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!

New Tire Day

The Tamland Two mounted up with Michelin Power Gravel tires.

Tires. I have been drowned in a pile of tires over the years due to my reviewing gig. The very first thing I ever reviewed publicly was a set of tires, and tires kept coming around here ever since then.

But sometimes you see a tire, and for whatever reasons, the chance to review them doesn't come up. In those cases I purchase tires, and I have bought a LOT of tires over the years. These newest ones here are the Michelin Power Gravel 40's which I had seen earlier in the year.

They were intriguing for a few reasons. First was that I have liked a lot of Michelin tires over the years starting with those green rubber mtb tires they used to make in the 90's. I had those on my old Bontrager Race. Then I was also impressed with their 29"er tires, and there were several models I liked. So, when I heard that they were doing a "Power Gravel" tire, despite the goofy  name, I was intrigued. I ordered a pair up through the shop where I work.

Like I said, I get a LOT of tires through here, and when tires show up, I am always interested in how the different companies do their point of purchase retail packaging. (Nerd alert!) Since I've been in retail, I've seen many strange, smart, and goofy ideas for the presentation of product. Tires usually, these days anyway, come on thick plastic cards which the tire is wrapped over, or through a slot in the card, usually secured by a zip tie. It used to be that high quality tires came in a box. Not anymore, unless you get the Power Gravel tires. They came in a box! Old school!

Unusual for tires these days to come in a box.

I suppose other tires come in boxes yet, but I don't see that as often as I used to. Anyway, the Power Gravel looks a lot like a G-One Schwalbe tire. Little, triangular knobs all across the carcass only here they are bordered by "squashed hexagonal" shapes. The G-One doesn't have any side knobs. I rode G-Ones briefly once and wasn't impressed. They were thin, too rounded in profile, and too narrow in the version I got to test. Michelin makes a 35mm Power Gravel, so I stayed away until the 40's came out. They mounted up to measure 42+ mm at 40psi. Nice!

My initial take is that these are a stiff tire. The Protek puncture protection belt in these is the reason for that. Typically that sort of thing kills the ride quality. I had to back off from my typical pressures to start feeling the tire "work" for me. I will say they are fast! That's not always the case with puncture protection belted tires, especially bead-to-bead belts like the Protek one in these tires. So, a mixed bag so far in ride feel. I'll keep working on pressures to see if I can't get them to work better.

I'll have a full review series on these for RidingGravel.com along with supplemental material from N.Y. Roll. He got the 35's earlier this year and has about 700 miles on a set. So, look for that to start soon.

Yeah, I've always like wheels and since I like wheels you have to like tires as well. Wheels are pretty much useless without them. Tires are the only thing connecting you to Earth when you ride a bicycle, so they are pretty darn important. I guess I take a bit of a special interest in tires and wheels, but I also know I am not the only one. Lots of people argue, debate, and are passionate in many ways about tires.

Regardless, "new tire day" is a good day in my opinion!

New Tire Day

The Tamland Two mounted up with Michelin Power Gravel tires.

Tires. I have been drowned in a pile of tires over the years due to my reviewing gig. The very first thing I ever reviewed publicly was a set of tires, and tires kept coming around here ever since then.

But sometimes you see a tire, and for whatever reasons, the chance to review them doesn't come up. In those cases I purchase tires, and I have bought a LOT of tires over the years. These newest ones here are the Michelin Power Gravel 40's which I had seen earlier in the year.

They were intriguing for a few reasons. First was that I have liked a lot of Michelin tires over the years starting with those green rubber mtb tires they used to make in the 90's. I had those on my old Bontrager Race. Then I was also impressed with their 29"er tires, and there were several models I liked. So, when I heard that they were doing a "Power Gravel" tire, despite the goofy  name, I was intrigued. I ordered a pair up through the shop where I work.

