Does Gravel Attract Moaners Or Was UNBOUND Too Tough? | GCN Show Ep. 543
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- Опубликовано: 8 июл 2024
- First the ‘official’ UCI Gravel World Championships was too easy, now the ‘unofficial’ world champs at UNBOUND Gravel was too tough! So, how much gravel is just right, Goldilocks? Are the complaints about UNBOUND’s peanut butter mud justified or does gravel riding just attract the biggest moaners? Si and Hank discuss this plus loads more on this week’s GCN Show!
00:00 Intro
00:45 This week in cycling
01:26 Does gravel attract moaners?
07:11 Hack/Bodge
15:07 Cycling Shorts
24:18 GCN Newsletter competition
25:18 Global Bike Festival
26:23 Caption Competition
27:57 Comment of the Week
31:40 Coming up on GCN
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![Sean Rii, Karyon, Sharzkii - Taungule [My Love] (Official Music Video)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/eJoMuypbSzQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Do you think super tough muddy sections belong in gravel racing? 🤔
nah
Most participants didn't have sponsors that'll throw a new drivetrain at them if it broke, and this is where the fun at racing stops IMHO. And a LOT of drivetrains broke, plus they ran out of bottled water at the first stop because the pros used it all to clean their bikes. This was an absolute disaster of race management and should be put to shame. It's called "gravel" cycling, not mudrunning like a Tatra 8x8 in Siberia.
@@Tobias611 I agree, the running out of water is ridiculous and dangerous.
No! This mud fest is more suited to training for an obstacle course - look up ‘ToughMudder’ U.K. which is a genuine blast, but doesn’t need a bike. Even extreme CycloCross isn’t really like that. Gravel, is, well, gavel. MTB are, well for mountain conditions. Road bikes are, for, well, roads. Mud? Mud is for… well, certainly not for wheels unless pointing down-hill and that’s called DH 😂
Gravel is gravel, mud is mud, soooooooooooo: NO!
News just in: Lidl-Trek are going to stop pushing for "marginal gains" and are going to focus on "Lidl Improvements" instead.
Ba Dum Shhhhhh 🥁 - this comment is middle isle worthy 🙌
What the hell could be a Lidl improvement 😂😂😂to close?
#CommentOfTheWeek
I helped Conor a bit with his bike at CP#1 in Eureka as he stopped just across from my SAG position for my teammates. Then I saw and talked to him again at the end where he remembered and thanked me for the chain lube and said the race was "one of the hardest things I've ever done on a bike." But he LOVED the vibe of the event and seemed hooked to the participate again in the madness.
The moaners tend to be loud, but they are only 1-2% in reality. Come to Unbound and stay until 10 PM or Midnight and see the reaction of finishers then. The energy from the still decent size crowd and the elation of riders crossing the line is palpable. There weren't complaints in the finish shoot. Just smiles. Riders pushed to what they thought were their limits and then finding something more they didn't know they had inside. They will be telling these war stories with pride for decades. Go experience it yourself before judging.
Thanks for helping Conor out! Sounds like you were one of the great unbound community that got him through. 🙌 You make a great point! The riders will tell us the true story here, from what we've hear most people loved it and the challenge is a big part of that. It sounds like Si fancies it next 👀
Si’s laugh at Conor being in the riders to watch really tickled me. Can’t wait to see the video on Sunday!
Hank and Si are cracking me up since returning from Tibet. Maybe not the most efficient presenters together, but hilarious.
We allow for an extra hour of filming with these two 😂
Took me just under 17hrs to finish Saturday and I loved every minute of it. Unbound is supposed to be hard.
Yup, finished just under 18. Out of my 4 200s this was my favorite.
(Except for the no water and kind of lack luster finisher cup lol)
Watching this makes me more interested in signing up next year. Did Gravel Locos this year for my first race and it was awesome but my bike isn't the best suited for dry races. This one though? I got clearance for 29x2.1 and can convert my bike single speed. I'm thinking ditch the derailleur and running some 42mm might be the way to go. Mud clearance for days and nothing to rip off. Everyone seems to be walking anyways, and that's just single speed life.
