So you want to ride gravel

With gravel riding continuing to grow in popularity, we have also seen an increase in gravel bike options and gear, as well as questions from the "gravel curious." Fresh off an gravel adventure ride with their daughter, Steve and Kristin cover many of the basics including what is gravel riding, what bike and gear you need (or don't), important riding skills and, how to find places to ride. 

They also discuss Steve's new weekday schedule, and answer a question about what recovery tools you need when on the bike.

Transcript

Steve 0:00

On this episode, we're talking about gravel riding, what it is, what you need, what you need to know, and where you can ride. And we have a question about tools to carry on the bike. So there's a lot actually there in those two topics. There's a lot there. Let's go.

Kristin 0:16

This is Kristin.

Steve 0:17

And I'm Steve, and you're listening to Cycling Together, a podcast about bikes, riding, and riding together.

Kristin 0:23

So we had fun yesterday.

Steve 0:26

We did on one of my now Saturdays off. Yes.

Kristin 0:30

Yeah. We should talk about that for a second. How do you feel about the fact that you are a bike shop that is closed on the weekends? On Saturdays and Sundays, yeah, the whole weekend. What kind of um what kind of feedback have you gotten on that?

Steve 0:45

Not a lot. I've had a few people show up at the door on Saturday going, oh, I didn't realize you were closed on Saturdays now.

Kristin 0:52

Oops.

Steve 0:53

Right. Um, you know, in this summer times, actually, for my type of shop, Saturdays can be fairly quiet midsummer. Yeah. Because everybody's doing something. You know, they're going out.

Kristin 1:05

The last place they want to be is at your bike shop. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

Steve 1:09

So what you get is the emergency stuff. Right. But you don't, yeah, but otherwise I don't get don't get things otherwise, right? Everybody is off, they're off riding, they're off on vacation, they're off on a weekend adventure, they're doing stuff with friends and family. They're yeah, they're just not thinking about it.

Kristin 1:25

And we shop when we talked about it, you know, a lot of it was motivated by the van. Because you were saying we weren't doing much van camping. And I was like, well, the problem is I'm Monday to Friday, you're Tuesday to Saturday. So one of those things is got to give, and I work in banking, so that's not gonna happen.

Steve 1:47

Right. And then the kids. This is the last summer with the both kids home.

Kristin 1:51

Yeah, not that they're home either.

Steve 1:54

Not at the moment, right? But yes.

Kristin 1:56

But no, I think it's I the feedback I've seen. I mean, granted, I just talked to customers who are also friends, have been that's a great idea. You know, that's a great idea. Time is short, you should, you know. And the other thing is we went to like the bike's fight cancer ride, and I think you got better exposure for the bike shop, being out riding, talking to people, right, than if you were just sitting in your shop on a Saturday. So I know you keep saying it's for the summer. We shall see. We shall see. It's at least through the fall because there's all the fall. There's already between PMC Unpaved, um, NEYC is having a uh coach's weekend at Highland Mountain Bike Park. Like, there are already a couple of things that you're gonna be. Yeah, yeah. You're you're still gonna be closed because it would be a lot of like we're closed this Saturday, oh, and we're closed next Saturday. Oh, and we're closed next Saturday. It'd be a lot of like special announcements.

Steve 3:00

So from that standpoint, he was getting to like that in some cases where it was just too many great events to miss. So I would, yeah, I'd be like, oh, well, uh, yeah, oh, I'll be here next Saturday, but not the one after that.

Kristin 3:13

And then you know, well, because the challenge is you know, they talk about this, like when you do the thing, when you turn the thing you love into a career, you don't get to do the thing you love, which is which is why I'm trying not to do that to be like that and do the thing I love. It's only took us this many years. So, yes, so what did we do yesterday?

Steve 3:31

We went on a family gravel adventure.

Kristin 3:35

Partial family.

Steve 3:36

Let's say partial, partial family.

Kristin 3:37

Anders didn't come with us.

Steve 3:39

He is real we did um there is here in Massachusetts, they are developing the Mass Central Rail Trail, which ultimately will be what 104 miles of connected rail trail awesomeness from we had actually ridden a part of this, and I don't know if it was at that time sort of in the concept of the Mass Central Rail Trail, but we had ridden this uh over 10 years ago, and when I had brought you out there 10 years ago, it was 11 years ago, um, that was in part because I I had had a lot of projects in my geology days in the Rutland and Hubbardston and Barrie and Ware area, and I remember always thinking, and that was before gravel riding.

Kristin 4:30

Um no, yep, that was before gravel bike, yep right.

Steve 4:34

And and I always thought, oh, it'd be really cool to ride bikes out here, but you know, where do you go for the mountain bikes? Because that's what I was in my head.

Kristin 4:41

Yeah, but look at all of these great like gravel roads and so forth, and yeah, and so when we went out there, what, 10 years ago, because actually it was Strava that told me, hey, you've been here, you've been here before. Yes, um, it was on our cyclocross bikes, which I do think was kind of where the the switch was starting. Like we have these bikes and we could put them elsewhere. And what I really like about it about yesterday, in addition to just being out there with our daughter, is just the cool stuff we saw that you wouldn't normally see. Like, in particular, we passed a Revolutionary War prison and sanatorium. Like, did we pass it was like a field? It was like out there was the sanatorium. Yeah, but just the fact that all there's all this history hidden in our woods that you wouldn't see, especially in New England. We have a lot of history in the woods. Between that and um uh we've gotten a couple of questions about gravel bikes, and also I have noticed that this seems to be the summer of the gravel bike sales for you. I feel like you've gotten more inquiries about gravel bikes. I've seen you putting together some custom builds of gravel bikes. So it's the same as typical, or is it or is it not? That's just my anecdotal like observation. Like there's not a lot of mountain bikes going right now, there's no road bikes going right now, but I do feel like you're still seeing some energy and questions around gravel bikes. Right. So we thought let's talk about that. We're saying gravel. What is a what's a gravel ride? Like when somebody says one they want to ride gravel.

