3T Exploro Road, Part I

I'm a little embarrassed to admit that the easiest way to convince me to buy a $6000 bikes is to throw in a free wheelset that I don't really need. There, I admitted it. The bike in question is, of course, the 3T Exploro. And the wheelset? 3T's Discus 45|32 LTD.

Looks about the same as with the 650B wheels TBH

Herein I'll discuss briefly the process of setting up that wheelset, the initial results, and I'll also reach a somewhat uncomfortable conclusion. But first, the final product

The Discus 45|32 LTD And Tires

So what is this wheelset? It's a 700c carbon aero wheel, 45mm deep and 32mm wide. Moderately but not extremely lightweight at 1640g (sans rotors of course). I didn't take any pictures before I put on a tire, but it's really quite wide. 3T says it's optimized for 28-32mm tires, but of course I put on a Compass/Rene Herse Barlow Pass 700x38.

I'm only slightly bothered that the logos face opposite directions

The fork has plenty of space for additional tire

But things are a little tighter on the rear wheel. A 700x44 would be a real squeeze here

Going Tubeless

Only once have I tried tubeless. It was on a road bike back in 2008 or so. I was using a Ksyrium rim (no spoke holes, but definitely not tubeless compatible) and a Schwalbe Ultremo tire, also not tubeless compatible. Regardless, it actually worked until I split the tire open on a rock. Patching and putting a tube into a tire full of sealant turned me off tubeless.

Well, here we are a dozen years and at least that many bikes later. Mountain bikes are all tubeless these days, and I'd guess 25% of enthusiast road bikes have gone tubeless as well. Since it's the thing to do, I may as well try it. I threw a couple ounces of sealant in each tire, pumped them up (didn't even need a compressor, and gave them a spin, A few little holes on the tires sealed up, and they held air.

Next morning they were empty. I pumped them up again. That night they were empty. Hopefully now that I've done a quick ride on them the sealant will be well enough distributed that they'll hold air. Otherwise I'll try some additional sealant.

Road Cassette and Shifting

As mentioned in our earlier reviews the 3T came with a SRAM Eagle PG-1230 11-50T 12s cassette. As Max points out, it weighs more than a pound. I found it too compromised for road-use, particularly with the 44T chainring. For this wheelset I put on a Sram Force XG-1270 10-33T. I've never installed a cassette on an XD driver before, it took a leap of faith but went on.

With the wheels on I tried shifting. Yuck, horrible. A few twists of the outer limit screw (which is on the inside of the two limit screws) and some microshift adjustments and eTap was indexing the cassette properly.

Red eTap on my Litespeed shifts very well. Shifts are quick and crisp. That bike has a medium cage derailleur and I believe an 11-25 cassette. Or something close. The Eagle long-cage derailleur does not give crisp shifts on this cassette. Shifts feel ponderous and, though they're clean they feel imprecise.

It turns out that 3T has a blog post about this! That page states:

Note that SRAM’s 10-33T cassette is too small to work with the Eagle rear derailleur, the gap will be too big

That same page also says:

One small note, the 10-33T cassette doesn’t work particularly well in combination with the Eagle rear derailleur. So should you want to have two different setups – one for speed using the 10-33 and one for tough routes using a bigger cassette – you will have to swap out the rear derailleur and chain every time (and potentially even the chainring). It might be worthwhile to use the 11-39T Rotor cassette for the fast setup instead, so you can do everything with the Eagle rear derailleur.

So there you go. In reality it does work, but it's not going to work well. Argh. But to add a little insult to injury:

If you have a medium cage SRAM rear derailleur on your gravel bike, you most likely have an Exploro Speed with a Force 1 rear derailleur and an 11-36 cassette. ... But there is a second group of cassettes you can use to increase your range. And all you need to do is ignore what SRAM tells you about the 36T maximum cog spec for the medium cage Force 1 rear derailleur.

They go on to say that the medium cage derailleur will shift the SRAM 10-42 cassette perfectly well. Well heck!

About The Weight...

I made a big deal about the weight of the Exploro in gravel livery, at 21 pounds 6 ounces. Max astutely pointed out that swapping out a couple items would make a big difference. So let's look at what I changed and the expected impact to weight.

Component	Old Weight	New Weight
Wheels	1740g	1640g
Tires	1200g (est)	760g
Cassette	615g	265g
Tubes/Sealant	400g	250g
Total	3955	2915

Let's just say 1000 grams, or 2.2 pounds. That's pretty great! I weighed to verify:

19 pounds 7 ounces. I didn't get quite the entire hoped for savings, but nearly 2 pounds is fantastic!

Riding Impressions

To be filled in after I ride it!

The Uncomfortable Conclusion

I've decided that I bought the wrong bike. I really like the 3T Exploro. I'm glad I bought it. But I wish I'd bought the $2000 less expensive Exploro Team Speed Force1. I'd lose the electric shifting, but would have gained a rear derailleur that's a bit more appropriate for both road and gravel. I'd have still gotten the free wheelset, so I could have a good road wheel and a pretty good gravel wheel. And a 10-42 is plenty of range for most gravel riding.

