Author: Guitar Ted

“One more bike, one less car. “I remember seeing this message emblazoned on a huge booth at the end of a trade show,” says Dennis. “And as I was reading it, a Bobcat came along and pushed the whole booth into a dumpster.”

The KOM Cycling products seem to be well made and, in the shop, were a joy to use.

The Recon HL 1600 is at the top of the heap in the range of Recon lights that Giant Bicycles offers. It is a “self-contained” light, in that the battery and emitter are all in one enclosure. Like many lights in this category, the internal battery is recharged via a USB cord.

Flat pedals are just fine for gravel and adventure riding too. Yes…..racers are turning up their noses now, but for the general purpose rider, flats are perhaps the best pedal to use.

Out of the box I felt that these tires looked great for most gravel road and dirt road riding. Donnelly says the side tread areas are a “scaled up herringbone” pattern, and while that is accurate, it does not give you the sense that I got when feeling the tread with my hands.

The Eurobike trade show is happening in Germany now and with the demise of the North American trade show, Interbike, and no replacement for it, show news is packed into the time slot for Eurobike. Press releases are flying everywhere as a result. Here are a few tidbits concerning the gravel/back road rider which may be of interest that have come across our RidingGravel.com e-mail.

WTB today released the news that their popular Byway model is now available in several 700c sizes with their TCS tubeless ready casings. These offerings will also be available in both black side wall and the traditional “Road Plus” skin wall colored side wall. All are TCS tubeless compatible with WTB’s “Dual DNA” rubber compound.

Vibrocore™- If you are searching out every bit of help you can get with vibrations and comfort, then, yes. These bars will do something for you. My feeling is that this benefit is hard to quantify, but one other thing this handle bar has is not hard to figure out. That is its rating for MTB use.

Finally, remember that “kickstand” knob at the end of the toe? Well, I laughed out loud when I read the marketing copy about this “feature”, but while commuting to work in the RX8’s the other day I found myself at a stop sign waiting on a traffic light, and you know what? I noticed that little knob was actually kinda nice to have.

The tape was nice and kind of rubbery feeling when pulled from the box. It also had a slightly tacky feel as well. The installation was simple and by not stretching the tape, it left it pretty soft feeling when installed.