Friday News And Views

 Iowa Gravel Series Announces 2024 Slate Of Races:

Early in the week the Iowa Gravel Series, headed up by Chris McQueen, announced their slate of events for the 2024 season. Headlining the series is a new, all-female event and two new additional races with one of them serving as the finale to the series. 

The IGS is partnering with Prairie Bloom, the largest cycling club in Omaha, NE, to put on what they hope will eventually be one of the largest women's only gravel events in the nation. Called the "Prairie Superbloom", it will run on the same course that is used for Glenwood Gravel. The event will take place in September of 2024.

The series is also adding two new events in the Kalona Horseshoe and the Fairfield Harvest Rush. The Fairfield event will close out the IGS events for 2024 and so the IGS is hoping to offer a prize purse for both the over-all series and the event that day. Sponsors and details are TBD, but stay tuned to the IGS site (link above) for announcements or follow the Iowa Gravel Series on social media. 

Comments: Back in 2020 when I saw the way that Chris McQueen was doing things, I knew that he was going to bring in a very different, aggressive approach to gravel events in Iowa. The state was ripe for the taking, in a way, since the gravel racing/riding scene, well established by the late twenty-teens, had not been pursued by any promotional teams or developed by an organization despite the vast opportunities Iowa has to offer. Besides the new-ish series of events put on by Relentless Events, which are all ultra-distance in nature, the state did not have a cohesive series of "standard" distance events until the IGS started up. 

The announcements for the 2024 season are typically aggressive and forward-thinking in terms of what we have had for gravel events in Iowa in the past. Are the events that the IGS puts on "too fancy"? Some may be put off by the progressive, more promotionally driven messaging that the IGS has, but again- Iowa was a wasteland in terms of any "big-time" gravel events, if that makes any sense. Iowa had nothing like the SBT GRVL, Unbound, Big Sugar, Gravel Worlds type of thing going on, and really, I find that rather bizarre. Why not? This state has been, for all intents and purposes, passed by in the bigger gravelly world of cycling when it should not have been so. (And I realize I may have had something to do with that fact.)

Maybe the Iowa Gravel Series will change that. We'll see.....  

Raputitsa Celebrates 10th Edition Of The Event In 2024:

The Raputitsa, a mixed terrain, "gravel" event in Vermont, is setting up to celebrate 10 years of the event's running in 2024. To mark the occasion, the event directors have chosen to feature several sections of the original Raputitsa course and have decided to "up the adventure quotient" by moving the date earlier to potentially capture more "challenging weather". 

Known to have muddy, sometimes snowy sectors on the course, Raputitsa says that by moving their date forward by a week they hope to catch a bit more of that sort of thing. They are quoted in their press release as stating, "Mother Nature is going to test your mettle, and we're here for it!"

Registration and lodging for the 2024 Raputitsa opens up November 1st. 

Comments: You know, it's kind of ironic when you stop to think about this dynamic of having very challenging conditions for an event. There have been cries of "foul" where challenging, muddy conditions have occurred during certain, very high profile gravel events. Event RD's have been taken to task for "putting riders through terrible conditions" just to hold an event, or use a particular course.

Then there are those who think the event may not have been a genuine one if the course is super-dry and there is no wind. They feel "cheated" out of a "real experience". One that they trained for and expected the trials and tribulations of the event to be a part of their personal, prideful "success story" afterward. However; if things were too easy, that kind of short-circuits the possibilities for "epic story telling" after the fact. 

So, there is no winning that debate when it comes to Race directing and promoting. All you can do is cast the net as far as you can in terms of getting the information about course conditions and possibilities to as many as you can. Maybe you will get racers/riders informed. The rest is on the rider to decide. Don't like the course conditions? Well, no one is forcing you to ride in any particular conditions.You can go ahead and stop at any point. As for your event fees, well, you should know the "refund policies" ahead of your attendance. I'm going to guess most events don't have refund policies, and if they do, usually they allow a deferral to the following year's event.  

For those who didn't get all the mud, snow, wind, or whatever they were expecting? There is always next year, or another event.