Like I said, I get a LOT of tires through here, and when tires show up, I am always interested in how the different companies do their point of purchase retail packaging. (Nerd alert!) Since I've been in retail, I've seen many strange, smart, and goofy ideas for the presentation of product. Tires usually, these days anyway, come on thick plastic cards which the tire is wrapped over, or through a slot in the card, usually secured by a zip tie. It used to be that high quality tires came in a box. Not anymore, unless you get the Power Gravel tires. They came in a box! Old school!

Unusual for tires these days to come in a box.

I suppose other tires come in boxes yet, but I don't see that as often as I used to. Anyway, the Power Gravel looks a lot like a G-One Schwalbe tire. Little, triangular knobs all across the carcass only here they are bordered by "squashed hexagonal" shapes. The G-One doesn't have any side knobs. I rode G-Ones briefly once and wasn't impressed. They were thin, too rounded in profile, and too narrow in the version I got to test. Michelin makes a 35mm Power Gravel, so I stayed away until the 40's came out. They mounted up to measure 42+ mm at 40psi. Nice!

My initial take is that these are a stiff tire. The Protek puncture protection belt in these is the reason for that. Typically that sort of thing kills the ride quality. I had to back off from my typical pressures to start feeling the tire "work" for me. I will say they are fast! That's not always the case with puncture protection belted tires, especially bead-to-bead belts like the Protek one in these tires. So, a mixed bag so far in ride feel. I'll keep working on pressures to see if I can't get them to work better.

I'll have a full review series on these for RidingGravel.com along with supplemental material from N.Y. Roll. He got the 35's earlier this year and has about 700 miles on a set. So, look for that to start soon.

Yeah, I've always like wheels and since I like wheels you have to like tires as well. Wheels are pretty much useless without them. Tires are the only thing connecting you to Earth when you ride a bicycle, so they are pretty darn important. I guess I take a bit of a special interest in tires and wheels, but I also know I am not the only one. Lots of people argue, debate, and are passionate in many ways about tires.

Regardless, "new tire day" is a good day in my opinion!

Friday News And Views

Misunderstood Doesn't Mean "Bad"- Part 3:

So, to put a nice ribbon on this week's discussion about 1x and multiple chain ring drive train options, I wanted to talk a bit about cassettes. The chain line notwithstanding, there is one other issue with 1X that many don't stop to consider. 

The number of rear cogs in a cassette has steadily climbed upward since 1990 when Shimano introduced 8 speed cassettes. Nowadays, 11 and 12 cogs in a stack are not uncommon. Why? Where did the impetus  for going with more cogs come from? 

Was it to provide a wider range of gearing? No. The overall range for gearing hasn't changed significantly for any bike since that time. Then why do we have more cogs? You have to look in the mirror for the answer. it's because you are the "motor". Humans don't have a lot of power, so what we do have has to be doled out in an efficient manner. We see it in how we analyze our power output to the watt, how we interface with our machines based on that power output, and in how meticulously we set up our bikes in order to eek out the best possible power output. 

So, the move toward more cassette cogs was made to help keep our cadence in a range that is best for our power output. Ideally, in a perfect world, you would have an ideal cadence which produced the best power over a period of time and that would never vary even though you shift gears to different ratios. Therefore, the jumps between gears is critical to maintaining a high level of performance. More cogs can/should mean less change in cadence when shifting from one ratio to the next. That's why we have 11 speed drive trains. But what about 12? 

Well, that was done for 1X where all that mattered was the range of gearing. You saw it in the press releases and initial "reviews" of that system. However; you will note that without a way to shift in front, the only way to cover that range was to add an extra cog and have big jumps between gearing. In terms of jumps between gears, 1X is sub-optimal. Not only that, but the overall range might have to be adjusted up or down, as it were, and the only way to do that is with a front chain ring swap. You know.......basically manually shifting gears, only by doing it the hardest way possible. 

I just wanted to conclude this little series by once again stating that I do not "hate" 1X, nor do I wish for it to go away. It has its places. But that said, please keep it away from my gravel bike. 

