Friday News And Views

The scene as recorded by Australia's "9News" cameras.

"E-Bike" Fire Causes Concerns:

Recently a Pinarello road bike, retrofitted with an electric motor, had its battery catch fire and cause a minor brush fire in Australia. You can read Carlton Reid's story here.

Pinarello was quick to point out that this bicycle was retrofitted with an aftermarket electric motor kit not approved by Pinarello. But this isn't an odd case. There are a lot of retrofit kits out there, and the potential for something along these lines to happen again, with possible devastating effects, is rather high.

The story from Australia brings up a couple of interesting points to ponder. I've noted several modded bicycles and scooters in the Mid-Western city I live in. I would assume that nationwide, that it is true that there are other examples of such vehicles running streets and trails. We have no idea if the installations were dodgy, if the products are safe, or if we might see more battery explosions causing fires. The fellow in Australia escaped with minor burns, but the next person may not be as lucky.

The brush fire also brings up another interesting point to ponder. That of what might happen, say if this scene were to play itself out in a western state, with major consequences. Wildfires start easily and have had devastating effects which are well known to us all. Even if an electric motor on a two wheeled vehicle is installed properly, it only takes a spark.

Former Pro roadie, Ted King gets a hug after winning the Dirty Kanza 200

More On Why Grassroots Gravel Isn't Dying: 

Okay, tacking on to what I posted yesterday, and which I mentioned there I would be talking about here, is the following. A bit of redundancy, I know, but I do not think everyone is getting the point here. ......

Another article speaking about the Pro roadie invasion of "gravel" events, (which is really just another story about the Dirty Kanza 200), hit the web this week written by Joe Lindsey for "Outside Magazine".

It's an interesting take, but again- it really is only referring to one event. There is a reason for this.

The Dirty Kanza 200, for all intents and purposes, is "the" gravel event. Outside of folks who know and love gravel, this event is really the only event anyone knows much about. Even the media focuses on this singular event as being the example of "gravel" as it refers to cycling. That's a bit skewed. No.........it is a LOT skewed. But it is what it is. The DK200 has positioned itself over the years to be "THE" gravel event in the eyes of the cycling world, and it has largely achieved this goal. It's no wonder then that publishers like "Outside" almost always reference the event in their coverage of the gravel scene. Sure, there are token references to other gravel events, but they are not the focus here.

Really, if you think about it, the story headline should be "No, Pros Won't Ruin The Dirty Kanza". There ya go, "Outside", fixed that for ya..... The point being is that the gravel scene is far more than just that event. Obvious, yes- but it is not portrayed this way in coverage to average cyclists and casual onlookers. This is really why grassroots racing won't be affected by the Pros. Because there are more gravel events than just the Dirty Kanza. A LOT more!

Canyon Strive with 29" wheels

 It's Remarkable Where 29"ers Have Gone:

When I started blogging in 2005 (GASP! It's been that long ago!) I was really passionate about the then new 29 inch wheeled mountain bikes. I still am, but, ya know.......they are pretty much just mountain bikes now, right? I mean, you have some 27.5" stuff, but most mountain bikes are 29"ers anymore. Nuthin' new there!

But back then we never thought long travel or DH bikes would ever be 29 inch wheeled bikes. Why would they be? That was ludicrous. No way.....

But it has all happened. Long travel, big wheels, full suspension, all in one bike? Crazy. The latest news came from Canyon Bikes who debuted the enduro-centric Strive 29"er yesterday. The team issue one has a 170mm travel front fork and 150mm travel rear suspension. What the what?!!! That's crazy talk right there.

But I am pleased to see that it seems just like "the normal thing to do" now. No one is really all that surprised by this. It is the trend now. Long travel 29"ers, a dream ten years ago, are reality everywhere in 2019. Crow is being eaten. Hope it tastes good.......

Head sells bicycles and related gear, but is best known for tennis and ski gear.