Image courtesy of Lauf Cycles

Lauf Debuts Uthald Road Bike:

Lauf, the gravel bike company known for their carbon linkage fork, the Grit, has now made a road bike. Well..... Not your typical road bike. 

Lauf claims that they rode at least one test mule with a variable head tube angle across multiple terrains and with several riders and arrived at a bike with a slightly slacker head tube angle and with less offset than you might think you'd want with that head angle. 

They also added copious, (for a road bike, that is), tire clearance with a recommended maximum size of 35mm, but I've already seen where someone has fitted in a 38mm tire. 

The Uthald has a short rear-center and so the wheel base is kept somewhat in check. The bottom bracket drop isn't crazy, but it is 73mm, and that's okay. The thing here is all about the higher than expected trail figure and slack-ish head tube angle. For a road bike, that is. But then, I'm seeing this as another move back toward where things once were in the early 20th Century. 

It's also wireless only. Yep! Something I think we'll be seeing more of in the future as companies push the electronically shifted drive trains more and more. It's probably not a bike I would choose to ride here in Iowa, (I don't have any desire to ride pavement), but it is an interesting development in road bike offerings. Definitely NOT your average road bike.

Merida Silex 4000 (Image courtesy of Merida)

The World Champion's Gravel Bike:

Merida Bikes released their newest version of their Silex range of gravel bikes on Thursday. This brand is not sold in the USA, but I thought the bike, and its unique design, was noteworthy. 

As the headline states, this was the bike that was under Matej Mohorič when he won the Men's UCI Gravel World Championships recently. That becomes an important note when we look at the Silex's geometry. 

This is the other noteworthy bit, that being that Merida took cues from their mountain bike range when designing the newest Silex range. The old Silex had an already slack-ish 71° head tube angle, but this new one goes under 70° to a 69.5° head tube angle. The bottom bracket drop is a healthy 75mm, and the chain stays are not super-short, but with a maximum 45mm tire capability, 430mm is about as short as you'd want to go, I think. 

The mountain biking influence on gravel bikes is being seen more and more, and on the other end, we are seeing bikes like the Lauf (above) creep up on "gravel bike" territory. In fact, Merida has its own "Endurance Road" bike that can handle up to a 35mm tire. 

This begs some questions: "When do "road bikes" become "gravel bikes"? Also, "When do 'Gravel bikes' become MTB/XC bikes with drop bars?" Does any of that matter? Apparently it doesn't too much to a two-time Tour de France winner who just won a single day UCI gravel race. (With a lot of paved sections, I might add.) 

Tomorrow I will take a closer look at the blurring of lines in terms of gravel bikes. 

That's it for today! Thanks for reading Guitar Ted Productions!

A Search For "Gravel" Geometry": Part 4 - Inspired By History, Still "New"

 Today I will wrap up this series and in this post I am going to show what the bike design is and why this idea I started out with has garnered interest with a few folks.

But first, let's review:

Purpose: The idea is to see what, or even if, any past efforts in bicycle design have any bearings on where we are at with geometry regarding"gravel bikes" today.

Okay, and with that, let's keep in mind that the ideas that were presented in the page I shared this past week are what this post is mainly based on.  That page, which featured a bike design shared by Willie Honeman, an accomplished track racer and frame builder, is the genesis for this whole series. Willie is someone who I believe exemplifies the ideas which influenced my thoughts on gravel bike design, and in turn, ideas which have impacted the cycling industry in terms of gravel bike design. 

 Many of Willie Honeman's ideas were congruent with gravel bike design as I saw it.  I should also point out that master frame builder, Steve Garro was the one who posted about this design on his Facebook page. Steve had similar thoughts about this design being an influence on current gravel bike design. You can see my original thoughts about the bike HERE from an April 2023 blog post. 

Willie Honeman's Brennan Track bike from 1932 Image courtesy of "Classic Cycles")

  

Willie's championship winning sprint bike was built by John "Pop" Brennan, according to this information I found. Read that link's information and you will learn that Willie Honeman was the first cyclist to wear the Stars and Stripes jersey, that he advocated for helmet usage by his fellow racers, and that he rode the bike, imaged above, for racing, training, and for recreational pursuits. 

