Good morning.Ahem.[Removes slip of paper from pants pocket, unfurls]Last week in the spirit of Jest,I curated a gravel contest.The entries poured in,But which one should win?I cannot decide which is best.Yeah, pretty bad, sorry. But what do you want from me? I never said I was a poet.Now this is poetry:Let us sing of bikes, which we have manyNot near enough for those in marketingTo slake their thirst would cost quite a pennySo our needs for graveling they will singFirst add one with flat bars, for our hands easeA shock on the front! Ah yes, thats the thingLight and squirrelly? So racy, yes please!Tires round and bulbous, takes out the stingWhen shredding the gnar, no MTB needThe frame tubes of carbon, fear not the massThe rims doth be hookless, pressure thou heedBrakes hydro and disc-y, to stop your assWho are we kidding? Lets go on a rantTo hell with what Trek says, buy one from GrantAlso, this late entry, though ineligible, deserves honorable mention.So Ive mentioned it. Honorably.Anyway, Ill probably Award the Lube tomorrow.Maybe.Speaking of the Spirit of Gravel, its about to get slightly bigger:This will make riding on gravel quicker, smoother and more comfortable. You know, likeRIDING ON A PAVED ROAD:When the bike industry figures out how to market a bike specifically for the smooth processed gravel with which most roads in the civilized world are surfaced Im telling you its gonna be HUGE. I cant wait to hear what term they come up with for these pavement-specific bicycles. If it were me Id go with something like road bike, but thats pretty boring, and Im sure the marketing geniuses can do better.Too bad urban gravel bike is already taken, and has been since at least 2023:And yes, the Urban Gravel Bike is for youjust as long as youre a pink-hatted sandal bro with a bike bag full of vinyl LPs:All hes missing is the I Voted sticker.As for the 32-inch gravel bike, call me a conspiracy theorist, but this may be about selling people new bicycles:See, 650b used to be the hot new gravel size, but it seems to be going out of style now, and the reason for this is that you dont really need a new bike for it. Not only do most current gravel bikes with dick breaks accept both 650b and 700c, but you can even convert some older rim brake bikes to work with it. But the genius of 32-inch wheels is that you need a whole new bike to use it:This is one of the first in a wave of 32in-compatible components on the horizon from manufacturers of gravel and mountain bike parts, with 32in bikes requiring different frames, forks, tyres and rims from bikes running29in wheels.Scoff if you want, but the bike industrys in trouble. In a post-gravel economy, flat mount brakes are good, but flat sales are not:So not only will a shift to 32-inch wheels require everyone to buy new frames, but Shimano can increase profitability by introducing the new GRX 32!Sure, it may look like your current GRX crank only with the number 32 written on it, but what you cant see is that the BCD differs from ordinary GRX by .8mm, making it fully incompatible with regular GRX. This is for your safety, since GRX 32 uses chainrings optimized for 32-inch wheels, which can be dangerous if used with 700c or 650b. Why? Because 32-inch wheels have more traction, so if you use a GRX 32 crank on an old-fashioned 700c or smaller wheel youre liable to spin out, resulting in serious injury or death.And after that will come GRX 32 SL:By the way, believe it or not, no AI was used in the above images.Speaking of manipulating perception, I wish Streetsblog could decide whether this recent snowstorm was routine or historic:Here its routine:During a walk to get a slice at midday yesterday more than 15 days after the routine 12-inch snowfall of Jan. 25 Managing Editor David Meyer saw that the protected bike lanes on Grand and Lafayette streets in Little Italy hadstillnot been plowed (even though we mentioned them in a storytwo days earlierand had posted about this on our popular social media channels, too).And here its historic:On Jan. 25 15 days ago today New York City had its worst snowstorm in years. Weve endured bigger dumps from Mother Nature, but rarely do temperatures remain below freezing for so long, not only keeping the snow in place, but hardening it into immovable bergs that block bus stops, sidewalks and bike lanes and make a mockery of the notion of getting around on foot, in a wheelchair or on a bike.And complicating all of this is that recently Streetsblog had given up on the idea of snow altogether:You know, because of climate change:The snow is already starting to melt (damn, global warming), but we thought we would provide you with the first, and possibly only, road report of the winter.Look, I dont like that when it comes to bike lane obstructions Ive become one of those Just go around it peoplebut, you know, just go around it.Finally, you may recall Framework, who make artisanal Trek 2300s:And who were anointed by the cycling media as the Custom Bicycle Builder Of The Moment, even though no cycling media person who got one actually seemed to like it:Anyway, Id mostly forgotten about them until YouTube served me this video:First the builder had to re-do the headset because it would bind when the rider put his full weight on the bars. Then the bike just broke:Dont make me say itDont make me say it.