I was in the audience watching riders going through. Hearing someone from Colorado made it 2nd place and having gotten a amateur gravel Trek, it definitely got me hooked, got me riding everyday now slowly pushing farther
That is a great time Richard! Did you spot Conor out on the course? 👀
@@gcn Didn't see him on the course but saw him about passed out at the finished
The aero stem is ridiculous, but it never does go in the opposite direction. When at the top, it's going forward at twice the speed of the bike, at the bottom it falls to zero, but always somewhere between those extremes - never backwards. Maybe ask Dr. Bridgewood to use his Science Glasses and whiteboard to explain.
Speed and direction is relative to point of observation. From the cyclist's perspective the valve does in fact move "away" when it crosses perigee of the plain between hub centre and the cyclist's eyes, and closer when it crosses apogee.
@@space.youtube But what we care about is speed and direction compared to the air the bike is moving through, and Drew's explanation is clearly the right one here.
@@xanthoptica No, the point of contention was the use of the word "forward" to describe the motion of the valve during a segment of wheel rotation.
And "Drew's explanation" is only correct from his perspective as an observer (not the cyclist), which is my point. Try and keep up.
@@space.youtube Dude, we're not doing special relativity here. The presenters are specifically concerned if the foil on the valve stem cover will be pointing the wrong way (which has to mean relative to the movement through air), and (apparently like you) they are unable to think in terms of where the air is at rest for a rolling wheel. But if you want to translate it to the reference frame of the cyclist, where the "wind" is moving past, you can do it...and you still get the result that the foil is never "backwards" relative to the apparent wind at the valve stem. Try to think a little harder.
Hike-a-bike is part of gravel riding. Hey, they do it in CX. There should also be a pit stop section where you have to down your favorite craft beer.
The hike-a-bike amount on the XL course would = 3 or 4 cyclocross races combined where the rider actually never get on the bike and rides. I’m sure everyone would love that style of cyclocross racing…LOL
They actually had partiers handing out beer with about 20 miles to go.
On the aero valve caps, the bottom portion of the wheel moves slower than the top. The very bottom point of the wheel doesn't move at all while the very top is moving at twice the speed of the bike. So the valve cap can be designed to be aero in the direction it is moving on the top of the wheel and the bottom portion can be ignored.
Yes, the valve never moves backwards relative to the ground unless the rider is doing a wheelspin and even then it would give an aerodynamic advantage to such inefficient behaviour
I very rarely have anything negative to say about GCN - all of you do a banging job!! But… I was a bit disappointed that there was no mention of the winners at Unbound. If the discussion had been about a pro road race, it would be unthinkable to talk about the race without mentioning the winners. I just think these guys deserve just as much credit as the guys in the pro peloton.
When I left the mud section and finally got on a basic gravel road, I can’t explain the satisfaction of hearing and seeing chunks of mud fling off my tires as I got to ride again. Crossing the first bridge over a highway, a man was holding the two halves of his carbon fiber bike in his hands! BEASTLY. Survived!
We can image that must of felt great! Oh poor guy... sounds like his race didn't end well! 😳
of course! Gravel racing emphasizes a spirit of adventure, Gravel races in mud add an extra layer of physical and mental challenge to the event, testing the riders' skills, endurance, and resilience.
This 👆 It's a tough sport and we hope it stays that way... maybe some Conor might argue with us 👀
@@gcn 😅😅
I unfortunately DNF’d at Unbound this weekend. But one of the highlights of the weekend was riding back to Hamilton (checkpoint two) with one of the veteran volunteers who pick up stranded riders. He told me that at the end of the day, they make sure that all of the stranglers make it back to Emporia. Even those who willingly finish the race but miss the cutoff. And he told me, “You have to imagine that it’s a lot harder for the slower riders to finish… but if they want to finish, we follow them all the way back to Emporia.” He very secretly implied a universal respect among the volunteers for those who decide to finish the race regardless of making the cutoff or not. It truly is a beast of a race, but honestly it’s all about mental fortitude. I was fortunate enough to finish a few years ago, but this year was truly a beast. Kuddos to all those who gave it their all this year!
Complete chaos when Hank is around. Love it. 🤣
You should see him in the office 😵💫
Never get tired of watching Hank breaking up. : )
I did the XL race this year and had to do hike-a-bikes in the dark. You're spot-on when you say that it's absolutely part of "Gravel". Everyone of us agreed that, while it sucked going through it at the time, we all knew that the weather is always the X-factor no one can control and that muddy roads are only a small percentage of the total distance.