That bike is also the same that was detailed in my last post which showed the original plans for the bike. So, this gives a little better context for that drawing.

There are a lot of things about this bike that would work for me today, but the thought is to take the basic foundation here and modernize it for today's components and for me, obviously, because I would need a longer seat tube and head tube than Willie did. 

But the basics like head tube angle, offset, bottom bracket drop, and chain stay length is all easily transferable. How one approaches the extra long top tube/short stem factor in this design scaled up for my size would be the challenge here. (Yes! Short stem, long top tube, slack and "low' are NOT a new thing.) And before anyone asks, yes. This would be a single speed gravel bike.

But some things would be smart to change. Modern wheels use disc brakes and drop-outs are through axle now. Bottom bracket standards, fork length to accommodate bigger tires, and even that fork's material are all up for consideration. Do you steepen that seat tube? What about the top tube? How wide a tire are we talking about. Several salient points here that need clearing up. And then there is this....

Do I already have "that bike"?

My Twin Six Standard Rando frame has very similar numbers to the Honeman bike built by Pop Brennan. The bottom bracket drop, head tube angle, and chain stay length are all almost identical. The seat tube angle is different though. So, other than that, the Standard Rando is steel, does single speed, (although now mine is set up geared), and it is likely "close enough" to the 1930's track bike design that making a custom one-off might seem, well......unnecessary. 

Plus, the T-6 is a modernized bike with all the typical standards of a 21st century bicycle for gravel. No need to re-invent the wheel, as it were, unless there is a compelling reason to pursue this idea. Like maybe sticking to the original plans for a bike like this more closely. Otherwise I am hard pressed to see what I would learn from having to go through a custom bike build. 

Now, I am not saying I will get a custom done or not, but if I do, the working name would be "The Honeman Sprinter", since that is the inspiration for this bike.

Conclusions: Can we say with any certainty that a bike like the Brennan made for Willie Honeman influenced gravel bike design? Perhaps the answer is no if we are looking for a definitive, direct lineage, but the answer is "yes" in a general sense. Bicycles in the Pre-WWII era were made to be ridden on roads that, at that time, were still mostly unpaved. Riders that bought these expensive, custom made machines rode them all over. I read one account of a professional track rider that was from Davenport, Iowa that rode to a national event held in Chicago, raced his bike, and rode back to Davenport again. So it would seem that many of these track racing designs also had to work off-track as well, making them a forerunner of gravel bikes, in a way. 

That I found inspiration in these older designs, which I used to relate my design ideas to Raleigh in 2012, which resulted in the Tamland series of bicycles, is another facet which speaks to the relevance that these track bikes and road bikes had from the pre-WWII era as well. So, does gravel bike design owe anything to old designs like the Brennan? Probably. Yes. 

Another question: Will I have this custom single speed gravel bike built? Maybe.... Again, I don't need another gravel bike. I have the T-6 which, for all intents and purposes, is 80% of what a modernized old Brennan would be. So, why bother? (Read a review on the Standard Rando HERE)

Well, if the design sticks more to the original, (in particular, the slack seat tube), then perhaps it would be an interesting experiment and it probably would be a fun bike regardless. But that said, things like this cost money, I would need help getting parts and pieces lined up, and maybe to make it all make sense, I'd need a goal. (There is one that would make sense, but no need to go there unless the bike comes first.) 

That all said, I'm not now feeling a great need to pursue the custom Honeman Sprinter idea. Even though it might be fun to see how that design would stack up against today's bikes, I am more than sure I can tell you, at least from my viewpoint, how it would work,because of the Standard Rando. 

Again, this is all my opinion, and I'm not doing anything in this series but espousing my views on what a gravel bike should be like, for myself. So, contrasting opinions will abound, but just go dig into so-called gravel bike geometry charts and you'll see that the Honeman, the Twin Six, the Raleigh Tamland, and many others are pretty closely related. And in my opinion, that is significant from a historical point of view. Gravel bikes may be relatively "new", but I think it is safe to say that they are indeed inspired by the past bicycles that came before them. 