It's OK, I mean this is a fantastic bike. I don't regret it. But it's still an uncomfortable conclusion.

Exploro 3T - A Second Take

Among reviews worth reading at the Huffman Bicycle Club, Max' take on the 3T Exploro is surely near the top. As usual I'm a day (or ten) late and a dollar (or a bunch of dollars) short. Regardless I'm here now.

Max and I have long been in search of the perfect bicycle. Ride fast, do everything, go everywhere, carry anything. Oh, and cost, well, not too much. That particular white whale has seen both of us spend too much money on bikes that don't quite achieve the desired aims.

Is the 3T Exploro the culmination of this quest? Or just another rung on the ladder?

In this review I'll be talking largely about the bike as delivered, understanding that the owner can (and should!) tailor it to their needs.

First Impressions

My first couple rides on the Exploro have been a mix of pavement, chip-seal, and gravel/dirt.

The WTB Venture tires are quiet and roll on their center tread very nicely. 2" of rubber smooth out the rough roads quite well. On a sharp corner you can feel the side knobs a bit. Not the end of the world, but definitely not as confidence inspiring as a road oriented tire. But then it's not a road oriented tire.

Hit the gravel and the bike is great. The tires track well and traction is plentiful. I have no complaints. If the Focus Paralane was a 95% road bike and 50% gravel bike, I'd say the 3T matches it on the road but comes darn close to a great gravel bike. I say that having never ridden a great gravel bike, so...

Is it perfect? No. On gravel the bike suffers for lack of a dropper post on steeper gravel descents. Lowering the center of gravity a bit and allowing the rider to get behind the saddle can make a big difference in descending confidence. On pavement the cornering issue on stock tires detracts from perfection, as does gearing that has the rider spinning out way too early.

In short? Bike good. Not perfect.

Fast?

3T markets the Exploro as:

Exploro: The world's only full-aero gravel bike

I'm far from an expert here, but I have been watching this space for years. I'm inclined to believe that the 3T Exploro has taken the idea of aero gravel a bit further than other gravel bikes. It has also taken wins at a number of prominent gravel races, so that alone speaks highly of its abilities.

In my rides thus far, comparing it to my other bikes, I feel like I'm giving up very little in terms of speed. This contrasts with, for example, my Pinnacle Arkose which rides nicely but subjectively feels sluggish. Whether that's down to the "Sqaero" tubing, the tires, or a sense of obligation to make the investment a good one is unknown at this time.

Fat Tires?

For years we were limited to 700x25 due to traditional road bike restrictions. 700x28 only if you were lucky and could find tires that ran a little small. To go bigger than that required compromises like cantilever brakes and tires more suitable to a mountain bike than a road bike.

No longer. Disc brakes, 650B wheels, and an emphasis on tire sidewalls have allowed us to have big, fast tires. Thankfully the Exploro's geometry has been designed with this in mind. Mine arrived with 700x2.0 WTB Venture front and rear. 3T claim that they can fit 54mm. I see no need to go larger than what came on the bike.

I do think that a set of Rene Herse 650x48 Switchback Hills are in my future.

Single Ring?

In the old days of 2 chainrings and 9 cogs, realistically you might have 12 or 13 gears considering the overlap. We've now got 12-speed drivetrains with a single chainring. Amazing.

The 3T Exploro is available with a front derailleur but it's also available without. Max' and my bikes are of the latter variety, with a 44T chainring and a comical 11-50 tooth cog.

44T chainring and 11-50T cassette

This is an interesting combination. For "gravel grinding" it's probably great. For road riding, not so much. The cogs are spaced at 11,13,15,17,19,22,25,28,32,36,42,50. Bikecalc did the math:

My preferred cadence is closer to 70RPM, which puts me around 22.5MPH for a maximum comfortable speed. I'm not going to claim that I ride at that speed everywhere I go, but it is a bit limiting to feel like you've spun out in the low 20s. Not to mention at this end of the cassette it's a big jump from 11T to 13T. A reasonable cruising speed of 21MPH requires an uncomfortable cadence whether I'm on the 11T or the 13T. In rides thus far I've found myself hunting quite a bit for the 12T, but no matter how hard I try I can't find it.

For road use a 48T chainring in conjunction with a tighter range cassette is likely in order. To that end I've acquired an XG-1270 cassette with a 10-33 range to put on a 700c with a 40mm tire. I'll try that first, and then if necessary bump up to a 48T chainring. The bikecalc results are shown below.

So single ring? Yes. Perfect gearing? Definitely no, not out of the box. But I think this can be remedied.

Electric Shift?

I'm a fan of electric shifting. To be more specific, I really like the eTap system. I'm not a huge fan of Di2 just because the installation is a pain.

