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Any recommendations for a studded tire for a gravel/cross bike? I have a Giant TCX and wish to continue to ride the local trails during the Chicago winter (Des Plaines River Trail for anyone local). I'm also a fat rider at ~285lbs so something on the wider end with as much grip as possible is preferable since in my prior testing it doesn't take much to send me flying in icy conditions. Am I going to be able to actually ride with this setup or should I just bite the bullet and look for a fatbike or 29er? edit- contemplating a Giant Revolt Advanced 3 as an upgrade and being able to run up to 700x45c tires. charliebravo77 fucked around with this message at 22:32 on Jan 11, 2021 |
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Jan 10, 2021 23:04
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charliebravo77 posted:Any recommendations for a studded tire for a gravel/cross bike? I have a Giant TCX and wish to continue to ride the local trails during the Chicago winter (Des Plaines River Trail for anyone local). I'm also a fat rider at ~285lbs so something on the wider end with as much grip as possible is preferable since in my prior testing it doesn't take much to send me flying in icy conditions. Am I going to be able to actually ride with this setup or should I just bite the bullet and look for a fatbike or 29er? What year is your TCX? I’ve got an old one (2011) that I run 42mm soma cazaderos on just fine. It also runs the 45mm WTB riddlers that are on my wife’s bike tylertfb fucked around with this message at 18:06 on Jan 15, 2021 |
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Jan 15, 2021 16:42
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tylertfb posted:What year is your TCX? I’ve got an old one (2011) that I run 42mm soma cazaderos on just fine. It also runs the 45mm WTB riddlers that are on my wife’s bike It's a 2015. Guess I can buy some 42s of some variety and see how it goes.
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Jan 15, 2021 21:43
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More outdoor riding in the cold and snow in montana Taking that road was a real dumb idea, it was slippery. But it's short and cuts across to a frontage road. But then the path along the frontage road had snow on it and the other dirt road was muddy so the whole ride was basically bad decisions.  Decent road and gravel riding out that way though. also, check out these turkeys  Today the sunshine lured me outside but it was really cold. It looks so nice out here but the garmin said 22   The snow was grippy and fun to ride though, and hand warmers shoved between the liners and shells of ski gloves kept my hands comfortable enough. Saw these llamas, or alpacas or something  they were lookin at me. River was in the process of freezing, made a neat sound  Surprising amount of riding this winter, I haven't really taken a break to go ski and run and sit on my rear end which is weird. I have 325 outdoor miles so far this year plus another 365 on zwift, and somehow I had 1000mi in december. jamal fucked around with this message at 05:26 on Jan 27, 2021 |
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Jan 27, 2021 04:52
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Did a 4-day gravel ride around central Otago, south island of New Zealand, over the Christmas-New Year break. Flew down with our bikes on the plane, assembled them in the airport and then chained together the Otago rail trail, Clutha gold trail and Roxborough trail for a total of about 350 km. Weather was fantastic the whole time, sunny without being overly hot (mostly) and very little wind. Rode my relatively old Boardman CX bike which I've modified to have a MTB rear derailleur and 11-36 cassette. The smallest gear combo I have of 34 front 36 rear was adequate but I was out of the saddle for some of the steeper climbs (some sustained ~12% gradients).  The Otago rail trail is super flat and easy riding, kinda boring for the first day at least where we did 90 km almost entirely up-hill at a constant 1 to 2% gradient. The Roxborough trail was a lot more technically challenging and thus more fun, but the trail has a big gap in the middle where you have to book a jet boat to take you and your bikes from one point to the other, which was interesting but a bit expensive. The Clutha gold trail was a really nice flowy ride for the first half but the second half was a little repetitive. The final day we left the cycle trails and took forestry roads back to the airport we started from which was a much more 'proper' bikepacking day, with some pretty serious elevation change. It would have been a nightmare to ride in bad weather but we were lucky so overall just a good fun day's ride.      
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Jan 30, 2021 21:20
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Jan 30, 2021 21:24
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The RAGBRAI Route Announcement is going on right now, and Day 3 will have not a gravel loop, but an entire gravel route option for the day, from Ft. Dodge to Iowa Falls. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_2zxIcMTTU
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Jan 31, 2021 00:35
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Ragbrai's... happening?
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Jan 31, 2021 00:42
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Blackhawk posted:Did a 4-day gravel ride around central Otago, south island of New Zealand, over the Christmas-New Year break. This looks incredible!
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Jan 31, 2021 01:35
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Bud Manstrong posted:This looks incredible! Cheers, I assume that strava will let me share activities via link? Day 1: https://www.strava.com/activities/4547026365 Day 2: https://www.strava.com/activities/4547026373 Day 3: https://www.strava.com/activities/4547026396 Day 4: https://www.strava.com/activities/4547026359 As you can see it was a pretty cruisy trip.