That brings this series to a conclusion, for now. Thanks for reading Guitar Ted Productions!

A Search For "Gravel" Geometry": Part 3 - Is This Really New?

Okay, so far we've looked at how geometry can be a tradition, a myth, and how the "human factor" can adapt differing geometries making anyone saying that "this" geometry is THE geometry for any particular bicycle an erroneous statement. We also know that manufacturing, fashion, and popular figures in sport can influence what geometry might be baked into a bicycle at your local retailer. 

But certain things are better than others, so where do you look to find out what works? Well, you need to think about what you want to do with your bike, and then you need to think about how your rides might look, and of course, where your rides will take place in terms of terrain. 

I  never thought about anyone else but myself when I was thinking about a "gravel bike". I was thinking about long rides. I was thinking about stability, comfort, and all that on crushed rock roads, which we have 70,000+ miles of in the State of Iowa. I never was what you'd call a "roadie", having come from a mountain biking point of view, but before that, a rider that just wanted to ride a bicycle wherever I could go. In Iowa, that means gravel, pavement, and some dirt. 

My cycling as a youth was all over my small Northeastern Iowa city. I enjoyed bikes that I could ride no-handed for blocks upon blocks. It was easy, and the bike was friendly, not a hassle to pilot. Why ride a bicycle if you have to fight the bike just to get down a road, be that into a wind, on a rough surface, or on gravel? I figured that I wasn't the first person to have done this, or to have thought about this. So, I searched online years ago to see what sorts of bicycles riders used in the early 20th Century. 

A page from "Bicycling" magazine from the 40's detailing Willie Honeman's track bike.

A few things were becoming evident in my searches. The front end geometry was going to be numero uno in importance here. That, more than anything else, was going to determine how my "ideal gravel bike" would handle. 

My research pointed to a bike with a slightly slacker head tube angle, a healthy amount of fork offset, but nothing crazy, and a lower bottom bracket coupled with a bit longer than road bike chain stay length. Everything would be wrapped around some poofy tires, 42mm at least, and there would be room for mudguards too. 

That was all derived from older road bikes, but the discovery earlier this year of a page out of "Bicycling" dated from the 1940's kind of opened up my eyes to another source of geometry ideas that I had not considered before - Track racing. 

Nowadays a track bike isn't what it was back in the 1930's, when a man by the name of Willie Honeman was a track cycling champion, and neither were the machines like they are now back then. If you read the article correctly, the head tube angle is not some crazy steep degree. It is 72° and the bottom bracket drop, which is hardly anything on a modern track bike, is a healthy 75mm on this older design. The seat tube angle is 70°, rather slack, but that was still not uncommon in the 1930's.  Chainstays? About 430mm. Perfect for a 42mm tire. Well....not a track racing tire, but you know what I was thinking now. 

And the kicker? That is a 58cm top-tube on this frame. That's my size. 

And so what? What does this have to do with a gravel bike? Well, in old school track racing, which could be a multiple day affair, stability was prized. That also is reflected in the fork offset on the Honeman bike which is approximately 38mm. You had to be able to hold a line, especially no-handed. You could not be fighting the bike, because all the rider's energy had to go into moving forward and not be wasted by fighting the geometry. All the things I'd want in a bike, this track bike design has also. 

It's interesting to note that in the article, Honeman recommends a slightly slacker head tube angle for rough road riding. So, right up my alley. And again, all things which were race and rider proven design. It only makes sense then that gravel bikes have a similar design to cover rougher roads with stability and less rider fatigue induced by bad angles or less comfortable geometry.  

But I gotta admit. A track bike wasn't where I thought I'd find my ideas being proven out. 

Next: On Saturday - The Honeman Sprinter

A Search For "Gravel" Geometry: Part 1 - Sifting Through The Scans Of Time

 Throughout the years that this blog has existed I have done periodic forays into what geometry for certain bikes is, should be, what it was, and where it all may have come from to begin with. (Example here) This has always been one of my minor "nerd" passions and well.....here we go again! 

