Gravel / Gravé / Gnarmac / Groad / ATB

Ah, Black Mountain Cycles. Good choice, great bike, maybe even better color!

Having dirty thoughts about repainting my Fugio and getting rid of the cursed exploro. I've just never loved it the same way.

Fugios are great frames.

Gravel is dead

Some #nogravel in mid-wales last week. Ridiculously hot and bike in road mode. (Anti-bidons as the kids had nicked my tasteful matchy ones).
Did not enjoy multiple 20% descents of windy single-track roads worried about finding sheep/tractors round blind corners.

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"Chamois"

They missed a trick by not callinh it "Sweaty poo-stained gooch gussett" instead.

GP4000s, those well-known gravel tyres... :)

Any tyre is a gravel tyre if you have the mad skillz.

Just got a my first bike to go off-road. So far only used for road and commute but it's already a lot of fun - coming from road bikes it's like I ride my childhood BMX again

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Yeah, that must be me then.

Oh wait, no, I just walk everything. :D

Anyone riding The Racing Collective GlenDURO this weekend up in Inverness? I’ll be heading up with a friend. Haven’t ridden the gravel bike in a while so took it for a quick spin this morning.

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A friend of mine road all of Cambridge's #nogravel on 32mm Gators when it was mostly #shitfromabutt
Unsure how he managed to avoid any p*nctures, unlike the rest of us on cx / gravel tyres.

#nogravel on Esher Common last Thursday evening

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The narrow tyre cuts through the mud better, as we all know. Whilst road bikes are getting wider tyres, the UK gravel scene needs narrower and narrower tyre casings, I'm going to try sourcing some 23mm for this winter.

There's no point having tread on Cambridgeshire mud, all tyres become slick once the clay has adhered. Treaded tyres just have more areas for the mud to stick to.

I'm pretty sure it was just purely stubborn ignorance and a desire to disprove the bicycle market.

Nice, it was still summer then, good memories

.. Such a good looking bike

No sell me the fugio and weld your seat post up on the 3t

#nogravel but plenty of water on the Hogsmill trail near Chessington this morning

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I like my flared drops, seems more secure on tough descents and is comfortable as it corresponds to the rotation of my wrists.

Dredge but … this ^

If it’s slippery or steep (downwards) or I’m pinning it over unsmooth surfaces at low cadence then the drops are my happy place.

Nothing to do with aeros. Everything to do with weight. #protip

I still crash.

Except for the lack of hand positions. I can do about 50km on risers with ergo grips before I start wishing for more positions.

while having no personal research (i have never ridden more than 30k, be it road or gravel), i would suggest comfort increases with risers (and i'd assume mileage) if you can get the bars equal, or more optimally, above the saddle

this will be an issue for those in this thread with a tester headset cover

To me it's more like if I'm on the hoods and the front of the bike is bouncing hard because should've buyed a MTB I need to hold hard onto it. Going into the drops and I can relax a bit and let it go, absorb the bumps a bit better and use the full travel of the brakes with less effort.
TL;DR hoods tense, drops relaxed.

I am conflicted with flared drops. the traditional hood placement and angle of wrist is all 'in line' for comfort over longer time (2h+).

Where as with flare there is 'another' angle that puts your wrist in almost carpal tunnel syndrome position.

personally i only ever run "road flare drops" salsa cowchipper, easton 12deg in MAX 46cm variety,

i did run woodchippers and they looked great, but as you say, the hood position is mornoic, i look like a failed peleton rider hoping tech will compensate my lack of training, it's not particularly comfortable either

it also might come as a surprise but "50cm+ massive flare drops" quirky walmer/crust/salsa, bin them all, impossible to ride? as you increase width you have to decrease your stem?? really it's an elaborate roadie ruse to get a stretched out position while looking trendy.

optimum set up?

tiny stem, 46cm slightly flared bar with a shallow drop, slightly below that of your saddle, maybe half a scoblebrick

for risers, in line with saddle , stem should be tailored to the sweep, ideally putting the bars in the same position as your hoods reach wise

and wild card is bars slightly above your saddle, absolutely no reach, put a bmx stem on and enjoy cruising around

thank you for coming to my wanker bar tedtalk