Steve 6:30

Well, you had put it into three categories. I have three categories. And I actually really like these three categories, right? So when you when you see um we it's gonna be called a gravel bike no matter what of these three types you're doing, yes, right? But pure gravel is the kind of thing like like unbound in Kansas. Yep. A lot like Midwest has just tens of thousands of miles of just dirt roads, yes, and that is pure gravel. Why we also have a bunch in Vermont and New Hampshire, but to just stay on those sort of nice dirt roads, that's hard to do for the whole time. Down in get to the next section, yeah.

Kristin 7:11

Down in the Plymouth area too, south of Boston. Have beautiful. Why do we call it gravel and not dirt road riding? Oh, yeah.

Steve 7:22

I don't actually know the answer to that. Then it would be a dirt bike, and that is a completely different bike has already exists.

Kristin 7:28

Okay, we already have enough naming. Yes, okay. So yeah, there's so so in my head, category one, pure purest gravel is dirt roads. Just dirt roads. Okay. And then second category Adventure ride.

Steve 7:42

Which is where we're we could say adventure roads. And that's where you throw in the Jeep roads. Yep. Right? The very chunky stuff.

Kristin 7:52

It's because around here we we don't have, as you said, miles and miles and miles of dirt roads. So you end up you end up stringing together.

Steve 8:01

Well, that's the third category.

Kristin 8:02

Well, no, but even yesterday we were on roads, we were on paved roads, a couple of s highways, very briefly, um, dirt roads, jeep roads. Yep. Some some even a Jeep would be like, not happy about this.

Steve 8:18

You might even consider cart paths.

Kristin 8:20

Yeah, cart paths, but it's like a strung together thing.

Steve 8:24

But it's still we'll say completely unimproved rail trails where they just pulled the rails up and that was it.

Kristin 8:30

Yeah, but I would still say a not a car maybe, but a jeep could get through. Somebody could drive all of it. Some of it, some of it, people were driving past us on very on the Jeep roads. Okay, so that's adventure ride. Yep. And then there is mixed terrain. Mixed terrain.

Steve 8:47

Yeah, that's what we have right here locally out of our house. Yes. And that is where you are stringing together every bit of dirt you can to come up with a nice gravel ride loop. We're gonna put that in quotes. And the mixed terrain ride will throw mountain bike single track. Yep. Uh, you know, it could be power lines, it could be the dirt roads, um basically any surface possible is in there. And that's because that's what you have to use to get yourself around. Right. And, you know, so Vermont, Vermont rides, all of the Vermont, um, the big rides, they're definitely in the adventure ride categories, but they're gonna throw a little mixed terrain sometimes.

Kristin 9:27

I think just to mess with you, they'll be like, oh, and then we're gonna put this single track right at the end. You're like, why? I was totally fine. I did not need this little bit of anxiety at the end of this ride. I have said it on past shows. I'm sure I will say it again. Once you hit the reason I came up with these categories in my head was so that I knew, or more importantly, you knew what bike to pack for me. So if it's a gravel ride, gravel bike, adventure ride, gravel bike. Mixed terrain, mountain bike, mountain bike. Yes.

Steve 10:00

For me. So definitely learned that you were way happier on the mountain bike on mixed terrain.

Kristin 10:04

I mean, granted, I'm not doing 50, 100 mile mixed terrain rides. These tend to be in the 10, 15 mile ones we do in the morning with with your yeah, mixed terrain terrain tends to be shorter and they can be really slow on a gravel bike.

Steve 10:17

So some of my some of my 30 mile loops around here, I I warn people like on a gravel bike, it's oh it's slow.

Kristin 10:26

We had we had a we had a technical a woman, we'll say a friend, was like a friend of a friend, and they pulled one of your roots. I think the other friends thought it was a Steve the Bike Guy ride, and it wasn't. It was just their friend picked a Steve the Bike Guy route. Yes, and they were like, it took us forever. And it's like we we do use that term mixed terrain for any route that I post that's from the shop because ain't no gravel happening. Yeah, not even an adventure ride. It's it's mixed rain. It's always mixed terrain out of the shop. All right, so this leads to the next question, which is we just talked about gravel bike. What the heck? Maybe why a gravel bike, I guess. Yeah, well, I think what is a gravel bike. Well, that's it. And how does it differ, say, from the bike it looks most like, which is a road bike? Because it looks most like a road bike.

Steve 11:25

It does, and it is essentially it is a road bike. It is a road bike with a different set of geometry so they can fit bigger tires. Okay. And the gearing is typically much easier than a road bike would would be. Yeah. But not necessarily. And that's and that's really the difference. You know, and the and the thing about so when you were mountain biking, you were typically going somewhere into a set of trails, and you're doing these trails in a fairly tighter confined area.