Head Sport Buys Up Bankrupt Bike Company:

Recently the bicycle industry was rocked by the news that ASE, parent company to brands Fuji Bikes, Breezer Bikes, Kestrel, and more such as retailers Performance Bike and Nashbar, was going bankrupt. Now news is spreading via "Bicycle Retailer and Industry News" that Head Sport has offered to buy the ailing companies.

You may remember Head if you were of age in the 70's. They were part of AMF, remember that? The same AMF company that owned Harley-Davidson back then. Anyway, Head makes tennis rackets and ski gear, which has been their bread and butter since the 50's when the company was founded by Howard Head.

Head sells bicycles under the "Head" brand name in Europe, for the most part, and carry a full line of bicycles and HPB (Hybrid Powered Bicycles) units as well. In terms of the particular brands we know that were part of ASE, it is a good thing and it seems likely these marques will live on to see another day. What becomes of the retail side of the business seems to be up in the air at this point. My feeling is that if Head decides to keep a few outlets open, they won't be anything like the old Performance/Nashbar. But we will see.

That's all for this week! We have snow coming in, so I hope to get a fat bike ride in. Get out and ride!

Friday News And Views

The scene as recorded by Australia's "9News" cameras.

"E-Bike" Fire Causes Concerns:

Recently a Pinarello road bike, retrofitted with an electric motor, had its battery catch fire and cause a minor brush fire in Australia. You can read Carlton Reid's story here.

Pinarello was quick to point out that this bicycle was retrofitted with an aftermarket electric motor kit not approved by Pinarello. But this isn't an odd case. There are a lot of retrofit kits out there, and the potential for something along these lines to happen again, with possible devastating effects, is rather high.

The story from Australia brings up a couple of interesting points to ponder. I've noted several modded bicycles and scooters in the Mid-Western city I live in. I would assume that nationwide, that it is true that there are other examples of such vehicles running streets and trails. We have no idea if the installations were dodgy, if the products are safe, or if we might see more battery explosions causing fires. The fellow in Australia escaped with minor burns, but the next person may not be as lucky.

The brush fire also brings up another interesting point to ponder. That of what might happen, say if this scene were to play itself out in a western state, with major consequences. Wildfires start easily and have had devastating effects which are well known to us all. Even if an electric motor on a two wheeled vehicle is installed properly, it only takes a spark.

Former Pro roadie, Ted King gets a hug after winning the Dirty Kanza 200

More On Why Grassroots Gravel Isn't Dying: 

Okay, tacking on to what I posted yesterday, and which I mentioned there I would be talking about here, is the following. A bit of redundancy, I know, but I do not think everyone is getting the point here. ......

Another article speaking about the Pro roadie invasion of "gravel" events, (which is really just another story about the Dirty Kanza 200), hit the web this week written by Joe Lindsey for "Outside Magazine".

It's an interesting take, but again- it really is only referring to one event. There is a reason for this.

The Dirty Kanza 200, for all intents and purposes, is "the" gravel event. Outside of folks who know and love gravel, this event is really the only event anyone knows much about. Even the media focuses on this singular event as being the example of "gravel" as it refers to cycling. That's a bit skewed. No.........it is a LOT skewed. But it is what it is. The DK200 has positioned itself over the years to be "THE" gravel event in the eyes of the cycling world, and it has largely achieved this goal. It's no wonder then that publishers like "Outside" almost always reference the event in their coverage of the gravel scene. Sure, there are token references to other gravel events, but they are not the focus here.

Really, if you think about it, the story headline should be "No, Pros Won't Ruin The Dirty Kanza". There ya go, "Outside", fixed that for ya..... The point being is that the gravel scene is far more than just that event. Obvious, yes- but it is not portrayed this way in coverage to average cyclists and casual onlookers. This is really why grassroots racing won't be affected by the Pros. Because there are more gravel events than just the Dirty Kanza. A LOT more!

Canyon Strive with 29" wheels

 It's Remarkable Where 29"ers Have Gone:

When I started blogging in 2005 (GASP! It's been that long ago!) I was really passionate about the then new 29 inch wheeled mountain bikes. I still am, but, ya know.......they are pretty much just mountain bikes now, right? I mean, you have some 27.5" stuff, but most mountain bikes are 29"ers anymore. Nuthin' new there!

