Category: Two Wheels Good

Topstone 105 – Wheels, Tires, Fenders

Table of Contents

Clinchers; Tubes and Tubeless

In the early 21st century, the most common bicycle tires are pneumatic clincher or bead clincher tires. The tire has a bead, formerly made of metal wire. Modern tires are manufactured with material that can rebound into a circle after being folded for packaging and shipment. The tire contains an inner tube, which is soft and vulnerable to punctures and tears. Clincher wheels curve into a bead hook at the rim to catch and hold the bead. In tubeless wheel, the rim has

  • a central groove which can be described as a valley or well;
  • a rim strip to seal the spoke holes
  • bead channels – the spaces between
    • a shelf, between the rim wall and the well, and
    • a bead hook.

Tubeless tires are clincher tires sealed and inflated directly – no inner tube. Tubeless systems generally require sealants installed in the tire; tubeless tires are supposed to self seal to mitigate small punctures. Riders may carry inner tubes to install a tube in a tubeless tire to mitigate a larger puncture. A tubeless tire bead is designed and manufactured to fit into tubeless wheel rims. A tubeless or tubeless ready wheel has a machined bead channel. The beads and the rim channels are supposed to fit tightly enough to be air tight when the tire is inflated. The seal is normally obtained by applying tire sealant to the edge of the side walls along the bead.

The wheels on my 2019 Topstone are “tubeless ready” WTB i23, a metal alloy with a 23 mm rim; the 23-622 model. (WTB has versions of i23 including a “26 inch” mountain bike rim, and i23 (23-622) for 700c tires from 700c x 32 to 700c x 46). The 23 mm measurement is taken between the rims in the bead channelat bead seat. The tires were “tubeless ready” WTB Nano 700c x 40. Some manufacturers (e.g. Mavic) manufacture rims and tire beads to the Uniform System Tubeless (UST) standard. The bead seat is designed to accept and hold the beads of UST tires without tape. WTB’s tubeless metal rims are sealed with plastic rib tape (liner) which adheres to the rim. The rim channel and wheel beads are beadlock – which is WTB’s way of saying manufactured to the UST standard. WTB, like other manufacturers, calls tubeless tires a modern improvement or feature and calls its beadlock system a feature. It is hard to unmount a tubeless tire from a rim to replace a tire or to fix a flat. It requires a skill that has to be learned. It can be a problem with some wheels and tires as noted in this YouTube review of the Topstone (at the end of the 3 minute video). I

Tire sizes are normally described by height. Height is the diameter across the wheel on the outside of the tire, measured on the mounted and inflated tire. The height is the nominal exterior diameter of the tire, which was used by manufacturers of tires and other components. 700c was the term used in a French system. The height, assuming the tire is a perfectly round torus, should be the diameter of the rim plus the 2 x the diameter of the tire. For 700c x 28, this works out to 678 mm which is almost 28 inches (700 mm. = 27.559 inches) . The tire, inflated, has an irregular oval cross section, sort of egg or pear shaped. Diagram below. A tire is always marked with a tire size in a nominal diameter system, and a size in the International Standards Organization ISO or ETRTO system. The most common tires on gravel and all-road bikes are 700c tires – considerably fatter than 700c road bike tires. 700c is a standard for tires with a nominal outside diameter around 700 mm (28 inches). There are skinny 700c x 25 (ISO 25-622) tires and fatter 700c x 36 (ISO 36-622) tires. The 622 in the ISO descriptions of 700c tires refer to the 622 mm diameter of the wheel.

700c (ISO 622) is also the standard for describing larger “niner” and “niner +” (29 inch x 2+ inch) wheels. 650b is a standard for tires with a nominal diameter around 650 mm (27.5 inches). The ISO descriptions of 650b tires refer to the 584 mm diameter of the wheel and the tire.

The other number in the nominal diameter or ISO description is the bead seat diameter (“bsd”) – the width measured across the tire or the rim at at the inner bead seat where the tire bead fits into the bead seat of a wheel. The width is usually the same in the nominal diameter and ISO systems. There are some outliers. A tire may be 700c x 38 and 622-40.