The XL! Wow that is amazing 🤯 Great to hear from a rider, it looks like an epic day out 🙌
@@gcn It was indeed and it's what continues to make this the premier gravel event in the world. Also, to set things straight on why the organizers didn't reroute around the mud, reroutes are to take riders away from "Dangerous" conditions, not "annoying" conditions. Reroutes, like on last year's 200, are to avoid flooded areas, or where a road has washed away or has some other hazard that would put riders at peril.
Reroutes are not for making the ride more "enjoyable" for everyone. This is type 2 fun for sure and mud is part of what makes this race as epic as it is. Also, I guarantee you that had it been hotter than hell, like it was in 2019 and 2021, people would've complained that the organizers didn't set up fans and ice baths...remember rule number 5 and STFU about the mud. :)
My man Logan Kasper won by 2 hours, he's a beast!
We signed up for a tough day; I’m just bummed they didn’t adjust the time cutoffs. 10-11mph is my sustainable pace and I was excited to race the clock. But a couple hours of mud hiking basically ended my chance before the attempt even started.
That is a perfectly valid criticism. Hopefully you can try it again next year!
Sorry to hear that! Will you be heading back for the race next year? 👀
@@gcn perhaps
That was the best Hack/Bodge ever! These two are comedy gold!
Hearing Hank try to describe an Arduino was classic 😂
"Blah blah blah science chips."
Fair to say we've found the limit to hanks knowledge 😂
I love it when Hank has a liquid lunch before filming.
I must admit I did think he’d had a bottle from his Dad’s wine cellar beforehand
Haha, you guys actually made a Hankerman action figure promo video. That's awesome! 😂 Love it! I feel every GCN presenter should have one now.
I'm at work and just exhausted and frustrated. Hank dying laughing was just what I needed. You boys are the best. Keep up the good work! 🥰😄
We hope the rest of your work day got better! Hank always lifts people spirits 🙌
I dropped out of the XL at 270 miles after walking 3+ hour across 4 sections of mud. Bike is heading to the trash bin. I am fine with mud/extreme but a race should not cost you a full new bike. Bit much on the xl course IMO.
If it cost you a bike it is because you did a number of things wrong
now you can either learn from your mistakes or cry about it and remain an ignorant fool
choose wisely !
@@richarddecredico6098dude do you own unbound or are you a simp?
LOL thank for the advice
Hank is a treat!😂 loves it when he presents😂
No one I know has ever talked about a race that wat perfect, perfect weather, perfect route, easy conditions… racers, amateurs or pros, like a challenge…and bad weather makes for the best war stories.
I did the 100 and the mud wasn’t the most fun but we signed up for unbound. The larger issue was running out of water at the water stop. That was definitely no fun.
Completely unsat to run out of water on an event that long and challenging
That's not good 😬 Did you enjoy the day anyway?
@@gcn Oh 14739% A++ would Unbound again! Part of doing these rides is to discover new things about yourself and that journey was amazing. I was more saying that the water running out was a bigger issue than the mud. The mud just gave me 1.5 hours with my thoughts and I got a lot of good work done mentally during that time.
OMG Hank absolutely cracks me up and apparently, himself too! 😂
It's Unbound. It is what it is. A limited entry which costs you money IF you get picked. The mud is just The soil that makes up the prairies. If you ride the Roubaix sportive your bike might break. If you do the Etape it may be hard. Some struggle and fail others succeed. If you break something you should know it might cost you.
The commentators comments about Epic Gravel events are rubbish. Like to know how much of their personal vacation time and their own money they spend on doing events much less replacement parts, repairs or the purchase of their own bikes (pay full retail anyone???) ?
@@MoveAndPerformThen don't spend your personal time and money to come to ride your silly bicycle for 100 plus miles on rural Kansas gravel in the late spring on roads that aren't there for you to enjoy your hobby of riding your bicycle.
PS. Locals get stuck all the time on these roads and are pulled out by tractors.
Deal with it. The world. Especially rural Kansas and the weather doesn't give a damn if your pansy ass is paying for your bike and it's repairs and holiday time
Having watched a lot of F1 and then "Drive to Survive" I'm sceptical of the tour de France Netflix series. In DtS Netflix made up a bunch of drama and did some very creative cutting (ie using radio messages from the wrong race in a different time because it fit their narrative etc)
Got worse as the seasons went on. Some of the ‘arguments’ and ‘drama’ was just audio from completely different races spliced together, then cue Will Buxton explaining that a wheel is round
Seemed like they sensationalized a narrative in the Lifetime Grand Prix series of videos last year, too.