But back then we never thought long travel or DH bikes would ever be 29 inch wheeled bikes. Why would they be? That was ludicrous. No way.....

But it has all happened. Long travel, big wheels, full suspension, all in one bike? Crazy. The latest news came from Canyon Bikes who debuted the enduro-centric Strive 29"er yesterday. The team issue one has a 170mm travel front fork and 150mm travel rear suspension. What the what?!!! That's crazy talk right there.

But I am pleased to see that it seems just like "the normal thing to do" now. No one is really all that surprised by this. It is the trend now. Long travel 29"ers, a dream ten years ago, are reality everywhere in 2019. Crow is being eaten. Hope it tastes good.......

Head sells bicycles and related gear, but is best known for tennis and ski gear.

Head Sport Buys Up Bankrupt Bike Company:

Recently the bicycle industry was rocked by the news that ASE, parent company to brands Fuji Bikes, Breezer Bikes, Kestrel, and more such as retailers Performance Bike and Nashbar, was going bankrupt. Now news is spreading via "Bicycle Retailer and Industry News" that Head Sport has offered to buy the ailing companies.

You may remember Head if you were of age in the 70's. They were part of AMF, remember that? The same AMF company that owned Harley-Davidson back then. Anyway, Head makes tennis rackets and ski gear, which has been their bread and butter since the 50's when the company was founded by Howard Head.

Head sells bicycles under the "Head" brand name in Europe, for the most part, and carry a full line of bicycles and HPB (Hybrid Powered Bicycles) units as well. In terms of the particular brands we know that were part of ASE, it is a good thing and it seems likely these marques will live on to see another day. What becomes of the retail side of the business seems to be up in the air at this point. My feeling is that if Head decides to keep a few outlets open, they won't be anything like the old Performance/Nashbar. But we will see.

That's all for this week! We have snow coming in, so I hope to get a fat bike ride in. Get out and ride!

Minus Ten Review 2009- 1

NOTE- Starting with 2019, all "Minus Ten" posts will have the year they refer to in the title. After three years of doing these, I figure I'd better do something to make finding old "Minus Ten" posts a little easier. 

Ten years ago this week it was deep Winter in Iowa and I was trying to find ways to cycle whenever, and however, I could. Of course, back then I was doing this odd activity called cross country skiing. Remember doing that, Iowans?

Ironically enough, I spoke with a man last week, (December, 2018), at the shop and he was from Western New York. He mentioned he was here on a family Christmas visit. He also said he'd skied 34 times already. Thirty-four times?! I don't think I've cross country skied 34 times in the last ten years. Mostly because, well.......it was impossible. That and "fat bike". That came into my life late in 2010, so in another year I would fairly abandon cross country skiing for fat biking. Then Winter, well........Winter with snow, disappeared, for the most part, and as you know, it's been tricky to even see anything white here resembling snow in a long time.

Let's see, so what else was going on in early, early 2009? Well, a couple of years prior, in 2007, Pacenti launched the 650B tire for mountain biking and it was quickly lauded as the "best of both worlds", a tire that would quickly erase 29"ers, (those silly wagon wheels), and replace the too-small 26"er. Two years later, in early 2009, and what did we have but.........(yawn), not much of anything. I wrote a musing on this fact, then I made the following prognostication, just barely after 2009 started.

"I also still think that 650B will not go away, but it will most certainly not attain the popularity that 29"ers currently enjoy without unseating 26"ers or 29"ers."

Hmmm...... Looks like I had that correct, and 26"ers are now, for all intents and purposes, a dead wheel size for mountain biking. Of course, this was not due to riders picking up on the tweener wheel size. No, had manufacturers not foisted the wheel size on consumers by developing the 'new" enduro discipline, and introducing small wheel sized mtb's as 650B bikes and not 26"ers, the "B" sized wheels would have died out, assuredly.

Ice glistens in the branches against an early morning Sun on my way to work in 2009.

