Author: Grannygear

Now I often ride pure roadie wear on my gravel rides if they are long and fast over mixed surfaces…a typical gravel experience for around here. But for less of a ‘pace’ or for stuff like light bikepacking, I would grab the Explore stuff every time

There seems to be a run on green shoes of late as these are the second set I have seen in green….and I like it. Great color, in my opinion. But is it a great shoe?

GORE has been winning with me of late with clothing that really has been working well. This, after some other items that were real misses, has been a great surprise and has filled out my go-to list of staple clothing quite nicely.

One of the first real rides I did on the Trailblazer wheels was a 50 mile mixed surface loop running the Touareg tires. Now I got a bit suckered into this one. You know that friend that says that “it’s a 30 mile ride with a couple of hills” and it never is? Yeah. That friend. I have one of those.

All of these are not the ‘typical’ multi-tool that you would carry for three different reasons, but all of them serve a useful purpose. Outside the box can be a good thing.

And I rode it on the street. And I rode it in the dirt. And I rode it on good roads and bad roads. And I began to form impressions about the Outback…

Here we have, from Trek, a Sampler Platter: Bontrager Shoes, a waist pack, and a jacket for really bad weather.

So we have a set of wheels on the loading dock in SoCal fresh off the assembly line from Boyd Wheels. The Trailblazer line of carbon wheels is listed as both a gravel wheel and an MTB wheel. Interesting. It’s wide at 26mm internal, its hookless, which is the fashion of late, its adaptable, and it’s darn light.

How have they been to use? Steady. They are still very true. I have not had to tension them or toss them in the truing stand. That has been as I expected based on my experience with the older MTB branded version. It’s a strong wheel for gravel use.

Last time we debuted some new riding kit from Bontrager that is very applicable to gravel or light MTB riding. It is warmer weather gear, so once spring hit in So Cal, we suited up and got riding. This is what we learned.