~rene-herse-cycles | Bookmarks (51)

Early on Wednesday morning local time in Morocco, Marei Moldenhauer won the 1,300 km Atlas Mountain Race in record time. For 4 days, 14 hours and 20 minutes, Marei rode and pushed her bike over the rough dirt tracks that criss-cross the Atlas and Anti-Atlas Mountains, climbing more than 30,000 m (100,000 ft) in the […]

Few reviewers command as much respect as Anne-Marije Rook (aka ‘Rook’), the North American editor for Cycling Weekly, the world’s oldest bike magazine. Rook really knows how to ride: She placed 2nd in the 350-mile Unbound XL in 2023, the year when it was relentlessly muddy and most racers had trouble just keeping their bikes […]

The Atlas Mountain Race, the famous bikepacking race in Morocco, started on Friday. More than 250 racers headed out of Marrakesh and into the Atlas mountains on their 1,300 km journey. The Atlas is a true adventure. We took this opportunity to catch up with a few riders. After talking to some of the favorites, including […]

The Atlas Mountain Race, the great bikepacking race in Morocco, is happening right now. Yesterday, more than 250 racers headed out of Marrakesh and started their 1,300 km journey over long-forgotten gravel tracks. What they are finding along the way is very little pavement and plenty of hike-a-bikes. Distances between resupply points are large. The Atlas […]

The Atlas Mountain Race, the great bikepacking race in Morocco, will start within the hour. More than 250 racers will head out of Marrakesh and climb into the Atlas mountains on their 1,300 km journey over long-forgotten gravel tracks. Ahead of them is very little pavement and plenty of hike-a-bikes. Distances between resupply points are large. […]

The Atlas Mountain Race, the famous bikepacking race in Morocco, starts tomorrow. More than 250 racers will head out of Marrakesh and cross the Atlas and Anti-Atlas mountains on their 1,300 km journey over long-forgotten gravel tracks. There will be very little pavement and plenty of hike-a-bikes. Distances between resupply points are large. The Atlas […]

The ‘King of Gravel’ has added the Race Around Rwanda to his long list of trophies. Best known for his strength in North American one-day gravel races like the Unbound 200, Ted likes to get outside his comfort zone—this time with a self-supported bikepacking race over 1,000 km (620 miles), with no less than 17,000 […]

As one of the first acts after assuming power, the U.S. president has declared a national emergency: It appears that our country is being invaded from the north and the south. Under a law that used to be called the Trading with the Enemy Act, a new 25% tariff on goods imported from Canada will become […]

And they are off! More than 100 racers and bikepackers started a few hours ago in Kigali for the Race Around Rwanda, a self-supported bikepacking race in east Africa. The challenging course will have them climb into the clouds at elevations of almost 3,000 m (10,000 ft), before dropping back down into the East African […]

A few weeks ago, Mark told the story of his new bike and the incredible adventure in the Pyrenees Mountains that was its maiden voyage. A number of readers went to our ‘Suggestions’ page to ask about the specs of his bike. Many wondered how a fully equipped bike could be so light: Mark’s bike weighs […]

We just received another shipment of TPU tubes from Germany. Demand is still so strong that production has trouble keeping up. Some models have been out of stock for a while. Right after the tubes were delivered, we shipped pre-ordered tubes to our customers. Even with those tubes sent out, all models are in stock—for […]

Amanda Naumann Sheek and Ted King will join the Gravel Hall of Fame in 2025. The selection committee couldn’t have made a better choice! Both Amanda and Ted not only have won the 200-mile Unbound twice (in addition to numerous other races), they’ve also been the face of gravel for years. Their podcasts—Amanda’s Groadio and […]

If you’re running 700C tires on carbon rims, the wheel situation is better than ever. As companies have rolled out new rims, they’ve redesigned them to (mostly) meet the ETRTO / ISO standards for rim/tire fit. That’s good news, whether you run your tires tubeless or with tubes. Things don’t look as great for 650B […]

When we were growing up, the year 2000 was short-hand for ‘the future.’ Now we’re a quarter century past that landmark. To celebrate that landmark, Natsuko and I compiled an (entirely subjective) list of a dozen innovations that have reshaped cycling during these last 25 years. These range from wide tires and disc brakes to […]

The new Corkscrew Climb semi-slick tires are now shipping. First priority went to our racers who’ve been testing and racing on prototypes for months now. Above is the Stars-and-Stripes bike of the current USA Gravel National Champion, Brennan Wertz. Jenna Rinehart (above) and Ted King (below) rode their prototypes at the UCI Gravel World Championships […]

Interest in our new Corkscrew Climb Semi-Slicks has far exceeded our expectations. It’s clear that the cycling world has been waiting for a semi-slick that finally delivers—combining the speed of a slick with the traction of a knobby. Our first production run of Corkscrew Climbs will start shipping to our customers in about a week. […]

To all our readers (and everybody else) in Los Angeles, we hope that you and yours are safe. We are saddened by the lives lost and hope that the count will not go up further. That is the most important, but losing homes, neighborhoods, and places you love is devastating. We cannot even begin to […]

We’ve added one more patch and alcohol wipe to our TPU Tube Patch Kits. Patching TPU tubes is easy—just wipe the area around the puncture with the included alcohol wipe and apply the self-adhesive patch. There’s no need to sand the tube or use vulcanizing fluid. And since there’s no fluid that might dry out, […]

We’re introducing the Rene Herse Ultimate headset to complete our program. Some readers may wonder: Why would anybody run a 1″ threaded headset in this day and age? There’s no doubt that carbon forks need massive tapered steerer tubes—that’s how makers have finally eliminated the dreaded brake judder of earlier carbon bikes with disc brakes. […]

We just received a re-stock of the forged Drust Taillight Mounts. They just received a coveted ‘Gear of the Year’ award from www.bikepacking.com. Now they are also available in anodized colors in very limited quantities. Get yours while stocks last! More Information:

Selecting Rene Herse tires for your bike is easy, because our program is logical and simple. It’s all based on performance. We don’t offer dozens of functionally similar tread patterns—just three that cover all riding conditions. Rene Herse tires are available with four different casings, because the casing, more than anything else, determines the performance […]

It’s always fun when somebody mentions Rene Herse components among their favorites, but it’s doubly meaningful when it’s somebody of the stature of Joe Cruz. bikepacking.com contributor, route finder, philosopher—Joe is an absolute legend! Imagine our surprise (and delight) when Joe mentioned TPU tubes among his four favorite new products of 2024. He wrote: “Here’s […]

“Not just another semi-slick.” We don’t ‘innovate’ just to create something new. We have a lot of respect for pioneers who came before us, like the U.S. Army engineers who discovered suspension losses or the mid-century constructeurs who built the original gravel bikes at a time when most roads in the mountains were still unpaved. […]

It’s almost 2025! A quarter century has passed since that big landmark, the year 2000. It’s a great moment to take stock of the revolutionary changes in cycling over those 25 years, and then have a look how things might develop in the future. Natsuko and I talked about the things that have shaped cycling […]