At this year’s Tour de France, freeride pro Sam Pilgrim took a gravel bike and an unconventional route around France on his way to Le Tour’s finish line. Of course, it was captured on several GoPro cameras, and became part of GoPro’s Beyond the Race series of videos from the Tour.
It’s not the first time a skilled rider on curly bars showed off some skills and creative line choice. Vittorio Brumotti joined Peter Sagan and Alberto Contador last year in July for some adventures, and of course there’s the popular and mind-blowing Road Bike Party series of videos that we’ve showcased, featuring riders like Martyn Ashton, Brumotti, Chris Akrigg and Danny Macaskill.
As for the bike under Pilgrim, it’s a new gravel bike. Poland-based NS Bikes, a brand focused on MTBs and park bikes, looks to be expanding.
Never heard of NS Bikes? The company’s self-titled “God of NS Bikes” Szymon Kobylinski states:
“I think that another thing that defines NS is that it’s a company dedicated to making highly specialised products for a narrow group of customers.”
The company looks to be widening that narrow group a bit to the skinnier tires of gravel bikes. At Eurobike 2016, the company will officially launch their first drop bar bike with this new gravel model. Stay tuned for official details on the bike.
