Tyres, Gravel, Gnarmac, Grinduro, Grrrrrrr

The rise and rise of the 'adventure/gravel/bikepacking bike' has been well observed and truth is for a lot of the riding that takes place casually it's probably a great choice of bike style. I jumped on the bandwagon with the purchase of a deeply uncool Raleigh Maverick Comp last year as it ticked all the boxes for me, and was on sale, and I got discount thanks to British Cycling. Being a tinkerer I couldn't leave it be and so of the original bike, all that's left is the Reynolds 631 frame and cromoly forks, shifters, cables, front and rear derailleurs and cassette, and brake calipers. Oh and the bar tape although that has begun to delaminate so I'll likely change that soon too.
To the real point of this post though. Tyres. I love tyres. I mean I really love them. I have around 15-20 pairs in the shed at least, loose or mounted. Tyres for all wheel sizes I own and all bikes, and some I no longer own. I try not to think about how much money is tied up in them. With the growth of the market mentioned in the opening line, there has been a revival/corresponding growth in the tyre market to suit.
On of the main reasons I plumped for the Raleigh was the very good tyre clearances on the frame and forks. Why is this important? Well bigger tyres means higher volumes means more grip and more comfort. All good things.
My first foray into the larger tyres was with a second hand pair of Compass Barlow Pass in 700x38c size. Skin/gum/tan wall of course.

Here they are on the stock Raleigh wheels during a christmas day ride. Great tyres, very supple and grippy but a bit fragile off the road and on the chippings and loose seal that makes up some of the towpaths, sorry gravel, around here. I had a new set of wheels built by the excellent Ryan Builds Wheels over the water in Bristol around an SP dynamo front hub, and a Hope Pro4 rear hub with DT Swiss XM421 tubeless rims and the Barlow Pass wouldn't stay up happily tubeless. As a note, they're not supposed to be, but sometimes tyres will work.

With some trips coming up I was searching for some tyres with more grip for off road, and that would work tubeless. I had narrowed it down to the Bruce Gordon Rock n Road 700x43c, the Soma Cazadero 700x42c and the Panaracer Gravelking SK (small knob, teehee) 700x40c. All built on/by Panaracer in Japan. Being precious and vain I wanted tan/skin/gum walls which meant pre-ordering the Gravelking SK's from Winstanley's Bikes who were very helpful, and ordering a pair of the Rock n Roads from Bruce Gordon himself, shipped to my friends in Canada who we were visiting a few weeks later in early March. This being mid-February and me being the sort of person who can't get an idea out of their head unless it's acted upon. My trip was in April...

Long story short, the Rock n Roads were/are excellent off road on the dry and loose surfaces I rode and slightly draggy but not terrible on road. Which you would have guessed from the tread pattern.
On the 25mm wide rims, they came up slightly oversize

They cleared the frame just fine, and were a lot of fun in use.

I didn't weigh them, but stated weight was 560g each. I would guess they would be around that. They went up and stayed up tubeless and worked well at around 40psi with camping gear laden up.
The Gravelking SKs arrived last Friday and as I wasn't going to be doing some KGnarr-shredding I swapped them over from the RnRs. They have a coloured wall over a black carcass, as opposed to the RnRs and Barlow Pass's which are black over a tan carcass. Just an observation. The other observation was that the carcass felt markedly stiffer than the other two tyres. Maybe twice as stiff as the Barlow Pass's.

Straight up tubeless and a little oversize, again on the 25mm wide rims so to be expected.
Riding on them on- and off-road they really do roll very well and there was even a lot of grip in the dry. I ran 50psi to begin with as I was expecting a little air loss from the first tubeless inflation. I think they could be dropped to 40/45psi with no problems. I really am rather happy with them. Weight was 490g, and they came up at 498g. Strangely they felt heavier in my hands than the RnRs.
I am waiting on delivery of a pair of the Snoqualmie Pass 700x44c tyres again from Compass for winter road use, this post will be updated.

Summer time?

First time trial of the year for me today. A 15 mile run with the Pontypool Road Cycling Club.
The clocks changing, and me forgetting until half 5, meant I had less sleep than I wanted. Plus I stayed up watching crap films last night.
Anyway it was a pleasant ride to the sign on and start.