 I'm not saying that would have been the right choice, but the industry pretty much dictated that change, not the riding public. I think Europe, whose riders at that time did not want anything to do with 29"ers, embraced the 650B wheel size as a better "big wheel" alternative to 26'ers. Of course, eventually even Europe gave over and accepted the 29"er in larger numbers.

But it was painfully obvious, (both in the metaphorical sense and literally), that the bike industry was swinging hard for 650B by 2011. That hurt "Twenty Nine Inches", the website I owned at the time, and times were tough for anything new on the big wheeled side for a while. But back to 2009. By this time, in 2009, decisions were being made and this is when the whole 650B deal was started, but it would take two years for all of that to come to fruition on the retail side. Manufacturers, bitten by sitting on their hands when Trek/Fisher raked in the sales on 29"ers in 2007/2008, (along with other early adopters), wanted to create the next "big thing" in mountain biking and they saw a chance with 650B and enduro, or in other terms, by replacing what had been known as "long travel" 26"ers. (5"-6")

Of course, back then, all I knew was that three wheel sizes in the shops weren't going to cut it. I was correct. Then "Plus" wheels and fat bikes pretty much wrecked that scenario!

As a side note, I think, because I cannot verify this anymore, but I think this 650B post from ten years ago was the one that spurred a violent rebuke from a few 650B fanboi's from mtbr.com here on the blog. They basically decided to flood the comments with bile, and what they thought was funny. The blog didn't have comment verification or spam control.....until after this point. I ended up having to install that on the blog then. It was my first run-in with internet style "bullying", and it wasn't cool.

But, I learned a lot from that, and so in the end, it was all good. I also had to learn about all this spam management and comment moderation for "Twenty Nine Inches" anyway, so that was a trial by fire! It served me well. In the end, the bullying made me a better blogger and internet site owner, so I guess I should thank those numbskulls.

Minus Ten Review 2009- 1

NOTE- Starting with 2019, all "Minus Ten" posts will have the year they refer to in the title. After three years of doing these, I figure I'd better do something to make finding old "Minus Ten" posts a little easier. 

Ten years ago this week it was deep Winter in Iowa and I was trying to find ways to cycle whenever, and however, I could. Of course, back then I was doing this odd activity called cross country skiing. Remember doing that, Iowans?

Ironically enough, I spoke with a man last week, (December, 2018), at the shop and he was from Western New York. He mentioned he was here on a family Christmas visit. He also said he'd skied 34 times already. Thirty-four times?! I don't think I've cross country skied 34 times in the last ten years. Mostly because, well.......it was impossible. That and "fat bike". That came into my life late in 2010, so in another year I would fairly abandon cross country skiing for fat biking. Then Winter, well........Winter with snow, disappeared, for the most part, and as you know, it's been tricky to even see anything white here resembling snow in a long time.

Let's see, so what else was going on in early, early 2009? Well, a couple of years prior, in 2007, Pacenti launched the 650B tire for mountain biking and it was quickly lauded as the "best of both worlds", a tire that would quickly erase 29"ers, (those silly wagon wheels), and replace the too-small 26"er. Two years later, in early 2009, and what did we have but.........(yawn), not much of anything. I wrote a musing on this fact, then I made the following prognostication, just barely after 2009 started.

"I also still think that 650B will not go away, but it will most certainly not attain the popularity that 29"ers currently enjoy without unseating 26"ers or 29"ers."

Hmmm...... Looks like I had that correct, and 26"ers are now, for all intents and purposes, a dead wheel size for mountain biking. Of course, this was not due to riders picking up on the tweener wheel size. No, had manufacturers not foisted the wheel size on consumers by developing the 'new" enduro discipline, and introducing small wheel sized mtb's as 650B bikes and not 26"ers, the "B" sized wheels would have died out, assuredly.

Ice glistens in the branches against an early morning Sun on my way to work in 2009.

 I'm not saying that would have been the right choice, but the industry pretty much dictated that change, not the riding public. I think Europe, whose riders at that time did not want anything to do with 29"ers, embraced the 650B wheel size as a better "big wheel" alternative to 26'ers. Of course, eventually even Europe gave over and accepted the 29"er in larger numbers.