The advantages of eTap are myriad, not least of which is the quickly swappable batteries. Anyway, this bike has electric shifting, which is awesome, and that's all I'm going to say about that.

What's Missing?

Dropper Post

For what 3T charges for this bike, it should be a no-compromises perfect bike. As a recreational mountain biker, I think the Exploro should include a dropper post. A well implemented dropper post on this bike would blow the segment wide open.

Here in the Pacific Northwest our "gravel rides" are logging roads that go up and over mountain passes, and then down. Very, very quickly. I've ridden gravel roads on the Focus Paralane that exceeded 25%. On a road bike geometry there is a very real risk of going over the bars. Braking goes hand-in-hand with praying to your deity of choice.

A dropper post would go a long way toward resolving this. Decades ago hard core mountain bikers derided dropper posts, but now all but the cheapest mountain bikes come with one standard. I probably adjust my dropper more than I shift gears. It's not as critical on a gravel bike, but it would really set the Exploro aside from the competition.

Style

This is undoubtedly subjective, but to my eyes the 3T Exploro is garish. I have a peculiar sense of what the perfect bike looks like, and it looks an awful lot like my original Titanium Habanero "Century Special".

Beauty

Small-diameter tubing, level top-tube. 32- or 36-spoke Open Pro rims. Treadless avocet Fasgrip tires. Double crank, ideally in 53/42 and a corn-cob cassette. To my eyes that styling is the Datsun 240z of bikes.

Beauty

If the Century Special is a 240z, the 3T Exploro is a Civic Type R. Lots of go-fast bits. A gauche paint job. Some ... bulbous ... design cues. But without question the superior machine.

It's no Habanero

It's no Datsun 240z

Interestingly the 3T Exploro reminds me of another of my obnoxious bikes, the Litespeed Ci2.

Separated at birth?

I like both. But beautiful they are not.

Weight

It's hardly fair to compare the 3T Exploro with it's massive tires to my more svelte bikes. But configured as shown below the Exploro weighs in at a rather portly 21 pounds, 6 oz.

This makes it a fair sight heavier than the 19 pound Focus Paralane, the 18 pound 12 oz. Litespeed or the 18 pound 15 oz. TiCycles. All in "ready to ride" livery. That said, there's weight savings all over the place on this bike.

Other

So this happened.

For once this wasn't my fault. Tightening the seatpost clamp as required chipped the paint. I'll have to get some fingernail polish to keep this from chipping further. It's disappointing on a $6000 bicycle.

Also disappointing is that this was necessary at all; the seatpost mechanism is unnecessarily fiddly; somehow every other manufacturer makes do with one or two bolts on the seat-tube, but 3T found it necessary to add a complicated four-piece fastener. Why?

Fiddly too is the rear derailleur. It's held on by the rear axle, which means when you change wheels the rear derailleur falls off. Easy to put back on, not a huge problem, but I've never seen it before and it strikes me as an odd choice.

The Exploro has two mounting spots for bottles or other, and mounting atop the top tube for a bag. That's pretty great, but there's not a particularly good way to mount any frame bags or fenders. For touring purposes one will have to turn to Revelate Designs.

It's not shown in the pictures, but for an aero bike the bars don't have great mounting options for aero-bars. I suspect there's a solution here, but it may require some creativity.

Conclusion

This has been a meandering review. For that I apologize, but there's a lot to cover.

In my opinion the 3T Exploro is an outstanding bike with a few flaws. For fast riding on all surfaces, it excels. For touring it leaves a bit to be desired. It will take a few changes to the gearing to make it a great road bike, but that's a reasonable compromise given the differing needs of gravel and road.

I can see this bike as a long-term member of my fleet. I'll keep the Litespeed as my "poor man's Venge Lunch Race". The Pinnacle Arkose stays for rainy day duty. If I ever ride another brevet, the Habanero touring bike is the likely choice for that. But for long weekend adventure rides, the 3T Exploro should be just right.

The 3T Exploro is not, for me, a one-bike quiver. But it does fill out the four-bike road quiver quite nicely.

Standardizing Thru-Axles: Cool Fixes

I observe in my hub post (either already out or coming soon, depending which I get done first) that innovation is the enemy of standardization.  Which is good, if it produces positive change, but bad, if the change is small relative to the costs imposed (costs including limits on interoperability and search costs associated with once again learning what of the options works best for you).

So quick release bikes, with 100/130 spacing F/R (road) and 100/135 F/R (mountain) was the standard for years, and it worked.  The biggest issue was what kind of cam mechanism you wanted on your QR, and once you realized Shimano was the only real answer, that question went away.  (On this:  https://blog.huffmanbicycleclub.org/2013/05/kcnc-skewers.html.)

Then we learned disc brakes can cause QR to fail, by putting torque forces behind the front hub - or at least this was the rumor.  (Here from Sheldon:  https://www.sheldonbrown.com/disc-brakes.html.)  Wonder if it ever happened.  So we went to thru-axle, at first in the front only, then front and rear both.  (Some good steals on QR bikes in the 2014-2015 time frame when this switch was happening.  Like here:  https://blog.huffmanbicycleclub.org/2015/07/salsa-colossal-titanium-2014.html.)