 Signed Up:

Well, I alluded to something going on with me in a cryptic manner a few days ago. Now you know......I signed up for a gravel event. This time it is the ICGravel event which is being held on October 27th in River Junction, Iowa.

This will be year 2 for this event and they have two course length options of 100 miles or 100 kilometers (63 miles for you non-metric folk). I signed up for maximum punishment, of course, so I will be out for the hundy that day.

This is kind of an interesting event in that it happens at a time when you don't think about a gravel event, but doing one makes so much sense this time of the year. Yes......it could be wet, and in their inaugural year, it was, and it looked pretty sucky. But Fall riding rules if it is dry, and I like that time of year to put in big rides, so this makes sense to me. 

They have registration open, so if you'd like to join me, please do, and I bet it will be a rousing good time. No matter what the weather. I'm hoping that I will actually live up to that previous statement and really have a good time. But to do that, I have a lot of work to get going on. I need miles now, and I need to work consistently. 

Fortunately the weather has straightened out and the next ten days look great, so I look forward to getting on the right track and getting good and ready for this day on gravel in late October. 

I just might be running these tires at ICGravel

Michelin Power Gravel 40's:

Gravel this, gravel that. You can hardly keep up anymore these days. I remember when WTB was going to make the Nano 40 tubeless ready and that was the very first gravel specific tire you could get tubeless. Seems like eons ago, but it wasn't but maybe five years ago (?). Crazy. 

All that to say that if you weren't aware that Michelin had a gravel tire, well, you could easily be forgiven. Why would you know? These things pop up on a daily basis anymore. But in reality, these have been out for a while. I waited until the 40's came out as they first were out in a 35 or 38, I can't recall right now, but that wasn't what I wanted. 

So, I waited for these and we'll see how they go. Michelin tires always impressed me when I tried their 29"er tires, so I am expecting big things here. I will say that the tread pattern looks susceptible to being a "gravel flinger" type tread, but time will tell. They could be the bee's knees for all I know. Tubeless ready, of course. What tire shouldn't be tubeless ready for gravel? As far as I am concerned, all bicycle tires should be tubeless ready. At least higher end ones. 

I plan on sticking these on the Raleigh Tamland Two for the time being, but maybe they will be going on a different wheel set. This will depend upon how tight they fit. My Irwin wheels fit tires really tightly, so the Michelin may be a "no-go" there. If so, I think they will end up on my White Industries/WTB wheels. 

Stay tuned for more on the Power Gravel tires, which I purchased myself, by the way, just to be up front about that.

That's all for this week. Have a great weekend and get out and ride!

Friday News And Views

Misunderstood Doesn't Mean "Bad"- Part 3:

So, to put a nice ribbon on this week's discussion about 1x and multiple chain ring drive train options, I wanted to talk a bit about cassettes. The chain line notwithstanding, there is one other issue with 1X that many don't stop to consider. 

The number of rear cogs in a cassette has steadily climbed upward since 1990 when Shimano introduced 8 speed cassettes. Nowadays, 11 and 12 cogs in a stack are not uncommon. Why? Where did the impetus  for going with more cogs come from? 

Was it to provide a wider range of gearing? No. The overall range for gearing hasn't changed significantly for any bike since that time. Then why do we have more cogs? You have to look in the mirror for the answer. it's because you are the "motor". Humans don't have a lot of power, so what we do have has to be doled out in an efficient manner. We see it in how we analyze our power output to the watt, how we interface with our machines based on that power output, and in how meticulously we set up our bikes in order to eek out the best possible power output. 

So, the move toward more cassette cogs was made to help keep our cadence in a range that is best for our power output. Ideally, in a perfect world, you would have an ideal cadence which produced the best power over a period of time and that would never vary even though you shift gears to different ratios. Therefore, the jumps between gears is critical to maintaining a high level of performance. More cogs can/should mean less change in cadence when shifting from one ratio to the next. That's why we have 11 speed drive trains. But what about 12? 