I like the Amsterdam parking area. When you go into a giant parking space and at the entrance, it says 54 empty spaces, you can go for hours finding these few empty spaces if they are not marked with a green or red light.
When marked, you will find the empty space for your car or your bike in les than a minute.
I frequently visit both types of parking buildings and I definitely prefer the marked ones. It is so much easier ... and finding say 54 empty stalls between 4000 is not easy otherwise. And remember, most of the daytime, there will be thousands of bikes there. 😊
Agreed. I have so much admiration for the Amsterdam bike parking system. Being able to comfortably park 4000 bicycles and working out a system where each individual can find their own bike while being able to lock it is genius.
Biking infrastructure in The Netherlands is world class.
A lot of the early gravel races in the US were created by road racers who were big fans of the Belgian classics and the whole Flemish hard man culture. The gravel races were meant to reproduce hard, brutal riding, as a way to have fun communing with the spirits of the hardman past. I don't know about the creation of Dirty Kanza/Unbound, but a handful of guys who decide to ride 200 miles on those roads in Kansas in the late Spring certainly weren't looking for an easy ride. Would be a real shame to give up that part of gravel racing. The trend followers and social media influencers can toss off.
Watching the 350 complete alone with everyone else, got me into riding every day now. Maybe you'll see me out there some day lol
I just got back from my first ever evening ride. I would like to thank you guys at GCN, all of you. For creating such good content that inspired me to go out and buy my first road bike today. And da*n you for making it look so easy! 😉keep up your good work! And again, thank you!
Since when was “darn” a swear word ?😂
Haha, you never know these days 😂
You two crack me up usually, but I was crying with laughter during the Amsterdam bike parking part of the show!
Hahahah rumour has it Hank is still laughing now 😂
Great show this week! Enjoyed Hank's enthusiasm.
Fair play to the moaners. I'm with them. If you want your event to be ultra exclusive and insanely difficult then go for it. But don't also market the event towards 2000+ average/good riders.
People are taking what little time they have off work to attend the event, paying a lot of money for travel / accommodation / travel insurance / entry / food / etc.. and then the event is over for them after 15 miles.
Do tough events belong in gravel? Sure.
Is it fair to 'bait 'n switch' average riders into attending an event that they will never even come close to finishing 1/3 of the course? No.
Always so, so good. Thank you for the practical and hilarious commentary!
I live in Emporia and May is our rainiest month so a dry Unbound would be very unusual. Any unmaintained roads (dirt road) will be heavy and muddy. Rain, along with heat, wind and distance are all part of the challenge. If it seems too hard you can always stay home.
Seriously, last year was a mudfest also. 2015 was way worse. It's part of the charm of the race! I wouldn't have it any other way. I hate the 95 degree super windy DK/Unbound. Those are the real suffer fest, in my opinion.
Is it not like complaining the Rocky Mountains are mountainous? Enough on You Tube from previous Unbound and a Google search tells about why the prairie soil is like it is.
My trainer should have included 1 hour on the stair-master while holding my loaded bike on my back. Ha!
There are "main stream" gravel races in California that are 80-100 miles with 9,000-12,000 feet of climbing up rocky, muddy, broken, washed out fire roads. (LA Tourist, Hardman, LA invitational, Rock Cobbler, Whisky Tango Fondo, Mammoth Tuff, etc...) That's just because this is where the gravel roads are. We don't moan about it, we just shred.
We need Hank in every show! Hilarious!
Has it happens, I did have a few comments. But Hank' s laughter so cheered me up. I needed that a lot cause sometimes I get way too serious about cycling, and training etc. So great content thank you. but great fun too:)
Cycling is meant to be fun after all 🙌
Brilliant show, as ever. I've never laughed so much as I did to Hank's piece on bicycle parking! I'm not sure which was better... Hank losing control, or Si's .... support (???). Brilliant, lads! Keep it up 😄
Props to Si for not not experiencing contagious laughter like I did watching Hank losing his mind in that segment.