Kristin 11:58

Yes.

Steve 11:58

And and usually it's a trail network somewhere. And the the great thing about a gravel bike is that you are you're usually going longer distances, you're putting together areas that I don't want to call boring, but you know, you wouldn't go to on a mountain bike. It's not a mountain biking area, yeah. Right? You could certainly ride your mountain bike through, but gravel bikes you're riding through areas to get to the next area that you're riding through, and and then just so so different scenery after different scenery after different woods after different fields and so forth. And it's just as it's spectacular that way.

Kristin 12:36

I think what can get confusing, uh even for me, is that in mountain bikes, you have a hardtail and you have dual suspension. Got it, right? Road bike, road bike, gravel bikes come in so many different configurations, or can come in so many configurations, and it's it's kind of a Swiss army knife of a bike, but you kind of have to decide how many tools you want on that Swiss Army knife, yeah, and where to air, like where to air. So let's talk about Sophie's bike versus our ride yesterday. So Sophie and I are riding the same frame. Yep. Um, but her bike, which I had been riding for a while, is really more set up for road. Like I had used it more for long road thing. And so um, like her tires, let's talk about the tires, right? Because when we were on one of the Jeep roads, I looked back and she was missing in action. And I was like, crap, what is going on? Right. So when she finally came up, she was like, I was slipping around like crazy. Yeah. And and so what was on her butt, and we'll have pictures I can put in the show notes as well as the video, but what tires are on my bike versus what tires on her bike?

Steve 13:53

So this ride decision came together fairly late. And so I decided not to swap tires. Yeah. Um, just she'll be fine. And she was and she was, except for that one her Jeep road. And so she has 40 millimeter Maxis, I believe they are called velocitas. Okay. Okay, they are essentially a full-on file tread road tire.

Kristin 14:17

Is that what I rode for Bikes Bike Cancer? Those were the tires I did, yes. Okay, those were tires I rode for that, which was mostly concrete.

Steve 14:23

Yeah, and but you had also ridden these tires on a fairly chunky, um, unimproved rail trail once before. Okay. So they are they were tested.

Kristin 14:32

Yep.

Steve 14:33

Um, but yeah, those are so for a 40 millimeter, basically almost slick tire, if you want to call it, those work great for road rides on gravel bikes.

Kristin 14:45

Yes.

Steve 14:45

Right. And that's what she was on.

Kristin 14:47

Okay. And I have.

Steve 14:48

Right. And you have Pan Eraser X1s 45 millimeter.

Kristin 14:52

Okay, which also had a pretty a more aggressive.

Steve 14:56

Those have, yeah, they have a they have a very tight knob in the center, so they roll up fast on the in the on the on the hard pack and the pavement. And then the knobs tend to spread out towards the sides, but they're deaf they're knobby. They are a knobby tire.

Kristin 15:08

And then you had something even di different, like from the two of us. You had something that seemed to have a little more aggressive edge. Yep.

Steve 15:16

I had the Continental Terra hard packs, which I'm gonna, I think I'm gonna do a video review on. Um very highly underrated tire under, I guess, known tire. Right.

Kristin 15:28

So I had a lot of control on the Jeep Roads, but one thing I noticed now, I will say that I understand that you are stronger than me, and she is young and stronger than me. So but we would hit the pavement and you guys were gone. You were gone. Like, and so then I started to wonder, oh, I wonder if maybe my you do said you did say mine were supposed to roll pretty quickly on the pavement, but I was just kind of in my wonderings. I guess the question I'm gonna ask is with this Swiss Army knife, where do you err on the side of tires?

Steve 16:07

No, that's a good question. So one misconception I think there is in the gravel bikes is that a smooth center section is going to be bad off-road.

Kristin 16:20

Okay.

Steve 16:21

And that is incorrect, I would say.

Kristin 16:25

Okay.

Steve 16:26

You can definitely go with a very uh low height small knob or even a file tread in the center of your tire and do some fairly aggressive stuff on that.

Kristin 16:38

Yeah.

Steve 16:39

Um, you know, then you the more off-road you are, the more you're gonna want a bigger tire, a wider tire, and more side knobs for that for that off-road cornering traction. So Sophie was getting herself, she was slipping and sliding a little bit in all of those um very, very chunky ruts.

Kristin 17:02

Yes.

Steve 17:03

That you know, that we were climbing up. Yep. And so a little bit more width would have helped, and the side knobs would have helped. Yeah.

Kristin 17:11

And we also talked about having for her two sets of wheels, you know, that she can swap, not tires, but two sets of wheels, one with more of the aggressive, like, I know I'm gonna be in mixed terrain, and then more of a road.

Steve 17:27

And then more of a road. Yeah. Um, and I have a lot of customers who do that.

Kristin 17:31

Yeah.

Steve 17:31

Um, a little side note there. So if you're gonna have a second set of wheels for your gravel bike, say one with a really big tire for off-road and one with a skinnier tire for road, yeah, then that's a great way to go. But I have a lot of customers who don't realize that you need to have the full setup if you want to just swap in easier out. So I I'm like, okay, so you'll need a set of wheels and those road tires, yep, yep, yep. And then you'll also need brake rotors and the cassette, and cassettes can be very, very pricey. I'm like, oh, really? Oh, and I get that a lot.

Kristin 18:07

No, that's a really good thing. I get that a lot.

