Before the start of the men’s elite Gravel World Championships, British rider Matt Holmes showed us what may be the best gravel weight-saving tech we’ve seen.
The British rider swapped out his usual Google Pixel smartphone for the minuscule Zanco Tiny T1. The reason for the switch is beautifully simple.
While the Gravel World Championships attracted some top-end professional riders, the majority of starters are privateers with little or no team support. As a result, Holmes told us that carrying a phone, in order to ring for a lift in the event of a ride-ending mechanical, is pretty much essential.
However, modern smartphones are large and heavy. They take up valuable space in small skinsuit pockets, and these are needed for ride nutrition. Because crashing is more likely in a race, riders don’t usually want to carry their regular phone for fear of breaking it.
The Zanco Tiny T1, which costs a mere £36.99, is a fully functional mobile phone, which Matt jokingly (or maybe not) told us was designed for smuggling into prisons.
You certainly can’t post to Instagram using it and even Snake isn’t installed, but it will take a nano sim card, enabling the user to make a good old-fashioned telephone call.
The 1cm display is truly tiny and with a claimed weight of only 13g, it can be tucked away in a pocket, saddle bag or otherwise concealed.
