Author: Guitar Ted

The year is about done for, so it is a good time to look back on 2019 and determine the most impactful stories on the gravel scene for the year. While there are a lot of things that happened over the course of the year, three things really stand head and shoulders above the crowd when it comes to stories we talked most about during 2019.

Another surprising thing- the free hub seems to be very quiet when coasting. I guess the over-all theme here so far is “quiet strength”. We’ll check in on reliability and ride feel in our next post.

None of these tools are perfect. I probably would choose differently if my job required daily usage of tools like these to make a living, but for anyone that will only be occasionally wrenching, these are great choices.

This morning Riding Gravel discovered on social media that the former Almanzo event, possibly the most famous free, grassroots gravel event in the World, was to become “The Heywood Ride”. This news points to a new beginning for the Northfield, Minnesota based gravel grinder which last Spring was still called the Almanzo 100.

Here at Riding Gravel, we get press releases and offers for you, the readers, to consider that, on their own, do not really warrant their own stories. However; from time to time enough things stack up to make it worthwhile to take up some bandwidth, (and to clear out my in-box), so here we go with some news on events, a wool jersey giveaway, and a wheel trade-in program.

Anyway, here is an event which has a very grass roots feel and all it takes to get in is for you to send Dan a post card with the required information and then when you come, he asks you to donate $40.00 in the pickle jar5 which helps support local trails. Otherwise, as Dangerous Dan says, “You do you”.

Hello there gravel riding folks and anyone else out there that loves a bit of off-pavement adventure. The time of year when gift giving is on our minds is right around the corner. We have a list here of items which might make you happy to unwrap, or you know……..to give to someone else who rides gravel like you. To those ends, here our some good ideas for gifts that might make the gravel traveler happy.

The socks I wore most often were the Mini-Crew ones as that’s the length I most prefer for cycling. I have to admit that I am not a fan of the No Show Tab size, as that size shows nothing above the shoe line and rocks, dust, and debris are easily allowed entry into my shoes.

I was pleasantly surprised by the Muc-Off products and the high functionality of the solutions for cleaning, protecting, and lubrication. There isn’t a clunker in the group here and the fact that Muc-Off does try to take consideration for the environment is impressive.

I could feel that I was a bit more “connected” to the bike, if that makes any sense. You cannot roll your foot laterally without pressing the pedal platform whereas on an SPD pedal, there is some free movement there. The cleat had some float, so this felt similar to the SPD’s I was so used to, but in terms of control laterally, the Cyclo 6 was a more secure feeling pedal.