Steve 18:09

They don't realize they also need brake rotors and the cassettes because they don't want to be, yes, right, and and sometimes, well, can I swap those over? I was like, if you're gonna do that, then just swap tires over back and forth between the same set of wheels. Don't, don't, yeah.

Kristin 18:22

Okay, and we ta I want to go back to gearing um because I ride my gravel bike. You sold my road bike back during the pandemic, yeah. And I was always like, Oh, I I know where to find you if I need something new. And I have not wanted to replace her. And I used her last weekend um for a road ride, fully road ride with my team, with my RPMC team. And one person, one guy I was riding with was like, I like how fast you can spin going up the hill. And that's because, of course, I was the only one on the ride who had a one by and a really big cassette in the back, and everybody else had a more traditional.

Steve 19:02

Yeah, you have an eagle cassette in the back with a 1052.

Kristin 19:05

So, um, so let's talk a little bit about again that that's what I think is so interesting with gravel bikes because I've seen you send out gravel bikes with two bys, I've seen you send out gravel bikes with one bys, I've seen you with the eagle. Like, how do you decide what is the right gearing for someone's quote unquote gravel bike?

Steve 19:25

When it comes to gravel bikes, I don't think there this does up this does apply to where you live. Yes, certainly here in New England, you cannot get easy enough. So the easiest gear you can possibly get in a normal setup is what you should go with. And I even the strongest guys I know do not regret having an easy gear, like say mixing and matching with a with a mountain bike rear end with the eagle cassette. They do not regret that whatsoever.

Kristin 19:58

I mean, for me, it comes down We have 20% grades here, yeah. And for me, even on less than that, like um it comes down to not burning out my muscles. Like I when we were on bikes fight at the bikes fight cancer ride, we had people, and I'll admit it, either they were passing me or I was passing, and they were grinding like just the the power they were putting behind each, and they were strong, and they were where I was just spinning, maybe not even as fast as them, but I didn't feel like I was burning out all my watts in that process.

Steve 20:30

I saw those people I know who you're talking about, they were definitely they were on older bikes, yeah, and they probably had I don't remember if any of them had a triple. And if they did have a triple, the older triples only had a 25-tooth cog in the back. Yeah, so I'll have to check the gear ratio, but at 26-25 is probably what they had, which is just actually that that's not even one to one, right?

Kristin 20:53

Right?

Steve 20:54

So that would have been a normal triple back in the day, and then the doubles, they were, yeah, they were not anything over a 28-tooth in the back, and then maybe like a 30, you know, a 34 if they were lucky, but I think they were older bikes, so probably a 39.

Kristin 21:08

I remember back in the day when I first started riding, I was reading all your magazines, and it was during the Lance Armstrong Jan Ulrich stage, age of Tor de France, and there was an article about how Lance was a spinner and Jan was a cranker. Like he was a grinder. Um, this same idea.

Steve 21:27

He was a diesel engine.

Kristin 21:28

And then I started riding with my very good friend Nancy, who is an amazing rider, and but she's still very smart about it. She would say the same thing to me. She was like, You're burning all your watts, get into your lowest, get into your easiest gear, spin, spin, spin, spin, to try to conserve, like rather than really just burn it, burning all the matches.

Steve 21:47

Yeah, this is well, this is where gearing is so important, and this is why shifting is so important. Yeah, because there is that cadence that is going to be right for your body. Because the more you spin, the more your heart rate's going to elevate. Yes. Right. And the harder you push, the more you're going to fatigue your legs and your muscles. And so you're finding that balance between spinning and pushing. Yes. And that, I mean, that's literally like what you're looking for is that optimal cadence for you. And that's why, really, the more you shift into optimal cadence, the better you'll be. So the smoother your shifting is, the better it works. The more you will shift, even if subconsciously you don't realize it.

Kristin 22:32

Oh, I'm sure.

Steve 22:34

If your shifting is easier, you will shift more. Right?

Kristin 22:38

I paid for every single one of those.

Steve 22:41

So yeah, you'll and you'll have a better, you'll have a better day and you'll be able to go further with less fatigue.

Kristin 22:46

Yeah, and this applies to all climbing, but I feel like I think about it more on the gravel bike. And maybe it's because the it's just the hills are that much steeper when you go to Vermont than if I go road riding around here or even mountain biking. I think I think about that. Yeah, there is a lot more.

Steve 23:04

There is an efficiency to a road bike on pavement.

Kristin 23:08

Yeah.

Steve 23:09

Um, even with the skinnier tires, um putting aside the fact that wide tires can be very efficient, um, that you don't need as easy or as easy of a gear on the road bike going up the same grade as you do on a gravel bike going up a very rocky, rooty grade. This you know, same grade.

Kristin 23:31

Yeah. Yeah. Okay, the other thing I want to talk about with gravel bikes, and we'll keep using Sophie as an example, is at one point she was like, Mom, my thumbs really hurt. My thumbs really hurt, and my sh, you know, and we realized it's because you and I have a suspension stem, and she does not.

Steve 23:53

Yep.

Kristin 23:53

Right. And again, she's like grip, she was also gripping really hard, and she like she is not used to those type of rough rides as well.

Steve 24:01

So she was probably gripping too, she was probably death gripping. Right. Right, and some of the really uh rough areas.

Kristin 24:08

Right.

Steve 24:08

Yep. And so, and and I have to look at the optimization of her hood angle and so forth.

