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| Image courtesy of Panaracer |
Panaracer's Gravel King range of tires has an addition now with the latest racing focused Gravel King ZX.
The ZX features a slick center section for speed. The shoulders have elongated tread blocks for cornering and braking traction. The Gravel King ZX also has a rounded casing which should promote riding on the center section for straight line speed and then as the rider leans into corners those side lugs come into play for stability in corners.
The ZX version of the Gravel King will have Panaracer's proprietary ZSG Gravel compound developed specifically for gravel. This single compound will lend great ride characteristics and promote long-term durability. The Gravel King ZX tires also will have other Panaracer technologies utilized such as BeadLock and TufTex.
Coming soon in sizes from 700 x 35mm, 700 x 40mm, 700 x 45mm, 700 x 50mm, and 700 x 55mm with the 45mm tire weighing a claimed 510 grams and the 50mm weighing 600 grams each. Price for each Gravel King ZX tire is set at $84.99 USD. Availability on the 45mm and 50mm tires is May 2026 with the 40mm scheduled for July, the 50mm scheduled for August, and the 35mm tire slated to be available in October 2026.
Comments: The profile of this tire, with a flattened top section where the slicker part of the tread is, reminds me a lot of the old, original WTB Vulpine. The air pressure settings you used on that old Vulpine really were critical to the performance of the tire. Too much and the tire felt odd when leaned over in a turn. Too little and you started dragging those shoulder knobs into contact with the ground on straight sections, which kind of defeats the intentions of the design, I would be wary of the Gravel King ZX being similar in this vein.
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| Confluence CUES 11 (Image courtesy of Salsa Cycles) |
Salsa Cycles has released a new version of the Confluence e-gravel bike. This Sea Foam Green bike features Shimano CUES 11 speed and a Mahle hub motor for an extra boost which Salsa claims can last up to 45 miles.
Check out this bike at Salsa Cycles site HERE.
I know most of you have heard the term "it's gone viral" or some form of this term. One thing I never thought I'd see is one of my social media posts going viral. I mean, most of what I post is either very cycling specific or just downright goofy. The latter was what my April 1st Instagram post could be defined as being.
Here's the text I posted with the accompanying image. "When a steel bicycle frame reaches maturity it splits open and releases its reproductive spores into the atmosphere. These spores the settle in frame building shops where they bond with other frame spores to become new bicycles again."
I misspelled "then" by omitting the "n", but I did not care at the time because I figured hardly anyone would see this off the cuff April Fools post. But I was wrong.
So wrong!
24,260 views and counting! It's kind of crazy. I cannot say why this took off, but "The Algorithm" must have thought it was funny, I guess.
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| From Shimano social media |
Shimano offered a few tweaks to GRX, its gravel going component group, recently. The trend toward shorter cranks and larger drive rings were addressed with the addition of a 44T and 46T 1X GRX rings coupled with a couple of shorter crank arm choices in GRX.
Nothing crazy there, but a nice option for those who have a desire to follow this trend with their gravel set ups.
The CUES thing is a bit more interesting, in my opinion. CUES has been out for a while now and while it was ballyhooed as a versatile, lifestyle group for the average cyclist, enthusiasts have largely ignored it. This is because CUES was designed in its own ecosystem which rendered it incompatible with other Shimano products past and present.
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| CUES RD U6030 (Image courtesy of Shimano |
Recently Shimano upgraded its lower tier Tiagra group from ten speed to eleven speed and in this upgrade they introduced an 11-36T cassette. Interestingly, CUES, which previous to this new CUES derailleur was designed for LinkGlide technology, has this new derailleur working with HyperGlide, which is what the Tiagra cassette technology is based upon.
This raises some questions. Is CUES switching over to HypeGlide? What is the hierarchy placement for this new CUES versus Tiagra? Reports say the new CUES rear mech is actually lighter than other CUES derailleurs and the new Tiagra 11 speed rear mech.
According to reporting online, Shimano has said this new CUES introduction is more about gravel bikes and Tiagra is for sport road riding, citing slight differences in chain line and Q factor between the two groups.
So, this then leaves us with a question about CUES and Shimano's GRX groups. Shimano, at GRX's introduction, made the top tier GRX 800 an eleven speed group and the lower tiered GRX 400 was ten speed. Is this new CUES derailleur a precursor to a lower tiered GRX eleven or twelve speed group because GRX is going to 13 speeds at the top of the range?
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| Maxxis 32" range. (Image poached off social media) |
Yesterday at Sea Otter Maxxis showed a full range of MTB tires in 32" size. This was a rumor for months and now it has become a reality.
This points to OEM acceptance of 32" wheels as a viable retail product. I will be very surprised if most top-tier brands do not have 32"ers in their ranges by 2027, (this Fall).
In other 32"er news, there was the Fargo and Teravail tire intros yesterday. (See yesterday's post on these things for more details) Velo Orange showed a 32" rim in silver. Also, a couple of prototype bicycles were shown. One was from Esker Cycles and was based on the Lorax. The other was from Revel Bikes and was a 32"er titanium hardtail. Revel also had a "mullet 29"/32" bike in titanium as well.
In perhaps the biggest news and sign that 32"ers are here to stay, at least for a while, was the spotting of a prototype 32" Fox fork on an Ari Bikes 32"er FS model. You know what this means? It means Fox has an OEM on the hook for production, or thinks it will soon. My bet is XC MTB bikes from one of the bigger brands will be the model type this shows up on.
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| Image courtesy of Open Cycles |
Open WI.DE 2.0 Announced:
Open Cycles sent a press release showing off its upcoming OPEN WI.DE 2.0 carbon adventure drop bar frame and fork.
Claiming an amazing tire clearance of 29" x 2.6" (700 x 66mm)! To get this to work OPEN had to use a double-dropped chain stay design. OPEN claims that going from a 50mm to the 66mm tire doubles air volume. This will allow the rider to tackle even rougher terrain.
To get this all to work, OPEN had quite a challenge on their hands. The result was still lighter, by only a little bit, than the outgoing model. Additionally only 1X drive trains are supported while retaining gravel group set compatibility.
The OPEN WI.DE frame and fork is going into production now with a promised late Summer 2026 delivery.
That's a wrap for this week. Get out there and ride a bicycle this weekend!
2 comments:
OPEN has always seem to the large tire clearance gravel guys for years. I think their 2.6 width will be the standard going forward. the only real limitation will be # of gears you can run.
Personally, I can't see taking a bike with the OPEN's racy geometry anywhere that a 2.6" tire would be needed. I guess they have to do something to keep people buying bikes.
** Settling back into my retro-grouch recliner now **
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