Riding Gravel

In May, Shimano caused quite a stir when it announced GRX, the world’s first dedicated gravel road components. It’s a bold move from the Japanese component giant, and it’s a sign of the direction they see cycling moving in the future. We recently got an exclusive first ride on Shimano’s GRX mechanical group and here are our first impressions.

As long as it isn’t too hot, these are actually pretty nice shoes for pedaling out on the gravel. My thought is that these would be better choices for warm to cool weather climates. Hot, humid areas will require shoes with more venting than the Line shoes have. Wide feet? These could be your shoes then.

I applaud the coming of ‘adventure’ geared cranks and kudos to Shimano for finally jumping in. I think that the 46/30 is a nice thing to have for a large segment of the gravel population, bike packers, etc. Unfortunately, if it is not perfect for your needs, it’s not like you get a chance to choose a different crank set-up when you buy your bike, forcing you to make what could be a costly swap to get what you want.

But frankly neither one are what I want. What would I want? How about a 46/36 or 46/34 with an 11-40 rear cassette? Not with the components I have though, unless I could make it work with something like Wolftooth’s Road Link, but with 2x, I still have to deal with the capacity of the rear derailleur to handle chain slack.

Well we are finally wrapping up the saddle reviews with the final three contenders. One is a real surprise and my pick of the bunch.

The Flare 25 definitely does have a different feel. The vibrations I felt were……not muted, they were there, but not the same frequency, for sure. Other bars had a “zing” to them, which I could say might affect me negatively, but as for this SPANK bar, I cannot say at this point that it is “better” for me

Giant Bicycles Shuttle Flat Shoes: Checkpoint – by Guitar Ted Flat pedals are definitely a “thing” for mountain biking these days, but what about gravel…

It was a sweaty, moist day in the saddle and the breath-ability of the shorts worked in my favor, never feeling swampy. Around the 80 mile mark I typically get achy and start to shift around in the saddle to find a position that does not offend the nethers. But it occurred to me that I was not doing that. At all. I was just sitting and pedaling, still happy after 5 hours in the saddle. Excellent.

Two words kept cropping up whenever Grannygear and I discussed these Boken 700 X 40mm and Boken Plus 650B X 47mm tires. Those words were fast and smooth. The IRC Boken models are some of the fastest and most comfortable tires we’ve tried.

There were times when I got on top of a gear on the pavement and completely forgot that I was on a gravel tire. Now the WTB Resolutes are good rolling for what they are. The IRCs are a step up from them. The Hutchinson Overides are another level completely. I bet the 35s really fly.