Gravel Grinder News: American Classic Tires, WTB Saddles

The new "Grus" by American Classic. (Image courtesy of American Classic)

American Classic Debuts New Tires:

With Eurobike humming along over the pond we are getting a few new tidbits thrown our way. Despite the news of a clogged up supply chain, some companies are still showing new stuff.

One such company is American Classic, the company that came back from the dead to establish itself as the value leader in bicycle tires which have good performance characteristics.  They recently added three new tires, the Grus gravel tire and two new 29"er tires. 

The Grus will come in only black, only one size, (for now) 700 X 40mm, and is a claimed just-over-500 gram tire. 120TPI and it has American Classic's Class 5S puncture protection belt. The tire sells for $45.00 USD and can be found on American Classic's Amazon store. 

The American Classic Cumbre 29" X 2.25" (Image courtesy of American Calssic)

Comments: I'm mildly interested in the Cubre 29"er tire as it looks fast and American classic is claiming it weighs in at around 690 grams, which for a tire this big would be stellar. 

But.....I have serious doubts about that weight. For one thing, this is a 2.25" tire, and I have 700 X 45mm tires that weight that much here in the house. Note: The same press release says that the Grus weighs 550 grams and it is a 40mm tire. Yeah.....

American Classic says the tire is puncture protected too, and even if that is only under the tread cap, that adds weight. So..... Either the tire isn't that light, really, or it isn't that wide. If it is, I'd be pretty surprised by that. 

That all said, the Grus does look fast. Might be a great tire at that price. 

The new WTB Silverado (Image courtesy of WTB)

WTB Updates Silverado, Volt Saddles:

WTB announced recently that they have taken what they learned from designing the new Gravelier saddle and have applied that to their popular Silverado and Volt models. 

The saddles have the new Fusion Form nylon bases where the amount of reinforcing fiber can be manipulated for the best comfort outcomes. the Volt remains pretty much unchanged with the exception of that Fusion Form tech and a refreshed look. The Silverado is where the big changes occurred.  

WTB found through rigorous ride testing that the Silverado was better if it was a tad bit shorter and had less of a "dip" in its midsection. It really looks similar to the Gravelier now, to my eyes, without the cut-out. 

Both saddles will be available in several price points based upon their rail material, mostly. I am a bit skeptical on the Silverado, and I would be really kind of bummed if it weren't for the fact that I know that the Gravelier is a really great saddle. Because if I hadn't have ridden the Gravelier I'd be sad that they changed the Silverado, as it is amongst my very favorite saddles now. But if it is like a Gravelier, I'd be good with that. 

Maybe we'll see about that soon...

Gravel Grinder News: American Classic Tires, WTB Saddles

The new "Grus" by American Classic. (Image courtesy of American Classic)

American Classic Debuts New Tires:

With Eurobike humming along over the pond we are getting a few new tidbits thrown our way. Despite the news of a clogged up supply chain, some companies are still showing new stuff.

One such company is American Classic, the company that came back from the dead to establish itself as the value leader in bicycle tires which have good performance characteristics.  They recently added three new tires, the Grus gravel tire and two new 29"er tires. 

The Grus will come in only black, only one size, (for now) 700 X 40mm, and is a claimed just-over-500 gram tire. 120TPI and it has American Classic's Class 5S puncture protection belt. The tire sells for $45.00 USD and can be found on American Classic's Amazon store. 

The American Classic Cumbre 29" X 2.25" (Image courtesy of American Calssic)

Comments: I'm mildly interested in the Cubre 29"er tire as it looks fast and American classic is claiming it weighs in at around 690 grams, which for a tire this big would be stellar. 

But.....I have serious doubts about that weight. For one thing, this is a 2.25" tire, and I have 700 X 45mm tires that weight that much here in the house. Note: The same press release says that the Grus weighs 550 grams and it is a 40mm tire. Yeah.....

American Classic says the tire is puncture protected too, and even if that is only under the tread cap, that adds weight. So..... Either the tire isn't that light, really, or it isn't that wide. If it is, I'd be pretty surprised by that. 

That all said, the Grus does look fast. Might be a great tire at that price. 

The new WTB Silverado (Image courtesy of WTB)

WTB Updates Silverado, Volt Saddles:

WTB announced recently that they have taken what they learned from designing the new Gravelier saddle and have applied that to their popular Silverado and Volt models. 

The saddles have the new Fusion Form nylon bases where the amount of reinforcing fiber can be manipulated for the best comfort outcomes. the Volt remains pretty much unchanged with the exception of that Fusion Form tech and a refreshed look. The Silverado is where the big changes occurred.  

WTB found through rigorous ride testing that the Silverado was better if it was a tad bit shorter and had less of a "dip" in its midsection. It really looks similar to the Gravelier now, to my eyes, without the cut-out. 

Both saddles will be available in several price points based upon their rail material, mostly. I am a bit skeptical on the Silverado, and I would be really kind of bummed if it weren't for the fact that I know that the Gravelier is a really great saddle. Because if I hadn't have ridden the Gravelier I'd be sad that they changed the Silverado, as it is amongst my very favorite saddles now. But if it is like a Gravelier, I'd be good with that. 

Maybe we'll see about that soon...

Friday News And Views

GRX goes to 12 speed mechanical (Image by Matt Gersib)

Leaked Images Show Shimano GRX 12 Speed:

In a leaked set of images from the recently run Unbound Gravel event, we have learned what we thought was pretty much a given at thie point. That being that Shimano will be offering 12 speed GRX very soon. 

My good friend MG caught these images and we posted them up on Riding Gravel last Friday. There was another media person that saw the same 12 speed mechanical GRX on a racer's bike elsewhere as well. Following is what I know so far...

There is no Di2 12spd GRX being shown or anywhere in sight as of now. I am betting that probably won't happen this year. Due to over-supply issues in the industry everything is being slowed down and introductions of new stuff will be pushed back until this glut starts to clear out from warehouses. I would bet Di2 12spd GRX will happen, but probably not soon. Meanwhile, we have 12 speed mechanical GRX to drool over, or make fun of, depending upon your point of view.