It's hard work, but somebody has got to do it 😂
you guys are just too funny!
really had a good laugh with you disgussing about the parking lot 😂
LMAO~Welcome to KANSAS!!! I can't believe that peeps actually WHINED about a wee bit of mud on an almost Perfect Kansas late spring day. (I almost LOST it when you mentioned 're-routing in Emporia....it would have been mud no matter WHERE the route lay) I've ridden both bike and horseback in those hills and I will take a cool cloudy dat over the blast furnace with 50 mph winds every day!!! Always love the Siborg and Son-of-Hank's-Dad show!
Good one lads! 100% gravel should be hard af, esp Unbound. So glad you got to experience UG at its finest. XL for me this year. 67 years old and felt like a kid again crossing the line at 2:48am with 12 min to spare before the official cut-off.
Wow! The Xl looks like one tough race 🙌 Will you be doing it again?
Way to go David! It was great riding with you! Bob Spatta. Hope to see you again next year.
Love the energy between these two 😅 Just quite the opposite at GCN en Español, where you can feel the tension 😬
As someone who completed the 200, yes it was frustrating to deal with the mud but the experience will leave me forever stronger.
Struggling through the unexpectedly difficult parts is kind of the point of gravel, IMO. The occasional walk is part of that. If you want it easy, stick to the road. If you enter a pro level gravel event and can't deal with a little mud then you're in the wrong sport.
Wheels travel at zero velocity at the ground and 2x bike speed at the top. The valve cover only needs to be designed for one direction.
Did GCN Tech send you 🕵
Well said!
So, the wheel is stationary at the bottom but flying at the top???
Clicked through to say the same thing!
@@kokonanana1 Seen from a stationary coordinate system, yes.
13:06 the bottom of the wheel travels 0 to ground speed vs the top of the wheel travels ground to 2X ground speed. So I vote hack although the shape could use some tweaking. Fellow monkey here.
Love the reuse recycle ethos of the crocs. Extra points for something to embarrass the children!
I adore it when Hank cracks up. Also: happy birthday, Si!
And yes, more Hankerman!
Loved Hanks giggles and had to go to break for composure. haha
I appreciate the way Lord Hank continues to model his appearance on a 1950s factory worker from Salford. I'm sure we'll find him lurking in a Lowry!
Thank you for the belly laugh, I needed that!
I want some of whatever Hank is on today.
The joy of life can be hard to get hold of 😂
@@gcn Apparently ignorance is bliss.
It sounds like Hank needs to take a deep dive into Crust bikes and alt-cycling. Not everyone’s cup of tea, but it is an aesthetic.
great load of content and on for just over 30mins👍
Some physics regarding the aero valve stem cover. It’s shaped correctly so long as it’s in the aero position when at the 12 o’clock position.
The nature of a wheel, only the axle is traveling at bike speed. The portion of the tire in contact with the ground is moving 0mph (lest we slip). Therefore the portion of the tire at 12 o’clock is actually traveling at 2x bike speed!
So there may be some gains to be had here after all.
Cheers!
I am the unofficial youngest finisher of the Unbound 200. I completed it at 15 years of age and received my Gravel Grail (5 completions) at age 21 (would've been 20, but COVID...). I went to Unbound with my dad in 2014 to watch my older brother compete. That year was muddy, nasty, and cold. My brother is one of the hardest people I know and he dropped out, dad and I driving the jeep to go find him on course. The nastiness of the 2014 race drew me and dad to join my brother in 2015. The race is supposed to be hard and nasty. These races aren't meant to be easy. They test your skill, perseverance, and adaptability. No one complains about the Mid South being muddy.
Edit: I haven't checked if I'm still the youngest finisher, but the official guy is Henry Nelson (fast guy with a phenomenal attitude btw) who completed it at age 16 when they lowered the age minimum to 16. When I entered at 15, the minimum age was 18. Race organizers found out because I was racing at age "18" three years in a row.
After reading the comments by lots of people complaining about the people who were complaining about the mud sections in the Unbound race, I'd like to just say a word about some of the mud on American prairies. I suspect the "muddy" section in Unbound was Bentonite clay. When water comes into contact with bentonite it attaches to the bentonite crystals through an electrochemical reaction, causing bentonite to expand up to 14 times its dry mass. It also brings out the soil’s adhesive properties.The local term for this in Montana is "gumbo".