Recently a proposal for a certain niche build from an up-and-coming builder in California by a certain individual who stands to have an interest in writing up the story was put forth to me. In return for my participation, ($$$) I would end up, at the least, with a frame set. Okay, so that is where this all is generating from.

That propelled me into digging, once again, into the sands - or scans - of time. Internet information is not stagnant. What was available to look up in 2005, when I started this blog, is a pittance to what is available to all of us today. So, I was a bit surprised to find a LOT more information than I had a decade or more ago. 

Purpose: The idea is to see what, or even if, any past efforts in bicycle design have any bearings on where we are at with geometry regarding"gravel bikes" today. This has bearings on what this proposed project is, and eventually I'll bring that up which should bring this series full circle. But before we get there....

History: First of all, it is paramount to this discussion to understand a few things. One - Almost every technical and design attribute for modern day bicycles was conceived of in the late 1890's/early 1900's. The technology developed for bicycling spawned a think-tank that would rival anything assembled today in terms of talent and firepower in intelligence terms. All the science and math behind bicycle technology was so potent that it spawned the air industry, automobile industry, and the motorcycle industry, to name a few things. 

This resulted in ideas that, theoretically would work, but that couldn't be fully realized due to limitations in materials technology. That said, our dive isn't about soft-tail design, gear changers, or about tires, but it will concern, mainly, what the angles were for the tubes which were brazed up to make those earlier bicycles. 

Fashion & Marketing: Yes, even back then there was marketing and due to what was popular, influences infiltrated design and what came out for the public to ride. So, a lot of what we may think of as "the purity of the sport" from antiquity may actually just be marketing what was then popular. For instance, just as we had "The Lance Effect" in the 2000's, from the turn of the 19th Century to the 20th Century riders had "The Track Effect". Madison Square Garden exists because of track racing. Track racing was as big as the NFL is now in the early 1900's. There was betting, spectators galore, and lots of money to be made. So, all the young bicycle riders wanted to be track racers. Guess what kinds of bikes were sold to them? 

But that wasn't all. Even old traditions carried over affected design, and in particular, it was the old "high-wheelers", or penny farthings, that had a big effect upon design of the newer "safety bikes" well into the 20th Century. This most affected seat tube angles as the slacker angles put riders into similar positions for pedaling as they would have had on high wheeled bikes. 

And the aforementioned materials technology deficits also dictated some of what we see in terms of geometry and components. For instance, geometry had to account for the fact that steel and aluminum forming wasn't as well understood as it is today, so things like handlebars were limited in shape and therefore that affected geometry. That's just one facet. There were many others.

Next: Myths & Traditions

Friday News And Views

The Trimm "one lite" GPS computer (Image courtesy of Trimm

 Another GPS Option:

Recently a reader of the blog here tipped me off to another interesting GPS based cycling computer option. The company is a Korean based company called Trimm and the model they sell which I figure is analogous to most Garmin, Wahoo, and Hammerhead users is the "One Lite"

It has a similar "smart-phone" type format and uses a Gorilla Glass screen which puts this in a similar class as many of the top-flite GPS units offered by the companies I mentioned above. This One Lite model weighs in at sub-60 grams though, and is supposedly thinner than an iPhone. And it costs less than $200.00USD.

The unit has a feature which many might find interesting- A solar powered attachment that can keep the computer charged all the time. (You can see a bit of the cord to the solar panel in the image here) There is a short, sub-12 minute review of the unit here on YouTube. 

Comments: If you look at the YouTube review, it seems as though this thing has a leg up on Garmin's extremely expensive solar powered unit. Even without the solar panel, the runtime is 50 hours if you use their speed sensor on your bike. Pretty impressive. Oh, and for an extra $50.00 you can go with the Trimm One and get an aluminum case in 8 different colors, and color screen with the solar charge feature at only a slight weight penalty of a claimed 62 grams. 