Some rumors are flying around about this new 12 speed GRX having a MicroSpline hub to accommodate current MTB cassettes. This has been confirmed by at least one site, but not officially by Shimano. So, a lot of current fancy-pants carbon wheel sets could become "old hat" - or "not cutting edge", soon. Further cementing this idea is that the other GRX 12 speed group seen at Unbound had a MTB cassette on it. Rumors are rampant that new GRX will accommodate wider range MTB cassettes for 1X usage to compete with SRAM. This would point toward MicroSpline as well. I think this is a given with the new 12spd GRX. However; that doesn't mean Shimano won't offer a traditional HyperGlide freehub for GRX. All we know now is that new 12spd GRX will most likely have MicroSpline hub compatibility.

Otherwise there is a new design for the brake caliper and a tweak to the brake lever pivot. The pivot placement for the current Di2 GRX is now coming over to 12 speed mechanical. Beyond that there isn't really much to say here other than that it is significant that Shimano released mechanical 12 speed GRX first. 

This should be a shot across the bow to those who are lamenting the death of mechanically shifted group sets with more than 11 speeds. Obviously, that is no longer a worry now.

Wilde Bikes Introduces Steel Rambler Bike:

Wilde Bikes introduced a new model on Tuesday, the Rambler, a made in Taiwan steel frame and fork bike which can be had in a frameset form or built as a complete.

The bike uses a production model that helps bring the cost down to $1200.00USD for the frame and fork. The bike is designed with a bottom bracket height and geometry which will lend itself to being set up with 650B wheels (up to 2.2") or 29"er wheels and tires. (Up to 2")

The frame will have all the common braze-ons we expect an adventure bike to have these days along with the Three-Pack fork mounts also. The frame has a 142 12mm through axle rear, the fork has 100mm through axle standard with a straight 1 1/8th steer tube. Flat mount brakes and a threaded bottom bracket shell round out the design.

Comments: Is this a Black Mountain Cycles Mod Zero? The two sure look close, don't they? There is not a lot of difference between the two geometry-wise either. That said, I'm a BMC guy and the slightly lower bottom bracket wins me over toward the BMC rather than the Wilde. Although that sparkly paint job on the Wilde is pretty nice. 

American Classic Introduces ProjectP4B:

American Classic, now a tire company, more or less, has announced that certain tires in their range will now be available under the ProjectP4B initiative. This is an effort to benefit the People For Bikes organization. 

If consumers buy the American Classic Torchbearer or Wentworth gravel tire, American Classic is earmarking the profits from those tires to a special Community Grants Program by People For Bikes which aims to create safer routes, bike lanes, and community education opportunities, amongst other benefits. 

Intial offerings in this program include the 700c X 30mm Torchbearer and the 700c X 40mm Wentworth tires. Both are tubeless ready, have 60TPI casings, and have special "hot patch" branding designating these as the Project P4B tires. 

These tires are only available via American Classic's Amazon portal and cost $29.99 each, according to the press release. The retail packaging for these tires is also made from recycled materials and can be recycled after use. 

Comments: Wow! That's cheap! And Wentworths are a pretty decent tire overall. Not your top of the range, high-performance tires, but even at their higher price, which is $45.00 each for a 120TPI tire with puncture protection, these are pretty phenomenal values. Now, despite the slightly lower tech spec, these tires are a crazy good value. 

Michelin Power Adventure Classic (Image from webstore)

Michelin's New Power Adventure Tires:

I didn't catch this back in March, but Michelin overhauled their gravel tire range and along with the new Power Gravel model they have a new design called the Power Adventure. 

Available in seven sizes ranging from a 700 X 30mm to a 700 X 47mm, the tire features a smoother tread and a lower treaded edge for grip in corners. Meant for a 80%/20% pavement to gravel mix, the tire has a puncture protection belt and three 100TPI layers of fabric in the casing. Claimed weight on the 700 X 42mm version is sub-500 grams, which is pretty impressive. You can check the Power Adventure line out HERE. 

Comments:  Power Adventure, Power Gravel...... Did those French marketing folks watch a lot of Power Rangers shows as kids? (HA!) 

Seriously, the trend for smoother treaded "gravel" tires is just another evolution in the market. It is another example that "gravel" is still somewhat misunderstood. You take a look at what Michelin says about the use intents and they mention that the Power Adventure is less about (MTB) trails. 

Huh? See, the entire idea of "gravel" is that we ARE ON ROADS, not mountain bike trails. Unpaved roads preferably, but ROADS nonetheless. This whole misunderstanding of what should have been called "all-roads" is frustrating to me because the industry latched on to a term without considering the consequences of using that term. "All-Roads" is gravel plus other stuff that is road oriented. Single track? No. 

Sorry about the rant, but that stuff gets me going....

And back to this tire, which should work really well on gravel, by the way. We will see. I may have to get a set to try out. If I do, it'll be the classic "tan wall" shown, although you can also get this is black.

That's a wrap for this week. Thanks for reading Guitar Ted Productions!

Friday News And Views

GRX goes to 12 speed mechanical (Image by Matt Gersib)

Leaked Images Show Shimano GRX 12 Speed:

In a leaked set of images from the recently run Unbound Gravel event, we have learned what we thought was pretty much a given at thie point. That being that Shimano will be offering 12 speed GRX very soon. 

My good friend MG caught these images and we posted them up on Riding Gravel last Friday. There was another media person that saw the same 12 speed mechanical GRX on a racer's bike elsewhere as well. Following is what I know so far...

There is no Di2 12spd GRX being shown or anywhere in sight as of now. I am betting that probably won't happen this year. Due to over-supply issues in the industry everything is being slowed down and introductions of new stuff will be pushed back until this glut starts to clear out from warehouses. I would bet Di2 12spd GRX will happen, but probably not soon. Meanwhile, we have 12 speed mechanical GRX to drool over, or make fun of, depending upon your point of view.