"Innovating" in Thru Axles

It didn't stop there, of course.  Next up, the size and spacing on the thru axles.  While there are some other standards floating around, and fatbikes and mountain bikes in particular have their own thing going on, among the bikes I ride the question quickly became:  with 100/142 F/R (road, cross, gravel alike), 12mm rear (road, cross, gravel alike), would the front be 15mm or 12mm?  This was the VHS/Betamax of the biking world, circa 2017-2018.

My first thru axle bike, the epically perfect Focus Izalco Max Disc (2016), came with 15mm*100 /12mm*142.

Two years later, the Focus Paralane (2018), soon to be for sale, came with 12*100/12*142.

Most recently, the 3T Exploro came with 12/12.

And none of this would matter, except that 3T included this wheelset as a free incentive when I bought the bike.  Also 12/12.

Not quite done.  For Christmas, P. bought me the Hunt Gravel 700c wheels with dynamo, originally spec'd for the Paralane, but with 35mm Schwalbe G-One tires, perfect for the 3T.  Those, too, are 12/12.

So three new wheelsets, with the idea being two will be swapped on the 3T depending on usage planned.  These are:

• 650b Fulcrum 700db wheels originally spec'd on the 3T in the build I purchased;
• 700c 3T carbon clinchers, 40mm deep;
• Hunt 700c gravel wheels with dynamo.

But none of the new wheels are interoperable with the Focus.  What to do?

The fix

Some cool small-fab fixes coming out to arbitrage the gap between 2016 technology and 2020 standardization.  First is the Joe Jackson Bike Parts 15mm-12mm conversion kit for front forks.

JJBP 15-12 Conversion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ii0aeARoPj0

Joe Jackson mails from Delaware, so I suppose he's another mid-Atlantic cyclist.  I love that he has invented this elegant - and simple - fix for the 15mm thru-axle in a world of 12mm wheels.

That's it?  What are we paying for with large scale component makers, anyway?

I'm a big big fan of Joe Jackson and his home fab, though I had never heard of him before 10 days ago.  The idea of seeing a problem, heating up the mold, and solving it is something I dream about having the skills and the entrepreneurialism to do. 

Here it is going on:

Fixing bolt to hold the star-shape nut.

Inserting the reducing sleeve in the opposite side.

12mm Joe Jackson axle.

The Robert Axle Project RAT-threaded conversion

All I really needed was the front axle to conform, but then I had a threaded front axle (hex-wrench operated) and the RAT thru-axle rear.  Robert Axle Project to the rescue, turning my 12mm rear RAT thru axle into a basic threaded option matching the front.

Package from the mail, next to the Fat Tire bottle, on my desk.  Working from home after all.

Two parts, with the third being an additional threaded end that I will throw away a decade from now after realizing I will never need it.

Mine is the "Lightning Bolt-on Axle." 

These replace the Focus RAT.  R.A.T. - Rapid Axle Technology - was Focus' innovation for its thru axles.  People loved it, right up until they realized that short of roadside wheel changes effected by your crew, the time spent fixing a flat was not devoted to the effort of getting the axle out.

Lots of adulation online for the efficiency of this wheel change in the Kevin Costner classic American Flyers (1985).

The end

Now the Focus has two threaded axles in 12mm each, allowing me to run the new 3T wheelset and any other modern standard set that comes my way.  Rode it 15 miles yesterday down Rock Creek Pkwy, through G-Town, to MacArthur, Reservoir, MacArthur, back toward home on Loughboro, Nebraska and neighborhood roads from there.  New wheels ride smoothly and the new axles held.

New gravel bike - that was quick

Meet the 3T Exploro in Sram Force/Eagle eTap Build - with special edition paint

See, if I hadn't bought this, I never would have found this trail, a mere 7 miles from home.

I picked this up straight from 3T, ordering more or less the same day as the most recent post about gravel bike shopping.  Actually, I think I waited for the credit card cycle to turn over, but that's about it.

From-the-shop build.  I love that it came with wheel reflectors.

3T charges $5890 for this fully built with:

• Sram Force AXS eTap 1x gearing, with 44-tooth chainring and
• Sram Eagle XXI mountain RD, and
• 11-50 12-spd. cassette,
• Fulcrum 700DB 650b wheelset,
• WTB Venture 650b x 2" (51mm) tires, mounted tubeless,
• Carbon 3T finishing kit (stem, bars, post), 
• a Fizik Antares saddle that I removed immediately for the WTB Rocket with titanium rails you see mounted in the first photo.

Or you can check it out for yourself here:  Exploro Team Force/Eagle eTap. 

Nice of them to offer this special edition color scheme, which I like better than the brown/white shown on the website.  If you want the Team layup in this coloration, contact Dan Losier at 3T directly.