But it was painfully obvious, (both in the metaphorical sense and literally), that the bike industry was swinging hard for 650B by 2011. That hurt "Twenty Nine Inches", the website I owned at the time, and times were tough for anything new on the big wheeled side for a while. But back to 2009. By this time, in 2009, decisions were being made and this is when the whole 650B deal was started, but it would take two years for all of that to come to fruition on the retail side. Manufacturers, bitten by sitting on their hands when Trek/Fisher raked in the sales on 29"ers in 2007/2008, (along with other early adopters), wanted to create the next "big thing" in mountain biking and they saw a chance with 650B and enduro, or in other terms, by replacing what had been known as "long travel" 26"ers. (5"-6")

Of course, back then, all I knew was that three wheel sizes in the shops weren't going to cut it. I was correct. Then "Plus" wheels and fat bikes pretty much wrecked that scenario!

As a side note, I think, because I cannot verify this anymore, but I think this 650B post from ten years ago was the one that spurred a violent rebuke from a few 650B fanboi's from mtbr.com here on the blog. They basically decided to flood the comments with bile, and what they thought was funny. The blog didn't have comment verification or spam control.....until after this point. I ended up having to install that on the blog then. It was my first run-in with internet style "bullying", and it wasn't cool.

But, I learned a lot from that, and so in the end, it was all good. I also had to learn about all this spam management and comment moderation for "Twenty Nine Inches" anyway, so that was a trial by fire! It served me well. In the end, the bullying made me a better blogger and internet site owner, so I guess I should thank those numbskulls.

The "Mid-Fat" WTB Bridger: A Clue To The Future

The WTB Bridger 27.5+ 3.0"er tire for "Enduro+"

Well, well, well! Just last Friday we talked about the Fox 27.5" fork, and how this signaled   the beginnings of the "big push" from manufacturers on the bicycles that will be aimed at backpacking and enduro. Yesterday WTB followed this up with the announcement of a tire that goes beyond the initial 27.5+ offering of the 2.8" Trailblazer. This goes to "3" and is dubbed the Bridger. The specs point out something rather revealing and goes right along with where I figured this was heading all along.

I'm dubbing it "Enduro+". The newer form of the enduro bike will be a cross between the 27.5", long travel bikes we see now and the groundbreaking Salsa Bucksaw fat bike full suspension rig. The Bridger specs point solidly in the direction of this bike, as does the Fox fork. Check out what WTB is saying...

• This will be available in WTB's "TCS Tough", High Grip, and TCS Light: Fast Rolling options. So, all enduro type conditions are covered here. 
• Pre-production weights range from 1235 grams to 1510 grams.

Okay, so fat bike tire weights in a skinnier tread width? Yes. Especially for durability going downhill at speeds, maybe even ridiculous speeds. Anyway, you can bet the internet mtb'ers will be crying foul because these aren't 700 gram, lightweight, XC-ish/trail tires that will magically be tough and durable too. But what folks are maybe going to miss here is the fact that if you are not doing Enduro events or big mountain riding, these are not the tires you are looking for. Maybe someone will make "that" tire to swap out for fat bike tires for Summer riding, (and let's face it, you still could do that with the Bridger), but this is for those new "Enduro+" rigs that will be flooding the market real soon.

Yep. This is just the tip of the iceberg folks.

The "Mid-Fat" WTB Bridger: A Clue To The Future

The WTB Bridger 27.5+ 3.0"er tire for "Enduro+"

Well, well, well! Just last Friday we talked about the Fox 27.5" fork, and how this signaled   the beginnings of the "big push" from manufacturers on the bicycles that will be aimed at backpacking and enduro. Yesterday WTB followed this up with the announcement of a tire that goes beyond the initial 27.5+ offering of the 2.8" Trailblazer. This goes to "3" and is dubbed the Bridger. The specs point out something rather revealing and goes right along with where I figured this was heading all along.