Some rumors are flying around about this new 12 speed GRX having a MicroSpline hub to accommodate current MTB cassettes. This has been confirmed by at least one site, but not officially by Shimano. So, a lot of current fancy-pants carbon wheel sets could become "old hat" - or "not cutting edge", soon. Further cementing this idea is that the other GRX 12 speed group seen at Unbound had a MTB cassette on it. Rumors are rampant that new GRX will accommodate wider range MTB cassettes for 1X usage to compete with SRAM. This would point toward MicroSpline as well. I think this is a given with the new 12spd GRX. However; that doesn't mean Shimano won't offer a traditional HyperGlide freehub for GRX. All we know now is that new 12spd GRX will most likely have MicroSpline hub compatibility.

Otherwise there is a new design for the brake caliper and a tweak to the brake lever pivot. The pivot placement for the current Di2 GRX is now coming over to 12 speed mechanical. Beyond that there isn't really much to say here other than that it is significant that Shimano released mechanical 12 speed GRX first. 

This should be a shot across the bow to those who are lamenting the death of mechanically shifted group sets with more than 11 speeds. Obviously, that is no longer a worry now.

Wilde Bikes Introduces Steel Rambler Bike:

Wilde Bikes introduced a new model on Tuesday, the Rambler, a made in Taiwan steel frame and fork bike which can be had in a frameset form or built as a complete.

The bike uses a production model that helps bring the cost down to $1200.00USD for the frame and fork. The bike is designed with a bottom bracket height and geometry which will lend itself to being set up with 650B wheels (up to 2.2") or 29"er wheels and tires. (Up to 2")

The frame will have all the common braze-ons we expect an adventure bike to have these days along with the Three-Pack fork mounts also. The frame has a 142 12mm through axle rear, the fork has 100mm through axle standard with a straight 1 1/8th steer tube. Flat mount brakes and a threaded bottom bracket shell round out the design.

Comments: Is this a Black Mountain Cycles Mod Zero? The two sure look close, don't they? There is not a lot of difference between the two geometry-wise either. That said, I'm a BMC guy and the slightly lower bottom bracket wins me over toward the BMC rather than the Wilde. Although that sparkly paint job on the Wilde is pretty nice. 

American Classic Introduces ProjectP4B:

American Classic, now a tire company, more or less, has announced that certain tires in their range will now be available under the ProjectP4B initiative. This is an effort to benefit the People For Bikes organization. 

If consumers buy the American Classic Torchbearer or Wentworth gravel tire, American Classic is earmarking the profits from those tires to a special Community Grants Program by People For Bikes which aims to create safer routes, bike lanes, and community education opportunities, amongst other benefits. 

Intial offerings in this program include the 700c X 30mm Torchbearer and the 700c X 40mm Wentworth tires. Both are tubeless ready, have 60TPI casings, and have special "hot patch" branding designating these as the Project P4B tires. 

These tires are only available via American Classic's Amazon portal and cost $29.99 each, according to the press release. The retail packaging for these tires is also made from recycled materials and can be recycled after use. 

Comments: Wow! That's cheap! And Wentworths are a pretty decent tire overall. Not your top of the range, high-performance tires, but even at their higher price, which is $45.00 each for a 120TPI tire with puncture protection, these are pretty phenomenal values. Now, despite the slightly lower tech spec, these tires are a crazy good value. 

Michelin Power Adventure Classic (Image from webstore)

Michelin's New Power Adventure Tires:

I didn't catch this back in March, but Michelin overhauled their gravel tire range and along with the new Power Gravel model they have a new design called the Power Adventure. 

Available in seven sizes ranging from a 700 X 30mm to a 700 X 47mm, the tire features a smoother tread and a lower treaded edge for grip in corners. Meant for a 80%/20% pavement to gravel mix, the tire has a puncture protection belt and three 100TPI layers of fabric in the casing. Claimed weight on the 700 X 42mm version is sub-500 grams, which is pretty impressive. You can check the Power Adventure line out HERE. 

Comments:  Power Adventure, Power Gravel...... Did those French marketing folks watch a lot of Power Rangers shows as kids? (HA!) 

Seriously, the trend for smoother treaded "gravel" tires is just another evolution in the market. It is another example that "gravel" is still somewhat misunderstood. You take a look at what Michelin says about the use intents and they mention that the Power Adventure is less about (MTB) trails. 

Huh? See, the entire idea of "gravel" is that we ARE ON ROADS, not mountain bike trails. Unpaved roads preferably, but ROADS nonetheless. This whole misunderstanding of what should have been called "all-roads" is frustrating to me because the industry latched on to a term without considering the consequences of using that term. "All-Roads" is gravel plus other stuff that is road oriented. Single track? No. 

Sorry about the rant, but that stuff gets me going....

And back to this tire, which should work really well on gravel, by the way. We will see. I may have to get a set to try out. If I do, it'll be the classic "tan wall" shown, although you can also get this is black.

That's a wrap for this week. Thanks for reading Guitar Ted Productions!

News Season: Sea Otter 2023

I still haven't seen much about this since Thursday last week.

 Sea Otter is over for another year. This was probably, and arguably the first "real" Sea Otter since 2019. Vendor participation was almost back to pre-pandemic levels. So that meant that a lot of new items debuted throughout last week and at the show in conjunction with the festivities. 

And let us not forget that there was racing, and Life Time's "Grand Prix" kicked off there this past weekend. Of course, if you haven't heard, Life Time owns Sea Otter now, so they can do what they want in that regard. 

Okay, this will be a post of things I thought were interesting using images caught by my friend Grannygear who was in attendance at the show and forwarded me the images you see here today, except where indicated. We also collaborated on a post on Riding Gravel, so you may have seen some of these already.  I'll stick mostly to the gravel stuff and commentary here, but there may be an oddball thing or two that I post also. Okay, here we go.....