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Jan 31, 2021 03:48
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kimbo305 posted:Ragbrai's... happening?
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Jan 31, 2021 05:22
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I imagine a lot of those small towns on the route want the revenue but yeah, a massive group rocking up into multiple small towns several times a day is about the worst idea.
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Jan 31, 2021 11:45
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Crumps Brother posted:Suffice to say that Iowa has not exactly been leading the way with covid policies. Yeah ... there's a reason the Governor is commonly referred to as "COVID Kim". I strongly doubt I'll have had access to a vaccine and have had time for it to fully take effect to even consider going, but it is nice to see that they expanded the gravel portion, and most importantly, made it a different way to do the route (for a day), rather than simply a loop to add on miles on top of the paved route.
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Jan 31, 2021 18:34
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kimbo305 posted:Ragbrai's... happening?
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Feb 1, 2021 03:38
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Iowa's Ride is too, the week before going the other direction.
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Feb 1, 2021 22:19
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Oh hey thread, didn't notice a gravel one until now. I found the gravel spirit last year and slapped some resolutes on my Giant TCX. Here are a few photos of some rides I did last summer/autumn. Can't wait for the weather to get a little better so I can finally get off Zwift!      My longest gravel ride so far:  Bonus slow worm picture. Yeah we've got reptiles in the UK so what.  I want to get out this summer and do some gravel in the Brecon Beacons, and possibly some bikepacking too. I'm tempted to pick up a Sonder Camino AL frame and do my first ever bike build too. Should be fun.
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Feb 3, 2021 11:56
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There was some weird white poo poo on my gravel today.
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Feb 3, 2021 15:39
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An active volcano seems like a good place to ride Extra smoky today!     Normally it looks more like       I've been trying to ride up there twice per week, its around 30km from where I live with 1500m climbing. So far I've ridden up there from 3 different access points, and I know there area at least 2 others. Also, smoke coming out is a good thing, you worry when there is nothing coming out (no smoke = crater is covered and pressure can build up). Villarrica volcano, one of the most active on the planet. There are like 3-4 other active volcanoes that you can see on a good day from Villarrica. Also, I've trekked up to the crater once, smells like Mordor.
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Feb 3, 2021 18:38
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El Laucha posted:An active volcano seems like a good place to ride Cool! You ever hiked to the top?
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Feb 3, 2021 18:58
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ooof that's gorgeous
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Feb 3, 2021 19:00
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Holy poo poo good posts. Love this thread.
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Feb 3, 2021 19:16
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I feel the Spirit with us tonight. Great rides and photos.
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Feb 4, 2021 02:56
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Gonna try to do a big gravel ride tomorrow and ride down Repack Road, the "birthplace of mountain biking"'s first downhill race course.
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Feb 4, 2021 04:56
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Blackhawk posted:Cool! You ever hiked to the top? Yeah, like 5-6 years ago during winter. It’s a 6 hour hike from the skiing center, with around 1200m of vertical ascensión. Then maybe 30 mins to go down, fun as hell. You go up to the edge of the crater and you can see down inside the caldera. The smell of sulfur made your eyes water, many got nauseous. So, so easy to fall inside. Some people flew over the crater that same year:  There’s a video of that at https://www.redbull.com/cl-es/viaje-al-centro-del-volc%C3%A1n-villarrica El Laucha fucked around with this message at 19:56 on Feb 4, 2021 |
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Feb 4, 2021 19:53
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El Laucha posted:Yeah, like 5-6 years ago during winter. It’s a 6 hour hike from the skiing center, with around 1200m of vertical ascensión. Then maybe 30 mins to go down, fun as hell. You go up to the edge of the crater and you can see down inside the caldera. The smell of sulfur made your eyes water, many got nauseous. So, so easy to fall inside. Awesome, wow that's a shitload more active than the closes volcano here that I've gone up a few times (Mt Ruapehu), it has a warm acidic lake in the crater but not actual visible lava.
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Feb 4, 2021 20:02
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I am still being hunted by the spirit of Gravel, i found this: https://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/bik/d/portland-2017-kona-private-jake-obo/7272850346.html The good: - The colors rule The bad: - The wife will relentlessly make fun of my because everything i own is red/black lmao
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Feb 9, 2021 20:02
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I really wanted one of those when they came out. It also has sliding dropouts if for some reason you wanted to make it SS. And good tire clearance, fairly slack HTA.
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Feb 9, 2021 21:36
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My first proper bike was a Kona Jake and I miss it so I support your n+1
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Feb 9, 2021 21:58
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ElMaligno posted:I am still being hunted by the spirit of Gravel, i found this: These are good bikes but $1400 for an aluminum frame with mechanical brakes seems a bit rich. Then again it's 2021 so who knows what bikes cost anymore...