I assume it does turn-by-turn navigation, but the YouTube reviewer doesn't specifically call this out. I think it does or what's the point of importing route files, right? Anyway... That's a reasonable price and if it works as advertised, it could be a big disrupter in this field. 

"One-eyed" Zeke Shepherd.

Kansas City Bike Mechanic Gets Hit:

Apparently in the early morning hours of Saturday October 22nd, Kansas City bicycle mechanic, Zeke Shepherd was involved in a hit and run while riding his bicycle. The person who hit him has not been found at this point, as far as I know. 

Zeke, known as "One-Eyed Zeke' to many of us here in Iowa, is a good guy. I had a tiny slice of time spent with him during a Gent's Race deal once upon a time. Anyway, Zeke is pretty banged up, will require a long recovery, and his employer, "velogaragekc", has set up a GoFundme page to help defray his recovery expenses. 

The bicycle community has been really very supportive of me, and I know Zeke will get a big boost from his cycling brothers and sisters out there. Please, consider donating to his cause, if you are so led. 

Image courtesy of Canyon Bikes

Will "KIS" Be Coming To Your Bike Soon?

Steering stabilization ideas for bicycles are nothing new. You can see them often on cargo bikes, where they are more for self-centering the wheel while the bike is parked. Hopey's steering damper or Cane Creek's Viscoset may also come to mind here. But whatever the level of technology, the idea is to overcome wheel flop in certain situations.

I've followed along with some interest in this because of my affinity for riding my fat bike in deeper snowy conditions. Mike Curiak, being a big influencer in that regard. However; there are other instances where a steering damper, or self-centering steering device, would be welcomed. Canyon apparently thinks so too, and so they are offering this proprietary system they call "KIS". That stands for "Keep It Stable". 

It works internally, inside the top tube of their 29"er enduro model only- for now. It is a coil sprung self-centering device that is adjustable at the "anchor" in the top tube via a 4mm hex head bolt. The other end is attached to the cam which itself is clamped over the steer tube and that attached to the coil springs by a synthetic material in the form of two bands. 

Image courtesy of Canyon Bikes

The effect of the KIS system is that of more stability on loose, off-camber to flat turns and a more stable front wheel during slow speed climbs, according to accounts I have read. So, for those times when your body has to make sudden corrections either at the bars or through the pedals, this KIS thing helps calm that down and therefore saves the rider energy. 

Comments: So, to answer my header for this, the answer? No- This won't be coming to your gravel bike anytime soon, and probably not to most mountain bikes either, although, it may make sense for some of you. In which case, the Cane Creek Viscoset would be the likely choice. Anytime you see something like Canyon's KIS system, you have to figure that most companies wouldn't be interested in the licensing fee to use the technology. That's going to limit how much you see of this as well.

To my mind, as I look at this, it seems like an over-thought self-centering spring the likes of which I have seen on cargo bikes. This KIS thing is far more elegantly done, and no doubt works well. I could see this as standard issue technology for cargo bikes in the future. 

But for most bikes? No. I don't see this as being a thing. You have no idea how much friction in a headset/steering causes weird handling until you've ridden a bike with a severely indexed headset race, or a bike with a head set adjusted too tightly. I have done all of that, and it isn't my cup of tea. Not for regular riding. 

But maybe for the fat bike......

The GR3 Image courtesy of Argonaut Cycles

Argonaut Cycles Launches GR3 Bike:

Argonaut Cycles announced a new bicycle today for gravel racing, the GR3 model. This bike is touted as the custom made, hand-laid carbon answer for specific customer physiology and terrain needs. Claiming that "professional gravel racing is the ultimate testing grounds", Argonaut has focused on high-performance, extreme "GravelFirst" geometry, and their marketing focuses heavily on what they think makes for a great racing bike on gravel with a side of mountain biking to spice things up even more. Although that last bit is inferred, not specifically called out. Just looking at their chosen imagery and descriptions points me in that direction immediately. 