BlackHeart titanium gravel bike.

BlackHeart Bikes: I'd never heard about this company before seeing the image here. Cool looking bikes and all. The company mission statement I read said that they wanted a bike that struck a middle ground between gravel and road bikes. (??) Hint: A "gravel bike IS a road bike. 

Anyway.... Checking the specs on the three thousand dollar frame and I see that it is, in fact, a road racing bike. "Square" geometry in the most classic road bike style, it has a 72.5° head angle and a pretty shallow bottom bracket drop with a maximum tire clearance of 40mm. 

Not an "all-roads bike". I mean- you can ride this down your local single track, for all I care, but this is not "all-road" bike geometry for the masses. So, looks good - not gonna cut the mustard around here. 

This was seen on a Fezarri gravel bike

UDH Ready: Trends? How about UDH, the SRAM acronym for "Universal Derailleur Hangar". Seems that a lot of smaller companies are moving toward using this as it cuts down on expenses and, probably more importantly, is a sign of a future sea-change in drive train technology. 

I expect more will become clear on this in the Fall of this year. Stay tuned....

Another USA based aluminum rim maker? Yes!

Boyd Cycles Starts Up US Rim Production: News broke at the onset of the show that Boyd Cycles, the wheel purveyor from the East, was working on a manufacturing facility in South Carolina while COVID was going on and now that facility is up and running. This is pretty good news, I think.

Of course, it brings us up to two rim manufacturers in the US with Velocity USA having been here cranking out rims for quite a few years already. Boyd included in their press release that they are open to doing rims for other companies as well, so hey! Maybe a renaissance of sorts is happening with US based wheel making? Perhaps. 

You might have spied out above that the wheels set shown is $425.00 for the set, so they aren't just making high-end stuff there. Nice!

Hunt To Sell Straight Pull Hub Sets:

A lot of pre-built wheels come with cool hubs that you only can have if you buy the entire wheel. Sometimes you might want the hub, but maybe you want a 650B wheel, or even a 26"er. Well, now you can buy a Hunt Sprint SL set of hubs for that purpose and more.

Of course, they are disc and through axle only, so there is that, but most modern bikes are those standards anyway. You can get a couple different bearing types and the prices are not too bad. The "Ceramic Coated" bearing versions are $249.00 for the set. 

Straight pull spokes are not real commonplace, so I checked the innergoogles and found that I should have no fear. Lots of choices. Mostly DT Swiss and Sapim. Both solid choices there. 

The only caveat? You can only get these hubs in 20F/24R or 24F/24R spoke drillings. That probably limits these hubs appeal to the racing and lightweight freaks. But if that is you, hey - there you go!  I might keep these in mind for converting some older wheels I have to through axle and a better freehub system. 

Kenda "4titude" Tires:

I've opined on this channel about how those in the industry on the one hand are trying to pull gravel biking into mountain biking territory. Well, as with the BlackHeart bike above, there are those that don't understand "gravel" as a niche/type of bike and want to pull it back toward road racing. Another example is the Kenda "4titude" tire, developed in tandem with riders of the Belgium Waffle Ride. 

You might be thinking, "But wait! Isn't BWR a gravel series?" Well, BWR would love it if you thought so, but many of their events have higher than 50% pavement courses. That's NOT gravel, my friends. 

Not that it is wrong, but if you ride mostly pavement, you end up back in a road racing mindset, if you are in the cycling industry. It's like they cannot help themselves.... 

Anyway. The tire. Back to the tires! 

These will be available in a 35mm and a 40mm. I happen to actually like the tire by the looks of it. This type of tread pattern can be very fast around here at times. Probably not if it was like last Summer in Southern Black Hawk County, but maybe elsewhere and hopefully this year! (I can hope!) 

I have a set of Donnelly USH 40's that look similar to these Kendas that I think are great. So, I welcome tires in this vein. Big, poofy road tires, any road tires, are always a good deal. 

American Classic is now offering 700 X 45's

American Classic Offering A 700 X 45mm Tire Now: So, here's another smoother treaded tire I like a lot, the American Classic Kimberlite. They were offering it in a 700 X 35, 40, and 50mm sizes. But now you can get a 45mm! 

This is great. American Classic tires took a step up when they did their redesign last year and I tried Kimberlites in the 50mm size. The 45mm would be the deal for folks on a budget. The American Classic Kimberlites in this size should fit a ton of bikes out there and should roll like a champ. 

This isn't what I expected from Salsa back in the day, but now? Yes. I understand.

And A Few More Opinions On The E-Salsa Bikes:

I still think the shocker of the show was the Salsa e-bike deal. However; you hardly saw anything on this from mainstream cycling pubs and sites. Weird! Maybe there is a hidden reason for that? I don't know, but typically Salsa sends out press releases ahead of big announcements like this. I do not think that they did that this time.

Comments I saw regarding this on posts I put on social media and here ranged from quiet approval to outright disdain. There once was a Salsa Cycles that stood for ideals that many folks that I know were attracted to. And you'd think something like an e-gravel bike would fit the old "Adventure by Bike" philosophy that was once the province of this brand alone for a time. But something has changed since those days.

I think it is a lot of things, and the evolution of this brand has left a bad taste in the mouths of some. People have left the brand since those days, and that certainly has had an effect. The parent company has changed, and their values have changed, and that certainly has had an affect as well. Is any of this negative or positive? That's for you to decide.

But it "is". That's the point, and of course, the entire electrification of bicycles and the sea change in retail has affected this brand to a large degree as well. Like I said, it's a LOT of things all together that have brought Salsa Cycles to a place that has the brand at a bit of a crossroads in my opinion. I think this is what you see reflected in the comments on the electric Confluence gravel bike. The bike itself is neither here nor there. It's just a signpost of the brand and where it is at in 2023. 

