Last week, for Training Tuesday, we helped you start getting your body ready for a long gravel event, but what about your bike? Preparing a bike for a long gravel event takes some planning and preparations as well. For today's Mechanical Monday, we've got five top tips to get you ready for hours of gravel grinding.
5 Tips for Getting Your Bike Ready for a Gravel Race:
Don’t Ignore the Mountain Bike
Sometimes you have to forget labels and fashion and really decide what’s right for you. If your local “gravel grinder” is in reality a glorified rocky dirt road mountain bike race, with some pavement to break things up, a mountain bike might be the smarter tool. This is especially true if your goal is just to finish in one piece and still have all your fillings.
Whether it’s an event like the rocky Lost and Found that might warrant fatter tires than what your old-school cyclocross bike can fit, or a hilly Crushar in the Tushar that begs for lower gearing, a lightweight hardtail or even cross country full suspension bike could be faster or offer a better chance of getting you to the finish, even if most of your competitors are on curly bars.
Flat bars and fat tires can be a leading combo for a hilly or rocky gravel event. photo: The Gravel Grinder by Michigan Mountain Mayhem. © Julie McGraw Photography
Don’t let the desire for drop bars and fat tires keep you from opting for the mountain bike. If your cyclocross bike won’t accommodate such wishes, you could even bust out an old mountain bike with a set of drop bars, or if you really want more cushion, a fat bike.
You don’t have to go this fat to pair drop bars with bigger rubber. Mark King’s Framed Alaskan Fat Cyclocross Bike at Lost and Found. © Cyclocross Magazine
The added benefit is that 29er mountain bikes, and some 27.5” machines, can fit most gravel tires without clearance issues. So you can pick the tread and volume that’s right for the course, without worrying about frame rub or mud clearance should things get sloppy.
With Fox’s expected release of its AX Adventure/Gravel fork this week, the lines are blurring between gravel and mountain bikes more than ever. Forgetting bike and event labels, a lightweight hardtail with gravel tires just might be more cutting-edge than you think.
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