Kristin 24:13

But we also talked about when we're talking about the difference between, say, a road bike and a gravel bike, it's those there's some suspension options that you wouldn't put on a road bike.

Steve 24:23

You can get suspension forks, gravel bike suspension forks. Yeah, they are short travel, they're made for gravel bikes, they're uh only a handful on the market, but I will say that they seem to not be um popular. And they're not getting like popular. Really? It seems like the consensus among the gravel world is you're you're you're just you're taking the gravel bike from what it was, and it's just starting to make it too mountain bikey, and because they're heavy in many cases. Yep. And they really and and it's noticeable, like they change the the feel, the weight balance of a gravel bike, and they change the steering feel. A lot of gravel bikes are not suspension corrected, which means when they when you say suspension corrected, it means that the geometry of the bike is designed such that it's for a taller fork in the front. So even though if it came with a rigid carbon fork, that rigid carbon fork is taller than normal, so that you can just plop in a suspension fork and it doesn't change the geometry.

Kristin 25:31

Okay.

Steve 25:32

Otherwise, on a lava gravel bikes, if you put in a suspension fork, in most cases, it it is actually slackening the seat tube angle and the head tube angle because it's lifting up the front end.

Kristin 25:43

Yeah.

Steve 25:44

But in most cases, it's it's acceptable, it's fine. In some cases, though, it really changes the handling to to not good.

Kristin 25:53

Um it's I've tried, I feel like I've tried them all, right? I started with a loaf fork.

Steve 26:01

Yep.

Kristin 26:02

That we got through a barter. That's right, yeah. Um, and that's a leaf spring.

Steve 26:08

That is, yes. Right? Yep. And that is the lightest weight uh gravel suspension fork.

Kristin 26:14

I don't think I could get it to engage.

Steve 26:18

Well, that one I think was just the wrong. They make two spring rates. That one was just the wrong spring rate for you. Okay, perfect. Yeah, and they also, for a lot of people, you don't think it's doing anything when it is. It is.

Kristin 26:30

Okay. Then we tried Diana has Diana has the Rock Shocks.

Steve 26:35

Yeah, the Rock Shocks Ruby.

Kristin 26:36

Yep. Um and again, I don't didn't know which one did our friends. You were fine with that. I was fine with that. Yeah. Um, I'm not that, I'm gonna say, I'm not that sensitive a rider where I'm like, oh, this has really changed my my feel. I'd be the first to admit it. Like, right. Good, but good. Um, but our friend tried it. Didn't Jeff try it. No, he tried the loaf. Oh, he tried the loud.

Steve 27:00

Yeah, yeah.

Kristin 27:00

And then, but now I have the just the suspension stamps.

Steve 27:06

Yeah, you have the cane cream silk.

Kristin 27:07

I mean, why why are we adding suspension to these bikes? Even a little bit. What's the goal?

Steve 27:14

Yeah, the I mean the goal is because of all of the the roughness of the road, right? And all of that shaking and jitteriness of the handlebars. Yep. And you're trying to basically relieve all of that uh that motion in your hands.

Kristin 27:31

Okay.

Steve 27:32

So on a gravel bike, it tends to be more very rough, stuttery stuff. And the suspension forks that are built like mountain bike forks, like the rock shocks, like the fox, like the cane creek, and so forth, their ability to handle that very light, um, quick stutter stuff, yeah, is not is not as great as it is to handle the hits.

Kristin 28:01

Okay.

Steve 28:02

And the Lauf, actually, if depending on your weight and their spring rate, can be very good on the stutter bumps. Um, but that's I think in part why also that suspension hasn't taken off and that bigger tires have taken off. Because the roll of tires is the greatest thing in the comfort of a gravel bike. Full stop. Okay. Because the larger the tire you have, the lower the pressure you can run. And so you right there, that is your suspension. Is the is the right the cushion the tires.

Kristin 28:38

Does it help with control at all, too? Like for what?

Steve 28:42

Like if you the suspension?

Kristin 28:44

Yeah, like can it help with you having a little bit more control?

Steve 28:47

Well, control is all about keeping the tires in contact with the ground. Okay. So suspension, that is what suspension's role is to keep the in many cases, like to keep the tires in contact with the ground. Yeah. Right. And so, yes, in theory, it can help you coming to control. Now, the suspension stems are not doing that. They are just they are they are a buffer between the vibration and your body.

Kristin 29:14

Okay.

Steve 29:15

But they're not keeping the tire more in contact with the ground. Um, lower pressure is what keeps the tire in contact with the ground.

Kristin 29:23

Um, and what about I know we have at least one suspension seat post I've seen kick in in the shop on someone's gravel bike. What is that was?

Steve 29:32

You know, I have not put one of those on my own bike, but they are they are very cool. And I was actually almost thinking about getting you one to try. Now I have um actually on my bike I have the Ergon post, which is this split carbon system. Oh it technically has a little bit of movement that other that other carbon posts don't. Okay. So I suppose it's suspension light.

Kristin 29:57

Suspension adjacent.

Steve 29:58

Yeah, suspension adjacent, right? I mean, it definitely flexes. Yeah. Right.