(If I sound casual about the price, I'm not.  This is almost exactly twice what I have paid at the tippy-top end before.  I will gush about the bike below, but I am a million miles from saying *any bike* is worth what I can get a serviceable used Honda for on Craigslist.)

 

3T also offered an incentive

After getting this home I found on the 3T website an incentive for the purchase - a free additional 3T wheelset with *any* new bike, plus a $500 donation to a hospital in Bergamo, Italy.  Thought I was too early for the incentive, but I asked Dan (who sold me the bike) to make the donation in any event.

Dan went one better, and promised to send these my way.  (Pretty sure the offer is now concluded, but do check for yourself.)  These are 700c, so will make a good road riding alternative to the more aggressive 650b with WTB Venture that came pre-built.

 

How will I use this?  What about my life will be different?

I've been gravel bike shopping sort of continuously since maybe 2015.  In addition to the recent post linked above, there are several posts on gravel bike drooling here at HBC blog - including how I ended up with the Salsa Colossal and then the Focus Paralane.  There's even one post about how I sold a perfectly credible gravel bike that I kind of miss (the Ritchey Breakaway Cross).

• https://blog.huffmanbicycleclub.org/2015/08/salsa-colossal-report.html
• https://blog.huffmanbicycleclub.org/2015/07/gravel-grinder-shopping-report.html
• https://blog.huffmanbicycleclub.org/2015/07/salsa-colossal-titanium-2014.html
• https://blog.huffmanbicycleclub.org/2018/09/focus-paralane.html
• https://blog.huffmanbicycleclub.org/2018/09/ritchey-breakaway-58cm-xl-for-sale.html

The problem is that this market has changed so much so fast, any early idea of what one "needed" was quickly replaced by a series of wants.

The Exploro really checks a lot of boxes

I found an old e-mail from Sam, dating to January 2017.

I think we can fairly say this purchase was Sam's fault.

My response was "they keep doing this to me.  Every time I think I have found it they change what it is."

OK, three years later, and I still think this is it.  That's as close to constancy as it gets in my riding.

If you have found us here at HBC you know about gravel riding, and if you don't, Duck-Duck-Go it. 

The industry has made huge investments in the kind of riding that used to be a regrettable necessity when the roads on one side of the mountain pass, and the roads on the other, were linked by some beat up old fire road/logging road/single-track.  I guess somebody decided getting between those roads was actually the fun part.  Personally, I blame the guys at Bicycle Quarterly.

I don't call myself a gravel cyclist, but I grew up in Alaska, and I ride with Sam in Oregon, and I live part of the time in Indiana, which is near Kentucky - all three are meccas, and I left out Colorado and Utah, where Sam and I meet nearly yearly, and that trip I took to Kyrgyzstan, when I regretted not having a bike, and the road-cum-mudslide route from Chengdu to Lhasa that I want to ride.  There's the trip to Iceland I've been wanting to make and the roads north of Montreal run well into the Arctic Circle and will not accommodate a unicycle.

In short, the list of reasons for a gravel bike is long.

Review

Two rides so far.  (Why so few?  Maybe a post later about how quarantining, even though it allows for solo exercise, seems to squelch any adventuresome nature.)

The first ride was short and sweet, from home into Rock Creek Park, around some trails, and back.  Maybe 12 miles.  Enough ups to get the heart in the throat but not so much to constitute a real workout.  Observations:  the Sram AXS eTap is *awesome.*  Trivially easy to transition from a lifetime of Shimano shifting into the "right is harder left is easier" mindset.  Completely smooth shifting even with the big jumps on the 10-50 cassette.  Shifts under strain.  Can jump several cogs at a time though I didn't actually count how many.

Big freaking cassette.  Remember when cool meant large chainring small cog?

The bike is light and it hops like a champ.  That said, the forward position is *committing.*  You can roll in fast to hop a rock, or a log, but you can't plan to do it from the backseat like you can on a mountain bike.  So it was hugely fun on a generally smooth trail with an occasional obstacle.  Not sure how I will fare with more mixed terrain!

Ride number two was longer and generally tamer, out and back on the ordinary from-home ride along Beach Drive for maybe 30 miles in total.  Except that wherever the side of the road looked fun, or the lawn beyond it, or the wood just past the lawn, I took those turns and found some really nice terrain.

If a bicycle sits in the forest with noone around . . .

Four notable observations from this ride:

• I'm able to hold with, or pass, the normal roadie.  That's not unexpected, and let's be clear that "holding with or passing" is as much reflective of her/his decision not to work harder as it is of my ability to put out watts, but it is worth noting that the bike rolls competitively even with the semi-knobbies mounted.
• The bike handles like a road bike.  It carves.  It is not quite what the Focus Izalco is on a winding descent, but it is close.  Quick turns in the crit.-style are sharp and fun.
• The riding position, which is as close as I could set it to the sit on my Focus Izalco Max, lets me get in the drops and hold a brisk pace over uneven ground, such as the unkempt lawns along Rock Creek Parkway in DC.  (Until unkempt became unexpectedly and invisibly pot-holed, at which point I dove and rolled.)
• 50 teeth in the back lets me spin up hills I have only ever climbed while standing.  Not quickly, mind you, which is another mindset entirely.