UPDATED: 4/24/23 @ 12:00 NOON CST:

A Salsa eMTB as shown from Sea Otter on a QBP employee's Instagram page.

 An anonymous source tipped me off to the existence of a Salsa eMTB, still in development, apparently, with a Bosch mid-drive motor. The source also confirmed that the Confluence is indeed real and was also puzzled by the lack of media interest. 

So, how about them apples?

Thanks for reading Guitar Ted Productions.

News Season: Sea Otter 2023

I still haven't seen much about this since Thursday last week.

 Sea Otter is over for another year. This was probably, and arguably the first "real" Sea Otter since 2019. Vendor participation was almost back to pre-pandemic levels. So that meant that a lot of new items debuted throughout last week and at the show in conjunction with the festivities. 

And let us not forget that there was racing, and Life Time's "Grand Prix" kicked off there this past weekend. Of course, if you haven't heard, Life Time owns Sea Otter now, so they can do what they want in that regard. 

Okay, this will be a post of things I thought were interesting using images caught by my friend Grannygear who was in attendance at the show and forwarded me the images you see here today, except where indicated. We also collaborated on a post on Riding Gravel, so you may have seen some of these already.  I'll stick mostly to the gravel stuff and commentary here, but there may be an oddball thing or two that I post also. Okay, here we go.....

BlackHeart titanium gravel bike.

BlackHeart Bikes: I'd never heard about this company before seeing the image here. Cool looking bikes and all. The company mission statement I read said that they wanted a bike that struck a middle ground between gravel and road bikes. (??) Hint: A "gravel bike IS a road bike. 

Anyway.... Checking the specs on the three thousand dollar frame and I see that it is, in fact, a road racing bike. "Square" geometry in the most classic road bike style, it has a 72.5° head angle and a pretty shallow bottom bracket drop with a maximum tire clearance of 40mm. 

Not an "all-roads bike". I mean- you can ride this down your local single track, for all I care, but this is not "all-road" bike geometry for the masses. So, looks good - not gonna cut the mustard around here. 

This was seen on a Fezarri gravel bike

UDH Ready: Trends? How about UDH, the SRAM acronym for "Universal Derailleur Hangar". Seems that a lot of smaller companies are moving toward using this as it cuts down on expenses and, probably more importantly, is a sign of a future sea-change in drive train technology. 

I expect more will become clear on this in the Fall of this year. Stay tuned....

Another USA based aluminum rim maker? Yes!

Boyd Cycles Starts Up US Rim Production: News broke at the onset of the show that Boyd Cycles, the wheel purveyor from the East, was working on a manufacturing facility in South Carolina while COVID was going on and now that facility is up and running. This is pretty good news, I think.

Of course, it brings us up to two rim manufacturers in the US with Velocity USA having been here cranking out rims for quite a few years already. Boyd included in their press release that they are open to doing rims for other companies as well, so hey! Maybe a renaissance of sorts is happening with US based wheel making? Perhaps. 

You might have spied out above that the wheels set shown is $425.00 for the set, so they aren't just making high-end stuff there. Nice!

Hunt To Sell Straight Pull Hub Sets:

A lot of pre-built wheels come with cool hubs that you only can have if you buy the entire wheel. Sometimes you might want the hub, but maybe you want a 650B wheel, or even a 26"er. Well, now you can buy a Hunt Sprint SL set of hubs for that purpose and more.

Of course, they are disc and through axle only, so there is that, but most modern bikes are those standards anyway. You can get a couple different bearing types and the prices are not too bad. The "Ceramic Coated" bearing versions are $249.00 for the set. 

Straight pull spokes are not real commonplace, so I checked the innergoogles and found that I should have no fear. Lots of choices. Mostly DT Swiss and Sapim. Both solid choices there. 

The only caveat? You can only get these hubs in 20F/24R or 24F/24R spoke drillings. That probably limits these hubs appeal to the racing and lightweight freaks. But if that is you, hey - there you go!  I might keep these in mind for converting some older wheels I have to through axle and a better freehub system. 

Kenda "4titude" Tires:

I've opined on this channel about how those in the industry on the one hand are trying to pull gravel biking into mountain biking territory. Well, as with the BlackHeart bike above, there are those that don't understand "gravel" as a niche/type of bike and want to pull it back toward road racing. Another example is the Kenda "4titude" tire, developed in tandem with riders of the Belgium Waffle Ride. 

You might be thinking, "But wait! Isn't BWR a gravel series?" Well, BWR would love it if you thought so, but many of their events have higher than 50% pavement courses. That's NOT gravel, my friends. 

Not that it is wrong, but if you ride mostly pavement, you end up back in a road racing mindset, if you are in the cycling industry. It's like they cannot help themselves.... 

Anyway. The tire. Back to the tires! 

These will be available in a 35mm and a 40mm. I happen to actually like the tire by the looks of it. This type of tread pattern can be very fast around here at times. Probably not if it was like last Summer in Southern Black Hawk County, but maybe elsewhere and hopefully this year! (I can hope!) 

I have a set of Donnelly USH 40's that look similar to these Kendas that I think are great. So, I welcome tires in this vein. Big, poofy road tires, any road tires, are always a good deal. 

American Classic is now offering 700 X 45's

American Classic Offering A 700 X 45mm Tire Now: So, here's another smoother treaded tire I like a lot, the American Classic Kimberlite. They were offering it in a 700 X 35, 40, and 50mm sizes. But now you can get a 45mm! 

This is great. American Classic tires took a step up when they did their redesign last year and I tried Kimberlites in the 50mm size. The 45mm would be the deal for folks on a budget. The American Classic Kimberlites in this size should fit a ton of bikes out there and should roll like a champ. 

This isn't what I expected from Salsa back in the day, but now? Yes. I understand.

And A Few More Opinions On The E-Salsa Bikes:

I still think the shocker of the show was the Salsa e-bike deal. However; you hardly saw anything on this from mainstream cycling pubs and sites. Weird! Maybe there is a hidden reason for that? I don't know, but typically Salsa sends out press releases ahead of big announcements like this. I do not think that they did that this time.

