Sea Otter Classic Hot Bikes & Life Time Grand Prix Roundup (4K)

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:13]Zach from Gravel Bike California. Back here in Monterey, where we're ready to cover our fifth year of the Lifetime Sea Otter Classic. This year, we're really going into the weeds, looking at some of the most interesting bikes around, not to mention some of the personalities that help make up Sea Otter on top of some race coverage of the Lifetime Grand Prix. We've got so much here this year.

[00:00:37]Uh, the gravel race will have to be another video. So, let's roll. Round Sea Otter.

[00:00:45]>> How life.

[00:00:46]>> Hey, you're another year older and wiser. Why are you excited for Sea Auto 2026?

[00:00:53]>> Well, I love the technology, all the new stuff we see every year, and I'm thinking the hottest thing potentially is going to be the 32-in wheel. I've seen a few bikes out there, uh, tire manufacturers. So, yeah. And plus, you know, the weather's bloody fantastic.

[00:01:08]What's not to love?

[00:01:10]>> Uh, my name is Joe Meiser from Salsa Cycles. I'm a senior product manager and I've been pretty privileged to be working on this new product for us, the Salsa Fargo 32. And of course, you know, as tires started coming out, we saw an opportunity to start prototyping. And ultimately, we landed on the Fargo as a concept. Uh it's our adventure bike packing bike, and we saw 32-in wheels really enhancing and complenting that ride experience. Of course, you know, a lot of folks are like, who are 32-in wheels for? How many riders will they fit? And for us as a brand, we really wanted to focus on fitting as many riders as possible. So, we're looking at a size small Fargo 32. And we're able to fit riders 5'2 to 6'7 plus on the bike uh on the product. And it's ultimately a bike that is designed for gravel riding, uh bike packing, uh and it's super versatile. This will be in titanium and steel. It'll be launching this fall as a frame set only.

[00:02:07]We are at Allied and Allied has come out with a new road bike called the Echko. They've had Echko before, but this one's the brand new one. And the cool thing about this bike is it's a road bike that will fit 45s.

[00:02:22]This one's got 42s on it, slicks. It's very light, even with these giant tires.

[00:02:29]I've noticed that compared to the Able, which is a gravel bike, this looks very similar, but it's very slim. The top tube is very slim. It's got an arrow post, so it has some arrow features. You can run it two by. This one's set up one by, but this is a derailer mount right here. I noticed they're also running the Explorer gravel style wheels, and they do that because these are 30 on the inside, and so that blows that tire up nice and arrow with the rim. There's hardly any transition here.

[00:02:59]So, this is my favorite part of Sea Otter is finding something I've never heard of, something new and cool. This thing is called a shred line. It's a titanium gravel bike with a pinion gearbox. It uses a belt drive and I think it's electronic shifting 12speed. It also has a curved fork instead of a suspension fork and that will definitely give you compliance on the on the rough stuff. It's got big tires, wide bars. Looks like it's got a pretty high stack so it's comfortable.

[00:03:31]Looks like it's great for bike packing.

[00:03:33]It's got a interesting twin top tube frame. That's super cool. This is something you're not going to see every day and I love it.

[00:03:47]XLab, Chinese brand, coming up hard in the industry. This looks like a new gravel bike. They call it a GT8. I just asked a gentleman the question that everybody wants to know, maximum tire clears. He said 57. This one's got 45s on it. It looks great. It's got the internal storage like most bikes.

[00:04:10]UDH. They're running Shimano on this one, but obviously you can put the ram on here. The full mount system. Fully integrated. Nice carbon stem. Looks like it's got a short top tube, short reach like what you want for a gravel bike.

[00:04:25]I'm going to pick it up.

[00:04:28]Woo! Very light.

[00:04:30]Great job, XLab.

[00:04:34]>> This is pretty great coffee. This is uh mine and uh my partner's coffee business. We make instant coffee exclusively. Um we're based out of Sacramento. Uh we roast, brew, and then freeze dry all in house. Um with the goal of making instant coffee that doesn't suck. So um we think we've succeeded. Currently do a Brazilian and a Guatemalan. Um, and we do like individual sachets in five packets or like a bulk 30 bag.

[00:05:06]>> Mhm.

[00:05:06]>> Um, and we also have an Ethiopian coming that we have a limited stock of here.

[00:05:12]So, people will be able to try it on Saturday. So, yeah, >> this is not a gravel bike. It's made by number 22, the uh periodic table for titanium. This entire bike is 3D printed from titanium powder, which has never been done before. As far as I know, it's obviously super arrow, which is not what you typically get with a titanium bike.