Well, that was done for 1X where all that mattered was the range of gearing. You saw it in the press releases and initial "reviews" of that system. However; you will note that without a way to shift in front, the only way to cover that range was to add an extra cog and have big jumps between gearing. In terms of jumps between gears, 1X is sub-optimal. Not only that, but the overall range might have to be adjusted up or down, as it were, and the only way to do that is with a front chain ring swap. You know.......basically manually shifting gears, only by doing it the hardest way possible. 

I just wanted to conclude this little series by once again stating that I do not "hate" 1X, nor do I wish for it to go away. It has its places. But that said, please keep it away from my gravel bike. 

 Signed Up:

Well, I alluded to something going on with me in a cryptic manner a few days ago. Now you know......I signed up for a gravel event. This time it is the ICGravel event which is being held on October 27th in River Junction, Iowa.

This will be year 2 for this event and they have two course length options of 100 miles or 100 kilometers (63 miles for you non-metric folk). I signed up for maximum punishment, of course, so I will be out for the hundy that day.

This is kind of an interesting event in that it happens at a time when you don't think about a gravel event, but doing one makes so much sense this time of the year. Yes......it could be wet, and in their inaugural year, it was, and it looked pretty sucky. But Fall riding rules if it is dry, and I like that time of year to put in big rides, so this makes sense to me. 

They have registration open, so if you'd like to join me, please do, and I bet it will be a rousing good time. No matter what the weather. I'm hoping that I will actually live up to that previous statement and really have a good time. But to do that, I have a lot of work to get going on. I need miles now, and I need to work consistently. 

Fortunately the weather has straightened out and the next ten days look great, so I look forward to getting on the right track and getting good and ready for this day on gravel in late October. 

I just might be running these tires at ICGravel

Michelin Power Gravel 40's:

Gravel this, gravel that. You can hardly keep up anymore these days. I remember when WTB was going to make the Nano 40 tubeless ready and that was the very first gravel specific tire you could get tubeless. Seems like eons ago, but it wasn't but maybe five years ago (?). Crazy. 

All that to say that if you weren't aware that Michelin had a gravel tire, well, you could easily be forgiven. Why would you know? These things pop up on a daily basis anymore. But in reality, these have been out for a while. I waited until the 40's came out as they first were out in a 35 or 38, I can't recall right now, but that wasn't what I wanted. 

So, I waited for these and we'll see how they go. Michelin tires always impressed me when I tried their 29"er tires, so I am expecting big things here. I will say that the tread pattern looks susceptible to being a "gravel flinger" type tread, but time will tell. They could be the bee's knees for all I know. Tubeless ready, of course. What tire shouldn't be tubeless ready for gravel? As far as I am concerned, all bicycle tires should be tubeless ready. At least higher end ones. 

I plan on sticking these on the Raleigh Tamland Two for the time being, but maybe they will be going on a different wheel set. This will depend upon how tight they fit. My Irwin wheels fit tires really tightly, so the Michelin may be a "no-go" there. If so, I think they will end up on my White Industries/WTB wheels. 

Stay tuned for more on the Power Gravel tires, which I purchased myself, by the way, just to be up front about that.

That's all for this week. Have a great weekend and get out and ride!

State Of Tubelessness: Ten Years Down The Road- Part 1

Some wheels, like these Irwin Cycling wheels here, make going tubeless super easy.

The other day I noted a thread in the RidingGravel.com forum that was started by someone a bit befuddled by the terminologies and what they meant when it comes to gravel tires. What rims fit which tires? What is UST? and more.

This prompted me to read through the thread and I did stop and add some context to it. But that said, it appears that there are a lot of confused individuals out there yet in 2018 when it comes to tubeless tires for bicycles.

I have, on occasion here on this blog, written a "State Of Tubelessness" post. The first one I could dig up was from 2010, but I had been writing about my trials and tribulations with tubeless tires almost from the onset of the blog in 2005. But for all intents and purposes, my real pursuit of going tubeless started in 2007, so I figured why not detail briefly what has happened over the past ten years in terms of tubeless tires for bicycles.