Comments I saw regarding this on posts I put on social media and here ranged from quiet approval to outright disdain. There once was a Salsa Cycles that stood for ideals that many folks that I know were attracted to. And you'd think something like an e-gravel bike would fit the old "Adventure by Bike" philosophy that was once the province of this brand alone for a time. But something has changed since those days.

I think it is a lot of things, and the evolution of this brand has left a bad taste in the mouths of some. People have left the brand since those days, and that certainly has had an effect. The parent company has changed, and their values have changed, and that certainly has had an affect as well. Is any of this negative or positive? That's for you to decide.

But it "is". That's the point, and of course, the entire electrification of bicycles and the sea change in retail has affected this brand to a large degree as well. Like I said, it's a LOT of things all together that have brought Salsa Cycles to a place that has the brand at a bit of a crossroads in my opinion. I think this is what you see reflected in the comments on the electric Confluence gravel bike. The bike itself is neither here nor there. It's just a signpost of the brand and where it is at in 2023. 

UPDATED: 4/24/23 @ 12:00 NOON CST:

A Salsa eMTB as shown from Sea Otter on a QBP employee's Instagram page.

 An anonymous source tipped me off to the existence of a Salsa eMTB, still in development, apparently, with a Bosch mid-drive motor. The source also confirmed that the Confluence is indeed real and was also puzzled by the lack of media interest. 

So, how about them apples?

Thanks for reading Guitar Ted Productions.

Tires You Should Know About: American Classic

American Classic: A familiar name, perhaps, but not on tires.

It is another episode of "Tires You Should Know About". Today, I will be talking about the new line of rubber from American Classic. But first, if you haven't seen the posts on Hutchinson and Pirelli tires, click those hyperlinks to see about those tires you should know about. 

American Classic may be a name familiar to many of you, but not for tires. The company, in its original version, was a component manufacturer, and eventually focused on wheels and hubs exclusively. That version of American Classic is no more. In its place is a new venture focused upon tires, but hints have been dropped that components may also be introduced at some point in the future. 

The interesting bit about the new American Classic is that they are consumer direct and sell their products on an Amazon webpage. So, you won't find these at your local bike shop, and if that shop is one of the more corporate entities which are becoming more ubiquitous in larger cities, these American Classic tires will get slagged because those corporate owned shops are pressing their employees to sell the company lines. That's an unfortunate side effect of all this buying out of shops by Trek, Specialized, and Pon Holding Company. 

While I've tested other models, the Kimberlites are on deck now.

That's why I think you should know about American Classic tires. Not many people are going to be hip to these right away, but there are a few reasons why you might want to consider them for your next tire purchase. 

And before I get to my points on American Classic, the whole series of "Tires You Should Know About" is partially driven by the current developments in the retail landscape.  It used to be that shops were independent, knew product lines from several sources, and could order you almost anything. Not so much in 2022.....

Okay, so I have seen and ridden almost the entire range of American Classic gravel tires. The original designs have great tread patterns for almost any situation, but I was a bit 'meh' on the ride quality and performance of their first efforts. So much so that I probably wouldn't have included them here in this series. That despite the fact that American Classic debuted the line with pricing at $35.00 per tire! 

But now American Classic has updated the casings of these gravel tires to a brand new design which raises the level of performance and rides better. Yes- they cost more, but at $45.00 a pop? That's still ridiculous compared to the competition. So, you may want to check out the line up of American Classic tires and try a pair. 

I will say that their so-called 50mm tires that they offer are really 47-48mm wide, which is fine, but don't think those are big, almost 29"er tires, or you will be disappointed. The 40's are pretty spot on though. On the plus side, they are offered in three side wall colors, and all look great. 

Check them out, and look for another "Tires You Should Know About" next week. 

Note: The Standard Disclaimer applies with this post on the American Classic Tires.

Tires You Should Know About: American Classic

American Classic: A familiar name, perhaps, but not on tires.

It is another episode of "Tires You Should Know About". Today, I will be talking about the new line of rubber from American Classic. But first, if you haven't seen the posts on Hutchinson and Pirelli tires, click those hyperlinks to see about those tires you should know about. 

American Classic may be a name familiar to many of you, but not for tires. The company, in its original version, was a component manufacturer, and eventually focused on wheels and hubs exclusively. That version of American Classic is no more. In its place is a new venture focused upon tires, but hints have been dropped that components may also be introduced at some point in the future. 

The interesting bit about the new American Classic is that they are consumer direct and sell their products on an Amazon webpage. So, you won't find these at your local bike shop, and if that shop is one of the more corporate entities which are becoming more ubiquitous in larger cities, these American Classic tires will get slagged because those corporate owned shops are pressing their employees to sell the company lines. That's an unfortunate side effect of all this buying out of shops by Trek, Specialized, and Pon Holding Company. 

While I've tested other models, the Kimberlites are on deck now.

That's why I think you should know about American Classic tires. Not many people are going to be hip to these right away, but there are a few reasons why you might want to consider them for your next tire purchase. 

And before I get to my points on American Classic, the whole series of "Tires You Should Know About" is partially driven by the current developments in the retail landscape.  It used to be that shops were independent, knew product lines from several sources, and could order you almost anything. Not so much in 2022.....

Okay, so I have seen and ridden almost the entire range of American Classic gravel tires. The original designs have great tread patterns for almost any situation, but I was a bit 'meh' on the ride quality and performance of their first efforts. So much so that I probably wouldn't have included them here in this series. That despite the fact that American Classic debuted the line with pricing at $35.00 per tire! 

But now American Classic has updated the casings of these gravel tires to a brand new design which raises the level of performance and rides better. Yes- they cost more, but at $45.00 a pop? That's still ridiculous compared to the competition. So, you may want to check out the line up of American Classic tires and try a pair. 