[00:05:34]It has crazy trick parts like the five dev titanium crank and the custom I don't know who made this beautiful one by chain ring. It's featuring KEX wheels. It's actually in the KEX booth, which go perfectly with this bike. I don't know the weight on it, but I do know the price is going to be very extravagant. This piece is also very cool. I don't think it's 3D printed, but it is also titanium. All the cables are hidden underneath this. It's super neat and clean. Obviously slammed. If you look at the front of the bike, you can see how skinny it is for arrow. It's not just arrow looking. It's actually been tested in the win the tunnel. It's got deep forks. It's got a fairing over the uh brake caliper. All arrow.

[00:06:19]Everything's fed in. You can see how steep how steep how stiff the bottom bracket is. Big and chunky. All your power is going to get transferred. It's going to be super fast. Uh, this is on my wish list. So, Santa, come on, man.

[00:06:34]>> How are you? I'm Chris with uh Van Rezel. Right now, we're displaying the Gravel AF, which stands for gravel aluminum frame. Uh, this bike here is equipped with the uh Stram Apex group set, well equipped for an adventure rider or just a casual day uh out on the gravel. We sell this bike right now exclusively through our uh partners at REI. We offer this in a few uh assortments with a few component groups starting at uh the sword level and going all the way up to GRX. Super versatile, super useful bike uh for again the casual gravel rider to somebody that's even a little bit more experienced and looking for a bike that comes in at a really uh competitive price point. We offer this bike right now uh through REI at $19.99. Great bike.

[00:07:26]>> RI's been surprising everybody with really strong product at very competitive prices and they've just come out with a well coming soon. They have an egravel bike. The aesthetic is super clean. It doesn't look like it has a battery in it, but it does in a down tube. You can also put a range extender on it right here in a bottle cage mount and it plugs in right here.

[00:07:50]You can uh switch from the amount of pedal assist you get between 20 mph assisted or 28 mph on the same bike, which is something I never heard of. It comes with giant tires, the best tires, the Schwabi G1 RS Pros. These are 55s.

[00:08:08]It'll clear 2.25 mountain bike tires if you like. It's got semi integrated cabling, so you can change your stem length and your bars without disassembling the whole bike, which is a big plus. Uh, it's really light for a gravel bike. With the battery installed, it's 27 lbs. So, super sweet. Good job, Ari.

[00:08:30]Rodeo Labs out of Colorado. There's fun stuff coming. working on mountain bikes.

[00:08:36]So, proper hard tail, modern geo probably works pretty well with drop bars. I know there are more of them around here, but this is what we're working on.

[00:08:49]Okay, so we're here at the Pinella booth with the Dogma F from team Q36.5. This is Tom Pitcock's bike, Ram Red. It's got 454s and Victoria Corsa Pro tires. It's fast, it's light, and it's got a beautiful paint scheme.

[00:09:10]They're going more narrow on the bars. I believe these are 38 120 here.

[00:09:17]It's one of the nicest bikes in the tour. Notice how they put the through axles are hidden behind this panel, front and back, for more arrow. They've increased the width of the bottom bracket for more stiffness and they've stretched out the head tube for more arrow as well. So, subtle modifications from last year's, but everything makes a difference.

[00:09:44]Sea Otter is also the first event in the Lifetime Grand Prix with attention even higher than a Pro Tour race. As no matter how far back you finish, what position you cross the line does really matter. And you can feel how the importance of this race grows every year. not just to get points in the series, but those on the outside trying to make a name for themselves as the lead pack of 12 whittleled down to two, culminating in a sprint finish at the line with Braden Lange edging out Keegan Swinson and Sophia Gomez Vija taking the win in the women's.

[00:10:22]Behind the scenes, my daughter was enrolled at the Little Bella's Girls Camp where I wasn't surprised quote unquote retired Park Tools Calvin Jones was there to fix this crooked wheel. And while I'm glad to report that I've kept Junior's bike in ridable shape, of course, this legend chewed the wheel to perfection in no time.

[00:10:44]Back at the expo, we ventured into the Echo booth with about a dozen companies represented with some real highlights, including these wraparound lights from NOG. RSVR spraying this minimalless hydration pack. Though I'm curious how hot it gets, Pine Berry with their thin micro wool collection using the same New Y.

[00:11:06]But proving it pays to be curious to sea otter. These Provec sunglasses were a showstopper. Look up at the sky. I'm not gonna touch you. Weird.

[00:11:17]>> What?

[00:11:20]That's sick, dude.

[00:11:21]>> You're able to adjust the brightness on the fly using this electric pulse technology with a charge lasting over two months, making you think.

[00:11:32]>> Now, back to the bikes. Okay, we're here at the Vision booth. Uh, this is a Rodeo Labs gravel bike with some really cool yellow vision wheels. I've never seen that before. But the thing that really caught my eye about this bike, besides the fact that it matches our kit perfectly, is they're running Campolo.

[00:11:50]So, it's got super record. It's the wireless 13-speed.

[00:11:54]Um, super clean looking, similar to RAM.

[00:11:58]There's nothing, no wires, fully wireless, beautiful erggo shaped levers.