A higher bsd means a fatter tire, mounted and inflated, with a larger diameter and circumference than a narrow tire. The actual thickness (width from sidewall to sidewall, from the outside)≥ bsd. Actual thickness varies, depending on pressure and load. For higher bsd numbers, the thickness starts to push out. Height (outer diameter) and thickness can vary slightly depending on the construction and inflation of the tire. The height and thickness of some tires:

Tire SizeISOCircumference ≅Diameter (C/π )ThicknessSource
700c x 1818-622Generic/Standard2070 mm658 mm
700c x 2525-622Generic/Standard2111 mm672 mm
700c x 2828-622Generic/Standard2130 mm678 mm≅ 28 mm
650b x 5050-584Generic/Standard2149 mm684 mm
700c x 3838-622Generic/Standard2180 mm.694 mm

Clearance

The rear tire has to fit between the chain stays behind the bottom bracket and between the seat stays below a bridge below the seat. The bottom bracket shell accomodates a bb and a crank with a suitable Q factor. On the Topstone, the chain stays are straight and parallel to each other for a few cm behind the bottom bracket. The distance between the chain stays is about 56 mm in the parallel section where a 700c tire would have to fit. The The seat stays are straight and bend out to fit around the rear axle assembly (cassette and disc brake rotor). The distance between the seat stays is 66 mm where the tire runs. The front tire has to fit between the fork blades under the fork crown. The distance between the fork blades where a tire runs is 61 mm or more. (The measurements were made with a caliper with the wheels on the bike). The side clearances allow 700c x 40 mm tires. The clearances at the tops of the tires under the seat stay bridge and the front fork crown were tighter. The WTB Nano 700c x 40 tires were too big to allow for fenders. For subsequent model years, Cannondale shipped the Topstone with 700c x 37 WTB Riddlers, a slightly smaller and narrower tire (with small knobs).

The WTB Nano tires had a mountain bike type tread. The tread on the center line of the tire was made up of chevron shaped groups of cleats or knobs. There were alternating gaps in the chevron. I thought the tread caused vibration, noticeable at low speeds; experienced gravel riders reviewing it thought it made for a smooth ride. I agreed it was smooth unless speed dropped to under 12 km/h. I did not need cleat or knobs e for my riding on asphalt and packed gravel. I downsized the tires to 700c x 38 Panaracer GravelKing SK tires.The dense small knobs were smooth to ride, although I expect some drawbacks.

Some all-road and gravel bikes can be adapted to use 650b wheels and tires. The 650b standard is based on a 584 mm. diameter wheel. A 650b x 48c (ISO 48-584) wheel is as tall as a 700 x 28c. It has more rubber, and is wider and heavier. 650b x 48 is not as tall as a 700c x 38; it will fit into the fork under the fork crown and the seat stay bridge. René Herse states that its 650b x 42 tire is 41-43 mm wide, and its 650b x 48 is 49-50 mm wide. These tires will fit within the clearances in the Topstone, but fitting a 60 mm diameter fender for 48 mm tires would be awkward.

Fenders

Fenders were normal part of the design of all-purpose bikes used by commuters and city riders, and installed by manufacturers for most of the 20th century. Road bikes, imitating racing bicycles, were built without fenders or even mounting points for fenders. While fenders were useful for some uses of mountain bikes, fenders were hard to design. manufacture and install. Fenders for road bikes, hybrids, and mountain bikes became accessories. Fenders were more popular on touring bikes and endurance/randoneusse bikes.

To fit fenders, the rider needs to know the thickness of the tires, and the clearances in the bike frame. The front fender has to attach to the fork at or near the fork crown. The rear fender needs to attach to the frame behind the bottom bracket between the chain stays, and at a bridge between the seat tubes. The attachments at those points support the front parts of the fender in the proper position. Fenders stays hold the back parts of the fenders in position. Fender stays normally attach to the frame and the fork near the axles.

A fender should fit around an inflated tire, with horizontal and vertical clearance. The exterior diameter of the fender, measured across the base of the arc of the fender indicate that the fender needs that horizonal distance to fit between the seat stays or fork blades without cutting or bending the fender Velo Orange, a manufacturer of aluminum fenders, suggests an 8 mm. horizonal difference between the exterior diameter of the fender and the bead seat diameter of the tire. This suggests a 700 x 40c tire needs a 48 mm exterior fender. A fender should clear the tire vertically (along the radius of the circle) by about 20 mm where the fender covers the tire. There has to be a vertical gap of more than 20 mm from the inside of the fork crown or the seat stay bridge and the outside of the tire.