I will say that their so-called 50mm tires that they offer are really 47-48mm wide, which is fine, but don't think those are big, almost 29"er tires, or you will be disappointed. The 40's are pretty spot on though. On the plus side, they are offered in three side wall colors, and all look great. 

Check them out, and look for another "Tires You Should Know About" next week. 

Note: The Standard Disclaimer applies with this post on the American Classic Tires.

Friday News And Views

 Gravel World Series Calendar Set

Back in February the UCI's calendar for the inaugural Gravel Worlds Series was leaked and dates were talked about, with the Jingle GX Gravel event listed as the final event in the series, Well, apparently that was not correct. Now the calendar has been officially released by the UCI and it would appear that the Jingle GX date is actually in August. August 6th, to be precise.

Here are the dates for the UCI Gravel World Series

Comments: This pushes what used to be "Jingle Cross", an early December date CX event, into August then? Anyway, even if the cross race is later, calling the gravel event "jingle anything" just seems, well......silly. Can't we disassociate a World Cup level gravel event from that? Guess not. I just don't think the marketing of the whole "jingle/Christmas/Grinch" thing means anything here. 

Interesting that the UCI dates in the USA coincide with each other but the rest of the calendar is kind of a logistical nightmare. We'll see how many athletes manage to actually make all the series. The second, Iowa date is two weeks before the Pirate Cycling League's Gravel Worlds, which is also interesting to note here. 

All this hoopla and the UCI says that the rules will be lax for a couple of years until they can "evaluate things" regarding what constitutes legal bicycles to use and whatnot. What?!! As if it already hasn't been "figured out". Wow... Pretty lame statement, UCI people. Read the room here. It wouldn't take a rocket scientist to actually - you know- make rules today. It isn't as if the UCI is going to go all in on being "inclusive" with all the other socially conscientious efforts of the day seen in other bigger gravel events.  Whatever..... My confidence that this will be anything but another UCI circus show is pretty slim to nothing here. 

American Classic Tires Upgraded:

American Classic announced Wednesday that they have upgraded all their gravel tires with new "Stage 5S Armor" puncture protection, new changes to the Kimberlite model to make it roll faster, and that the Kimberlite will also come in a 35mm width now. All the rest of the gravel tire range will be available in 700 X 40mm, 700 X 50mm, and 650B X 47mm. Prices have also increased slightly across the board, but are still far less than most mainstream company's gravel tires. 

In addition, American Classic now offers a brown sidewall in the gravel range alongside the tan and blackwall versions already on offer. American Classic also claims weights have been slightly reduced across the range. 

Comments: I reviewed a few American Classic gravel tires here last year.  These new updates would give me reason to have a slightly better view of these tires if the claims are true. I like the Kimberlite, actually, and it reminds me a lot of the Donnelly Strada USH. So, let's compare....

The Donnelly has 240TPI casings, (okay- they add layers to get that number, most likely, but still...) and their tires list as being slightly lighter. The cost is listed as being $85.00, which compares to $45.00 each at American Classic's new price. 

So, are the Donnelly tires worth it? Well, I have the Strada USH tires and they do have a puncture protection layer, maybe not to the extent that American Classic does, but it is there. Despite the belt under the tread, the Donnelly is one of my favorite tires from the standpoint of "ride feel". The American Classic tires did not have that same feel, but.... Now they are supposedly upgraded. 

I'll have to see about getting some 700 X 40 Kimberlites in and then I'll find out....  

Last Time For The Gents To Roll:

Tomorrow I am to be a participant in what has been billed as the last Renegade Gents event. It will be a bittersweet experience, I am sure, but in the end, I hope that our team has fun and completes the route.

I've told the story before, but since this is the last Gents Race, I will hazard one more retelling- I was invited to be on a team at the inaugural "Renegade Gentleman's Race" back in 2011. I was invited to be on the five man team by Steve Fuller, who I knew through Trans Iowa. But I had no idea who the three other team members were, and being that they all were from the Des Moines area at that time, I was the odd man out. 

So I went in with the attitude of just being as compliant to the team's will and doing so as quietly as I could. Seeing as how this was basically a blind date with three guys I had to adapt to on the fly. It was a bit daunting and I was certainly anxious about it, but after about the halfway mark of that first Gents event, I was feeling much better about things. 

In the end I gained three new friends. Over the years that I have done the Gents Race I have made a lot of memories. So, now it all comes to an end with this weekend's event. I'm really glad I was a part of the run of Gents Race events. I am happy to have made a lot of new acquaintances and friends out of the deal. Now for one more time at it.......

Hopefully I'll have a report up this coming Monday.

Reynolds G700 wheel. Image courtesy of Sun/Rigle'/Reynolds.

Wheels And More Wheels:

Sea Otter is about to happen so the taps on the news faucets are opening up again. We really haven't seen the likes of this for the last couple of years due to "you know what". 

Sun Ringle', Reynolds, and Industry Nine all released news about new wheels for crushed rock roads within a couple of days of each other. 

Sun Ringle', who are best known for value driven aluminum wheels, have a new hoop set out dubbed the Duroc 30. It's a 26mm inner rim width wheel and comes with the newly designed Ringle' hubs. Through axle, Center Lock, blah, blah, blah... You've heard it all before. Pretty decent wheels. Then you have the Reynolds "Black Label" G700's in carbon. Offset spoke bed, low spoke count, 25mm inner rim width, light, new hubs. 

Both models come in 650B as well.

I didn't get pricing, but I would assume that will be available soon from the Sun Ringle/Reynolds sites. (Both companies under the Hayes banner these days) 

Then you have the new Industry Nine wheels called the 1/1 Ultralite Carbon. Yes....carbon rims, and the wheel set weighs in at a claimed 1440 grams and comes with a lifetime warranty. All that for 1600 bucks. 

The carbon wheel market for MTB and gravel has really heated up over the past couple of years. It used to be that carbon wheels meant an instant 2K addition to the bike price tag. Not anymore. While I know of some carbon wheel sets hovering around 1K, most are now around that 1500 dollar range with pretty low weight and durability. 