Conditions were lovely apart from a mild headwind along the dual carriageway. Average time for me but good to do.
After a good lunch the legs got a stretch going up the Blorenge, where it is still rather white.

Now I am very ready for some more food...

Tales from behind

I'm trying to find the perfect saddle at the moment. In order to keep myself reminded of what's gone before I thought I'd post about where I am now and what has cosseted (or not) my behind. This isn't going to be one of those reviews where I compare weights etc.

So first up the most comfortable to date is probably the CSN Superleggera K10 which I guess would come in at the budget end of the spectrum. This came with my Ribble Gran Fondo and I've done around a 1000 miles on it.

Pros- minimal numb wang and a reasonable amount of flex.
Cons- I did get some saddle soreness from it on longer days, and the shape seems to just snag a little on my thighs at the back wing.

Next up I think is the Specialized Toupe Plus. Twice the price of the K10 above but is it twice the saddle? Well it certainly hasn't resulted in any numb wang. It is quite hard though.

Pros- Lightweight, no numb wang at all.
Cons- quite stiff, and the flat shape puts pressure on the insides of my legs, more so than the K10.

Lurking in the middle so far, and also on my MTB is the Selle Italia XR XC Flow. It should be noted this is a narrow model.

I've done around 800 miles on it and find it comfy to start off with but then the narrowness begins to put pressure on my perineum. It is light, and it wasn't expensive. I used it during the cyclocross races with no problems.
Pros- short distance comfy, light, cheap.
Cons- no good over 30 miles

A friend, Pete (cheers Pete) very kindly lent me a Charge Spoon to try. I've no picture of it, so here's a stock pic from online-

I was really hoping it would be the right saddle. Not least as Pete confirmed he suffered in similar ways to me with comfort and pressure. Also I could get a brown leather one with titanium rails. This pleased me.
It was not to be. It was comfy to start with but then I found the old numb wang creeping in. Even adjusting the saddle to have more nose down didn't allay the pressure and pain. Real shame.
Pros- cheap (for non-leather), range of colours. Sit bone comfy.
Con- numb wang!

The Specialized Rival 143 was OE on my Tricross back in 2010. I did close to 1200 miles on it before changing.  It's ok up to around 10 miles and then gets rather uncomfortable indeed. Numb wang a go go.

That said it is pretty tough although the cover bubbled up a little at some point along the central groove. Although there isn't a cut out in the foam or cover, there is in the plastic base. Not that it made any difference.
Pros- came with bike, durable
Cons- numb wang.

So to round off so far is the SDG Bel-Air Ti, and I have a snazzy Palomino version.

I really wanted this to be spot on, one because I had it, but also because I liked the idea of fitting it to the road bike. So for testing I took it from the MTB and fitted it to the road bike. First thoughts were good; there's plenty of padding in the saddle and it wasn't snagging my legs at all. As the miles wore on though things became very painful down below, and then numb. The reason it's down below the Rival, despite similar characteristics of pain infliction is that it's the only saddle where I've actually felt bruised the next day or two. Back on the shelf then...
Pros- awesome style
Cons- gives me such a beating.

Ridng the rapids(ish)

A chance alignment of leave and work areas meant my good mate Jay was down this way recently. The plan had been to ride up in the Black Mountains, but the weather had other plans and minimal visibility meant a run out through the local trails was decided upon instead.
This meant I got to show Jay the joys of old bridleways that follow streams and rivers.


The thing about riding with someone else is that you don't mind if you cock stuff up as there's someone there to fix you up if needed. It also means that you spur each other on to try stuff. Jay decided to try the river crossing, and the first run didn't go maybe as well as hoped. Just as well he'd taken his outer layers off so they were dry to put on after.


That was enough for me to have a crack at it, and after following Jay's example and leaving my top and gloves safe and dry I set off. I didn't go down, but did do a big enough dab to get a bootful of water. Ah well. Still a bloody good laugh trying.

Jay had a second run and managed it without getting another soaking.

It's good to have mates to drag you along. Cheers Jay.

Chores and more

Had to go out and pick up a lamb from the butchers over the valley yesterday morning. Roads were fine, just slush. Got home and went out exploring.

The lanes were a little more snowbound, I got stuck going up a few of them. The horses didn't have as much hassle.