The other day I was browsing the innerwebs as one does, when I landed on the home page of the Big Red S and noticed they have recently come up with this.

Which made me think of this from 1992.

And this from 1994.

Meanwhile, Moots is over here saying, where have you been?  We’ve been doing short-travel suspension since the 80s.

It’s interesting to watch the evolution of the gravel bike following essentially the same path as that of mountain bikes from the 1990s. Each innovation being touted as the next must have.  Look, knobby tires!  Suspension fork!  Rear suspension!  If gravel bikes now have suspension, slack geometry and 50mm tires, are they not just cross-country mountain bikes with curly whirly bars?  

I guess with the “innovate or die” mindset of the bike industry it’s inevitable.  And hey, if it makes you happy, go for it.  But I don’t know about you, last time I checked I don’t have $14,000 just lying around.  Not to be a retro-grouch but you could buy this for $200 and get roughly (no pun intended) the same performance and walk away with some serious pocket change.