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!

Friday News And Views

Image courtesy of Matt Gersib

Shimano 12spd GRX On Test:

Recently Shimano announced the 12 speed GRX groups. Well, back in August my good friend MG went to Bend, Oregon to get a preview of the group, and then Shimano set him up with a 12 speed GRX group with wheels as well. 

MG just posted his thoughts on the test of the group so far which you can check out HERE. 

Comments: It's interesting to note that MG mentions a few times that he likes just being able to hop on the bike and ride without any concerns or worries about battery life or having to carry spares "just in case". We both come from an era "pre-device" when things like "charging cords" meant you had to jump start your truck or trickle charge your 12 volt battery from your car. Everything else you just used, if it wasn't required to plug it into the wall.

Yeah.....cordless, rechargeable stuff is cool too. But when it comes to "the Freedom Machine", as Twin Six would call the bicycle, "freedom" is less free when you are tethered to electronics. I get that, MG gets that, but younger folks who have never known anything but USB cords? I wonder if they even understand the freeing feeling of being "device-free" these days. 

Maybe some do. 

Anyway, the point being here that some younger folks probably think mechanical group sets like the current GRX 12 speed stuff is from the dinosaur age. Maybe not, but if they do, I'd rather ride with the dinosaurs myself. Your mileage may vary.......

The Moots Express eBike (Image courtesy of Moots)

Moots Goes Carbon & Electric With The Express:

Speaking of devices.....

Moots just did two things maybe no one thought they would do. First, they made a bicycle out of something other than titanium. (To be fair, older, original Moots were steel, but most folks don't know that.) Secondly, and maybe a little less shocking, they made an electrified bike. 

Dubbed the "Express", the new Hybrid Powered Cycle (HPC - my term) is powered by an integrated battery and Shimano gear from the motor to the drive train. The battery life is said to be so good that riders can expect to squeeze out around 100 miles, maybe more, depending upon rider weight, wind, terrain, and amount of power assist selected. 

The controls are a bit unique in that the 1X drive train is operated by the right shift lever while the left lever controls the level of power assist. Total vehicle weight is listed at 33lbs for a medium sized Express model. Cost? If you have to ask what a Moots cost, well...... Okay, it's a penny less than 10K.

Comments: Surprising? Yes, coming from Moots. Not surprising? Yes also. Moots has to cater to its customer base, which are mostly well-heeled, older people that fit the assisted pedaling profile. Making a titanium bike look sleek with a battery pack? Probably not all that possible, and it would be heavy. Carbon was the correct choice here, despite the total dissonance with its brand identity.  

I'm not saying younger folks don't buy a Moots nor that younger folks don't want pedal assist bikes. But I also don't see a lot of Moots underneath the folks I ride with at events. So.... It is my opinion. Change my mind if you care to....

The Otso Voytek 2 (Image courtesy of Otso Bikes)

Otso Announces Voytek 2 - Highly Adjustable Geometry:

Otso Cycles features their patented "Tuning Chip" rear drop out which can allow a rider to adjust the wheel base and affect bottom bracket height and head tube angle a bit as well. They've taken that concept a bit further by offering a similar idea which they are implementing at the head tube. 

Called "GeoChip", it is a combination of aluminum inserts which are fitted at the positions you might normally associate with a top and bottom cup set for a head set. There three sets of "flip chips" which can be used to alter the head angle, reach for the cockpit, or both. 

The Voytek features multiple wheel size capabilities and still has that narrow "Q" factor bottom bracket. N.Y. Roll has an original V1 Voytek and seems pretty happy with it. This new version promises more to the owner with a true "one bike" off-road cycling solution for year-round riding. 

Comments: My my! What a versatile frame set. But, typically most folks are going to "set it and forget it" when it comes to this feature. But for those who like to tinker, well....there ya go! 

