Two Things

Don't Bring Me Down: 

I received an email newsletter from an Iowa bike retailer recently and was not at all surprised to see deep discounts on leftover bicycles. I also was not at all surprised to see the labor packages being discounted for the off-season. 

I always found discounting of labor in the bicycle industry to be offensive as a mechanic. How can you devalue what a bicycle mechanic does just because it is a slower time of the year? Do auto mechanics have this done to them when times are slower? How about a plumber? I really doubt you'll find many businesses featuring skilled laborers having discounts on labor just because the business is slow for a month or three. If I am wrong, let me know in the comments. 

I do know one thing - When a business discounts something every year, consumers catch on that whatever you are discounting is not worth the original asking price, at least in their minds. Why would they think otherwise? Then think about how this discounting has been going on for labor in bike shops for decades, and maybe it makes more sense when my argument is considered. 

But there is also another issue going on simultaneously. There are mechanics, and then there are hacks. Too many times bicycle shops run through mechanics like water. Young men and women who never were trained properly, if at all, are working and learning "on the job", which doesn't work out well in the end. Obviously, discounting their labor is maybe, on the surface of it,  seemingly more palatable. But business owners shouldn't be allowing poorly trained people to touch wrenches in their shop. So, yeah..... I saw this a lot going through the years as well. 

Anyway, discounting labor in the bicycle repair trade is a bad practice all around. 

Cycling Media And Why I Keep Commenting On It:

I know several of you may grow weary of my seemingly always negative comments on mainstream cycling media. I thought after seeing another poorly researched piece on gravel cycling I might take a stab at explaining why I do this and why it is important. 

It isn't a new problem, but misguided takes and poorly researched statements concerning gravel cycling are very irritating to me. Why? because a lie, or half-truth, told often enough, becomes "truth". Take for instance the Unbound gravel event. There will have been 20 consecutive years of gravel events held out of Emporia Kansas next June when they fire the starting gun for Life Time Events Unbound Gravel.  Whether or not you feel Unbound is/was Dirty Kanza 200 or not, this string of events is remarkable, and currently highlighted by Life Time Events in its lottery registration. 

So, why would anyone writing about "top stories in gravel for 2025" be so lame as to say in a recently published piece"..... the free-wheeling domain of gravel and off-road races, which was born more than a decade ago..."? See, here is where things get murky because someone writing an article did not write clearly. Most people will read this as "gravel racing started a decade ago" and move on. But obviously, this is not true. 

Trivial? Maybe, maybe not. I was speaking with the director of a very well-known populist gravel event the other day who told me he has heard from several younger Pro racers who think gravel racing started around 2018. It is a thing, in my opinion, due to how mainstream cycling media tells the story of gravel. 

The entire populist foundation for Pro gravel, the very groups of people Gravel™ was founded upon, is largely ignored and so the story of "where this came from" is completely ignored in many cases. I'm not advocating for myself here, because I understand I am a very small part of the underpinnings of what Gravel™ is today. But unless some people stand up and point to why these young Pros can bank out on gravel today, no one will know, or have the ability to care about those stories and people. I, for one, do not feel this is right, and I am trying to do something about it, along with a few other folks. (Stay tuned on this front) 

This is why I comment on this subject so much. I'm not going to stop, because I care. If this offends you, well maybe this blog is not for you. 

Thanks for reading.