My first fenders for the Topstone were SKS P50 Chromoplastic Longboard Fenders, a popular model sold in many shops and online stores in the USA and Canada including Modern Bikes and Universal Cycles. SKS marketed these fenders as wide enough to cover 700c tires in the range from 700c x 38 to 700c x 45. The P50 fenders had an exterior diameter of 50 mm. Plastic is light but it is prone to twisting and vibration. The rear ender mounted easily to the eyelet between the chain stays behind the bottom bracket. SKS, like other fender manufacturers provides a fender bridge that has to be bent around the outside of the fender and crimped around the edges. This bridge has to be centered on the fender to align to the frame mounting fitting on a bridge between the seat stays, slid into position and crimped onto the fender. If this is not done successfully, the fender will be twisted out of true. There is very little margin for error . SKS chromoplastic fenders use V shaped stay ; each stay has 2 arms. These stays are designed to attached to eyelets at the ends of the chain stays. The stays did not quite line up to eyelet . I had to adapt some left over parts from a rack mount kit to fabricate little fins. I had to bend the stays out to balance the tension to keep the fender from rubbing, but it worked.

The front fender fit under the fork crown and appeared to have adequate clearrance over the tire, but did not clear the original 700c x 40 knobby/cleated WTB Nano tire. I downsized the tires. The next problem with those fenders was the lack of eyelets for fender stays at the ends of the fork blades. The only eyelets stays are on the inside of the fork, 15 cm above the end of the fork. This was not a good place for the SKS breakaway tab or for a V shaped stay. I was able to improvise an attachment for the SKS break-away fender stay mount, and bend the V arms of the stays to slide into the attachments on the fender. This worked for my rides in the winter of 2020-21. I began to get a rubbing noise at higher speeds on chipseal. The V stays did not support the plastic fender under those conditions.

Riders reported installing SKS plastic fenders on Cannondale road bikes in forums, Reddits and YouTube, but these riders referred to bikes with eyelets at the end of the fork blades. One English rider reported, in a YouTube video, using the Bontrager NCS plastic fenders on a Topstone with carbon forks. That fender has a single straight (adjustable) stay, which normally attaches to an eyelet at the end of fork blade, but can be attached to the eyelets on the Toptone. I installed aluminum Velo Orange fenders. These are light but rigid, and attach with a single stay on each side of the fender. This is how the stays fit, using the pre-drilled holes for the stay:

Carbon Fiber Fork

Carbon fiber forks are offered on many production road and gravel bikes with steel or aluminum alloy frames. A carbon fiber fork is light and stiff, which is supposed to improve steering, although this can be debated. A carbon fork on bike with disc brakes has to be stiff. A stiff fork does not dampen vibration. Many carbon forks lacks eyelets for racks and other devices, which limits some uses of the bike. The carbon composite must be laid over a metal component tapped to receive a bolt and act as an eyelet. This is tricky and expensive.

Crankarms and Cassette

I changed the stock 172.5 mm crankarms to 165 mm – a shorter radius and less stress on knees. I replaced the Shimano 105 11-32 cassette for an SRAM PG-1170 11 cog 11-36 for a couple more low, climbing gears. With the 30 tooth front ring, this change gives me 30×36 as the lowest gear.

Cycling out of James Bay

History

This is a historical summary.

James Bay

James Bay is at the south end of the City of Victoria, in the urban part of Greater Victoria between the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Inner Harbour.