My only concern would be that here you are introducing two aluminum bits which sit in a carbon pocket in the frame at a high-stress area. Those bits are going to move ever so slightly while riding, and this may induce noise at some point. Maybe not, but it would not surprise me if that is something that crops up with this design. 

Also, at well over 3K for a frame and fork, I kind of cringe a bit. I'd maybe opt for something in metal at that point and forgo the versatility options available with the Voytek 2. But if you think of this as a mountain bike hard tail and a fat bike all in one? Then it makes a lot more sense. If that's you, then you can read more about the Voytek 2 HERE.

This image is from an old "Geezer Ride", by the way.

New Podcast Is Up:

N.Y. Roll went up and did the Colesburg event over the Labor Day weekend recently and his partner, Morgan, a new-to-gravel rider, was kind-of-sort-of talked into doing the 25 mile route.

Well, "things" happened and I thought it would be great if we could get Morgan's perspectives on, not only her event, but on gravel riding and gravel events in general. Coming from someone very fresh to the scene, I figured that I might get some new insights and learn from Morgan through he experiences. 

And I was rewarded with much to consider.

I know that enthusiasts from any genre of sport, recreation, or vocation tend to "gate keep" and be ignorant and insensitive to new folks coming in. That said, hearing it from a new rider to gravel is a bit more impactful and, I think, important to heed the message we hear from Morgan. 

Give it a listen HERE, or wherever you get you podcasts from. 

With that I will sign off for now. Thank you for reading Guitar Ted Productions and have a fantastic weekend!

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 2 - Myths & Traditions

Delving into the world of geometry for any bicycle is a lesson in how various opinions are held in high regard, how traditions affect reality, and how reality is often nothing like what anyone thinks it is. 

Okay, so do the science. Check out the data! That should square things up, right? Right? Well, considering that humans ride bicycles, and not robots, you have one gigantic, monstrous wildcard in the equation. Consider this quote I came across in my research from an article on chriskvalecycles.com page speaking about a research paper done by a couple of scientists that was being discussed there concerning geometry and bicycles:

 "However, they do stress the extremely important point that the person-machine relationship is so complex and so variable that mathematical models and absolute statements are, at very best, only a rough guide."

"Only a rough guide"? Yep! So....how do we know anything for certain then? Great question. It just is hard to get through the cloudy, vagueness introduced by us humans. Consider confirmation bias, beliefs in personalities, hearsay, and myths passed down as "truth". Most of which are things based on theories that haven't been thoroughly vetted or are not considering this "human factor" at all. 

Speaking of which, I ran a fork test in 2008 where I tried to keep everything the same except the fork. I accounted for handlebar positioning, bottom bracket height, saddle to handle bar height, and more. I ran suspension forks and rigid forks. 

I tried this 430 A/C, 38mm offset fork and 7 others on the same 29"er.

The main thing I learned there was that the human element is a powerful one. I learned that within a few rides I was able to make almost every fork work the way I wanted them to. Differences? Yes, there were, but adaption? Yes. Totally. 

And every set up has to be seen as a system, which is something I've held to be very important for years. One measurement, one change, affects everything. You cannot point at "head angle" or whatever, and say "that's going to be "this" in terms of handling. 

Then there seems to be some widely held "truths" about geometry that may have been originally thought out not because the old designers were seeking a handling trait, per se', but as a way around a materials limitation. Take, for instance, the popular "low trail" (trail figure is a measure of front end geometry) designs popularized by old French "constructuer" builders. A site I discovered during my research claims that back in the day, drop bar handlebars had a longer reach. This was due to limitations in manipulating the handlebar stock, which forced these bars to have a long reach, which in turn affected overall reach for a rider. So designers had to shorten the top tubes accordingly. This led to massive toe overlap, so the answer was, according to this source, low trail geometry. Low trail geometry features a longer fork offset which pushes the front wheel out front, further away from the rider.

