The 24 Hours at Old Pueblo is one of those events that gets under your skin. Set in the high desert outside Tucson, Arizona, it draws thousands of riders to one of the most celebrated mountain bike gatherings in the US. This year, Gloworm was there for the first time, and it felt like exactly the right place to be.
Arriving Early
Nico (our customer support team member and mountain bike rider) kicked things off with a warm-up ride on the National Trail at South Mountain in Phoenix before the event. It’s brilliant trail, but riding it straight off the plane from Auckland is a bit of a reality check. Loose over hardpack, wide-open desert exposure, cactus at every corner. A long way from threading through wet New Zealand forest.
From Phoenix, the drive out to site rolls through open desert with tumbleweed and saguaro cactus on either side, the landscape doing exactly what the American Southwest does best. The RV was loaded to the roof: display panels, expo gear, luggage, a bike. Tyler (Gloworm US) had pulled the whole operation together, organising the event end-to-end. And with Vaggelis (Gloworm co-founder) unable to make it, Ewen (B2B sales, Europe) flew in as a last-minute addition to the crew.
The team made a point of getting to site early, and it paid off. Watching a bare patch of desert transform into a full event village over a few days is genuinely something. Tents appear, expo stands go up, the atmosphere builds from quiet anticipation into full buzz.
The booth itself was a step up from Sea Otter last season. Standing display panels, easy to assemble and visually striking, with a helmet-over-handlebar orientation that made it easy to demonstrate the TX (BT) Remote Button controlling more than one Light System at once. The Power Packs on the panels gave a clear visual reference for the OLED and the differences between models. Neat, modular and adaptable.
As part of our presence at the event, we ran a non-alcoholic beer promotion, handing out Gloworm-branded koozies to anyone who’d take one during the Friday happy hour. Within about 30 minutes, 300 koozies were out in the wild. The happy hour looked like a Gloworm promotion. Even the team from Outbound were spotted carrying Gloworm koozies when they stopped by the booth later.
  
On the Trail
Nico got a sunset lap in with the racers on opening night, which turned out to be one of the trip’s highlights. Golden hour in the desert hits differently: long shadows across the trail, warm light on the landscape, the kind of conditions that make even a casual lap feel like something worth remembering.
And then, as the light faded, the course lit up with hundreds of riders running their own setups. Seeing that many Light Systems out on trail at once is a good reminder of what this sport looks like after dark.
The famous rock drop section is another one of those 24HOP institutions. It draws a crowd even deep into the night, always something happening, always energy, always someone sending it with a small crowd watching on. The desert has a way of reminding you it’s there. Ewen found that out the hard way when a cactus introduced itself to his ankle. A very different kind of trail hazard.
  
Demo & our Riders on the Podium
One of the highlights of the event was the demo programme. Riders could register for a free 2-hour night lap on any Gloworm Light System, try it on trail and return it afterwards, with the deposit going towards a purchase if they decided to buy. Getting a Light System into someone’s hands on trail in the dark, at a 24-hour race, is about as good a product demo as you can get.
It wasn’t just the demo riders putting Gloworm through its paces out on trail. Two riders who used Gloworm Light Systems for their night laps went on to finish on the podium, and that’s not something that happens by accident.
Racer Tyler Pierce ran the XSV Light System (G2.1) for both his night laps and came in 2nd place in the Corporate Sponsored Team category. His verdict afterwards: he didn’t have to worry about whether the Light Head was bright enough or whether the battery was going to die on him. That kind of feedback, straight off the bike after a 24-hour race, is exactly what you want to hear.Â
Amelia Durst ran Gloworm for her night laps and took 1st place in the Women’s Duo category. We connected with Amelia at the event and she has since joined the Gloworm Ambassador Programme. Watch this space.
  
The 24 Hours at Old Pueblo is one of those events that gets under your skin. Set in the high desert outside Tucson, Arizona, it draws thousands of riders to one of the most celebrated mountain bike gatherings in the US. This year, Gloworm was there for the first time, and it felt like exactly the right place to be.
What We Heard
The feedback from riders who came through the booth was genuinely useful. The TX (BT) Remote Button was a standout for almost every new customer who saw it. Being able to control multiple Light Systems with a single remote, something no other brand offers, consistently stopped people in their tracks. Interchangeable optics also resonated strongly, with riders drawn to the flexibility of being able to tailor their beam pattern to the trail and conditions. More than a few came in frustrated with beams that were too wide and left with a very different idea of what a Light System could do.
Ed Mason also gave the CX Core Light System(G2.1) a proper endorsement after finishing his race, calling it out specifically for its reliability across a long night of riding. 24HOP was the first US event where we brought the CX Core as part of the line-up, and the response to it was strong all weekend. Check it out here.
  
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Nearly Home
The one genuine lowlight of the trip was on the way back. Nico got stuck in LA for two extra days after back-to-back cancelled flights. Not ideal after a big week on site. There are worse places to be stranded, but at a certain point you just want to get home.
24HOP sits at the heart of mountain bike culture in the US, and being part of it for the first time felt right. The riding is excellent, the community is warm, and the format of a 24-hour race creates a kind of shared experience you don’t get at a standard expo. The trail is alive all night, and so is the village around it.
We’ll be back.
  