Worldwide Cyclery Expands Into The Gravel Bike Market

Here at Worldwide Cyclery, we are ever pushing the envelope of the bike business, and that means expanding our offerings to our ever growing loyal customer base.

Not only have we opened a new location in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, but along with our growth, we wanted to expand the types of bikes we carry and open it up to more customers.  Staying true to the dirt under our fingernails and in our teeth, we wanted to keep that in mind when we decided to expand into the Gravel and Adventure bike market.

In Pennsylvania, and throughout the East Coast and the Midwest, the gravel scene started as a niche market a few years ago. In the beginning, there were big races like the Dirty Kanza in Kansas, and the Almanzo 100 in Minnesota, as the most popular and early gravel rides.

Since the early days of those rides, gravel riding and racing has exploded across the country, and more and more products have become available targeted at what riders want.  A great example is the now the endless choices of new tires in widths, diameters, and tread patterns aimed at gravel and adventure riders.

If you take a look at the Gravel Cyclist calendar, you will find multiple gravel rides or races every weekend.  There are almost too many to chose from.  Exciting and wild races in the Spring like Vermont’s Rasputitsa Spring Classic, to the beautiful Deerfield Dirt-Road Randonnee (a.k.a. D2R2) in Massachusetts in late Summer.  All of them offer something for everyone, for the racer or the casual rider, with one thing in common, gravel.  

In Pennsylvania, we have begun to sponsor gravel rides, beginning with the Crush and Run 2 in Lancaster.  Come out and join the ride if you want to get dirty and have a great time.  We will have some swag and prizes to those that are winners of the race!

In true Worldwide Cyclery style, we have gone all out and chosen the best gravel bike brand on the market today, OPEN Cycle.  We chose their U.P. (Unbeaten Path) as our lead frame and fork into the gravel market. The U.P. offers the best feel and the most build options available of any gravel frame on the market.  You can build an OPEN U.P. with 700/28c tires and a 2x11 electronic shifting drivetrain, to 650/2.1” mountain tires with a 1x drivetrain, and everything inbetween.

The Pennsylvania location is not just a dealer of OPEN Cycle, but we also have two U.P. bikes to demo.  The Large Brown built as a gravel racer with speed in mind, with Zipp carbon wheels and lightweight components.  The other is a Medium Orange built as fun gravel cruiser with a flat bar for a little taste of singletrack or a fast and durable urban commuting bike if your heart desires.  Both U.P.s are available for you to ride and see how great these bikes feel on the gravel, towpaths, or tarmac.  We will have more in depth blog entries on these demo bikes in the next blog post.

We are just getting started on the East Coast, so keep an eye on the blog, or stop by the shop and see what we’re up to.