Now that source's claims can be debated. But the argument put forth there is plausible, and it illustrates how a solution to a problem becomes religion after decades of use and lore are layered on top. Now the common ability to bend and shape materials helps illustrate why things like longer top tubes, shorty stems, and slacker head tube angles are becoming more popular now. This stuff isn't "new" though. In fact, it was figured out a century ago. It's just that it took a revolution in thinking about geometry, instead of just sticking to the ordinary ways, which were partially driven by traditions, but also by ease of manufacturing concerns. 

The staid old ways of thinking were entrenched in the industry for decades, until mountain bikes came along, that is, and in particular, the 29" wheel, which kind of blew the doors open on design which had been closed for so long. (Read about the story of where 29"ers came from HERE)  Old ways were rediscovered that had been forgotten, and traditional thinking and ease of manufacturing had less of a hold on bicycle design. Now is "The Golden Age" of cycling. You've had choices brought forth in the last 20+ years that were unheard of before 2010 and are now commonplace. 

Next: New freedom to dream up a "new" kind of bike. But is it really new?

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

Country Views: Barns For Jason Live

Escape Route: Moline Road

Well, if you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you probably are familiar with the "Barns For Jason" thing I do whenever I see a barn on a ride I have not documented before. Maybe those posts are fewer and further between these days, but that's because I've ridden every gravel and dirt road in Black Hawk County. So, I've imaged every barn on those roads. I usually have to travel by bicycle outside of Black Hawk County to get any "new" material. 

Anyway, that whole theme was named after Jason Boucher, formerly of Salsa Cycles/QBP and now the proprietor of Iceworm MFG. We used to have a "barn imaging" contest years ago, and, well.....I still carry that tradition on. 

So, the other day Jason got a hold of me, we tentatively planned for him to drive three+ hours to see me and ride bicycles. Now, you never know about things, so I was hopeful it would actually happen. It has been since 2018 that I have seen Jason, so it has been a while. 

Well, he made it despite being delayed by a serious accident near where he lived that blocked traffic. (He was not involved in it) He arrived at about 9:40am, and we got out to the gravel by around 10:00am. I had a route plan to show Jason some of the highlights of our area in the country, most of which are North of Waterloo.

I was honored to be able to turn pedals with Jason after so many years.

Jason brought a brand new custom flat bar gravel/light MTB design he had made by a local to the Twin Cities  Sacremento California area builder. Jason mentioned that hardly anyone had seen it yet, so I won't say a whole lot here, he may want to do that on his own. Suffice it to say that it was pretty darn cool.

Although the skies looked threatening during our entire ride, it was rather dry and windy from the West-Southwest.

The corn harvest has started in earnest. There was lots of traffic on the gravel this day.

The corn has completely dried out and the farmers are wasting no time in getting it out now. I suspect, barring any rain, that most fields will be cleared out in a week, week and a half. It will be a stark contrast to what it looks like out there now. 

Someone has decorated the windows at the Bennington School house.

A random maple has already turned color here on Schenk Road.

I routed the ride past many of the country highlights North of Waterloo. We went by the Big Rock, we passed by the Methodist church at the corner of Mt. Vernon Road and Sage Road, and we stopped at the Bennington School #4 to look around some. Then I took Jason over to Schenk Road because it has a bunch of cool barns off of it between Bennington and Marquise Roads. 

Corn harvesting on the Schmidt farm on Marquise Road

Coming into the old edges of the Big Wood on Marquise Road

Jason and I had a really great time together and we discussed a myriad of things over the course of about a two hour ride. It was really good to catch up with him and hear about what has been going on in his life over the past five years and more. 

Image by Jason Boucher. Look closely and you can see the driver waving back at me!

 It isn't often that I get to post an image of myself riding since, well......most often I am riding solo! But Jason is a huge camera nerd and, like myself, is not shy about whipping out his camera while riding to snap an image. Here he caught me as I was passing by a pick-up truck right after I waved at them. A friendly wave back can be seen if you look closely. 