Kristin 30:04

Yeah. All right. So those are kind of like when you look at a mountain bike versus, I mean a road bike versus a gravel bike, those are kind of the big categories what makes them different. Here's a question from from Chris. This is part of the what got us to inspired. Um, I've had several conversations lately where people who are mountain bikes, roadies, casual cyclists looking for a solid first gravel bike, if not solid, not solid, well made at a reasonable price. Which by the way, I love. We just had someone in the shop recently who has been mountain biking for a couple of years, and now she's she's uh texted and said, I need to know about gravel bikes. I was like, Welcome to the insanity. Um, what are some good options these days? I think that's the big question is how much, like, how much does it take to get into gravel biking? How to how to know, right? Like how much how much should you be spending? What are the like how do you get started? Because again, there's so many options.

Steve 31:02

There are. So here's there are some five minutes. Five minutes. Okay, I know, right? Only five. Can I have 50?

Kristin 31:11

Okay.

Steve 31:11

I mean, even like my there are certain considerations to look at in a bike, and these are not deal breakers, but here are the things you really should be looking for.

Kristin 31:22

Okay.

Steve 31:23

All right. Number one is that it should have a UDH, which is a universal derailer hanger.

Kristin 31:29

Okay.

Steve 31:30

Uh I won't go into the background of that. What the UDH does is it does allow the bike to use SRAM direct mount deraillers, but that is not the reason you should get it. Because I don't care what necessarily derailler you have on there.

Kristin 31:45

Okay.

Steve 31:45

It is that a UDH has taken the fact that there were 300 plus different derailler hangers on a bike, which, especially on a grab a bike, can get bent and damaged or break and so forth.

Kristin 31:59

Yes.

Steve 31:59

And they can be realigned and bent back straight by a shop with the right tool, but only one or two times, maybe at the most, before it can snap.

Kristin 32:08

Listen to our show about bike materials. Yes.

Steve 32:11

The thing about a UDH is that every shop in the country will definitely have one of these on hand.

Kristin 32:15

Okay.

Steve 32:16

Okay. Should you break one. And unlike, especially with through axles, through axle derailer hanger has gotten to be these $40, $45 things.

Kristin 32:25

Yeah.

Steve 32:25

And a UDH is generally under $20.

Kristin 32:28

Oh, okay.

Steve 32:29

And so um, I yeah, that that's why you should that's why you should look for UDH if you can get it.

Kristin 32:35

Okay.

Steve 32:36

Okay. Um, tire clearance. So over the past few years, tire clearance has gone up and up and up and up. And I don't you want to look for something with at least 50 millimeter tire clearance. Okay, that would be uh a normal road size 700C wheel diameter. Okay. Okay, and a 50 millimeter um width clearance. And not squeezing in 50s, but a true, like they say, oh, this can fit 50s.

Kristin 33:09

Right.

Steve 33:09

Um, you don't want to regret not being able to put big tires, and there are many gravel bikes now that use a mountain bike tire, which use an inch width instead of a millimeter. Because why not? Because why not? But those would be 20, so 29 inch, which is the exact same diameter as 700 CN road bikes. Yep. And then there'll be like a 2.2, 2.25 width, which is around 56, 57 millimeters.

Kristin 33:36

Okay. Um we need a Steve the Bike Guy gravel bike basics check list.

Steve 33:42

I so so those can be very cool, and it the rougher the terrain you're going on, the more you're gonna want to look for a bike that can do that. Yep. But 50, I think, is the is a good place to be. Okay. And I don't think down the road you're necessarily gonna regret not being able to go any bigger. You might like you might a small amount, but not not a big thing.

Kristin 34:05

Okay.

Steve 34:06

If your bike can only fit 45s, depending on where you live, you might then start to regret that down the road.

Kristin 34:13

Yeah, Chris commented in this conversation we were having on Slack that his bike has his current bike has 700 by 40s, which used to feel like monster truck tires, and now they're basically TT tires. Like he was like, these used to feel huge. So, like the whole idea. I think in part is how do you, in his words, future-proof as much as possible.

Steve 34:36

And that's why trying to get the biggest tire clearance you can is future-proofing. They were they were just measuring actual tire width of the Tour de France bikes. Yeah. There were some for for regular road stages that were measuring out at 33 millimeters on on professional Tour de France riders' bikes.

Kristin 34:53

How much did we ride?

Steve 34:54

Like 23 was and and skinnier was the norm. The norm back in the day. What we grew up on. Um, and then the next thing really comes down to the one-by drivetrain or the two-by drivetrain. Okay. And what the easiest gear is. Um I tend to say, so for somebody who's going to who does not live in a hilly area, okay. All right, uh, you can go two by more often. And somebody who's go or somebody who lives in a hilly area but is gonna say, I'm gonna ride this mostly on road, right? And do a little bit of off-roading. Then I start to talk to by with that person.

Kristin 35:40

Okay.

Steve 35:41

Just because the spacing between each gear change is a little less, and you can then find find that optimum cadence a little better. Yes. On longer grades. But off-road in hilly areas, you tend to be shifting all the time. You are not on a grade that stays the same pitch for very long. You are constantly up and down and up and down and up and down. Yeah. And so that's why one buy has definitely is ruling the gravel bike world. Um, and because you're and you're often getting 10 gears in the back, or times, I'm sorry. You're often getting 12 gears in the back. And the new SRAM stuff has 13. It's electronic only, but yeah. Um, and even Shimano, who was just so much two by two by two by, now has really great, well-priced one-by options. Yep. So um, if you're looking for that solid, reasonably priced gravel bike, you're gonna be looking at aluminum, and aluminum frames can be great. Yep. And so, really, now alum, I don't know of any aluminum frames out there right now that have that big 2.2 mountain bike size clearance. Um, I should look into that. Yeah. But you can definitely get 50 millimeter clearance, but not all, but not on all of them. So that's it's it's a really important thing to look for. And then and then really it's gonna come down to that drivetrain.