Gumbo sticks to virtually anything it touches, turning even a simple walk or drive across the prairie into a difficult, muddy mess. It’s also incredibly slick. It can immobilize four wheel drive vehicles and in the race apparently did a number on drive chains and deraulliers. I've only had the experience of driving in this goo once in a four wheel drive vehicle and it was a real eye-opener to me, who was familiar with normal mud in Ohio and Kentucky where I grew up. After a few yards of sliding around I needed to spend about an hour scraping mud from the tires and using winter tire chains to get through a fortunately short section. I perfectly understand why people who expected a very difficult gravel race, and took their limited time off, spent lots of money and time training would be upset that after 10 miles the route went through several miles of basically unrideable crap that ended up damaging their bike. Those interested can do a google search on the gumbo of American prairies.
Gravel racing of this sort is best summed up by one participant: "$180 to enter, and $2,000 to fix your bike after it's done" Guess I'm not rich/sponsored enough
Good to see Hank, ever the professional :-)
You cannot predict the weather when they are planned out. That said, there is a race in Oklahoma in which they send a paint stir stick with your entry packet. It is so you can carry it with you to scrape off the mud as you go. It almost always has that thick, sticky mud. That race fills up every year with a lottery for first timers.
Dingdingding! Some folks will complain no matter what.
Re cycling inner tubes, mend, cut into ribbon for mtb chain stay protector, remove valves for spares cut up to use as a tubeless system ( best using a smaller tube for a larger wheel)
I just loved watching Hank turn four shades of red while he was loosing it, Just pure fun to watch.
Losing it.
Grab the colour chart! 🎨
Not a big fan of races where you need to walk
How about cross racing? 👀
I would love to see Woot, Pitcock, and Van der Poel come over to try the real gravel race vs. that bike trail gravel that they raced on the UCI world championships. Kudos to Connor for trying what the Gravel city has to offer.
This has got to be the best episode so far. Hank is just so funny with Si 🤣😂😅🤣😂😅
Great to see anarchy has returned to the GCN show!
Was Hank buzzed for this episode.?
@@andrewmcalister3462 that’s what I thought too
Fairplay...U pair are comedy gold...if Morecambe and Wise did Cycling ......I was chuckling all the way through my lunch break, U really cheered me up😅😅
Remember the bottom of the wheel is stationary and the top of the wheel is travelling twice as fast as the bike so the valve faring wouldn’t have to be symmetrical. Since the valve could be travelling at 160Kph a faring seems like a reasonable hack
Si's definitely a vampire. Turning 40 and looking just as bloody young as in 2009 GCN.
Well as Dan of GCN used to say "There's no shame in walking". Secondly, no one forced them to do the race, and if they had studied the weather forecast and you know its rainy and thus muddy, yes choose your tyres with some bigger more knobs on them.
"You want it, you take it, you pay the price" ~Bruce Springsteen
They didn't prove it all night but some were tougher than the rest.
I think a pleasant and peaceful stroll adds to the race enjoyment and possibly equals out some of the competition as well. Here in California, one of our races offers bovine territorial challenges as well!
After that, you won't complain about mud....It all belongs!
I finished Unbound 200 in 2022 -this year I pulled out at mile 106. The mud is fine; the part that made me pull out was the thunder and hail overhead in the Kansas plains. Don’t change it.
Trying to do a mtb race on gravel bikes is just dumb .
The organisers need a kick up the ....
Your ignorance is even dumber
Has Hank been on the wine before the show this week 😂😂
Great job Si and Hank. Hank needs to do more Parking articles, very amusing. I even enjoyed my bran flakes. Keep up the good work
Parking facts and Bran flakes... that's how you want to start your week 😂
These guys are hilarious 😂😂. Fun to watch
Nothing wrong with carrying your bike during a gravel race for a very short period of time. What happened here was not planned by the organizer. Extreme conditions are for cyclocross or mtb, having these race conditions at a gravel race ultimately changes what a gravel race is about.
Sat in hospital watching this with a « super bug » and feeling sorry for myself.
When Hank got a fit of the giggles it started me off too
Which is dangerously thin ice with a tummy bug ! 🥴
…Simon’s bewildered looks just made it funnier 😂
YES PLEASE to a full on Hankerman !