This explains why my left knee is bent inward here. I do that to stabilize the bike if I take a hand off the handlebar to do something like wave to a passing motorist. You can see my right hand just about to return to the handle bar here. The gravel was kind of chunky and loose here, which cameras have a hard time depicting, but trust me- it was a bit tricky to wave!

Thanks for this image Jason! 

Another corn field almost finished up.

I think Jason found the old East Janesville Church a good place for some shots of his new bike.

There was wind on this ride, but it wasn't terrible. The weird thing was that we felt that the heat coming up off the road while the wind felt somewhat cooler. Maybe all that heat energy which got baked into the ground over that period of very hot weather was to blame? Maybe it was just the Sun's energy from that moment being reflected off the white rock road? 

A combine in a field East of Burton Avenue.

There is a semi-tractor trailer rig in that dust cloud.

Once again, we were having to have our heads on a swivel to make sure we weren't being overtaken by a vehicle and we were being passed going the other way by several vehicles along our route. This is a very unusual thing to have happen on these roads, unless it is planting or harvesting season. 

Jason got to see a lot of barns on this ride! There was not one here though!

"See here, Vulture! We aren't dead yet!

We made it back to Waterloo and Jason's car after a little over two hours. Then we went out to eat and we had a great conversation over some Mexican food. But then it was time to part ways. Jason dropped me off at my home and he made his way back to the Twin Cities. 

It was one of those dream-like rides that was so much fun and so much was packed into a short time that you feel like it didn't really happen. Much too short a time which only leaves one wanting more. I guess that's how it goes when the company is excellent and the roads are great. 

Until next time, Jason.....

The GTDRI Stories: The 2017 GTDRI - Part 1

"The GTDRI Stories" is a series telling the history, untold tales, and showing the sights from the run of Guitar Ted Death Ride Invitationals. This series will run on Sundays. Thanks for reading!

 The 2017 version of the GTDRI was looking to be one of those magical ones with a weather forecast that promised a dry event with temperatures about 20 degrees lower than many GTDRI's had and even low humidity. 

I had to get up early to drive down to Reinbeck and meet whomever might decide to show up for this tribute to the PCL's Tour of Dirt Roads. The attendance for this ride was in question right up until we clipped in and turned pedals. Early in the week I had four commitments and then three of those later emailed me to drop out. One individual came into the shop where I worked and committed to coming, and then two folks showed up last minute to join. 

That was always the amazing part about this ride, that being who showed up, because I was always amazed at what people would do just to ride my route with me. This particular year, which saw six people besides myself ride, I had two people drive up separately from the Lincoln/Omaha area. One started out his trip at 2:30am! I had a guy from Iowa City show up, and then a local, Robert Fry, a Trans Iowa veteran rider and volunteer, showed up to Reinbeck having ridden his bicycle there from Cedar Falls. 

That's a level of commitment that one has to respect. Long drives, people riding miles to get to the ride, it was all very humbling, and even to this day I shake my head in amazement at these things.

The start of a beautiful day on the bike.

N.Y. Roll (R) and Rob from Omaha lead Robert Fry and Nick from Iowa City as we get started in 2017.

This ride was also an anomaly because most of the riders were new to the GTDRI also. That was exciting as I had a chance to get to know these guys a little bit better. The trouble was, this was a much faster group than I was used to leading, and mostly following, during one of my rides. 

That said, it was really looking like a great ride, except that Kevin, who had a history of back issues anyway, probably exacerbated that by sitting in a car for four plus hours and then jumping straight away into a 17mph pace line on gravel. there was no warm-up and he was already fatigued from that long drive. Whatever the case was, he started to indicate to me that he probably was going to have to bail out at some point early on. 

I felt bad for him. I knew what it was like to feel like you aren't up to the task, or that you are the anchor on a ride. I'd been there many times, and the previous GTDRI was a great example of that. We tried to encourage him, but to no avail. Fortunately the route laid out so that Kevin could hit a long East-West road that would take him right back to Reinbeck, but Kevin was more interested in hitting a town earlier so we sent him to Traer, which was a planned stop for lunch on this ride. The hope then was that Kevin might have enough time to rest that he'd feel good about riding more.