Sporting a very short 415mm chain stay length, a 75mm bottom bracket drop, and a very slack (for gravel) 68.5° head angle probably nudged me to thinking "long, slack, and low", like current enduro bike geometry. The marketing also points to their professional athlete that they sponsor having an experience on the GR3 that "... also enhanced her descending abilities to the point where she has seen multiple podiums atop her GR3 and racked up numerous QOM’s for downhill segments!"

Comments: I received a press release for this bike that made it sound as though that they were eager to send over a review bike. I gotta say, first off- I am honored anytime I get an offer like this. Secondly, I hesitate to review a bike that is super-pigeonholed as a "racing bike" with the force of hype that this release has in it. Thirdly, I hesitate to accept an offer to review a bike that I understand is expensive, but one that most of my audience wouldn't ever be able to afford. I mean, sixty five hundred for a frame set? That's $6500.00 for those who may have missed that.

Look, I get it- Racing at the top levels is spectacular and maybe a lot of us wish we were "those folks" and a bike like this maybe can make you feel like a super-hero at times. Maybe.... But my contention is that this is exactly what we do not need for the majority of the riding public. This bike doesn't put "more butts on bikes", as the saying goes. It caters to Pro racers, Pro racer-wannabees, and people with a  LOT of disposable income. That's not many people. And.....that's not me. 

Oh yeah, and Evil Bikes Chamois Hagar would like to have a word with you.....We've seen this before already. Anyway.... 

That's a wrap for today! Have a great weekend and don't eat all the Halloween candy!

Friday News And Views

The Trimm "one lite" GPS computer (Image courtesy of Trimm

 Another GPS Option:

Recently a reader of the blog here tipped me off to another interesting GPS based cycling computer option. The company is a Korean based company called Trimm and the model they sell which I figure is analogous to most Garmin, Wahoo, and Hammerhead users is the "One Lite"

It has a similar "smart-phone" type format and uses a Gorilla Glass screen which puts this in a similar class as many of the top-flite GPS units offered by the companies I mentioned above. This One Lite model weighs in at sub-60 grams though, and is supposedly thinner than an iPhone. And it costs less than $200.00USD.

The unit has a feature which many might find interesting- A solar powered attachment that can keep the computer charged all the time. (You can see a bit of the cord to the solar panel in the image here) There is a short, sub-12 minute review of the unit here on YouTube. 

Comments: If you look at the YouTube review, it seems as though this thing has a leg up on Garmin's extremely expensive solar powered unit. Even without the solar panel, the runtime is 50 hours if you use their speed sensor on your bike. Pretty impressive. Oh, and for an extra $50.00 you can go with the Trimm One and get an aluminum case in 8 different colors, and color screen with the solar charge feature at only a slight weight penalty of a claimed 62 grams. 

I assume it does turn-by-turn navigation, but the YouTube reviewer doesn't specifically call this out. I think it does or what's the point of importing route files, right? Anyway... That's a reasonable price and if it works as advertised, it could be a big disrupter in this field. 

"One-eyed" Zeke Shepherd.

Kansas City Bike Mechanic Gets Hit:

Apparently in the early morning hours of Saturday October 22nd, Kansas City bicycle mechanic, Zeke Shepherd was involved in a hit and run while riding his bicycle. The person who hit him has not been found at this point, as far as I know. 

Zeke, known as "One-Eyed Zeke' to many of us here in Iowa, is a good guy. I had a tiny slice of time spent with him during a Gent's Race deal once upon a time. Anyway, Zeke is pretty banged up, will require a long recovery, and his employer, "velogaragekc", has set up a GoFundme page to help defray his recovery expenses. 

The bicycle community has been really very supportive of me, and I know Zeke will get a big boost from his cycling brothers and sisters out there. Please, consider donating to his cause, if you are so led. 

Image courtesy of Canyon Bikes

Will "KIS" Be Coming To Your Bike Soon?

Steering stabilization ideas for bicycles are nothing new. You can see them often on cargo bikes, where they are more for self-centering the wheel while the bike is parked. Hopey's steering damper or Cane Creek's Viscoset may also come to mind here. But whatever the level of technology, the idea is to overcome wheel flop in certain situations.