Excellent tv
HANKYOU very much
👏😂👏😂👏
I did not ride the Unbound this year but have in the past. I have also ridden the Mid South that is held in March, and is expected to be miserable weather and un-rideable mud. These are two of the premiere level gravel races. While gravel racing is the only venue where an average Joe like me can ride with world tour contenders, these high level events are designed to be challenging and are not for everyone. Gravel racing BY DEFINITION is an outdoor activity, on a particular date, on DIRT ROADS. When it is hot and dry they are dusty, when it is cold they can be slippy, when it has been raining they are MUDDY.
I think with the explosion in popularity of gravel riding there are people who have no idea what they are really signing up for and are following the notoriety. I live 1-1/2 hours from where the Unbound is held and there are many remote roads where you may not see another person or vehicle for quite a while.
Looking forward to Hank's Big Croc Adventure.
That's what workshops are for. . The best comment ever because it's true .. Having the confidence to do things on your bike is one thing but for those important areas that are make or break, then yes, "That's what workshops are for".
I luv these bloopers
About that aero valve stem: it only need to aero as it approaches and leaves top dead centre where it is moving twice a fast as the bike; as approaches the bottom - it decelerates to a stop and isn't moving at all relative to the road surface before accelerating as the wheel rotates. So there the angular velocity of the valve stem (in one direction) and lateral velocity of the wheel travelling forward - of which only 60 degrees either side of top dead centre would benefit from any aerofoils. How effective a valve stem aerofoil is is up for debate and design.
Gravel racing needs just one rule: Unsupported! :-)
As someone who actually rode Unbound the mud was brutal. Nearly two hours of walking, carrying, and scraping is too much and a disaster for equipment. When your tires pack up from even walking the bike you know its bad. Heck I even got hung up on barbed wire due a slip walking the grass verge - but very lucky to have no mechanicals. Ive never hurt so much or so long after a ride
every few years the tough parts change which keeps it interesting. Extreme heat no rain no mud, Very Hot with mud, Hot with large amounts of rain, very deep creek crossongs due to abnormal amount of rainfall prior! , massive head winds etc. long story short leave it as is! it'd be like re-routing on the Inbound Powerline Climb at Leadville 100 MTB race just because 95% of us have to walk a few sections!
I was in the 2022 unbound , we had the same mud and sideways rain for many miles. I finished in the top 10% of my age group . It completely destroyed my bottom bracket and real cassette . But hey , it was fun .
Brilliant duo!
Stem cap: good shape - cap "stationary" relative to air when near ground, fighting double wind speed on top of rotation...
should help reduce rotational drag... but has questionable effect because in the wheel/spoke turbulence
Crocs were the only shoe(s) I could get over my swollen right foot last summer. Broke my leg from a cycling accident that required surgery. Of course I had to wear socks with Crocs when I went out in public, such shame.
#Captioncompetition: Bill and EsteBen - the Flowerpot men!!! 🤣🤣🙊🙈
Weather and road/trail conditions are a variable over which the organisers have little control
The peanut-butter mud also featured in the 100 miles race, which I did. Though I didn’t like it one bit, and preferred it be excluded, it’s part of the overall adventure and makes it more epic. The fact that this is a topic of discussion and a lot of reflection (by everyone) also stipulates that it should make part of it. That mud section will always be associated with the 2023 Unbound and make the challenge even more ‘epic’. And yes, both my feet still suffer from volcano-like blisters from the mud-walking. Proud of it. Cheers J.
Thank you leaving this comment! I'm an amateur psychic here in Emporia. I was wondering why I had a dream, Tuesday, that I was driving around town but that I was using my own feet as a brake, which consequently made them feel as if they were on fire at each stop. I hadn't even made the connection to cycling! Perhaps it's a clarion call that we need to revoke the outlaw of camphorated oil and have it on-hand for such future emergencies.
Awesome stuff Hank!! 🤣
Si: yes, the aerodynamics of the wheel is complex. But the valve stem is considerably simpler because of the geometry of the wheel rolling. Remember that the valve stem is going very slowly at the bottom, when the wheel comes to a stop, and then accelerates to nearly double the rider speed at the top. So the importance of the aerodynamics in one direction is vastly more important, so a unidirectional valve stem is appropriate
Mad Dogs & the Englishmen and Gravel Racing are meant for each other. Look forward to see Connor's take on his Unbound experience.
Englishmen? Connor? 🤔
Great show really enjoyed it hank and Si are a great pairing . I agree with Hank crocs have no place on this earth.
Dude / Hank is high as a kite! Awesome!
God I love Hank! 😂