The group was thrilled with the route so far and the dirt roads were in stellar shape. I was feeling pretty pleased with the way things were going, with the exception of Kevin's issues. We rode in parts of three different counties in the span of the first 50 miles, and at a fast pace as well. This, if anything, was my only real concern overall. Going fast on a long day? It hadn't worked well in years past. 

Well, we'd find out what would happen soon enough.....

Next: Part 2

Signs Of The Times

"buycycle", a used bike purveyor, is coming to the USA.

Winter is not far off, and here in most of North America, the season for sales in bicycles and accessories is winding down. As a salesperson and mechanic in this sector of retail for 20+ years, I've seen the ebbs and flows of sales over the course of a year to know how this business cycle should work. However; things are not working well at all, and the signs are all over the place that upheaval is coming sooner than later. 

First, the obvious sign is all the unprecedented discounting of new bicycles over the course of the year. Most notable to me was the 20% off on Surly and 25% off on Salsa bikes sales that ran recently. Those companies rarely, if ever, have run any discounts on new inventory. Trek has been running an ongoing discount on their electrified bikes since February, and they have had discounts on accessories throughout the year at certain times. These are just a few examples.

The reason for all of this is the incredibly high levels of inventory at warehouses and dealers coupled with lackluster sales. Inventory has to be moved or the new stocks coming in will make matters worse, and, you know, there are bills to pay. Some companies are in pretty bad situations right now. Some have already filed for bankruptcy protection. 

Another sign is the eBike market, which for five years saw record growth and nothing but blue skies ahead. Now? In 2022 I'm seeing some concerning headlines coming out of that sector of the industry.

Used Bikes:

Trek announced recently that their dealers will be offering a used bike program and that Trek will be facilitating the sales of used bikes nationwide. Another company from Europe, "buycycle", who are used bike purveyors, are also coming to the USA to do business. (You may have seen their pop-up ads already)

The used bike sector is one of the only bright spots in the sales of bicycles right now. One problem - Almost none of that business is done in a retail setting. It's all private exchanges, for the most part, facilitated by Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, and other forums on the internet like "Pink Bike". 

Theories abound as to why this is happening. Some point to the backlash after the wave of big sales during COVID. Others say it has to do with rising bike prices at retail that are not affordable. Whatever the reasons, retail cycling businesses want in on the action, and I look for this to be a hotly contested marketplace for a while. The only way this cools off is when, not "if", but when, new bike prices plummet due to discounting or from going out of business sales and those new bike deals turn a significant amount of people back toward looking at retail for a new bike. 

A lot of things might or might not happen here, but I do know that sales going into Fall and Winter at retail bicycle shops will naturally tail off to a very low level. That's how it works here. November and January are typically dire times at bike shops with December not far behind. The addition of tough times will only exacerbate things, I am afraid. Hang on to you hats! It's going to be a bumpy ride.

Friday News And Views

Image courtesy of Pirelli USA.

Pirelli Announces New Offerings In SmarTube Tubes:

Pirelli offers its own version of a TPU tube, tubes that are not butyl rubber, as in traditional tubes, but made from TPU material which is much lighter and can be similar in characteristics to a latex tube but with far better air retention than a latex tube. 

Pirelli announced two new SmarTube offerings, but we are most concerned here with the SmarTube X as it has offerings in sizes for gravel/all-road bikes. 

SmarTube X in the 622-40/622-50 size (fits 40mm to 50mm tires) is three times thicker than the original SmarTube and therefore much more resistant to punctures. yet the tubes are far smaller when stored and take up much less room in a bag or jersey pocket than a similarly sized butyl tube does. 

Available in Schrader or Presta valves, these tubes should provide excellent air retention as well. Currently these are not quite yet available. ETA is set as the end of September. Pricing - SmarTubes are  $39.90/each. 

