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| Image courtesy of Ride 1Up. |
If you've been paying attention over the last several "FN&V" posts, you will have noticed a lot of electrified gravel bike chatter. That's not going to stop anytime soon. It is a trend, and it will be showing up at your local gravel group rides, races, and events in 2024.
This week a "budget" entrant into the gravel eBike/HPV scene emerged when Ride 1Up introduced their $2500.00 CF Racer model. It has a Bafang motor, an integrated downtube encased battery, and is equipped with SRAM Rival 11 speed drive train bits. 1X, natch!
So, this isn't just for the "doctors and lawyers" out there who might drop 10K+ on a gravel bike with a motor and battery. This is the price of many commonplace carbon fiber gravel bikes without motors and batteries. Don't think for a minute that there are not other, similarly priced "gravel bikes" out there. But in the longer view, how many choices there are is a moot point when considering the effects this might have on gravel racing.
Event directors are going to have to either ban these, (pressing the "easy button", essentially), or they are going to have to offer separate categories, and possibly provide battery swapping options, or maybe even have special distances for these bikes to allow people to use them. The dynamics of having electrified bikes mixed in with human powered bikes is going to be something of an unknown quantity as well. Typically issues have arisen between the two ways of powering a bicycle. This further complicates accommodating Hybrid Powered Cycles into traditional gravel events.
I'll touch on this more in an upcoming opinion piece I am doing concerning teaching skills and etiquette when it comes to gravel riding.
New Pirate Cycling League Jacket In:
Long-time blog readers will know that I have been a supporter of the Pirate Cycling League, a loose-knit rabble of pedalers centered in Lincoln, Nebraska, for years now. The PCL offers "team kit" every so often and every time that they do it is generally a limited edition design. They've really only ever 'repeated' a design once, and that was of their original "year one" offering.
This time the designs on offer were based around a "Miami Vice" theme. (A television show popular in the 1980's here in the USA, if you're wondering what Miami Vice refers to.)
It's getting harder and harder for me to rep a jersey anymore because, I mean, how many does one really need? So I've been doing other accessory gear for the last two design drops. Last time I got a wind jacket. This time I went for the Winter Thermal jacket.
I've been a big fan of what is called a "soft-shell" Winter jacket. I had an awesome "Niner Bikes" branded one which was made by Endura, I believe, but my son lost it one day when he wore it to middle school and I've been on the search for a good replacement ever since. Of course, Endura quit making the one I had.
This PCL jacket is made by Voler, which has been doing PCL kit for a long time now. This is not as nice as the Endura jacket I had but it is pretty good. At least it has the three rear jersey style pockets, which for me, is a prerequisite for me to consider buying any jacket. That or a "marsupial" style rear zippered pocket.
Since this is really made like a jersey, only with a big collar and thicker, fleeced material, I would use this more like a jersey. For my money, a "jacket" has inner pockets, and maybe a zippered outer chest pocket. But maybe that's just me.
Gents Race 14 Announced:
Looks like I have a chance to get back to the Gents Race in 2024, that is, if my team will have me again! The event for 2024 was announced on Tuesday of this past week.
This has become one of those traditions amongst us that have been on the same team since the first Gents Race over a decade ago now. It is the only time, really, all year I see any of these guys anymore, or a lot of folks that attend this event, for that matter.
It is an announcement that fills the last open slot I reserve on the calendar for cycling events. (Official ones, not my GTDR which is not really an event.) This and my appearance again at the Gravel Cycling Hall of Fame Awards Ceremonies in Emporia, Kansas at the end of May/early June are my only cycling plans I can make room for in 2024. I work Saturdays and getting time off takes away from my limited paycheck. Plus there are other reasons I don't take more time off, but those are not anything I can or will talk about here. So, at least I have 2024 plans in play now!
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Artificial Intelligence, Affiliate Links, and How Cycling Media Makes Money:
Recently the journalism trade has been shaken up by a scandal involving "Sports Illustrated" and "AI" (Artificial Intelligence) generated stories. (Read about it HERE)
Since that story broke a lot of chatter has been going on regarding how content is generated, how revenue is generated for media companies, and how, specifically, the highly leveraged "affiliate link" model is being corrupted since traditional "advertisement revenue" has been drying up and is, for all intents and purposes, gone in 2023.
First of all, none of that affects me. I don't make a red cent off my writing. It may come as some surprise to many, but I have not received a paycheck, or any monetary benefits from any website owner for any of my writing in over a year. Before that I might occasionally receive a check here and there. But what constitutes a living wage? I've never received enough to live on for a year from my writing. You could combine all the money over the years I've written stuff and it wouldn't come close to a year's salary for the average American. (Currently that is $60,575.00) I'd guess I maybe have made less than 10% of that figure since 2006.
Essentially, I got some "pocket change" when I did get paid, which wasn't very often, and never on a regular basis. I'm not complaining, I only am telling you all this because I want it understood that I am not motivated by making a profit when it comes to writing and especially for review work. Because if that were the case, I would have opted out in 2008.
So, you will never see "affiliate links" on this blog. Never. Anything I link to is a courtesy to you, my dear readers, and is there if you want to check into something for yourself. That's it. But that is how the cycling media companies make money. You would see those affiliate links embedded right in text for reviews, and you'll see those ads all over sidebars and inserted in between paragraphs. Sites I used to write for had those, but I never benefited from them, so I cannot speak to how valuable those were/are. I've been told that they were worth pennies, but articles I've read recently make those out to be worth a decent amount. Again, I cannot speak to that directly.
And of course, I am not artificial, and depending on who you ask, I might not be very intelligent either. So any writing you see here was generated out of Guitar Ted's grey matter, or something like that. Anyway, I don't own a piece of paper that says I am a "journalist" so it doesn't matter, I guess. That said, I receive a ton of requests to have paid-for guest posts and "generated content". It's crazy. So, I know that it is a thing in traditional media circles.
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| Kona Process 153 29 (Courtesy of Kona Bikes) |
For the last six months or more I've been reminding you that bicycle brands were in trouble. Well, the end of the year is coming, businesses like to close their books for the year, and new product is about to be shipped from Asia. Time to move the pile of bikes sitting around. Kona Bikes has maybe done the unthinkable here to clear out their inventory.
Their current promotion until December 31st is that you can buy one in-stock FS bike and get another of equal value or less that is in-stock FOR FREE.
Not only that, but many of their other MTB's are 50% off. I've said it for a long time here, you will not see these deals again in your lifetime. But I get it. If you don't have the money, you may not be able to take advantage of this, or other deals.
Previous deals were pretty radical. We saw Salsa and Surly knock off 30%, which is essentially stripping out all the profit margin which bicycle dealers never made any money on anyway. Now, at 30% off, you are just pretty much covering the brand's investment. But a BOGO deal, or 50% off? That's loosing money big time. And we're talking about really nice MTB's too, not some weird brand you've never heard of.
Crazy days, but wait until next year......
That's it for this week. Have a great weekend and thanks for reading Guitar Ted Productions!