I'm dubbing it "Enduro+". The newer form of the enduro bike will be a cross between the 27.5", long travel bikes we see now and the groundbreaking Salsa Bucksaw fat bike full suspension rig. The Bridger specs point solidly in the direction of this bike, as does the Fox fork. Check out what WTB is saying...

• This will be available in WTB's "TCS Tough", High Grip, and TCS Light: Fast Rolling options. So, all enduro type conditions are covered here. 
• Pre-production weights range from 1235 grams to 1510 grams.

Okay, so fat bike tire weights in a skinnier tread width? Yes. Especially for durability going downhill at speeds, maybe even ridiculous speeds. Anyway, you can bet the internet mtb'ers will be crying foul because these aren't 700 gram, lightweight, XC-ish/trail tires that will magically be tough and durable too. But what folks are maybe going to miss here is the fact that if you are not doing Enduro events or big mountain riding, these are not the tires you are looking for. Maybe someone will make "that" tire to swap out for fat bike tires for Summer riding, (and let's face it, you still could do that with the Bridger), but this is for those new "Enduro+" rigs that will be flooding the market real soon.

Yep. This is just the tip of the iceberg folks.

Lost In The Mid-Size Hoopla

Big, aggressive 29"er tires? (Image courtesy of C. Artman)

For several years leading up to 2012, many 29"er fans were opining about the lack of "long travel" 29"ers and bigger, more aggressive tires for them. Then this mid-sized, 27.5"er deal happened, and many figured that longer travel bikes and bigger tires for big wheelers were all but a pipe dream that would never come true. Yep! Stick a fork in that idea.

And while the industry goes gaga for "enduro" racing and the focus is shifting towards the series growing up around that style of riding, there has been something going on quietly over in the corner just outside of the limelight: Bigger, more aggressive tires, longer travel forks, and bikes to put them on for 29"ers are happening. Right now.

If this all would have happened three years ago, it would have been grabbing all the attention of riders everywhere, but I wonder how many folks even are aware that Rock Shox introduced the Pike for 29"ers with 150mm travel, or that Specialized and Trek have long travel 29"ers available now? You just don't see a lot of buzz about those items. Then there are the tires: Maxxis is bringing out two versions of the Minion, and a Highroller II, WTB has the Vigilante, and Schwalbe has introduced an even burlier tire than the Hans Dampf dubbed the "Magic Mary".

Yep, this all would have been considered a really big deal in 2010, but now it is kind of flying under the radar, which I find interesting. It just goes to show you that the manufacturers marketing machine is doing a bang up job of pushing this enduro scene and the mid-sized bikes being pushed for that niche of the sport.

Lost In The Mid-Size Hoopla

Big, aggressive 29"er tires? (Image courtesy of C. Artman)

For several years leading up to 2012, many 29"er fans were opining about the lack of "long travel" 29"ers and bigger, more aggressive tires for them. Then this mid-sized, 27.5"er deal happened, and many figured that longer travel bikes and bigger tires for big wheelers were all but a pipe dream that would never come true. Yep! Stick a fork in that idea.

And while the industry goes gaga for "enduro" racing and the focus is shifting towards the series growing up around that style of riding, there has been something going on quietly over in the corner just outside of the limelight: Bigger, more aggressive tires, longer travel forks, and bikes to put them on for 29"ers are happening. Right now.

If this all would have happened three years ago, it would have been grabbing all the attention of riders everywhere, but I wonder how many folks even are aware that Rock Shox introduced the Pike for 29"ers with 150mm travel, or that Specialized and Trek have long travel 29"ers available now? You just don't see a lot of buzz about those items. Then there are the tires: Maxxis is bringing out two versions of the Minion, and a Highroller II, WTB has the Vigilante, and Schwalbe has introduced an even burlier tire than the Hans Dampf dubbed the "Magic Mary".

Yep, this all would have been considered a really big deal in 2010, but now it is kind of flying under the radar, which I find interesting. It just goes to show you that the manufacturers marketing machine is doing a bang up job of pushing this enduro scene and the mid-sized bikes being pushed for that niche of the sport.