Ride Number 3:  this was the best yet, and I think I am getting the feel of handling this bike in variable terrain.  Same basic outline as 2, with a little more large roads at the start (loving that with COVID-tining I can ride the major arteries without taking my life in my hands) - and a lot more dirt at the out-and-back end of Beach Drive.  I relocated my old trail through the woods but took it a few more miles north, winding through quiet forest just dozens of yards from the road and not knowing it.  I found some hill with steep ups and technical descents.  I found a construction zone that used to be the Capital Crescent trail, with the gates blown open in the heavy wind, and rode a few miles of tracked dirt and gravel.  And I finished with the same in-the-drops roadside rough that makes this bike stand out relative to any alternative.  If the first 40 miles or so was fun, this most recent 30 may have clinched it.

Construction zone.  I swear the "do not enter" sign was not visible.

Probably this bike needs to be carried over logs!

Fun riding on the rocky shores of this creek too, though the creek looked pretty dirty.

Summary:   if you want a full-on road bike that is super fun off the road, this pretty much does it.  In fact, I am comfortable saying this rides 8.5/10ths as well as my epically perfect Focus Izalco Max and rides off-road (firm ground, at least) as well as does the fat bike.

This is the perfect one-bike quiver.  Am I in sell-off phase for good now?

No.

But why not?  Several reasons why I will not be offloading the rest of the collection and riding 3T full time.

• I simply do not believe the "wide is as fast as average" claims.  It needs to be tested, I suppose, but for now the Focus Izalco Max Disc with 28mm tires is presumed to be the fastest pure road bike in the collection.  If I find out otherwise I'll lie about it and stand by my original claim.  (Or else I will argue I knew it all along.)
• I like the variety and some days I want to ride x-wise and otherdays y-wise.  
• Location.  Not carrying bikes back and forth, so if I'm going to ride at both ends of my commute I need one in Indy and one in DC.  And I haven't mentioned Sam's place, though not like Sam doesn't have one I can ride.
• Visitors.  I keep Dad's Specialized Sequoia around for Sam to ride.  Once it happened, though we didn't finish that ride, which was my fault.
• I sweat on trainers.  Like, a lot.  And I'm not dumping all that sweat on a near-$6000 rig.  So the trainer bike(s) will stay.
• Travel.  I suppose for a serious event one travels with the nice bike, but in general I think traveling makes more sense with something you can repair, replace, or lose.  Frankly, a nice metal framed bike with S-105 components might be just the thing. The Titanium Colossal may end up in this role.
• Nostalgia.  Each old bike means something.  The Gunnar has reasonably outlived its usefulness in a stable of fully kitted rigs, but the Gunnar will probably be the last bike I own.

That said, the bike I default to does change with time and collection.  The Focus Izalco Max has been my hands down choice for approaching four years now.  My strong guess is the Exploro will hold price of place for a long while.

See you on the trail!

Charity, Thy Name Is Merlin

I won't say Max has shamed me into writing a post, but his recent discussion of gravel bikes reminded me that the Huffman Bicycle Club does indeed have a readership that demands to be entertained. They've come to the wrong place for that, but if they're looking for a rambling post with no point, then here they are.

Of course the topic du jour (that's french) is the Corona Virus, or as Alaska's most senile octogenarian (and also 1/3 of its congressional delegation) calls it, the "beer virus". The recommendation on much of the Best Coast is to shelter in place. Thankfully I'm a rural dweller. The only advantage of living in the boonies, I mean aside from the peace and quiet, the wildlife migrating through your yard, the affordable housing prices, and the lack of traffic, is that I can bike from my driveway as far as I want with only a stop sign or two. Which, in Oregon, we're now allowed to run.

Since they haven't yet required my county to stay home, I'm at least doing my part by social distancing.

I've been practicing social distancing for years

This ride is a nice 25-mile out-and-back from my house. It's also one of the only Strava segments I track, because it's a straight shot with a mild 1% grade, no traffic and usually very little wind. It's a good way to see where I'm at for the year.

My PR is 19:50 at 316W and 22.2MPH. Today's ride? 25:32 at 189W and 17.3MPH. Good to know. There's a joke in here somewhere: Why am I not worried about catching the Corona Virus? Because I'm too slow. I didn't say the joke was funny. It's also not funny that my euro XXL shorts feel more like euro XL. That might explain some of the speed issue.

Max and I have had several discussions about the economic impact of the Corona Virus. Obviously it's a time to be grateful that we have jobs that allow us to work remotely, and neither of us are in imminent danger of going without a paycheck. Well, I might be so I'm grateful my brother is a generous sort.