Comments: I find tubes to be useful in bikes I don't ride often, and I usually carry one on every ride, no matter the bike, just in case. So, these TPU based tubes are pretty nice from that standpoint of space savings, and weighing less. I have tried the Tubolito TPU tubes and have found that they seem to work well. 

Forty bucks a pop is steep, but for the sheer space saving and weight saving benefits, I could see it for someone who runs tubeless and needs an emergency bail-out option that may as well be minimalist if you have to carry that. I also see TPU tubes as being a nice way to get a tubed bike closer to tubeless benefits without going tubeless. You don't get the pinch flat resistance, but other than that, the more robust SmarTube X seems like a decent choice for those not wanting to do the tubeless dance. 

OMM's Basket (Image courtesy of OMM)

A Basket For The Old Man:

Old Man Mountain just released the news publicly about a product they were showing privately at the MADE Show recently. It's a new aluminum basket made to fit most of their current rack line. 

• Stamped and welded aluminum construction is corrosion proof and designed to last.   
• Molle compatible: Customize your basket with accessories designed for Molle mounting pattern.
• Compatible with basket bags designed for “137” baskets.
• Bolts directly to OMM Divide, Divide Fat, Elkhorn, and Pizza Rack for a reliable and rattle free connection.

I'll admit, I am not a basket guy, so a lot of those specs are lost on me, but if the thing bolts directly to an Elkhorn or Divide rack, then I bet these will be rock solid additions to most any bike. These are available now from Old Man Mountain for $80.00. (As are the Ponderosa Panniers and Juniper Trunk Bag I am testing now) For more on this rack, see HERE. 

Image courtesy of 45NRTH

45NRTH Risor Wool Gloves:

 I posted about it being "Light Season" earlier this week, and well....glove season isn't far behind! In that vein, I have been sent a press release from 45NRTH detailing a couple of their glove offerings. One of them caught my eye which is named "Risor"

The Risor is a Merino wool blend glove that will get you by on cool, Fall rides, but it's more than that. This is a perfect liner glove for a Winter mitten, or larger full-fingered gloves. So, it can be a three-season use glove and being that it uses Merino wool, it will stay warm even if you sweat it out. Well, mostly, as it does have a synthetic fabric outer layer to it. 

But that combination of fabrics does give a wool blend glove a longer lifespan, in my experience, so that's good, plus 45NRTH have put that synthetic fabric in places where it matters most for wear. I also like the length of this glove for keeping cold air at bay since you would be able to overlap that cuff with a long sleeved jersey, or jacket, or another glove. 

I guess I should also mention that 45NRTH says this glove is touch-screen compatible. In my experience most gloves that claim this are not all that compatible with touch screens, so take that with a grain of salt. But there- 45NRTH says these gloves work with touch-screens. 

Anyway, I always am on the lookout for nice liner-type handwear for cold weather and this glove looks like it is pretty well thought out. You can pick up a pair for $45.00. Plus, if black isn't your jam it comes in a nice light blue color as well.

Image courtesy of Wolf Tooth

Wolf Tooth Offers 12spd GRX Chainrings:

The "johnny-on-the-spot" award for this week goes to Wolf Tooth, who have offered 12 speed replacement rings for Shimano's new 12 speed GRX before almost anyone has even ridden the stuff yet. 

That's pretty amazing! However, the press release I got says that not only can you get 36T-46T round chain rings, but that you can get the same sizes in oval chain rings, plus Wolf Tooth is promising to have an expansion of offerings going up to 52T!

These rings feature Wolf Tooth's "Drop Stop" design and the GRX 12 compatible version is dubbed "Drop Stop ST", so don't mix that up with the various other versions available there for 11 speed SRAM, Shimano, Campy, and the rest. 

52 teeth rings, eh? Will we be seeing a time trial stage at Unbound using aero gravel bikes? HA! You heard it here first! 