Routes

Many routes out of James Bay have vehicle traffic.  Douglas Street and Blanshard Streets are heavily travelled.  Douglas Street becomes a highway (the Trans-Canada) west to Colwood and Langford, over the Malahat and north up-island.  It has a paved shoulder and bike lane, but the traffic on the entrance and exit ramps is significant.  Blanshard Street runs up to Saanich and the BC Ferry terminal at Swartz Bay.  It is a highway, called Highway 17 or the Pat Bay Highway.  It has bike lanes, but significant traffic. Other streets go north: Quadra, Cook, Gorge Road, Cedar Hill, Richmond, Shelbourne.  They have drawbacks including traffic, lack of bike lanes, limited visibility, curb lanes occupied by parked cars, elevation changes. One option is to go downtown along Government, Douglas, Blanshard or Quadra as far as Fort Street and east and north on Fort Street whch has a bike lane (as of 2019)  The bike lane was redeveloped as a separated lane out past Cook Street as of 2017-18.  Fort Street crosses Oak Bay Avenue which runs east out to Beach. Fort becomes the Cadboro Bay Road.There is 5 k. loop around James Bay on Belleville along the Harbour on the north, the streets at the west end, Dallas on the south, and Douglas on the east. There is longer loop around Beacon Hill Park by Cook Street, and some loops in the park.  The is a new paved bike lane beside Dallas from Beacon Hill park to Ogden Point as of 2020 after Dallas Road was torn up 2018-20 for sewer reconstruction. These are usually safe in the evening but the traffic on Sundays is heavy between tourists, families with children, people walking dogs, and people taking elderly parents out.

 

In the first few years, many times , I went east on Dallas past Beacon Hill Park and the Ross Bay Cemetery and followed a nearly coastal route. Dallas continues until it runs into Hollywood Crescent and Crescent Drive, which also follow the coast.  These streets connect to to Beach Drive in Oak Bay.  The traffic along Dallas is steady.  There are intermittent micro-congestions behind tour buses and the ubiquitous horse drawn carriage rides.  There are sections where cars park at an angle facing the Strait. The drivers have little vision and can back into oncoming traffic. These conditions were mitigated by the new bike paths that opened in 2020.

In 2016 I began to take the Beacon Hill-Oak Bay-Uplands-UVic-San Juan option.

  1. going southeast along Niagara, through Beacon Hill Park exiting on Park Avenue;
  2. crossing Cook Street at May, turning north at Moss Street, crossing crossing Fairfield at the traffic light;
  3. turning right on Thurlow and follow Thurlow to Kipling and Brooke to St. Charles. Then another block along Chandler to Richmond, and a short block to Richardson. This avoid climbs of streets approaching the heights on Richardson at the south end of the Government House area. I used this as a route to Richmond at Richardson.
  4. From there, I often crossed Foul Bay Road and proceeded on Richardson (which becomes McNeill in Oak Bay) to Victoria, turned left and then turned right onto Windsor.
  5. I turned left (north) at Monterey, to cross Oak Bay Avenue with traffic lights. I go north on Monterey and St. Ann to Bowker, turn left and then right to continue northbound to the edge of Uplands of Oak Bay on Musgrave.
  6. I ride north and cross Lansdowne on Midland, continue on Upper Terrace until to ends at Cadboro Bay Road, opposite the end of Cedar Hill Cross Road.
  7. I cross Cadboro Bay Road and ride west on Cedar Hill Cross Road to University Drive and turn there and cross the Univesity of Victoria. Sometimes I pass the University and turn north on Gordon Head.
  8. I emerge at Gordon Head and McKenzie, at the NW corner of the campus, and on go up Gordon Head to Feltham. A left turn and an immediate right onto Longview brings me to San Juan, which runs west as road and trail as far west as Cedar Hill Road.

My main cycling-friendly route out of James Bay was north along Menzies or Government to the Legislature, and along Government and Wharf along the Inner Harbour to the east end of the Johnson Street Bridge. There is a cycling lane, as of 2019, along Government from Belleville to Humbolt and along Wharf to Johnson Steet.

The Victoria Canoe & Kayak Club is on Gorge Road just past Tillicum. My best route from James Bay to the club was over the Johnson Street Bridge, along the Galloping Goose to the park at the West Victoria Y, near the Selkirk Trestle. At that point it’s off the trail through the park to Craigflower and then on Selkirk, a side street t parallel to Craigflower, all the way to Tillicum. At that point a right turn onto Tillicum, across the bridge, a left turn onto Gorge Road and that’s it. It was 6.8 k one way, mainly off the main roads.