That's a wrap for this week. Get out and ride if you can!

Friday News And Views

 Gravel World Series Calendar Set

Back in February the UCI's calendar for the inaugural Gravel Worlds Series was leaked and dates were talked about, with the Jingle GX Gravel event listed as the final event in the series, Well, apparently that was not correct. Now the calendar has been officially released by the UCI and it would appear that the Jingle GX date is actually in August. August 6th, to be precise.

Here are the dates for the UCI Gravel World Series

Comments: This pushes what used to be "Jingle Cross", an early December date CX event, into August then? Anyway, even if the cross race is later, calling the gravel event "jingle anything" just seems, well......silly. Can't we disassociate a World Cup level gravel event from that? Guess not. I just don't think the marketing of the whole "jingle/Christmas/Grinch" thing means anything here. 

Interesting that the UCI dates in the USA coincide with each other but the rest of the calendar is kind of a logistical nightmare. We'll see how many athletes manage to actually make all the series. The second, Iowa date is two weeks before the Pirate Cycling League's Gravel Worlds, which is also interesting to note here. 

All this hoopla and the UCI says that the rules will be lax for a couple of years until they can "evaluate things" regarding what constitutes legal bicycles to use and whatnot. What?!! As if it already hasn't been "figured out". Wow... Pretty lame statement, UCI people. Read the room here. It wouldn't take a rocket scientist to actually - you know- make rules today. It isn't as if the UCI is going to go all in on being "inclusive" with all the other socially conscientious efforts of the day seen in other bigger gravel events.  Whatever..... My confidence that this will be anything but another UCI circus show is pretty slim to nothing here. 

American Classic Tires Upgraded:

American Classic announced Wednesday that they have upgraded all their gravel tires with new "Stage 5S Armor" puncture protection, new changes to the Kimberlite model to make it roll faster, and that the Kimberlite will also come in a 35mm width now. All the rest of the gravel tire range will be available in 700 X 40mm, 700 X 50mm, and 650B X 47mm. Prices have also increased slightly across the board, but are still far less than most mainstream company's gravel tires. 

In addition, American Classic now offers a brown sidewall in the gravel range alongside the tan and blackwall versions already on offer. American Classic also claims weights have been slightly reduced across the range. 

Comments: I reviewed a few American Classic gravel tires here last year.  These new updates would give me reason to have a slightly better view of these tires if the claims are true. I like the Kimberlite, actually, and it reminds me a lot of the Donnelly Strada USH. So, let's compare....

The Donnelly has 240TPI casings, (okay- they add layers to get that number, most likely, but still...) and their tires list as being slightly lighter. The cost is listed as being $85.00, which compares to $45.00 each at American Classic's new price. 

So, are the Donnelly tires worth it? Well, I have the Strada USH tires and they do have a puncture protection layer, maybe not to the extent that American Classic does, but it is there. Despite the belt under the tread, the Donnelly is one of my favorite tires from the standpoint of "ride feel". The American Classic tires did not have that same feel, but.... Now they are supposedly upgraded. 

I'll have to see about getting some 700 X 40 Kimberlites in and then I'll find out....  

Last Time For The Gents To Roll:

Tomorrow I am to be a participant in what has been billed as the last Renegade Gents event. It will be a bittersweet experience, I am sure, but in the end, I hope that our team has fun and completes the route.

I've told the story before, but since this is the last Gents Race, I will hazard one more retelling- I was invited to be on a team at the inaugural "Renegade Gentleman's Race" back in 2011. I was invited to be on the five man team by Steve Fuller, who I knew through Trans Iowa. But I had no idea who the three other team members were, and being that they all were from the Des Moines area at that time, I was the odd man out. 

So I went in with the attitude of just being as compliant to the team's will and doing so as quietly as I could. Seeing as how this was basically a blind date with three guys I had to adapt to on the fly. It was a bit daunting and I was certainly anxious about it, but after about the halfway mark of that first Gents event, I was feeling much better about things. 

In the end I gained three new friends. Over the years that I have done the Gents Race I have made a lot of memories. So, now it all comes to an end with this weekend's event. I'm really glad I was a part of the run of Gents Race events. I am happy to have made a lot of new acquaintances and friends out of the deal. Now for one more time at it.......

Hopefully I'll have a report up this coming Monday.

Reynolds G700 wheel. Image courtesy of Sun/Rigle'/Reynolds.

Wheels And More Wheels:

Sea Otter is about to happen so the taps on the news faucets are opening up again. We really haven't seen the likes of this for the last couple of years due to "you know what". 

Sun Ringle', Reynolds, and Industry Nine all released news about new wheels for crushed rock roads within a couple of days of each other. 

Sun Ringle', who are best known for value driven aluminum wheels, have a new hoop set out dubbed the Duroc 30. It's a 26mm inner rim width wheel and comes with the newly designed Ringle' hubs. Through axle, Center Lock, blah, blah, blah... You've heard it all before. Pretty decent wheels. Then you have the Reynolds "Black Label" G700's in carbon. Offset spoke bed, low spoke count, 25mm inner rim width, light, new hubs. 

Both models come in 650B as well.

I didn't get pricing, but I would assume that will be available soon from the Sun Ringle/Reynolds sites. (Both companies under the Hayes banner these days) 

Then you have the new Industry Nine wheels called the 1/1 Ultralite Carbon. Yes....carbon rims, and the wheel set weighs in at a claimed 1440 grams and comes with a lifetime warranty. All that for 1600 bucks. 

The carbon wheel market for MTB and gravel has really heated up over the past couple of years. It used to be that carbon wheels meant an instant 2K addition to the bike price tag. Not anymore. While I know of some carbon wheel sets hovering around 1K, most are now around that 1500 dollar range with pretty low weight and durability. 

That's a wrap for this week. Get out and ride if you can!