Slack Randoms: Adidas' New Gravel Shoe, The UCI's MTB Goof, Road Rage, & More

We use Slack as our workplace communication tool at Pinkbike and we have a #randoms channel which we use to share an assortment of videos and stories from all corners of the cycling world and beyond... We thought a couple of the moments from the past week were too good not to share with a wider audience, so here are some of the highlights.

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Adidas' Off-Road Shoe


Hot on the heels of its soccer/commuter Velosamba shoe released in March this year, Adidas has now revealed an off-road cycling shoe for the first time. As it's name suggests, The Gravel Cycling Shoe is more aimed at fireroad mile munchers than out-and-out mountain bikers but this does show Adidas is willing to offer footwear for a wide variety of riders. Who knows, maybe an iconic, sticky flat pedal shoe is on the way next? /s


Cycling Tips reports that like pretty much every other shoe of the category, Adidas’s offering features a two-bolt SPD pattern on the sole. The upper is made of Primegreen recycled materials, and Adidas promises “no virgin polyester” has been used in the construction of them. The sole is synthetic with TPU ‘walking pods’ and there's also a cuff to keep out trail debris.

The shoes are available in a number of markets and priced at $170 / €180 but given they were released a short while back, there's probably not much chance of you hunting down a pair now.

Road Rage in Australia


Here's one of the more shocking road rage videos we've seen in a while. We don't know what lead up to the incident but there's no justification for this driver driving into a cyclist and crushing his bike in the process. At the risk of our bias showing, this seems closer to assault or attempted murder than the "moment of madness" described by the local news reporter.

BMW's Overpowered Concept eBike


BMW has released a concept ebike that makes most of its competitors look anemic by comparison. The i Vision AMBY features a number of top-level mountain bike components (including Intend suspension) and a whopping 2,000Wh battery that give a range of 300km. Of course, it's not exactly legal in its current form.

Using an accompanying smartphone app, riders can choose between the European legal 25 km/h (15.5 mph) speed, a second speed-pedelec mode that reaches 45 km/h (28 mph), and a new high-speed-pedelec mode that ups the ante to 60 km/h (37 mph).

So why have BMW made an ebike that needs to be licensed and insured to be legal anywhere in the world? Well, this is more about legislation than a viable product. The German car manufacturer said, “In the absence of any existing legal framework for a vehicle of this kind with a modular speed concept, the “AMBY” Vision Vehicles set out to prompt the introduction of such legislation and, by consequence, developments of this nature.”

Basically, the car industry has seen the success of ebikes and wants a slice of that pie too but it knows that the bike industry already has a decent head start under the current rules, so instead it’s jockeying to change them. For a deeper dive into this legislation battle, there's an in-dept piece on cyclingindustry.news, here.


The UCI's Funny Looking Mountain Bikes


The UCI revealed a swanky-looking new website recently and it has made life much easier for us covering the events at Snowshoe but they didn't quite get everything right. The 'Mountain Bike' section link definitely features bikes being ridden in the mountains but looks a bit closer and...


..Oops.

Messing About on Boards in the Woods


Bikes aren't the only tool to get rad on in the woods as these two videos show. Firstly 50to01's Max Nerukar got on the homepage of Thrasher with this ATV skateboard part, then there's Benny Milam's Summer Dream snowboard part in the thawed woods of Wisconsin.


Travis Pastrana's Terrifying POV


From World Cup Downhill winning runs to huge Rampage drops, we watch a lot of POV videos here at Pinkbike but not many are as terrifying as Travis Pastrana's record time up Mount Washington.

Ecuadorian Soapbox Racing


Speaking of scary POVs, this one is from a soapbox race on the streets of Ecuador and sees the rider launching off speed bumps and hitting 50mph. THere's a great deep dive into the racing culture on The Drive, here.

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Industry News Other Slack Randoms Adidas Uci