Obviously somewhere this all started and the beginnings of tubeless tires in our era started in the late 90's with a guy by the name of Stan Koziak. You know his company by the name of "Stan's", but the full name of the company is "Stan's NoTubes", which should give you a clue as to what sort of tires his system are meant for. Stan's was, and still is, a system for converting non-tubeless tires to tubeless usage. That specifically means folding bead and wire bead performance tires that were never meant to be tubeless. Of course, you can run tubeless tires on Stan's rims, but not all will fit.

A set of ZTR Flow rims I still have were tried with many tires in the past.

Once tubeless ready tires came to market, Stan's didn't push the conversion thing too hard. In fact, they dabbled in their own tires for a bit, but even that went by the wayside. Stan's just kept being Stan's and they kept growing as a company, mainly because tire and rim manufacturers couldn't get together on a single standard for tubeless tires. Not that it wasn't tried, or successful, because there is a standard, but it requires a licensing fee. Not something many companies are willing to pay for.

Of course, that standard is UST, or Uniform System Tubeless, which Mavic, Hutchinson, and Michelin first developed in 1999. Later a few other companies would adopt the standard, most notably GEAX/Vittoria, but for the most part, the stringent dimensions and testing protocol of UST wasn't adopted by the industry universally. This caused UST to be pretty much pigeonholed to the XC racer set, and most average mountain bikers were not getting into UST in the early 00's. The fact that true, air-tight tubeless tires were a lot heavier than their folding bead counterparts was also a part of this.

 Meanwhile, 29"ers were becoming a thing, and the rim and tire manufacturers were standing off from adopting any single standard until things shook themselves out. This sort of played into the hands of Stan's who were the "average person's" tubeless "system" of choice. Obviously, Stan's made for a lighter weight set up, because you used a folding bead tire, which in some cases could be well over 200 grams lighter than a UST tire. The trouble with Stan's was that non-tubeless, folding bead tires were difficult to get sealed, didn't last long, and some were failing spectacularly due to the added stresses present without a tube to reinforce the bead and sidewall.

That all began to change in the late 00's as Trek/Bontrager/Fisher began to push for tubeless systems that they could use on their bikes. Since Bontrager sold tires, a system where tire, plastic "TLR" rim strip, and rim was developed which was very user friendly and worked tremendously well. But like UST before it, this was not an "open standard", so other companies were developing their own systems to compete. Specialized had "2Bliss", WTB developed "TCS", and rim manufacturers that did not make tires and tire manufacturers that did not make rims were left wondering what to do.

Rim companies, like Velocity, kind of shot for a :middle ground" in terms of design.

Many companies did not want to err so far toward the UST dimensions that other components would not fit and vice versa. Some of the systems, like WTB's TCS,were close to UST, but some were not. The companies whose tires were not right on the UST mark did so to fit Stan's rims, which were very slightly oversized. But these tires would still fit some other companies rims, which were somewhere in between the UST and the older. standard climcher/tube variances. Rims, like Velocity USA's, were made to fit a broader range of tires as well. Other companies adopted Stan's dimensions, while others erred closer to UST.

So, in 2018, you can probably see why it is that people get confused. Fit issues exist, and remember, tolerances don't need to vary much so that very small variances can mean that some components will not be compatible with others, despite the labels saying 700c, or 622ISO. This gives people fits, because if labels match up, components should as well, or so the thinking goes. However, saying 622ISO is the "fine measurement all should be at", is like thinking every square mile in the country is the same size. They are not, and neither is everyone's rims and tires. That may sound weird, but if you've ever tried mounting a Michelin tubeless tire on a Stan's rim, you know what I mean. You might get the two mounted to one another, but woe be to you if you have a catastrophic failure on a ride and you think you are getting a tube in there.

Stay tuned for Part 2 tomorrow....

