Category: Components

Oddly, the Vulpine isn’t as fast a rolling tire on gravel which is loose, chunky, and deep as other tires with similar width. However; once you get out of situations where the terrain is loose and deep, the Vulpine begins to show up as a fast, controllable tire.

Maybe what we want is a wheel to cross a county on. Or a continent on. Or a world. And so flash is second to longevity, value, and solid, long days in the saddle. And I do think that the Wanderlusts hit that mark.

I liked the tread pattern. It looked right up my alley, an alley paved with asphalt mixed with dirt roads.

So, in the end, I come back to that old adage: “You get what you pay for”. In terms of the American Classic Wentworths, that’s not saying they are bad.

It is the bar for those who don’t like the weird, laid-out levers look, and for those who don’t want a lot of flare to the drops. It’s the flared drop bar that looks ‘normal’. It’s the drop bar that takes advantage of what carbon fiber can bring to the table where other carbon handle bars have not. It’s got great ergonomic features, and it rides really well. What more could you ask for in a drop handle bar for gravel riding?

What we have here is a new tire from WTB with an old name that has a new mission: Be fast on gravel.

Remembering that these are $35.00 tires (each) means that we probably should not be looking at the American Classic offerings as being equal to, or better than tires costing more, despite what “direct-to-consumer” marketing may seem to indicate here.

Every time I did this I felt like I could not feel as much- or any- vibrations coming through the saddle like I was through my hands and my feet. It did not seem to matter if I had a chamois on or if I was in my street clothes, this seemed to me to be the case. That Infinergy® stuff really seems to knock down the higher frequency stuff really well.

This handle bar actually has features that make a difference in ride feel and comfort. Plus, it is fairly light. That’s always a nice thing.

I give the CZR wheels a ‘highly recommended’ score here. While certain singular features on competitor’s products may seem more appealing, the CZR wheels have a complete feature set, are a part of a systemic tubeless range, which not many other choices in wheels can lay claim to, and a wheel set which performs at a very high level in very demanding conditions.