Maybe Wolf Tooth could be persuaded to do inner rings for Shimano 2X GRX 12's and then I could get my preferred 46T/36T set up. Hmm.... Anyway, you can check out the details here on Wolf Tooth's site. 

Gravel with a friend...

Special Guest Gravel Grinding:

Today I should be out on a special ride with someone I haven't seen for many years. That will be going on this morning. Hopefully everything comes together to make this happen.

And you know, there is always the "if factor" and things may not pan out, but "if" they do, I'll have a special Country Views post coming up showing just who this individual is and where we rode. Hopefully.... 

Stay tuned on that one.

In the meantime, have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by to read "Guitar Ted Productions"!

WTB (New) Silverado Saddle: Review

NOTE: WTB sent over a Silverado titanium railed saddle to Guitar Ted Productions at no charge for test and review. I was not paid, nor bribed for this review and I always strive to give my honest thoughts and views throughout. 

Recently I found out that WTB had redesigned its evergreen model, the Silverado. This model is, I am pretty sure, the longest running current model saddle that WTB still offers. It also happens to be one of my very favorite saddles. Especially so since WTB has offered the 143mm wide version. 

So, when I heard the news I was a bit dismayed. "There they go again! Taking away a dead simple choice for me and now I guess its back to trying new saddles again!", which is always a fun adventure. Hours and hours of riding might have to be done just to figure out if a saddle will work or not. So, when you find "that" saddle, it is time to get ahold of several, because when you least expect it, that saddle will go out of production. 

Great! Just great.....

But my contact at WTB also loves his Silverados and told me he was very critical during the design process and wanted to make sure "his" saddle wasn't ruined by the redesign. He claimed that WTB had succeeded in that effort. 

We'll let my behind be the judge of THAT! (HA!)

The New Silverado:

The new Siverado is one of the new-school saddles which are shorter in the nose, but not so much as far as the typical wide rear end that most newer shorter nosed saddles have. Kind of a hybrid here. WTB also used the same technology they used on the Gravelier called "Fusion Form". It is WTB's balancing of stiffness and flexibility which is achieved by using varying amounts of reinforcing fiber in the nylon base. This allows WTB to tune each model of their saddle range to their intended purposes.

The Silverado is tuned for an aggressive, forward leaning rider much like the Gravelier. Fusion Form also allows the padding to be recessed into the base more creating a thinner profile saddle without sacrificing comfort. 

Pressure mapping revealed to WTB's designers that a flatter profile and shorter nose length were optimal for the new range of Silverado saddles. So, these are 265mm in length now, but you do have the choice between narrow (133mm) and medium (143mm) widths in four rail configurations (CroMo steel, Stainless Steel, Titanium, and Carbon Fiber) The Titanium railed, medium width Silverado tested retails for $142.00 USD. For more details see the website. https://www.wtb.com/products/silverado?variant=40106918346829

Impressions: 

Okay, so looking at this thing, the new Silverado, and then looking at the old Silverado, well, it is almost comical. That silly looking thin, long nose on the old one seems out of place now. Kind of like when I see a 1990's 135mm stem on an old 26"er. I guess this new-school short-nosed saddle thing is becoming more and more "normal" looking to my eyes.

I wouldn't call this "flat", but it is less dished out than the old Silverado was, for sure.

The padding on this new saddle seems a bit more plush than it does on the old Silverado, although WTB claims the padding is the same thickness. Must be a Fusion Form thing, I guess.There is the "Comfort Zone" cut-out underneath, a feature used for quite some time on WTB saddles now, and the Microfiber synthetic cover is always a nice touch. 

I have a Gravelier, and to my old eyes, the Gravelier seems a bit wider through the mid-section than the Silverado does, but both are the same short length. I could see that the new Silverado was flatter in profile, but it isn't completely flat. There still is a slight "kick-up" to the tail, but nothing like the older WTB saddles which were really dramatically kicked-up at the tail-end. 