We both have a long proud history of purchases of bikes and bike accessories through recessions. Over the years we've gone from "Narrow is aero", with 23mm Vittoria Corsas, to "Win tunnel lied, buy wide", which convinced me to convert all my bikes to Grand Bois 700x28s, to "Nice and fat is where it's at.", for which Max and I both purchased Focus Paralanes, mine presently shod with Compass (now Rene Herse) 700x38s. The latter wasn't in an economic recession, but certainly a moral one.

Judging from Max' post, he may already have another economic stimulus package in mind. I've done more than my fair share in the last month. The details aren't important; let's just say that I once again have a use for the Seasucker Talon I originally got for my Subaru BRZ.

The Seasucker Bike Rack, carrying a fetching Lynskey Ti Hardtail

There's some question about how best to help others. Some complain that consumer purchases are inappropriate at a time when so many are struggling. I've always been troubled by this position. In an exchange of money for goods and services, both parties receive value. When giving money without any good or service in exchange, only one party receives value. The economy suffers.

Imagine being a craftsman at a time like this. A skilled craftsman; perhaps a frame builder. Given the choice of spending a few $K for a frame or giving away a few $K, what message does it send to the frame builder to opt for the latter? That you value receiving nothing higher than receiving one of his frames. The food you put in one person's mouth in exchange for nothing comes out of the mouth of the craftsman.

For that reason I'm partial to splurging on consumer purchases rather than giving to charity. Now I'm not in the market for a custom frame, but the reasoning above holds true for other purchases as well. For the last many years my dealer of choice has been Merlin. I think Max turned me onto them when they were selling groupsets for half the price of Competitive Cyclist. My first big purchase was my Yeti SB66c

Still the best mountain bike ever made

There have been a couple more bikes since, but I think at this point I'm all biked out. Well, I wouldn't be except fortunately for my wallet this Pivot Mach 6 isn't available in XL.

Probably the second best mountain bike ever made

That said, Max reminded me that SRAM recently released Force eTap. I've got red eTap on my Litespeed, and I'm a fan. The TiCycles has Di2, of which I'm not a fan. Other bikes still have, shudder, mechanical groupsets.

I won't commit yet, but I'm thinking my next economic stimulus might just be one or two Force eTap groupsets. Whether in 1x or 2x variety depends on whether I can get over 20MPH on my favorite segment before the purchase occurs.

Gravel Bike Shopping

Last post was 29 April 2019.  If I get this in I can kill another hour of coronavirus down-time and beat the year mark.

Don't be Grevil.

And last new bike was the Focus Paralane, more than 18 months ago now.  That may be a record for me.  (Last new bike if you don't count the Litespeed, which I built with a gifted frameset (thanks, Sam) and Di2 group from the original Focus Cayo Evo.

The collection

With some of the collection sold off and other parts donated, although there is still an obnoxiously large number of bikes in my basement, I am down to the following near-daily riders:

• Focus Izalco Max Disc.  This has proved to be the perfect smooth-surface road bike and even handles packed gravel with aplomb.  Best recent ride is 180 miles in from Cumberland on the towpath, though that was a while ago now.
• Focus Paralane.  This was supposed to be a gravel bike but has become the favored daily driver.  It rides really nicely and handles 35mm tires, perfect for the urban commute.  
• Salsa Colossal Ti.  This was my first crack at an all-road bike.  With 30mm tire clearance, it is not up to par for modern expectations, but it does ride really nicely on varied surfaces and lets me run 75 pounds of pressure.  I have wanted to sell, but there isn't the market for a lovely titanium frameset that I think there should be - Lynsky's constant sales surely aren't helping! - so I keep it as a backup.  This may take up residence in Sam's garage if he'll permit it.
• Specialized Fatboy.  Can't believe we never blogged these, but one day while window-shopping in Durango CO I came across a "end of quick release" sale on fatbikes and bought three.  Sam has one, P__ and I have the others.  It's loads of fun for winter commuting.  I still want to rebuild it with drop bars.
• The Gitane.  This is a Bianchi brand now, and just a cheap steel frameset with horizontal ends for the rear wheel.  I have it built with a single speed, cantilever brakes, front basket, Brooks saddle, and those funky bars Velo-Orange sells. I don't love it but it does work for groceries and c. and it reliably gets nods of approvals riding around town.  I think it looks kind of Euro, et je pense que c'est bien.
• The Litespeed.  This is the C1R built with a hodge-podge of Ultegra Di2 parts and a Force 1x crank, for 1x11 speed gearing.  Well, I haven't actually ridden this yet, but I mean to soon.*

*Litespeed: It was a storied titanium bike.  Then it went all in on aero carbon.  Now all it sells is titanium.  There's a leopard analogy in here somewhere. 


Before you criticize, note that I don't really drive a car.  So na-na-na.  Though I am the one who noted a while back that n+1 may actually NOT be the right number of bikes.