Cycling computers & GPS

Table of Contents

Classic

Original or classic cyclometers measure and display distance, time and speed. The devices could be powered by button cell batteries. These units had (or if in use, have) a magnet that clips onto a spoke which rotates the magnet past a sensor. They count rotations and process data to display speed, distance and time. The original models had a wired sensor; more modern models have wireless sensors. These devices need to be programmed with the circumference of the wheel to calculate how far the bike moves forward each time the wheel goes through a full revolution. The tire will flex under load; the distance travelled is a little less than the circumference of the inflated tire measured unloaded. Cateye had a chart in its manuals, listing the circumferences for dozens of tires, including several 700c tires from 700c x 18 to 700c x 40. Similar charts are online in support articles by Sheldon Brown and by volunteers in the public knowledge base at newwheel.net. I had a Bontrager (Trek) computer on my Trek hybrid – it gave the user choices of tire size in a menu rather picking a circumference in the menu. These systems assume uniform tire sizes, inflated to the rated/marked maximum. The circumference of a tire on a wheel is affected by the tire pressure. It is small inaccuracy, only a centimer in 200 (½ of one percent).

Most units could be calibrated to one bike; a few could be programmed to two bikes. They may pause and appear to “sleep” if the rider stops for longer than a couple of minutes. It depend on the device, default settings and user choices. Setting them up is time consuming and balky.

The monochrome displays were visible even in bright sunlight and under low light conditions.

GPS

GPS was not available to cyclists until the US goverment allowed non military users, after the year 2000, to receive satellite signals from Global Positioning Satellites and calculate position on the ground to within 5 meters. This provided enough accuracy for navigation and tracking distance and speed. A cycling GPS head unit will measure distance accurately and “save” the ride in memory. It may lose a few meters as the device may need a few seconds to recognize when the rider has started to move after halting. The device may lose satellites in tree cover, and falter in calculating velocity or elevation changes. The rider usually has to power the device on, and the device then usually starts to record the session as a new ride or a lap. There are some nuances to setting up a device. Setting up and learning the unit requires time and attention, as changing anything during a ride takes time and reference to manuals and resources that may not be available.

Garmin, having produced watch sized GPS units for runners in 2003, began to produce and sell the Edge GPS receiver for cycling in 2005. Garmin added functions including rear radar, lights, power meters, electronic shifter controls, touch screens, colour screens, maps, navigation and voice prompts in more evolved and expensive head units combined with peripherals. The units for sale bundle primary functions with functions used occassionally by some users, and with some specialized functions and features. Garmin has added GPS functions using the alternative satellites of the Russian Glonass system and the EU Galileo system. Competitors including Wahoo have entered the market.

Basic models do not display a map or provide navigational prompts. Some can be paired with smartphones which may, if they are using wireless data, be able to display maps. A large screen displaying a map is useful if the rider can stop and check, but can be a distraction. The marriage of the GPS cyclometer to cloud computing, big data and social apps means cyclists are sharing their location data with the device manufacturer network and its partners. If the device network servers are hacked, as Garmin was in July 2020, users can lose access to functions that depend on the servers in the cloud. It may not matter much if the cyclist is only using the head unit to display and record distance and speed.

Smart Phones

It seems to be efficient to use a smart phone app on a phone that you already own, and to not acquire a head unit but there are trade-offs.

Smart phone mapping apps will tell a user where the user is on a map but do not necessarily calculate distance and speed in real time. These apps use the GPS receiver and sensors in the phone, and the location services of the OS ecosystem. The GPS receiver is not as good as a dedicated GPS head set; these apps do not appear to record distance as accurately as GPS headunit or a classic cyclometer. Google had MyTracks, an app that ran in Google Maps, but killed it in 2016. The cycling, running, walking and hiking apps push ads, harvest data and self-promote paid apps with better “features”. I am not happy mounting a phone to handlebars or using battery power and cellular data.

My Gravel Bike

Cannondale Topstone 105

My Cannondale Topstone 105 Alloy is a gravel bike by Cannondale, a subsidiary or brand of the Canadian conglomerate Dorel Industries, manufactured in Taiwan. The frame is an aluminium alloy. This is what it looks like

This Cannondale model is named for the Shimano 105 groupset which is marketed by Shimano as a road groupset. It has several Shimano 105 branded components: brakes, shifters, 11 cog cassette, and derailleurs. The crankset was FSA, with 172.5 mm crank arms, and 46/30 rings – a “compact” road bike crankset. The largest cog on the rear cassette was 34 teeth; lowest possible gearing was 30 to 34. The lack of more climbing gears is a flaw of this and other production gravel bikes.