The "Comfort Zone" cut-out.

I was replacing a fairly current Volt titanium railed saddle and when I compared weights, I was a bit taken aback. In fact, I noted straight away that the new Silverado had more heft than the Volt I was removing had. The scales proved this out to be true.

The Volt weighed in at 216 grams and the new Silverado? 246 grams. That's a significant difference, but hey! Who cares how much the saddle weighs if it is a pain in the butt? So, on the bike it went and I torqued it on per spec for the seat post, then it was off for a very brief test ride. 

More Impressions:

Okay, so like I said up there in the beginning, it may take hours and hours of riding to figure out whether or not the new Silverado is an improvement or just a painful experiment. Initially all I can say is that it has no glaring faults. I think I could ride this for a bit, at any rate. More will be said later on the subject of long ride comfort. 

Overall the Silverado seems similar to the old Silverado in the back half, but that short nose is evident. The padding seems nicer on the new one. That should bode well. But where is that extra 30 grams coming from? Seems odd. If the dimensions are smaller then "less" should equal "less", not more. 

I have a query in to WTB concerning my questionable math. We'll see what they say. Until then, it is time to ride this thing. I'll be back with more soon...

Light Season Starts Now

My lights are two years old and already old technology!

Maybe you are old enough to remember when computers, home computers, or "PC's", went out of date at a rate of about every six months. You'd buy a cutting edge system only to have it be , essentially, an antique in a year. 

Well, I feel that way about LED lights for bicycles. The technology changes so quickly that I end up having lights that have good batteries yet but don't have nearly the lens technology or battery performance that the newer stuff coming out now has. It's hard to "make do" with two year old lights when you see how well new lights work and especially when you see how inexpensive that technology is. 

This is getting important right now because we are just coming into "Light Season". I know, many of you think it is "Fall", whatever that means, but for us cyclists who like to ride all year, it is "Light Season". The time of year we have to break out the lights, charging cables (uggh!) and to make sure we have the mounts (double uggh!), for the lights we want to use. 

So, this press release from Lezyne came out the other day featuring their newly redesigned (of course they are!) lights. I checked out the "big dog" of the range with the most Lumen power. I do this out of habit because in the past, those were the lights I'd use for longer outings. Never at the maximum power rating, but at a mid-level, because battery run times on "high" level were generally around an hour, maybe an hour and a half. And you know, that isn't very long for my rides out in the country.

The Lezyne Macro Drive 1400+ (Image courtesy of Lezyne)

I was looking for something at a lumen rating of 300 with at least two hours of run time. That would be great! And lately, those lights have started to appear that have that capability. But now?

Oh my!

Check out these stats for the latest Lezyne model, the Macro Drive 1400+. On the highest setting, the blinding 1400 Lumen setting, this light is rated to run for three hours! What?!!

And 450L is a lot of light on white rock, gravel roads, and I can see really well at that level, given the lens tech is reasonably good. What is the run time there?

Twelve hours plus. 

Okay, but what do you have to pay for that? Usually great specs equaled big dollars, at least it used to in the past. How does a hundred bucks seem to you? Actually, it lists for a penny less than 100 at $99.99, but who's quibbling over that penny here when you get all of that packed into a self-contained unit? It's insane what you can buy for that kind of money in 2023. 

Look, you don't have to just look at Lezyne. Many lights will be hitting the market this Fall, (Light Season) for similar prices with similar specs. These sorts of advancements in bicycle lighting are generated by LED emitter tech and battery tech that is available to many companies. So, I'm not saying Lezyne is all that, although I will admit to liking heir past products. Good stuff which I still use. But obviously, Lezyne isn't the only deal on the block here. 

But if you haven't been thinking about some late-season night riding, you should. These lights out now are bargains for what performance you can get and they are compact and easy to get along with. The lens technologies have never been better and riding in the dark is fun. It's Light Season - Go ride in the dark!