The search

Anyway, I'm looking for a new bike.  A full on gravel bike.  This is what both the Salsa and the Paralane were intended to be, but at 30mm and 35mm tires respectively, neither clearing 650b at much larger, neither of those fits the bill for truly loose dirt, mud, or single-track riding.

Full on gravel has a few sub-segments:

• Nutty over-the top bike-packing with braze-ons for 5 or more cages (or other things).  Like this one from Mason Bikes (UK).  Somebody, maybe Mason, coined the name "Continent Crusher" for these bikes.  Sounds cool.  Maybe one day I will crush a continent.  That will have to be n+2 for me, however.

That mudguard is structural, which helps for supporting a saggy load.

• Steel or perhaps titanium heavy duty rigs.  These are the kind of bikes Surly produces, which nobody would mistake for lightweight or fast but which can be thrown (literally) in the back of a pickup and look none the worse for it.  The picture is the Surly Straggler.  Marin's Nicasio and All City's Gorilla Monsoon fit here too.  These are of the hard-tail-mountain-frameset-with-drop-bars-variety.  What I love about these is that they can credibly claim to have been doing gravel long before anybody thought the thing was cool.

One of the cooler tag-lines in the market: "Crushing gravel since 1976."

• Aggressive road-geometry gravel race bikes.  These bikes advertise themselves for gravel racing, with an eye to 200-mile or less single pushes.  3T invented this sub-segment with the Exploro.

I have admired the aggressive road geometry wide tire sub-segment the most.  That segment is increasingly competitive, with the original - the 3T Exploro; the OPEN line-up; some small local brands - e.g., Rodeo Labs; as well as offerings from an increasing number of the grand tour brands.

One thing this road geometry crowd offers is a fit that matches the Focus Izalco in my collection (stack - 584, reach - 405, currently 2cm of spacers).  It is rare to find an off-road capable bike with a reach dimension greater than 400mm, but all of the below have it, and though stack is a little greater than a pure road machine one can slam the stem and get an aggressive sit.

3T Exploro

3T created this sub-segment with the Exploro.

This is the Team Force 1 eTap offering with a mountain RD and 11-50 cassette.

3T has some relationship with Gerard Vroomen, the guy who designed Cervelos back in the day and invented that teardrop bar shape that revolutionized aero-bikes.  (Maybe he owns the company?) I have a soft spot for Vroomen creations - my most competitive riding was on a Cervelo P2 - and like the look of that 3T.  In addition to the Exploro, 3T's Strada - an aero road bike made for comfortable tire sizes - is one of the cooler bikes on the market.

Despite its category leader status, the 3T Exploro prices in the range of not insane at the top end.  The eTap 1x12 build, which includes a massive range cassette (11-50) and a Sram Eagle XX1 RD, lists at $5800.  It also clears larger tires than most, up to 54mm.

Cervelo Aspero

Cervelo landed with this offering in 2019. 

Love that olive paint scheme.

It follows in the 3T Exploro tradition of a go-fast bike that happens to handle rough roads.  Reports are that it may be a touch harsh on the backside - but isn't that what 50mm tires are for?  Like every major brand offering, Cervelo offers a number of build options, but unlike Burger King you get what they offer and not what you want.  So if you want 650b wheels, you buy Sram eTap or Shimano GRX, but if you want GRX 2x11 or Sram Apex you get 700c wheels. 

To Cervelo's credit the top end - Force AXS eTap - comes in at $6000.  Not cheap in anybody's book, but for a top spec gravel bike it's in the range of fair, even if it outprices 3T.  (I suppose you could run Red AXS eTap, if you were silly.)

This bike is hot.  Cervelo dealers are out of two things:

• The most attractive model (eTap), and 
• the better colors (Burgandy, Olive).  

This one is possible at a cool $4200 plus sales tax.  Not sure anybody not Italian should be selling off-green paint schemes, however.

GRX-1 build with 650b wheelset.  Also carbon bars and dropper post.

Italian?

I've never thought of myself as a Pinarello guy any more than I see myself driving a Ferrari.

OTOH, if everybody else is riding a Cervelo, wouldn't this make me unique?

Tagline:  "All roads are rideable - and also, quickly."  Continent crusher my ass.

Sam and I have had a debate running for years whether it is economical to buy parts and build a bike (rather than buying fully built).  The intuition is that builders get lower prices on groups and finishing kit than we do.  The data has frequently seemed to suggest that maybe the intuition is right - it is generally easy to find a carbon frame, Ultegra build, for $2500, when the frame itself is $1500 and the parts another $1500 (including wheels, post, saddle, cockpit - and group). 

But pricing this out here I find the following at Merlin. 

 

 

Add in $500 for wheels and tires from Hunt, a saddle, and bar tape.  $4000 for a top-spec build?

 

I haven't looked carefully, but $10 says for another thousand - so $5K total - I could build the Grevil running with Sram AXS eTap.

Not going to lie - I'm tempted.  If I get another post up within the next year I can say what I ended up with.  If anything at all, that is.