State Of Tubelessness: Ten Years Down The Road- Part 1

Some wheels, like these Irwin Cycling wheels here, make going tubeless super easy.

The other day I noted a thread in the RidingGravel.com forum that was started by someone a bit befuddled by the terminologies and what they meant when it comes to gravel tires. What rims fit which tires? What is UST? and more.

This prompted me to read through the thread and I did stop and add some context to it. But that said, it appears that there are a lot of confused individuals out there yet in 2018 when it comes to tubeless tires for bicycles.

I have, on occasion here on this blog, written a "State Of Tubelessness" post. The first one I could dig up was from 2010, but I had been writing about my trials and tribulations with tubeless tires almost from the onset of the blog in 2005. But for all intents and purposes, my real pursuit of going tubeless started in 2007, so I figured why not detail briefly what has happened over the past ten years in terms of tubeless tires for bicycles.

Obviously somewhere this all started and the beginnings of tubeless tires in our era started in the late 90's with a guy by the name of Stan Koziak. You know his company by the name of "Stan's", but the full name of the company is "Stan's NoTubes", which should give you a clue as to what sort of tires his system are meant for. Stan's was, and still is, a system for converting non-tubeless tires to tubeless usage. That specifically means folding bead and wire bead performance tires that were never meant to be tubeless. Of course, you can run tubeless tires on Stan's rims, but not all will fit.

A set of ZTR Flow rims I still have were tried with many tires in the past.

Once tubeless ready tires came to market, Stan's didn't push the conversion thing too hard. In fact, they dabbled in their own tires for a bit, but even that went by the wayside. Stan's just kept being Stan's and they kept growing as a company, mainly because tire and rim manufacturers couldn't get together on a single standard for tubeless tires. Not that it wasn't tried, or successful, because there is a standard, but it requires a licensing fee. Not something many companies are willing to pay for.

Of course, that standard is UST, or Uniform System Tubeless, which Mavic, Hutchinson, and Michelin first developed in 1999. Later a few other companies would adopt the standard, most notably GEAX/Vittoria, but for the most part, the stringent dimensions and testing protocol of UST wasn't adopted by the industry universally. This caused UST to be pretty much pigeonholed to the XC racer set, and most average mountain bikers were not getting into UST in the early 00's. The fact that true, air-tight tubeless tires were a lot heavier than their folding bead counterparts was also a part of this.

 Meanwhile, 29"ers were becoming a thing, and the rim and tire manufacturers were standing off from adopting any single standard until things shook themselves out. This sort of played into the hands of Stan's who were the "average person's" tubeless "system" of choice. Obviously, Stan's made for a lighter weight set up, because you used a folding bead tire, which in some cases could be well over 200 grams lighter than a UST tire. The trouble with Stan's was that non-tubeless, folding bead tires were difficult to get sealed, didn't last long, and some were failing spectacularly due to the added stresses present without a tube to reinforce the bead and sidewall.

That all began to change in the late 00's as Trek/Bontrager/Fisher began to push for tubeless systems that they could use on their bikes. Since Bontrager sold tires, a system where tire, plastic "TLR" rim strip, and rim was developed which was very user friendly and worked tremendously well. But like UST before it, this was not an "open standard", so other companies were developing their own systems to compete. Specialized had "2Bliss", WTB developed "TCS", and rim manufacturers that did not make tires and tire manufacturers that did not make rims were left wondering what to do.

Rim companies, like Velocity, kind of shot for a :middle ground" in terms of design.

Many companies did not want to err so far toward the UST dimensions that other components would not fit and vice versa. Some of the systems, like WTB's TCS,were close to UST, but some were not. The companies whose tires were not right on the UST mark did so to fit Stan's rims, which were very slightly oversized. But these tires would still fit some other companies rims, which were somewhere in between the UST and the older. standard climcher/tube variances. Rims, like Velocity USA's, were made to fit a broader range of tires as well. Other companies adopted Stan's dimensions, while others erred closer to UST.

