Gravel / Gravé / Gnarmac / Groad / ATB

I'd walk down and hope that nobody noticed

i would simply hop the big rock

If you want to hop rocks then surely you need the most chuckable wheelsize

?

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Chunk soul brother.

noticing the rock was in the way of my line, while considering my 700c x 2.1 wheel choice would noticeably limit my turning due to toe overlap, I would center my weight over the back of the saddle and bend my knees and arms anticipating to "pump" them at the key point to ensure my front wheel cleared the rock. knowing that my wheel choice caused me an additional 250g to my overall system weight, and me being 65kg with no strength training in 2 years or more, i would seek to only clear the front wheel, and once placed safely on the rock shift my weight over the front of the saddle to pedal pedal through half a turn, pulling the back up behind me, being sure to quickly re-center once over the obstacle, to ensure i did not over compensate and end up over the bars

this would leave me sufficient time to stop at the bottom of the descent to look back at my riding partner, who chose the 650b wheels. carefully picking their riding line in order to not encounter any large drops, knocking their bottom bracket or forcing a loss of momentum, but also to protect their £150 compass tyres. I would say something up like "you're doing great!" or "seems to smooth out down here, maybe you will over take me due to the more fishtank like gravel!" this reassurance will not increase their pace however, it might actually distract them, forcing them to fall due to their wheel over turning and having no foot there to limit its rotation.

Ya'll can believe Jan Heine or XC racers when it comes to wheel sizes. I believe what it suits my XL farm gates

+1 million

oooh power metres for gravel bikes. I want.

I mean, it already had a powermeter on it, but this lowers the gears (30T) owing to the one piece double chainring and smaller BCD of the cranks. The missus has my older Rotor P2M now on her road bike.

I've been contemplating this for a while, but I need to find the will to switch back to 2x.
Best option with out the need for a new crank is -
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/bikinGreen-CNC-Chainring-46-30T-FoR-Shimano-4-Arm-10-11Spd-Road-Cyclocross-Tour-/323846025801

Yeah, this was an 800+ quid proposition (extra because I didn't factor in 2 new BBs) that I'd been considering for years, really. I ended up justifying it because the missus "needed" compact cranks and I needed to not be doing 600W every time it hit 28%.

I looked at those alternate chainrings for her bike (she had Ultegra cranks) but this way I get my lower/better gearing and she gets a free powermeter with her compact cranks.

The ultra dismissive "650b is for short people" crowd can barely grapple with the idea that some people who want to ride bikes may actually be "women" or "Japanese" and should probably read Invisible Women and have a think.

yeah 169cm dwarf here. BUT i'd take toe overlap over bad geometry anytime. i think most size xs-s bikes are ruined by forcefully trying to avoid toe-overlap, most of the times they slacken out the headangle way more than necessery without adapting the fork.

although the real challenge i realised the last weeks was finding a low enough office chair and desk, thats not made for kids. cant image whats it like to bei even smaller.

Women and the Japanese are people, too.

Toe overlap = bad geometry

I was guessing that whether front dérailleurs are essential/an abomination was next on the list for debate in the gravel thread again. Whether Women and the Japanese are, in fact, people is a bit of a curveball

I think everyone knows by this point they're an abomination.

Really what we need to get back to though is mashing the 10/11t faster then an aero position?

I await the consensus on whether aero is king. The aero bars on my road bike are far more comfy than my standard issue flared gravel bars. I’m tempted to replicate them on my gravel bike but scared that I’ll be shunned

Aerobars are bloody fantastic, but agree do feel you get judged for having them.

Toe overlap = bad geometry

Universal statements = over-simplification

Toe overlap = comical crashes

Toe overlap = never raced cross

Really what we need to get back to though is mashing the 10/11t faster then an aero position?

Any fool knows the 10/11 is inefficient, and we should all be utilising 60t chainrings on our gravel rigs

In the future, hopefully there’ll be the technology to allow the benefit that both a large and a smaller chainring provide