Kristin 37:11

What's a reasonable price point or a good starting price point?

Steve 37:18

That's a great question because this is this is where this is where there is this small price difference, yes, big divide in in performance.

Kristin 37:29

Yeah.

Steve 37:30

I think you're gonna be looking at around anywhere between 1600 to 2000 for a pretty good, decent rabble bike.

Kristin 37:41

Okay.

Steve 37:42

What happens when you drop a little below that is you end up getting mechanical disc brakes. And you know, can I go into a little side thing here?

Kristin 37:56

Can you take a side quest? Yes. Can I take a side quest? You may take a side quest.

Steve 37:59

I had a guy come in for a uh sort of a pre-big event ride checkup for his bike. Okay, and I don't think this bike was any more than a year old. It was an endurance road bike, and it was an entry-level, it had Shimano Claris on it, two speed, which is uh two in the front, eight in the back for Claris. Okay. Claris, okay. Now Claris doesn't make hydraulic disc brakes, and hydraulic disc brakes add a lot to the cost. So this had Tektro mechanical disc brakes.

Kristin 38:34

And when you say mechanical disc brakes, you mean there's a cable.

Steve 38:37

There's a cable. Just like a cable was pulling a caliper brake, a rim rim brake, it is pulling the sort of lever on the on the disc caliper, yes, which then pulls in the pistons and and to push against the rotor.

Kristin 38:51

Versus non, which uses hydraulic fluid.

Steve 38:54

Okay. And so and the bike was the bike was uh pretty good, a few little adjustments, and then I took it outside for the for the test ride, and I was like, this is this is unacceptable. Like the the braking was dangerous, and this is not the first time I've seen this.

Kristin 39:14

And I what does that mean dangerous?

Steve 39:17

Like, didn't oh like like you are not making an emergency stop. You are you are you are also have to have a fistful, all fingers on the brakes, pulling as hard as you can, say if you had a stop sign at the bottom of a hill. Okay, it was that bad, and I've seen this many, many times, and the and it's di mechanical disc brakes can be okay. The the only caliper that I and a lot of it's the pad material, and I actually changed the pads in the front, which does the most of the braking power. Yes, and I re-bedded that in, and I got him a little better, but I was like, this is clearly a a uh part issue. Okay, right, and I know I've I knew it though. Um so this is why though you should get hydraulic disc brakes. So for that next price up, yeah, it could be like you 1400 you get mechanical, 1600, you get hydraulic. Worth it worth it. Okay, completely worth it. And but then you do need to know that I've even seen some of those entry-level hydraulic disc brake ones that the braking's fine, but that is where uh a pad change can make that great, the braking great.

Kristin 40:41

So are there not rules on how fast a bike should break or how a brake should work? Like, how can you put out brakes that don't break?

Steve 40:54

Uh there's this. Is that a whole nother side of it? Yeah, that's a whole but there is there's this is a standard about testing your your bike and so forth. Um, but the reality is is that a lot of companies can put out I I like to say they can put out parts that look like bike parts. They don't have to work like bike parts.

Kristin 41:12

You know, like okay, bice bike part-shaped objects is not really what I'm looking for. That's terrifying.

Steve 41:20

Yeah, I mean, it was so bad. I'm almost considering writing to this major, major brand and saying this that this is dangerous. This is like a failure by your product manager to understand what he's speculing.

Kristin 41:35

Do you um tell a customer? So, like what do you say to this guy? Yeah, other than do you say to him, like, just be careful, be aware. Braking's a little harder for you. Do you like how yeah, how I guess how harsh do you get when you're when you're explaining this to a customer about the bike they own, which is really hard.

Steve 41:59

Unfortunately, I feel sometimes the worse something is that's not the customer's fault, and it's completely the manufacturer's fault. I I can sometimes get a little harsh in my warnings, but try to be like, I like, you know, be careful. I've done what I could. Yes. This is what it is, what it is. Right. You know, I don't want to say, yeah, I mean, this is their bike.

Kristin 42:24

Yeah, no, I get it.

Steve 42:25

It's really here's the here's the other thing is that a lot this bike, this bike did it. Um a lot of companies are putting all of their cables through down under the stem, down through the headset bearings into the frame that way. I really don't want to sell any bikes that that do that. Hydraulic hoses are okay. Okay. You generally never touch a hydraulic hose what's in it's once it's in a bike.

Kristin 42:58

Once it's in there, okay.

Steve 43:00

Um but this had in this case, it's not hydraulic hoses, it's two cable actuated brake line uh uh housings plus the the cables and two, oh was he one by? No, he was two by. So, and two shift cable housings and cables. And they were jammed down into this thing. And and I and the first thing that that started me down this road was wow, this like the hand pressure to pull back that front brake was not great. Yeah, and I was like, I can make this better, like I just can lube this cable, or you know, I'll just I'll put in a fresh cable into this and I can make this a lot better before I knew that the braking power wasn't there. Only to discover that I could not run a new cable.

Kristin 43:46

Did I walk in on this bike? Yes, I did, okay.