So, in 2018, you can probably see why it is that people get confused. Fit issues exist, and remember, tolerances don't need to vary much so that very small variances can mean that some components will not be compatible with others, despite the labels saying 700c, or 622ISO. This gives people fits, because if labels match up, components should as well, or so the thinking goes. However, saying 622ISO is the "fine measurement all should be at", is like thinking every square mile in the country is the same size. They are not, and neither is everyone's rims and tires. That may sound weird, but if you've ever tried mounting a Michelin tubeless tire on a Stan's rim, you know what I mean. You might get the two mounted to one another, but woe be to you if you have a catastrophic failure on a ride and you think you are getting a tube in there.

Stay tuned for Part 2 tomorrow....

Springtime Changes

Spring just started last week, but you'd never know it by how it looks outside, and especially out in the woods.

This picture is from March- not early May!

Generally this level of greenery and flower is left for late April/early May. Heck, even the Bluebells are blooming! I was blown away by how fast the green stuff is taking over out in the woods right now.

The other odd thing was that the woods were devoid of critters. Of course, someone had just blazed through the woods ahead of me, but even the birds were strangely less noisey yesterday. That was odd, but I needed a bit of solitude, so I actually appreciated this.

The legs are coming around, but still not where I want to be coming into an event. Climbing on the single speed was "okay" yesterday, but I wasn't snapping right up those steeps. Gotta do some more work on that. The softer, loamy ground may have had something to do with that less than sharp feeling, but I know that I am not in "climbing mode" just yet.

The gear on the Sawyer is also a bit tall as well. That said, I am stuck with that as long as I run The Belt. That's the thing about The Belt. Very tough to swap out cogs and belts without spending a ton of dough.

Not an El Mariachi

So, let's say you got a fat bike, but you wanted to ride it in the summer on some lighter wheels. What to do? Well, one solution was presented to me at Frostbike by Handspun Wheels. Fat bike hubs laced to 29"er rims.

So they sent out a set to have me thrash them. I'll report on that later on TNI, but for now I am tickled about how it came out.I set this all up yesterday.

The bike now has a totally different look, and obviously is lighter to boot. It almost looks "normal" with these wheels on it, but one peek at the tire clearances tells you something is missing!

The one thing I said going into getting this bike built up was that versatility was key. These wheels certainly open up a lot of possibilities. I can run it as is, with a suspension fork, (albeit with a different front wheel), or use the original Larry 3.8"er as a "fat front" set up.

But that isn't all. I can also single speed this bike. Added into all of this is the bikepacking/touring capabilities, and then it becomes very apparent that I could ditch a lot of my bicycles for this, singular titanium beauty.

Wheels swapped = Much Better Now!

Then there were the issues I had with a certain less than stiff wheel set on the Titus Rockstar. Well, I nipped that in the bud yesterday as well.

I popped off the American Classic/WTB Frequency wheels from the MBC single speed, put the MBC single speed wheels back on that, and then went to work on the Rockstar. The hub needed a swap from a quick release axle to a 15QR type, so I did that. Then the rotors and finally swapping over the cassette.

Result? Unbelievably stiffer wheels. Night and day difference from the way it was sent out. Now I can not wait to see how it does on some trails around here.

The WTB Bronson tires, which are listed as 2.2"ers, but have a tread width of a 2.4"er, still leave plenty of clearance in the back of this frame. That was a concern going into the swap, but I am happy to see it has plenty of room to spare.  I'm a little bummed that this didn't get sorted before I went to El Paso, but oh well. At least it got sorted!

One of my Favorites

Then I swapped tires on the new Fargo. I got this frame and fork last fall, and I love how it feels and rides on single track.

The tires I had on it were Specialized Ground Control tires, which were great. I now have some Michelin Wild race'r tires on it, which it seems have taken forever to become available, but they are now.

These are tubeless ready type tires, so they went on some Velocity Blunt SL wheels and aired up nicely.

