Posts

I spend a lot of time thinking about bikes. Too much time, probably. So when my wife mentioned she’d actually use an e-bike — for neighborhood rides, getting out with the kids, that kind of thing — I did what any reasonable cycling-obsessed person would do. I opened seventeen tabs and started cross-referencing motor specs. To be clear, this is exactly the wrong approach when buying a bike for someone who just wants to ride around the block. ...

I’ve been on Shimano since the Ultegra R8100 launched in 2022. Before that, I tried the previous generation of SRAM AXS, and it wasn’t for me. The shifting felt less refined than what I was used to, brake feel was lacking, the hood shape never sat right in my hands, and the front derailleur was finicky — get the setup slightly off and you’d get rubbing, or worse, a dropped chain under load. I went back to Shimano and didn’t look back. ...

Update: the Tarmac SL9 is official. It launched June 30, 2026 with a claimed 687g frame, 32mm tire clearance and a UDH hanger, in S-Works builds only at first. Everything that actually changed: Specialized Tarmac SL9 Is Official: Here’s What Actually Changed. Something is coming from Specialized, and the cycling internet has been trying to figure out exactly what since May 12. That’s when side-profile images of what appears to be a new Tarmac surfaced on Instagram, posted by an account called @czice_. The shots spread quickly — to BikeRadar, TrainerRoad forums, Weight Weenies, and everywhere else road bike obsessives gather to argue. Two weeks later, a second piece of evidence landed: video footage apparently showing Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe rider Florian Lipowitz aboard the same bike in Spain’s Sierra Nevada, with the person who posted it writing plainly in the caption, “Yes, that’s new S-Works SL9.” ...

The Zipp 454 NSW has been around long enough that the internet has moved on to reviewing whatever launched last month. That works in your favor if you’re shopping smart. I picked up a set recently for around $1,600 — roughly a third of the $4,450 retail you’d pay for the current production pair — and spent some time thinking hard about whether the technology has actually aged or just the press coverage. ...

The Crux 5 launched today, and most of the coverage is focused on what it means for gravel racing. Fair enough — that’s what Specialized built it for. But I keep staring at the spec sheet thinking about a different question: at what point does a bike like this make a dedicated road bike redundant for most riders? I think we’re getting close. S-Works Crux 5 S-Works Tarmac SL8 S-Works Tarmac SL9 Claimed frame weight 789 g 685 g 687 g Max tire clearance 55 mm 32 mm 32 mm Drivetrain 1x only 1x or 2x 1x or 2x, UDH Built for Gravel racing Road racing Road racing That 104g gap is the whole argument in one number. The rest of this post is about whether anything else in that table matters for the way you actually ride. ...

Specialized dropped the Crux 5 today, and it’s a bigger departure than most people expected. The round tubes are gone. The cross-racing DNA is largely gone. What you’re left with is essentially a fat-tire Tarmac built to win at Unbound — and honestly, that’s probably the right call for where gravel racing is in 2026. From Cross Bike to Pure Gravel Weapon The original Crux was always a little weird in a good way. It came out of cyclocross, landed in gravel, and held onto that lightweight-above-all-else philosophy while the rest of the industry started chasing aerodynamics. For a while that positioning worked. But gravel racing has evolved considerably — races like Unbound reward sustained efficiency over 200 miles, tires have gotten bigger, and nearly every serious gravel brand has run their bikes through a wind tunnel by now. The Crux had to evolve or get left behind. ...

Let’s be honest: nobody should be surprised by the Crux 5. The moment gravel racing started generating real prize money, media deals, and WorldTour-level athlete contracts, the clock started ticking on the genre’s “just ride your bike” ethos. Aero gravel bikes were inevitable. The only question was who’d get there first and how far they’d go. Specialized went pretty far. The Purists Will Complain. They’re Also Wrong. Every time a bike category gets serious, the same conversation happens. Road cyclists complained when aero road bikes replaced round tubes. XC mountain bikers complained when 29ers replaced 26-inch wheels. Gravel riders are now complaining that the Crux 5 looks too much like a Tarmac. And just like those previous arguments, the complaints will fade once people start seeing finish times. ...

Scott just showed up to Unbound week with a 32-inch aero gravel prototype and two serious athletes ready to race it 200 miles across Kansas. Cameron Jones — last year’s Unbound winner and 2025 Lifetime Grand Prix overall — is aboard one. Robin Gemperle, who won the Tour Divide and Silk Road Mountain Race in 2025, is on the other. These aren’t marketing props. They’re race bikes. And here’s the thing: while the cycling world has been busy debating whether 32-inch wheels make sense for XC racing, Scott may have accidentally — or deliberately — made the strongest argument yet that gravel is where this wheel size actually belongs first. ...

If you’re shopping for a gravel bike and want to run SRAM’s 13-speed XPLR ecosystem — or just want the future-proofing that UDH brings — the first question is whether the frame you’re considering actually has it. We’ve pulled every gravel bike currently listed on SRAM’s official Bike Finder with the UDH filter applied, as of May 2026. A note before you use this list: This is sourced directly from SRAM’s Bike Finder tool and reflects only the bikes SRAM has listed there. It is not an exhaustive list of every UDH-compatible frame on the market — there are likely other frames from brands not represented in the Bike Finder, particularly smaller builders and direct-to-consumer brands, that also use the UDH standard. Always verify directly with the frame manufacturer before purchasing, especially on the used market where model year matters. ...

If you’ve been shopping for a gravel bike recently — new or used — you’ve probably run into the term UDH and wondered whether it matters for what you’re building. The short answer is: it depends on what groupset you want to run. The longer answer is that a lot of popular gravel frames have had their dropouts quietly updated mid-generation, which means two bikes with the same name and similar looks can have very different futures when it comes to drivetrain compatibility. ...