The 2019 Cannondate Topstone 105 Alloy has a profile at Bike Insights. It is neutral on the upright/aggressive scale. It is a neutral mid trail bike. Cannondale builds it in 5 sizes that it calls XS, SM (small), MD, LG, XL. I bought the medium size, which means, according to the datasets used by Bike Insights:

  • The seat tube is 505 mm long;
  • The “effective” (horizontal) top tube length is 561 mm;
  • Stack 579 mm; Reach 385 mm – Average for category;
  • Trail: 63.7 mm;
  • Chainstay (horizontal) 423.4 mm.

The Cannondale Topstone 105 shipped with tubeless ready WTB ST i23 TCS wheels and 700c x 40 (ISO 40-622) WTB Nano TCS tubeless ready tires. The tires are knobby, like many mountain bike tires and cyclo-cross tires. 700c x 40 may the largest/widest tires that run on this bike.

There are eyelets at the drop outs for the rear wheel and on the seat stays to mount a rear rack, but the chain stays are short which limits the use of panniers for touring storage. The stays are widely separated for wide tires and disc brakes. There are eyelets behind the bottom bracket, on the seat stay bridge and at the rear dropouts for a rear fender. Some racks and fenders can be fitted.

The carbon fiber fork lacks the front facing mounting point at the fork crown found in bikes with rim brakes. There is a rear facing eyelet at the fork crown for a fender with an L-bracket. There are no eyelets on the outside of the fork blades. There are eyelet on the inside of each fork blade 150 mm above the axle drop-out. The limits the options for front racks, and bags:

  • A demi-porteur randonneur rack requires a front-facing eyelet at the fork crown and eyelets above midfork to mount the cantilevers;
  • A low rider front rack requires eyelets at the drop-outs;
  • The cable routing along the drop bars limits the options for proprietary mounting braces (eg. Arkel, Salsa); the space between the drops and brake levers.

The frame has several eyelets for bikepacking bags and accessories.

Rack

I tried to use the Tubus Logo Evo touring rack that I had used on my Trek. It fit on the wider chainstays (longer rear axle) of a disc brake bike with modification of fit kit parts. I was able to install a Tubus Vega, which can carry a trunk bag. The point is to carry some tools, an inner tube, some clothing and little food. The rack legs and the bolt heads for fender stays interfered with the rotation of the thru-axle handle. The thru-axle may have to removed to remove the wheel for maintenance and repair. The handle may be removed with a 4 mm Allen wrench, but when that is done, a larger (e.g. 12 mm) fixed wrench (combination or open end) will be needed to release the axle. An after-market rear axle (Robert Axle Project) that can be removed using a 6 mm Allen key was part of the installation of the rack.

A New Bike

Table of Contents

Variety

I shopped for a new bike last summer (2019). The literature of bicycle manufacturing is vast. The Guardian published a survey and list of printed works in 2016. Some books and resources address innovation and engineering:

Many books are about competitive events – or the special bikes used in competition. Racing on tracks and roads became the most visibible use of bicycles at the end of the 19th century. The single speed utility bike with coaster brakes was the common bike for much of the 20th century.

Much of the innovation for riding on trails and rough roads came in the mountain bike and BMX sectors in the last 4 decades of the 20th century: frame design, wheels, wide tires, cleated tires or knobby tires for traction in mud and on climbs and descent on bare ground, wider gear ranges, more efficient brakes. Mountain bikes have been discussed in books, but seem to have been discussed in on the internet – for instance in inteviews and discussions like The genesis of the mountain bike, according to Tom Ritchey, published at Handbuilt Bicycle News in September 2016. [Update – August 2021. The Cyclist Magazine’s Podcast Episode 34 interviewed Tom Ritchey in two parts on July 8, 2021 and July 16, 2021. Tom Ritchey raced track as a teen and began to repair his own frames. He was a mountain bike pioneer. His company also makes highly regarded road bikes.] Special gear was developed – e.g. frame bags for mixed terrain cycle touring (i.e. bike-camping or bikepacking). Mountain bike races on unpaved roads and trails, touring on back roads, bike-camping and adventure rides became popular. Mountain bikes permitted new kinds of competition. Cross-country mountain bike (XC) races became organized, and competition became specialized into XC, downhill, endurance and other events. Endurance blossomed into multi day ultra distance events along difficult and challenging routes such as Tour Divide and Trans-America.

