Okay, thats it, I quit bikes:So its like a gravel bike, but its a road bike? Yet its designed for all-day rides on any surface, so exactly a gravel bike?Actually, thats not entirely true. Its for roads that kinda disintegrate into dirt:Its about time someone made a dedicated Roads That Kinda Disintegrate Into Dirt bike. Also, further to yesterdays post, whats with bikes starting at over $6,000 now?And how come when I clicked on the Rival bike the price went up by $600?And thats before I even added the optional $750 white finish!Jeez, for that kind of money they could at least throw in another chainring:Echo really is the perfect name for a bike though, because its just the same thing over and over and over and over again:See, this is exactly what gravel riding was until a few months ago:The frame weighs 790g (size 56) and clears tires up to 700x45mm, allowing you to maintain speedandcomfort on everything fromon smooth pavement to champagne gravel to properly loose and washboardy detours. The geometry still has a fast, road-first feel, just subtly rebalanced for 32-45mm tires and long-distance comfort on a variety of surfaces.But now its road riding:Road riding has changed, and ECHO reflects that,said Sam Pickman, Director of Product and Engineering at Allied Cycle Works. We kept performance at the center and expanded what the bike can handle. This is still a fast, precise road machine it just goes further, across more surfaces, with more confidence.So first they took the idea of riding a bike with drop bars on a variety of surfaces and called it gravel. Then they made the bikes more and more extreme until they were mountain bikes, and so what used to be called mountain biking became gravel. But now gravel is road riding again, road riding is gravel, up is down, black and white, and yet somehow nothing has changed at all except the bikes cost over $6,000, need batteries to shift, and have proprietary everything.As for road cycling, thats now called pumping black:I wonder which company will supply the bikes:Pumping Black follows cyclist Taylor Mace, who at 35-years-old is finding himself aging out of the sport. He is taken under the wing of Andrea Lathe, a doctor driven by her own thirst for victory and power. As the race to the Tour de France progresses, Taylor must take increasingly dark measures to protect his secret. According to the description, its an adrenaline fuelled, dangerous thriller likened to both Whiplash and Black Swan.On one hand you dont want your bikes associated with doping, but on the other this could be the start of an incredibly popular franchise, and Im already looking forward to Pumping Black II: The Graveling.Id also love to see the feature film version of this thrilling Benedict Cumberbatch road rage incident:According to reports, the altercation continued for several hours, during which time they locked their bikes, booked a table at a nearby restaurant, and ate a four-course meal before agreeing to disagree and finally continuing on their respective ways.And finally, speaking of road bikes, a few weeks ago I got this, and for the price of that entry-level Allied I could have bought 30 of them and still had plenty of change left over for a lavish restaurant meal with an irate Benedict Cumberbatch:Not only that, but so far Ive adhered to my two-pronged resolution to: 1) spend no additional monies on it whatsoever; and 2) refrain from excessive tinkering and futz with it only on an as needed basis.Having overhauled the drivetrain there wasnt much more it needed, either, though the rear wheel was running a bit rough and since acquiring the bike Id been itching to get in there. Unfortunately, the little preload adjustment collar thingies on both hubs are cracked, and Ive been afraid to disturb them lest they disintegrate completely. As any Campyphile will tell you over and over again until you punch them in the face, the best thing about Campagnolo is that everythings rebuildable, but spare part availability for this stuff in 2026 is not what it once was. For example, so far Ive found this, which Im pretty sure will work, but with the shipping a pair of them would cost over $120, which is considerably more than my budget of $0:Nevertheless, with the bike running so smoothly otherwise the rumbly hub was preying on my mind, and so I decided to say Fuck it and fill it with Dumondespecifically grease for the bearings:Erl for the freehub:And liquid grease, which basically works on everything:Its the Cholula of bicycle lubricants.The idea here wasnt to completely overhaul a 20-something year-old wheel, and I wasnt concerned with the condition of the races or the ball bearings or anything like that; this was just about opening everything up, taking a look to make sure everything looked OK, wiping away any obvious crud, and then lubing the crap out of everything. Fortunately, pulling this style of Campagnolo hub apart is extremely easy, even for someone like me whos too much of a woosie to open up a mountain bike shock:And I was in there quicker than an unneutered cat:Oh, heres one of the cracked preload thingies:It held together and its still doing what its supposed to do, though looking more closely at the photois that another crack?Who knew being cheap could be so much work?