Goodbye 2024, Roll on 2025. Thank you!

goodbye 2024 hello 2025 — JOM with Tuesday the Dog

If you’re new to the Gravel Cyclist YouTube Channel / this website and its related social media entities, welcome! I’m JOM aka Jayson, JOM represents my initials and the name I go by on this channel. Should you happen to meet me in person, please call me Jayson.

Firstly, I’d like to thank everyone who has watched my videos in 2024, and all of the years leading up to this moment, along with the content I pump out to GravelCyclist.com, and social media on Instagram and Facebook.

Like many of you, I’m a regular person who holds down a full time job, and what you see here, is the content I produce in my not so copious spare time. It’s a juggling act for sure, but I love sharing my ride experiences, and of course my reviews and insights into gravel bikes, wheelsets, groupsets, and related equipment. My content is very different to the full time cycling journalists proliferating the gravel cycling landscape nowadays, I think you’ll find it a lot more relatable.

Goodbye 2024, Roll on 2025 Video

Alternative Video Link for those reading via email subscription

Continued from Above:

When I began riding on the gravelly road less travelled way back in about 2007, there were no gravel specific bikes, we mostly rode cross bikes, tyres were pretty narrow at about 34mm with just one or two choices, and as for groupsets, basically bodged road groupsets often with modified chainrings. It has been great seeing all of these changes over the years relating to tech developments, from tubeless tyres to wider tyres, increased tyre clearance for frames and forks, electronic shifting in gnarly conditions, to navigational devices.

One of my favorite innovations, navigation devices such as those by Garmin, who truly brought on-bike navigation to market with the original Garmin 705. Thank you, Garmin, and my friends at RidewithGPS.com, who I use exclusively to plan out all of my routes; I love designing my own routes, getting lost and found again is part of the fun!

2024 took me to my Aussie homeland from New South Wales to South Australia, my home city of Adelaide, and back again to the United States where I make my home nowadays. I had many further amazing adventures in 2024 riding in states such as South Dakota with my friends at Trek Travel, and elsewhere in states such as Indiana, Virgina, Maryland, Massachusetts, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Nevada, California, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, and of course, North Florida.

For 2025, I’ll continue to share my gravel cycling ride experience videos, and of course, my real world, no BS gravel bike reviews, where I actually thrash the pants off the bikes, vs riding them for 40 miles and calling it a review. All of my reviews are unpaid, and I thank the manufacturers I’ve dealt with in 2024 and beyond, for giving me an opportunity to review their bikes. You’ll also be seeing appearances by my partner, aka Lady Gravel Cyclist, and those two dogs who keep running in an out of camera poolside; Tuesday and Dixie certainly make life interesting.

Finally, I need to take a moment to thank my personal sponsors, who make appearances often without much of a mention, on the Gravel Cyclist YouTube Channel, this website, and social media on Instagram, Facebook, etc.

My custom kits of which there are many, are supplied by my friends at Castelli Cycling. They can even make a bloke like me look good. Another sponsor is Orange Seal; I have been using this fantastic product for many years for all of my wheelset and tyre reviews. In my humble opinion, it is the best sealant on the market. There may be some additional sponsors I’ll be unveiling in 2025, they relate to products supporting my reviews, along with a nutrition sponsor.