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Feb 9, 2021 23:04
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VacaGrande posted:These are good bikes but $1400 for an aluminum frame with mechanical brakes seems a bit rich. Then again it's 2021 so who knows what bikes cost anymore... Its a 2017 $2000 bike, also it could go down a hundred or more.
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Feb 9, 2021 23:25
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On today's gravel ride I had to slow for oncoming horses. At which point, the orbiting pack of dogs made me stop and distribute pets.
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Feb 11, 2021 05:30
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Your lack of orbiting dog pics is incredibly disappointing
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Feb 11, 2021 06:50
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pics or it didn't happen 
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Feb 11, 2021 14:50
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I took a day off over a week ago to do a big gravel ride, almost 70 miles and over 10k feet climbing. Did a spin through the Marin Headlands and then headed up Mt Tam. Always have meant to stop and take a pic at this view  Then went up and over and through a nice bit of "trail" (fire road) called Laurel Dell but didn't stop to take pics. It did have a stream crossing though...usually you can just ride right through but some heavy rains weeks ago seem to have shifted the rocks and some debris piled up to make a pool that was too deep to ride through so I had to just go downstream 10 feet and pick my way across, no big deal though. Across the 7 Sisters on the road and down to Alpine Dam, then up Old Vee which is a slog of a climb early on (16+ grade for parts of the start of the climb) until I got to Pine Mountain. I knew this rocky section was coming because I"ve done it on my mountain bike before, but if I hadn't stopped to take a pic I might have cleared it OK on the gravel bike too. Just real big chunky rocks with some of them loose  Right after that is Cascade Canyon fire road, or also known as Repack Road https://mmbhof.org/mtn-bike-hall-of-fame/history/repack-history/  Stopped for a break there  I'd consider it a pretty standard Marin fire road descent these days...some steep section but they mostly run out well, nothing technical, only one really rocky steep part. If you knew the corners and descent real well you could probably hit it real fast on a gravel bike. I think my downhill time included my coffee making as it was like 20+ minutes... Once I hit Fairfax I turned around and went back up Deer Park, back over the side of Tam via Eldridge (SF in the background)  Then it was homefree down the mountain Gravel around here is pretty drat tiring but the scenery is nice
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Feb 14, 2021 16:12
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The MMB link is cool - that route looks serious. Nice orange accents on your bike!
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Feb 14, 2021 19:24
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Feb 14, 2021 20:21
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New Maxxis Receptor has a pretty Byway vibe about it: https://bikepacking.com/news/maxxis-receptor-gravel-tire/
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Feb 17, 2021 09:13
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Did some bicheal maintenance the other day I'd like to replace this bike, but availability is pretty questionable right now and maybe I want a new hardtail xc bike first if I can get one of those. The new terra is pretty appealing as that gets a little nicer build than the equivalently priced super x. In the meantime though the old orbea was in need of some work, especially as the rear tire had given up on holding air after my last ride in January, and the shifting was, uh, bad. -new bb bearings -new cassette, 11-36 this time instead of 11-32 -new chain -sealed shift cable like the frame was made for -trued rear wheel -serviced the freehub ratchets -new tires -brake pads All done and sparkly clean  Kept the tanwall thing going on this, with 38 maxxis ramblers this time. The 40 nanos were sort of kind of sometimes rubbing the inside of the chainstays and these actually have a bit of room. I thought about trying G-ones or those new contis, but these were on the shelf. We had some terreno drys too, but they look as big or bigger than the nanos so I didn't want to risk it. Those cables  Kind of strange assembly, as the liner doesn't start right at the shifter and instead you run a short piece of regular housing, then an adapter, then the liner goes in the bigger housing from there to the first stop. Although now that I think about it I probably could have just tried sticking the bigger housing into the shifter and ran it without the adapter if it fit. Went on a ride today. Pretty short, and no gravel though because that's all a wet, snowy mess.  I forgot how the shifting is supposed to feel on this bike. Much better. jamal fucked around with this message at 04:12 on Feb 24, 2021 |
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Feb 24, 2021 04:10
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jamal posted:
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Feb 24, 2021 21:24
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Does anyone have any recommendations for a 26" tire for mixed gravel/pavement? My commuter/gravel bike needs new summer tires pretty badly and I haven't heard anything (good or bad) about any 26er tires besides gravelking SKs. I probably spend more miles on pavement than gravel, but I'd like to change that this summer since I have a lot more route options riding dirt and gravel than pavement. Still, I think it might be nice to have something with smoother tread in the center than the SKs for riding in town.
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Mar 1, 2021 20:44
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