Cyclo-cross (CX) racing is a competitive event in cycling, for riders on drop bar bikes. Cyclo-cross bikes are similar to road bikes with wider, knobby tires for traction and other features for races off of paved roads. As road bikes tended to use narrow tires at high pressure, road bike frames often did not have clearance for the right tires. Some mountain bike innovations were adopted to design and manufacture CX bikes, including tire clearance. CXbikes retained nearly horizontal top tubes, for reasons related to conditions of those races. For some applications, users and shops began to adapt and develop monster-cross bikes.

The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), the international sporting body has rules or standards for track and road racing, CX, mountain bikes and BMX. The rules are seen as restricting technological innovation in cycling. UCI has recognized gravel in September 2021 – UCI announced sanctioned gravel events in 2022.

Gravel

Road bike riders began to use unpaved roads more extensively for training and recreation, and to participate in Ultra cross and endurance events on rough roads. Randonneur rides became more common. Gravel grinders – races or endurance events on gravel roads. Some custom bikes and adaptations provided some advantages in such events. Gravel riders started blogs or published on sites like Gravel Cyclist. Salsa (a subsidiary of the conglomerate QBP released the Fargo, a fat tired bike with drop bars, a “mountain touring bike” in 2009 (it has since become favoured as a touring bike), the Vaya gravel/touring bike in 2010, and the gravel racing Warbird in 2012. Other manufacturers moved into gravel bikes. Production gravel bikes incorporate technical innovations from road, mountain and all-road: disc brakes, threadless headsets, internal frame routing for cables, indexed shifting integrated in the brake levers, tubeless ready wheels and tires. Gravel bikes with disc brakes will usually have thru-axles (as opposed to quick release skewers). Thru-axles fit to closed drop outs with threaded fittings for the axle at ends of the fork blades and the rear stays. Some have suspension forks in the front; some manufacturers have some types of rear suspension.

The features of gravel bikes:

  • wider tires than road and cyclo-cross bikes. Most new gravel bikes are shipped with cleated/knobby tires – an imitation of the way mountain bikes a shipped;
  • most gravel bikes have drop bars; the drop bars are often wider, flared, and shaped differently than the drop bars on road bikes (article at Bikepacking.com);
  • the geometry is different;
  • gear combinations for moderately fast riding and moderate climbing:
    • a single chainring or a two ring set (similiar to a road bike compact -a large ring with 46 teeth instead of 50 or 52 and an inner ring with 30 teeth);
    • 10 or 11 cog rear cassettes. a range from 11-34 teeth would be normal. Riders can customize for small increments or larger gears for climbing.
  • eyelets for frame bags, and for racks to carry panniers

Bike Insights describes the typical attributes of all-road/gravel bikes:

  • Wider, smooth or treaded tires, typically from 38-48 mm;
  • Trail (a design geometry concept related to the head tube angle and the responsiveness of steering) around 57-71 mm for improved handling off-road;
    [Update – an article from Cycling tips on design geometry]
  • Short to mid-length chainstays of 421-443 (Touring bikes have longer chainstays to allow riders to carry panniers in rear racks).

2019 Rides

I rode the Trek FX4 January to August. I bought a Cannondale Topstone gravel bike in August, and it became my main bike. I bought a Garmin Edge 130 GPS unit/computer and began to track the cumulative elevation gained during a ride and average speed (moving), as well as distance and time. My total distance logged, all bikes, in 2019, was 2,211.9 Km.

2018 Rides

My rides in 2018 were in Victoria. All my rides were on my Trek FX4. I was getting speed and distance on the Bontrager cycling computer. It was wireless – it had a magnet on a spoke, a sensor sending unit and the main unit mounted on the bars. I logged 2,283.6 Km. I rode alone several times, or with Mike. Steve (and Val) visited in September, staying with Mike and Susan.