I've followed along with some interest in this because of my affinity for riding my fat bike in deeper snowy conditions. Mike Curiak, being a big influencer in that regard. However; there are other instances where a steering damper, or self-centering steering device, would be welcomed. Canyon apparently thinks so too, and so they are offering this proprietary system they call "KIS". That stands for "Keep It Stable". 

It works internally, inside the top tube of their 29"er enduro model only- for now. It is a coil sprung self-centering device that is adjustable at the "anchor" in the top tube via a 4mm hex head bolt. The other end is attached to the cam which itself is clamped over the steer tube and that attached to the coil springs by a synthetic material in the form of two bands. 

Image courtesy of Canyon Bikes

The effect of the KIS system is that of more stability on loose, off-camber to flat turns and a more stable front wheel during slow speed climbs, according to accounts I have read. So, for those times when your body has to make sudden corrections either at the bars or through the pedals, this KIS thing helps calm that down and therefore saves the rider energy. 

Comments: So, to answer my header for this, the answer? No- This won't be coming to your gravel bike anytime soon, and probably not to most mountain bikes either, although, it may make sense for some of you. In which case, the Cane Creek Viscoset would be the likely choice. Anytime you see something like Canyon's KIS system, you have to figure that most companies wouldn't be interested in the licensing fee to use the technology. That's going to limit how much you see of this as well.

To my mind, as I look at this, it seems like an over-thought self-centering spring the likes of which I have seen on cargo bikes. This KIS thing is far more elegantly done, and no doubt works well. I could see this as standard issue technology for cargo bikes in the future. 

But for most bikes? No. I don't see this as being a thing. You have no idea how much friction in a headset/steering causes weird handling until you've ridden a bike with a severely indexed headset race, or a bike with a head set adjusted too tightly. I have done all of that, and it isn't my cup of tea. Not for regular riding. 

But maybe for the fat bike......

The GR3 Image courtesy of Argonaut Cycles

Argonaut Cycles Launches GR3 Bike:

Argonaut Cycles announced a new bicycle today for gravel racing, the GR3 model. This bike is touted as the custom made, hand-laid carbon answer for specific customer physiology and terrain needs. Claiming that "professional gravel racing is the ultimate testing grounds", Argonaut has focused on high-performance, extreme "GravelFirst" geometry, and their marketing focuses heavily on what they think makes for a great racing bike on gravel with a side of mountain biking to spice things up even more. Although that last bit is inferred, not specifically called out. Just looking at their chosen imagery and descriptions points me in that direction immediately. 

Sporting a very short 415mm chain stay length, a 75mm bottom bracket drop, and a very slack (for gravel) 68.5° head angle probably nudged me to thinking "long, slack, and low", like current enduro bike geometry. The marketing also points to their professional athlete that they sponsor having an experience on the GR3 that "... also enhanced her descending abilities to the point where she has seen multiple podiums atop her GR3 and racked up numerous QOM’s for downhill segments!"

Comments: I received a press release for this bike that made it sound as though that they were eager to send over a review bike. I gotta say, first off- I am honored anytime I get an offer like this. Secondly, I hesitate to review a bike that is super-pigeonholed as a "racing bike" with the force of hype that this release has in it. Thirdly, I hesitate to accept an offer to review a bike that I understand is expensive, but one that most of my audience wouldn't ever be able to afford. I mean, sixty five hundred for a frame set? That's $6500.00 for those who may have missed that.

Look, I get it- Racing at the top levels is spectacular and maybe a lot of us wish we were "those folks" and a bike like this maybe can make you feel like a super-hero at times. Maybe.... But my contention is that this is exactly what we do not need for the majority of the riding public. This bike doesn't put "more butts on bikes", as the saying goes. It caters to Pro racers, Pro racer-wannabees, and people with a  LOT of disposable income. That's not many people. And.....that's not me. 

Oh yeah, and Evil Bikes Chamois Hagar would like to have a word with you.....We've seen this before already. Anyway.... 

That's a wrap for today! Have a great weekend and don't eat all the Halloween candy!