Unlock this article and more benefits with 25% off.
Already have an Outside Account? Sign in
25% Off Outside+.
$4.99/month $3.75/month*
Get the one subscription to fuel all your adventures.
- Map your next adventure with our premium GPS apps: Gaia GPS Premium and Trailforks Pro.
- Read unlimited digital content from 15+ brands, including Outside Magazine, Triathlete, Ski, Trail Runner, and VeloNews.
- Watch 600+ hours of endurance challenges, cycling and skiing action, and travel documentaries.
- Learn from the pros with expert-led online courses.
*Outside memberships are billed annually. You may cancel your membership at anytime, but no refunds will be issued for payments already made. Upon cancellation, you will have access to your membership through the end of your paid year. More Details
Celebrating more than 30 years of bikes and bike racing in Northern California, the Sea Otter Classic opened Thursday with hundreds of exhibitors and more than 7,000 race entries expected over the four-day weekend from road to mountain to gravel events on tap.
Here is a sample of the road and gallery offerings exhibited inside the Laguna Seca Raceway.
Check back all through the weekend for full coverage from the Sea Otter Classic, including the first race of the Life Time Grand Prix on Saturday.
Sea Otter Classic is the largest cycling gathering in the United States, connecting riders with each other and plenty of new gear.
KOM Cycling has a few products with an Atop dial, including a Garmin Varia mount and a tube/CO2 mount.
A new addition to KOM’s computer mounts — both handlebar- and stem-mounted — is the twist-on GoPro/light component that you quickly and securely attach and detach electronics below your computer mount instead of wrestling with a bolt.
Marianne Vos was not in California, but one of her bikes was in the Reserve booth. Reserve is the wheel house brand of Pon, parent company of Cervélo, Santa Cruz, and others.
Close the Gap makes a variety of computer mounts, including a few with tidy bell mounts.
SRAM was showing off its full complement of new gravel gear, from pedals to suspension to computers.
The Hammerhead Karoo 2 looks and acts very much like a smartphone.
Like Hammerhead, Time is a brand recently brought into the SRAM fold.
The RockShox Rudy comes in 30 and 40mm travel options.
The RockShox Reverb AXS dropper comes in 50 and 75mm versions.
Continental’s latest Grand Prix 5000S TR is enjoying widespread adoption in the WorldTour, among sponsored and non-sponsored riders alike.
Despite the MTB-sounding name, the Terra Trail is one of Conti’s gravel tires.
The Terra Speed is another gravel tire, in 40 and 45mm options. The numeric label indicates a prototype.
Bianchi’s Impulso Pro is one of three gravel bikes from the Italian brand. The 1,110g frame works with 38mm tires, whereas the Bianchi Arcadex can handle up to 42mm tires.
Lezyne’s CNC Tur Valve covers add not only a bit of color pop but functionality.
The cap doubles as a valve-core tool.
Lezyne’s high-volume and high-pressure travel pumps are tried and true travel solution.
Kogel bearings has a variety of oversized pulley wheel options for various drivetrains.
You can get stock colors for $450 or custom for $470.
Fix It Sticks snapped onto a frame holder.
Lezyne’s Pocket Pro HV (purple) is a new, high-volume version of the pint-sized Pocket Drive Pro.
Need bling? The Neo Metallic Matrix Team Cage is $35.
The Pocket Torque Drive, for $65, clicks to indicate your desired torque has been achieved, after you set it between 2 and 10Nm.
Want to know what a $12,000 gravel bike looks like? Here’s the Scott Addict Gravel Tuned.
Tuned means full SRAM Red eTap AXS with a power meter, DT Swiss GRC1100 Disc wheels, Schwalbe 45mm tires, and an integrated cockpit.
The bike weighs a claimed 17.9lb.
Step right up, young riders, and get your complimentary copies of Beta Magazine.
CyclingTips founder Wade Wallace, VeloNews editor in chief Daniel Benson, and Peloton founder Brad Roe — three cycling amigos under the Outside umbrella.
Ergon has refined its carbon leaf-spring seatpost for gravel riding, in part by making sure the 27.2mm post is a true 27.2mm and doesn’t slip under rough riding.
Gravel bar tape? Yep, Ergon’s got that. What is gravel tape and how is it at all different than normal bar tape? For Ergon, it means a 3.5mm width, as opposed to 2mm for road and 2.5mm for all-road.
Feedback Sports’ Omnium trainer is designed for a race warm-ups in a compact, fold-up package.
What do you do with a jorts patch?
Why, iron it on to a pair of Ripton jorts, of course.
In the Rapha booth you can find hats and…
a not-for-sale Lachlan Morton fan shirt.
Stan’s Dart Tool is a tubeless solution for plugging flats in a slender package that not only fills the hole but chemically reacts with Stan’s sealant to solidify and seal the damaged area. Each Dart Tool has two plugs ready to go, and can be reloaded.
The Crank Brothers Highline dropper comes in 60, 80, 100 and 125mm travel options.
Need a shimmery saddle? Velo has you covered with the Angel. Velo’s own brand may not be well known, but the Taiwanese company makes a lion’s share of popular saddle brands.
Cane Creek tricked out a few bikes to show off its components.
Cane Creek’s eeWings titanium cranks weigh about 400g, which is on par with carbon, but the brand claims them to be substantially stiffer.
A direct-mount eeBrake caliper is about 74g.
A sparkly English frameset was another Cane Creek showpiece.
Rob English builds custom bikes in Eugene, Oregon.