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Post your road bicycle

Discussion in 'General' started by cha0s#242, May 19, 2016.

  1. Cannoli

    Cannoli Typical Uccio


    I just picked up an Orbea Terra H3 gravel bike to expand my riding options. I have to say I really (really) like the off-road stuff. The drop bar gravel gives me the feeling of road riding but with the option of going just about anywhere I like, including road. I put on a rear luggage rack and mud guards to make this a multi-day adventure bike. My plan is to do several multi-day BikePacking trips on the C&O and GAP trails, as well as the Katy Trail. I recently did a 50 mile one day ride on the C&O for a test run and couldn’t be more pleased. The 40mm tires soak up the bumps and the Shimano 105 drivetrain gives me plenty of speed and gearing options to go the distance.

    As has been said, gravel is pretty awesome! It doesn’t replace road riding, just complements it.
     
    ekraft84 likes this.
  2. cm1744

    cm1744 Well-Known Member

    Yes.

    I much prefer mtb and singletrack. There are a bunch of local trails but I try to travel about a dozen times a year to out of state races or trips (CO, MT, Sedona). I guess I like the XC stuff and enjoy the work on the climbs as much as a fast and technical descents. With that said, the better fitness makes a huge difference for enjoying a long day on the trail or being able to push in a race so I use road group rides and trainer work to keep that fitness up in the winter/spring. Oh, and fatbiking too.

    Fuck gravel.
     
    Senna likes this.
  3. Senna

    Senna Well-Known Member

    I'm a little weird in that I actually enjoy the trainer stuff to a good extent, provided it's dynamic.

    I wouldn't turn down a ride on a gravel bike, but, like CX, I just don't find it all that appealing. I only started dabbling in road again as we have a really awesome paved trail near me that has quite a few corners and a decent downhill on it while being relatively narrow - think mtb trail that's paved.
     
  4. ekraft84

    ekraft84 Registered User

    Yeah I've never been into "CX" either. My generalized view is a boring crit-type thing where I may or may not have to get off the bike and run up a hill, or something stupid. :D

    I did just pick up a fat bike and am loving it so far. I sold my trainer last year (just got hard to push myself to do it) and am planning to ride pretty regularly this winter, mixed in with spin rides. Of course that's not just a new bike, but a new set of gear too.
     
    Senna likes this.
  5. ekraft84

    ekraft84 Registered User

    I like everything you said here.

    But that last line is very aggressive. lol
     
  6. Jed

    Jed mellifluous

    If I race again it will be on a MTB. I've got no love for the roads around ATL anymore but the trails are decent and not too far away.
     
  7. 50Joe

    50Joe Registered User

    Gravel and mountain bikes are the big growth area in cycling. Especially gravel. Road has been on a decline and all indicators are that it will continue to slide downward. Distracted drivers are one of the main reasons. Sad but true.
     
  8. rice r0cket

    rice r0cket Well-Known Member

    I did some crit racing back in the day, which ended when I got in a pretty bad accident.

    I still ride road, but only to/from the park, where drivers are pretty cognizant of foot/bike traffic, or to an office park that is mostly deserted outside of commute hours. I just can't get into the same consistent workout on a mountain bike, but that might be my own doing because I ride a singlespeed hardtail. Maybe I'll entertain throwing some gears on this winter, but I would need to build another wheelset....and at that point, might as well get another bike, right?
     
  9. ekraft84

    ekraft84 Registered User

    Exactly. I think a recent magazine had on the cover, "Is gravel the new road race thing?"

    With how people drive and trying to merge cars with bikes, Nicky Hayden, etc, I might as well have the same aggressive quote about road riding.
     
  10. sharky nrk

    sharky nrk Rubber Side Up

    I went MTB from the the road around a year ago and love it so much but make no mistake - it is not really any safer than the road. I have had a couple little incidents on the road in about 6 years when I was consistently riding- luckily no major ones - but have been to the emergency room from the MTB within the first couple months and have more contusions and bruising that I care to count.
     