[00:12:04]Uh, I love this. It's supposed to be light and very fast shifting. Oh, look at this. Is a nice touch with the campy sticker. That's kind of old school.

[00:12:14]Chef, >> this is Eric from Redshift and uh got some new stuff at Seattle this year. So, love to show it to you.

[00:12:21]>> We uh are mousetrap pedal adapters. If uh if you haven't seen them, they are uh SPD adapters that turn your SPDs into flats uh with no tools, no messing around. You just snap them in and uh you can do that run to the store on on your SPD bike or you know that time you got to use flats and you don't want to be clonking around in your shoes.

[00:12:44]>> Another Chinese company killing it in the market. This is a Yolio gravel bike as pictured. This frame set is $1,420 which is remarkable.

[00:12:58]It's built with Chinese stuff. So, it's got a Chinese group set L2. Very similar to Shimano. Kind of similar to Stram as well. Looks like wireless. Looks like a same kind of system as a Stram system.

[00:13:11]Even the font kind of looks like Stram.

[00:13:13]So, I don't know. But it looks amazing.

[00:13:16]And for the price, this bike fully built is roughly $5,000.

[00:13:21]So, that's a fantastic value for something that looks like this. And I I'm sure it's light as well. Um, this company Craft makes the bar and they also do nice wheels that I've seen before and uh, super competitive.

[00:13:35]I mean, so if you want something different and you don't want to spend a lot of money and you want it to be good, this is an option.

[00:13:45]>> Hey, we found something really different, really cool here. Uh, it's made by Chapperel Cycles.

[00:13:51]It seems to be a titanium gravel bike that can do anything. It's got huge tires, but it also has a tiny tiny front chain ring, so you can do some robust climbing, especially if you have this thing loaded up.

[00:14:08]It has a dropper post. It has super wide bar, so I imagine you can tackle some pretty chunky single track, some technical riding.

[00:14:18]Uh, wow. This tire's really stuffed in here. And it's beautifully made. Look at the welds on this.

[00:14:25]Super high craftsmanship.

[00:14:28]It's got alloy cranks as opposed to carbon. It looks like everything is built for durability and ruggedness on this bike. So, you don't see too many manites, but that's kind of old school.

[00:14:38]Beautiful crown on this.

[00:14:41]>> Something different if you want to stand out from the crowd and uh just have something super capable for anywhere you want to go.

[00:14:49]um as many as I could. Anyways, uh Bay Area specific manufacturers, right? It's like White Industries, Richie Fork, Richie handlebar, Richie uh seat post, WTB saddle, WTB tires.

[00:15:04]>> It's built by a local frame builder, Lee King in Berkeley.

[00:15:08]>> These little ddads, these are the four places in the barrier I've lived.

[00:15:11]>> And then this is Oakland.

[00:15:12]>> Yeah. Oh, >> we just went to the >> Oaklandish. Oaklandish.

[00:15:16]>> Alamita.

[00:15:16]>> Mhm. And then the final little takeout container is no no it's Elsa Bronte. And so some wise ass in that county put who's spoke Spanish put Elsa Bronte which stands for which means >> the leftovers.

[00:15:30]>> And then next thing you know they're making sign that says Elsa Bronte. Elsa Bronte literally means the leftovers in Spanish.

[00:15:36]>> That's crazy.

[00:15:37]>> And so that's why I got the takeout box.

[00:15:40]>> That's awesome.

[00:15:42]>> So we're here in the Stinner booth.

[00:15:45]steel, gravel, it's a thing. This is the refugeio. It's made of Columbus tubing.

[00:15:53]It's got custom dropouts designed in house by Ster.

[00:15:58]It comes in two colors. This is a really nice grayish green. I'm not sure. I see it's got high quality Wolf Tooth components on it. I'm a big fan of Wolf Tooth.

[00:16:09]>> They're made in the US. Um, >> they have their own branded looks like tie cages.

[00:16:16]>> I know this build, the way you see it, is about $3,900, but not with these wheels. These wheels are an upgrade.

[00:16:23]>> These are 45s, but this bike has clearance for 50, which is great. It also has external routing, which people love because it's easy to work on.

[00:16:32]And if you're sick of looking at carbon everything, and you like the feel of steel, this is a great thing to check out.

[00:16:42]Well, another few days of fun action here again at >> Sea.

[00:16:48]>> Yeah. I mean, I'm glad that you learned a lot more from mountain biking and definitely got a grip on it. And definitely all the bike tech we really got into was pretty interesting. Uh downside, you're going to graduate from Little Bellas for next year. And uh uh my bike frame uh I guess it's seen better days, but I guess that's what Sea otterters for. But uh maybe help fill the gap, you know. Please support us on Patreon, like this video or go to our shop because we don't want to bring you less. We want >> to bring you more from the state of dirt.