Riding Gravel

A Tale Of Three Bars: Ritchey WCS Streem II – by Grannygear Introduction: The world of gravel riding has spawned a few trends and brought…

Similarly, wet mud riding does not impart a secure feeling when using the Strada USH. But then again, if you even think that is a good idea, well…..good luck to you. The obvious point here is that the Strada USH is best on dry dirt and gravel and is absolutely at home on rough, broken up pavement.

When I get back to riding, I will be moving this to my road bike to get longer miles on it, but so far, as a gravel bike bar, I think it is very, very good and could be a total winner for someone who struggles with hand or wrist issues.

The recent Roval Terra press camp wasn’t just a showcase of trick new wheels. Thanks to Mike Yakubowicz and his shop, Blacksmith Cycle, we were treated to a veritable smorgasbord of beautiful custom bikes from all over the world. Here’s a gallery of the bikes we rode during our time in Downieville.

Salsa Cycles announced this morning publicly that the Cutthroat model will be a ground-up redesign for the 2020 model year. The Cutthroat is Salsa Cycles carbon drop bar mountain bike which is aimed at bike-packing and long rides in remote territory, ala Tour Divide. It also is a fairly popular model amongst some gravel riders.

TIME saw a need for not just gravel/adventure riders here, but for cyclo-tourists as well. Citing the typical need of these riders to use MTB shoes and pedals which are not as efficient on roads, the engineers at TIME decided that there are enough folks riding gravel, adventuring, and cyclo-touring now that a dedicated pedal for these disciplines is now a reality.

There are few upgrades you can make that have as much effect on your ride as a great set of wheels. And while there’s no shortage of great wheels on the market today, it’s an exciting development when Roval, a longtime leader in the space, introduces not just one, but two new high-end gravel wheelsets.

Riding Gravel contributor, MG, kicks off his test of the hot new 2020 GT Grade Carbon Pro gravel bike.

It’s Castelli, and this is a race type jersey, so the cut is slim and I upped things to an XL just to make sure I could wear it with some of my pride intact. The fit for me was very good unless I zipped the jersey all the way up, then it felt odd and tugged across the front of the jersey. Even unzipping a little bit made that go away.

Back in August, we reported on our experiences with Osmo Nutrition and its hydration and recovery drink mixes. Now, Osmo has introduced a new chocolate Rapid Recovery drink mix.