Gravel bicycle

We want to make an aero gravel bike, but we don't have the tires that makes that make sense.

Aero gravel bikes don't make any sense because you have so much loss with the tire.

Why don't we give the treatment to the tire first and then figure out wheels and frames? And that's why it's so important.

No, I'm here for it.

I mean, it's not something that...

Q's isn't specced on

road bikes, you know, or gravel bikes for the most part.

Hold on.

Yeah.

I have, I do have a turbo, um, a turbo taro gravel e-bike as well.

Gravel.

Yeah.

Getting into gravel just because I'm getting old and I get stressed out at work and somehow some way I have to go out there and expend that energy in the evenings.

We're very roadie, chappy sub-10, E2E.

Gravel has obviously started to come into the mix quite substantially.

But mountain biking, I've done the majority of the stage races, barring Epic and Tanko, which I really want to do.

think i like many you know you talk about the you went from being a roadie you didn't see yourself as that and you've like you can do these drop-offs i'm just like i agree that that the fear or the risk of i can't afford to be injured one for work and two not being able to ride as my escape from the stress of life and in many ways like my social tool for for life It's like, rather leave it.

But the mountain bike coach is there to address your goals.

So if you come to me and say, I want to get ready for gravel burn.

then I will be focusing my lessons and my time with you on the demands of Gravel Verne and the skills that you will need or the level of the skills that you would need to grow to in order to have a safe and confident race.

And so it's really up to you, whether you're a novice rider learning how to mountain bike and learning how to ride trails for the first time, or if you've got a stage race or a big race coming up, or if you're looking for performance.

The name Kapona translates to On Sparkling Water, and the first event celebrated the completion of the Susquehanna River Steps.

Gravel cyclists seeking trails now have over 30 routes and 2,000 miles to ride in the Endless Mountains region.

The Endless Gravel PA Network and its accompanying website recently launched.

Kat Bolas from our friends at WVIA has more about the network in the rural four-county region of northeastern Pennsylvania.

Endless gravel PA started backwards, first with a 430-mile bikepacking loop through Bradford, Sullivan, Susquehanna, and Wyoming counties, then with shorter bikepacking loops.

That's Kane Chamberlain.

He's executive director of the Endless Mountains Heritage Region, which led the collaborative regional effort to launch the website and create the routes.

David Landis helped create all the Endless Gravel PA routes.

So that must have been a mountain bike race because I know the roads around there.

Gravel race.

Yeah, go gravel race.

Absolutely.

First question this week comes in from Jake.

Jake is talking about gravel riding for gravel racing.

Jake says, as someone with family obligations and time constraints, sometimes driving somewhere to ride gravel just doesn't work.

So as someone racing gravel this season, am I doing myself more of a disservice by doing much of my training on pavement, or does it not matter as long as I'm getting the mileage and hours in? So basically, Jake wants to know, if I want to be a gravel racer, do I need to ride gravel? Probably depends.

If your ability and comfort level on gravel is a non-issue, then I don't think it's mandatory that you ride X amount of hours on your gravel bike every

week.

I think an underappreciated aspect of call it gravel riding skills is line choice or just being cognizant of like the road surface I feel like a lot of times crashes happen in gravel races because people get caught off guard with like a rut in the road or a bump or something you know it's like being cognizant of like what's on the ground surface around you i think is really important and and i think mountain biking teaches you some of that where it's like you kind of you're you're able to uh predict kind of what that road surface imperfection is going to do to you and your bike so it's not catching you as off guard um you know it's kind of the same thing i mean in the road a lot of times crashes happen because you know you cross wheels like if you cross wheels and you know you're going to cross wheels like it happens all the time in the pro peloton crossing wheels happens but if you cross wheels and you're not expecting to cross wheels and then you flinch or you you know jerk your handlebars that's when people crash and I feel like the same thing kind of happens with gravel where it's like if you're used to some of those imperfections in the road and like what it's going to do to your front wheel you're A lot of times it's just not a big issue.

But if that's a new phenomenon to you, then I think having some awareness of what the ground surface is going to do to you and your bike is important.

Very good photos, some very cool bikes.

So it's worth going to check out, watch Josh's video too, which is both on the Velo homepage and on the youtube.com. Lisa, you didn't go to Portland, but you went to En Francais to ride two new gravel bikes from Van Rysel.

Those articles and the videos are on the Velo homepage right now.

We're going to dig into that.

I live in a remote part of Vermont with mostly gravel roads, so I don't think it makes sense financially to get a dedicated triathlon bike that I wouldn't be able to ride much outside of race day.

I'm currently riding a specialized Diverge Sport," which is a gravel bike, by the way, "and I'm wondering what changes you'd recommend to turn it into a solid 70.3 race day setup, specific tires or other components that would make a meaningful difference.

I won't be racing competitively, but I'd still like to be as fast and efficient as possible.

I'd love to hear your recommendations for getting the most out of a Diverge for a 70.3.

So, like, what could I do to it? And like, hey, these are, like, just two very different things, and if you just wanna, like...

It, it's, it's really up to you how much you wanna optimize.

And if you don't care, and you're truly going to do a thing for fun, then, like, we ride our gravel bikes on the road all the time.

If- especially if you have SRAM, and you have that 10-tooth cog in the back, like, that goes pretty freaking fast.

And, uh, no, it's a hybrid bike, actually.

Gravel and, uh, city.

Anyways, long story short, I've been biking a lot, and my son and I, and now my wife as well, we've been...

Well, it's noticeable.