  11. cm1744

    cm1744 Well-Known Member

    Yea, it might have been a little harsh... And just my personal opinion. Gravel just feeling like an absolute blurring of the lines in order to sell more bikes for another narrow niche. Maybe I don't get why the new gravel bikes are now coming out with bigger volume tires, compliant frames that can be considered "suspension", proper disc brakes, lower range gearing. Aren't we just back to mildly capable hardtails by this point? Just as light, yet the mtb will let you hit any kind of terrain where the gravel bike will start to overreach.

    It works for some but no way am I going for a slow roll on some straight gravel grid roads.
     
  12. ekraft84

    ekraft84 Registered User

    Well, you're not wrong there. There's always the next big thing to try and sell more bikes. I rode my hard tail this year with semi-slick tires - locked out the front forks and called it a day. The combo-rides with some single track thrown in were a little sketchy!
     
  13. Senna

    Senna Well-Known Member

    Yea, but you aren’t going to get run over by a texting Karenosaurus in a Tahoe on the trail.
     
    sharky nrk likes this.
  14. 50Joe

    50Joe Registered User

    Mountain biking = MX : higher frequency of injury but not death
    Road cycling = Road Racing : lower frequency of injury but death is more probable
     
    cajun636 and Senna like this.
  15. Senna

    Senna Well-Known Member

    This is pretty true. I’d be pretty pissed to miss track days because of some BS MTB bike injury. We’ll see. A lot depends on how wet the season is in 2020. 2019 was pretty miserable for dirt riding around here.
     
  16. cajun636

    cajun636 Honda Junkie.

    I really don’t see the appeal to CX or Gravel. Even tho here in southern Louisiana we don’t have any mountains or fuck, even any hills to ride on, but shit loads of gravel.

    But with that said, it may be because I mainly rode the levees here and if not the levees then streets with a large 20+ group. By myself around here is way sketch

    I also fail to see the ability to train to a finite point like you can on the road due to the possible conditions. The gravel stuff always seems like a ride for fun rather than training. I ride motorcycles for fun not bicycles. Although if I had some good single track mountain stuff I’d probably like it. Here whenever I hit gravel on my road bike it just seems like I’m just waiting to go down.

    Gotta ride this morning. Just got the H3 in on Thursday afternoon and rode a little trying it out Friday morning then got sick and was puking all night then into Saturday. Sucks because it fucks up my training.

    First impression of the H3 is that I like how much more the heavy flywheel feels like a real road feel but don’t like how easily it freewheels because it auto pauses the damn Sufferfest and
    Fucks with my watts. Going to do a Rouvy endurance paced ride this morning. I’ll let y’all know how that is.
     
    50Joe likes this.
  17. Senna

    Senna Well-Known Member

    I actually tried to get out on the XC bike this past weekend, but of course the trails were closed because it gets all soggy when the ground thaws out in the afternoon. I think it solidified my decision to just focus on road. The XC race series would have me traveling 2+ hours to a bunch of the races and I’m not sure I want to add another traveling-heavy hobby to my summers, especially one that is so weather dependent.
     
    cajun636 likes this.
  18. tecknojoe

    tecknojoe Well-Known Member

    Picked it up this weekend. It's brilliant.

    [​IMG]
     
  19. GixxerBlade

    GixxerBlade Oh geez

    Gravel will smoke you way more than road will. You can go the same distance but the resistance is greater. I can easily average ~21 mph on the road but gravel I’m having a good day if I average ~17 mph with the same distance. Also I feel safer than road because I’m not going to have someone not paying attention killing me, I’ll be able to die at my own hands. Luckily for me I have lots of gravel where I am. Camp Lejeune has miles of tank trails and there are a couple national forests here with miles of gravel. The local sock supplier puts on a gravel race every year in the Croatan National Forest and it’s been getting bigger every year. https://croatanbuckfifty.com/
     
    ducnut and Senna like this.
  20. Senna

    Senna Well-Known Member

    My parents just moved to the Topsail area. I’ll have to relay that to my dad. I Bought him a Diverge a few years ago.
     
    GixxerBlade likes this.

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