I call "R.A.G." It was inspired during the last recon for the last gravel event I ever did.  We saw a lone Bald Eagle in a field alongside the road during the Spring time when everything was brown and dead. 

I was inspired and spouted out something about "Real American Gravel" which ended up on this t-shirt design because N.Y. Roll wanted to have the event we were putting on be for, and inspired by, veterans of the military. 

I had a few left overs of this shirt and since the event in question never happened and that was four years ago, I decided to donate the remainder to the Collective and sell them there. One of our board members, Joe Zuniga, a veteran himself, picked one up and gave it to his friend in Texas who wears it proudly. (The image is of Joe's friend) 

This inspired N.Y. Roll to ask me if we should run this back again, and to be honest, I've been thinking about this as well. So, what do you think? Let us know in the comments. 

Image courtesy of SRAM

Gravel Bike Tech Infiltrates Classics Bike Set Up:

The Spring Classics are beginning now over in Europe and all the cobble-specific tricks are being trotted out for those Pro riders to gain whatever advantage they can with them.

One of the more recent developments comes from the world of gravel bikes. Recent online purveyors of Pro race bike set up articles are ballyhooing the usage by some teams of 1X "mullet" set ups which have pie-plate sized rear cogs for the lower gearing necessary toi climb some of those steep Belgian hills.  

That is neat. However, the cobbled classics are their own beast and if we are honest, these races have always demanded unique and sometimes unusual solutions to provide the riders with their best possible outcomes. Drive train solutions for these races have always been a bit different due to their mostly flat profiles, with a few notable exceptions. 

I'm not going to get too excited about Pros using gravel gearing. It is not a big deal, really. But it is ironic, in a way, because roadies used to make snide remarks about gravel riding and racing back in the day, and here they are using stuff which grew out of the discipline. Nice. 

Welcome To Iowa Weather:

Wednesday we had a blizzard, Today it snowed, and this coming Monday it might be a record warm day here in Waterloo, Iowa. 

That's Spring in this area for you! It makes it rough to plan for rides and sometimes it can be downright disgusting.  Furthermore; it can really play havoc with the gravel roads. 

Fortunately - or maybe unfortunately - we are pretty dry and need the moisture, so the roads won't be too awful with frost heaves and big muddy patches, at least I don't think so. But yeah....roller coaster weather is always a treat. 

Things should smooth out soon enough, but when you are itching to get out, setbacks like we had this week are no fun. On the flip side, Iowa's cycling season should kick into high gear next week. Bike shops beware!

Where We Came From: The Lincoln Scene -

I had the honor and privilege of having two genuine gravel cycling pioneers as guests on the "Guitar Ted Podcast" Thursday. N.Y. Roll listened as Matt Gersib and Matt Wills unfolded the tale of their cycling journeys. Their stories intertwine since the two are friends and have been for decades. 

Their stories are informative and will show how several facets of cycling, technology, and the times had to come into focus at the right time to foster a community of gravel cyclists. Cyclists who influenced gravel cycling in a significant way to the point - in my opinion - that gravel cycling would have not been what it has become without this scene. 

If you care about gravel cycling, and if you want to know a bit of the story regarding how it all got started, I cannot recommend this episode enough. Check it out HERE or wherever you get your podcast feed from.
 

That's a wrap for this week! It's a slow news week, but with Mid-South next weekend, you can expect more newsy stuff. Get out and ride those bikes!