These tires have some lowish knobs and a squared off profile. Kind of an odd look, but they are supposed to be fast on hard pack. We'll have to wait a bit to see, since things are still pretty loamy out there just now.

So there were a bunch of springtime changes going on yesterday, and I spent most of the afternoon in the Lab futzing and fettling with bicycles. Not a bad way to spend a day. Gotta keep the fleet running!

Springtime Changes

Spring just started last week, but you'd never know it by how it looks outside, and especially out in the woods.

This picture is from March- not early May!

Generally this level of greenery and flower is left for late April/early May. Heck, even the Bluebells are blooming! I was blown away by how fast the green stuff is taking over out in the woods right now.

The other odd thing was that the woods were devoid of critters. Of course, someone had just blazed through the woods ahead of me, but even the birds were strangely less noisey yesterday. That was odd, but I needed a bit of solitude, so I actually appreciated this.

The legs are coming around, but still not where I want to be coming into an event. Climbing on the single speed was "okay" yesterday, but I wasn't snapping right up those steeps. Gotta do some more work on that. The softer, loamy ground may have had something to do with that less than sharp feeling, but I know that I am not in "climbing mode" just yet.

The gear on the Sawyer is also a bit tall as well. That said, I am stuck with that as long as I run The Belt. That's the thing about The Belt. Very tough to swap out cogs and belts without spending a ton of dough.

Not an El Mariachi

So, let's say you got a fat bike, but you wanted to ride it in the summer on some lighter wheels. What to do? Well, one solution was presented to me at Frostbike by Handspun Wheels. Fat bike hubs laced to 29"er rims.

So they sent out a set to have me thrash them. I'll report on that later on TNI, but for now I am tickled about how it came out.I set this all up yesterday.

The bike now has a totally different look, and obviously is lighter to boot. It almost looks "normal" with these wheels on it, but one peek at the tire clearances tells you something is missing!

The one thing I said going into getting this bike built up was that versatility was key. These wheels certainly open up a lot of possibilities. I can run it as is, with a suspension fork, (albeit with a different front wheel), or use the original Larry 3.8"er as a "fat front" set up.

But that isn't all. I can also single speed this bike. Added into all of this is the bikepacking/touring capabilities, and then it becomes very apparent that I could ditch a lot of my bicycles for this, singular titanium beauty.

Wheels swapped = Much Better Now!

Then there were the issues I had with a certain less than stiff wheel set on the Titus Rockstar. Well, I nipped that in the bud yesterday as well.

I popped off the American Classic/WTB Frequency wheels from the MBC single speed, put the MBC single speed wheels back on that, and then went to work on the Rockstar. The hub needed a swap from a quick release axle to a 15QR type, so I did that. Then the rotors and finally swapping over the cassette.

Result? Unbelievably stiffer wheels. Night and day difference from the way it was sent out. Now I can not wait to see how it does on some trails around here.

The WTB Bronson tires, which are listed as 2.2"ers, but have a tread width of a 2.4"er, still leave plenty of clearance in the back of this frame. That was a concern going into the swap, but I am happy to see it has plenty of room to spare.  I'm a little bummed that this didn't get sorted before I went to El Paso, but oh well. At least it got sorted!

One of my Favorites

Then I swapped tires on the new Fargo. I got this frame and fork last fall, and I love how it feels and rides on single track.

The tires I had on it were Specialized Ground Control tires, which were great. I now have some Michelin Wild race'r tires on it, which it seems have taken forever to become available, but they are now.

These are tubeless ready type tires, so they went on some Velocity Blunt SL wheels and aired up nicely.

These tires have some lowish knobs and a squared off profile. Kind of an odd look, but they are supposed to be fast on hard pack. We'll have to wait a bit to see, since things are still pretty loamy out there just now.

So there were a bunch of springtime changes going on yesterday, and I spent most of the afternoon in the Lab futzing and fettling with bicycles. Not a bad way to spend a day. Gotta keep the fleet running!