Steve 43:49

Because they had basically pinched the housing as it was going down into the headset. Right. So I had to pull the stem up, pull the headset, cable. Pull the headset top cap up, loosen that up a little bit, push my cable through, put everything back down together. I should not have to do that. No mechanics should have to do that, and no customers should have to bear that just to change a front brake cable.

Kristin 44:13

So you don't even have to write to this company. We'll just clip this whole conversation and you can send it to them. Because you're right. I think I mean I see the frustration when I walk into the shop for our lunchtime walk, and you are like, Well, I've opened a can of worms, right? Like I've I I couldn't do this, and now hey, it's just and it literally I could have left it as literally, but I was like, I can make this 10% better.

Steve 44:38

And I open a can of worms.

Kristin 44:39

And it literally looks like that. This is like all these are like on the top. Next on the gravel, let's talk about non-bike gravel gear. This was actually a question also from from our Slack.

Steve 44:52

Yeah.

Kristin 44:53

Because I do think there's a temptation that you need quote unquote special gear, or you might notice special gear. I think the biggest thing for me when I see a gravel bike is they almost always have some kind of top two bag or handlebar bag.

Steve 45:06

Well, all right, so top two bags, a lot of gravel bikes will have these two mounting points. Like two uh bottle cage um brazons, basically, we'll call them. And so there are some top two bags that will mount by those two bolts, and then that's all you need. But at the same time, those exact same top two bags come with the straps if you don't have the bolts. Yes. So you really don't need those two bolts. It just it's a nice clean look. The straps, because of all the dirt and the grit and everything, will tend to completely wear away and dull your paint where the straps go around the frame. Yep. Yeah, so um I have tried both.

Kristin 45:44

I prefer the top tube to the handlebar in part from just neatness. I think it's really it's really hard to strap a bag to the front with any cables that you have and not end up just looking like a mess. And you can also get into that top tube bag really easily. But I will say, do not they're not expensive, but the ch I bought a really cheap one once and I realized why it was so cheap. I couldn't zip it back up.

Steve 46:09

I gave you, I gave you a little grief. I'm like, where did you get this?

Kristin 46:11

Like, where did you but like you could I couldn't zip it back up while riding with one hand, with one hand, yeah. Right? So that's my only tip on those. Yeah, test bags.

Steve 46:22

You can actually like kind of hold it from the base and then like it was secured on your bike, and then pull with one hand, pull and close the zipper, and you'll be able to see how that works. Exactly. But why is it that gravel riders tend to use more bags, where road riders tend to use no bags at all, or maybe saddle bags. Snacks, more snacks.

Kristin 46:42

That's my theory, and it's easier to get into the bag in front to grab my snack when I'm also on something rough versus when I'm on smooth pavement and I can just grab it out of my back pocket. I think it's easier to like, oh, take a bite, throw it back into my bag. My bag is gross, it needs to be washed because there's like crumbs and stuff inside. Um helmets just a road helmet, although we've started calling them gravel helmets.

Steve 47:09

Yeah, but I say for gravel, you know what? Uh Ride anything. Yeah, ride anything.

Kristin 47:13

Yeah, yeah.

Steve 47:13

You want to have one with a visor, go for it.

Kristin 47:15

Yeah, here's the thing I do want to talk about. I've noticed new gravel kits coming, and the one that I do not understand is the lycra shorts with pockets. Yeah. We were, I think it was unpaved last year, and somebody had shoved uh so much crap into the pockets of these lyra shorts that I was like, you should have just worn cargo shorts. Right. Like I think I think there's just this whole, like, it's gravel, we need special clothing.

Steve 47:48

And we really I really have shorts once I had this tiny little pocket, and even though it was there for half the life of them, but uh but it was like a gel, one a single gel pocket type of situation. I would bet if we asked people who have those, they're like, oh, these are the best things ever. Oh, I think they might be, but you're right.

Kristin 48:07

I they I they were like sagging because lycra is not really designed to hold that kind of amount of weight of weight. Yeah, like the like the shortcut.

Steve 48:16

I can't wouldn't it like chafe all on your legs? I don't know. I it doesn't seem like a great place to put stuff though.

Kristin 48:22

I'm definitely there's a whole like some people like to carry all their stuff on their body, like in their back pockets, and some people like to carry stuff on the bike. And I am a on the bike person. I like to keep my pockets as light as possible. I really don't like having like all my tools in one pocket, and they'll just be people have just luggage back there. And I don't I tend to be a you know, my other thing is just layer, layer, layers. Like I definitely wear more layers when I'm gravel biking, just because you can start off cool, then you're into the hot, you're into the you know, Jeep trails and sweating away, and then so that's where the vests are great and the arm warmers, and but like you just don't need sp my point is you don't necessarily need special clothing for gravel, even though they're gonna need special clothing for gravel.

Steve 49:13

No, you know, and and we tend to wear full finger gloves. I know wear gravel riding, just like we wear on mountain biking. Uh, to be honest though, this is I I'd say that full finger gloves are more popular on gravel riding, but whatever, short fingers, half fingers are fine.

Kristin 49:28

I have started I haven't worn a short finger glove. I haven't worn a short finger glove probably in three years. Wow. We started doing more gravel riding. I was wearing my long finger gloves. I just like the feeling of protection. And then if my chain does fall off, I'm immediately greasy. I don't want that. So I just yeah, I'm I'm but now I'll wear the lightweight. I really like the the mesh hot weather ones. Yes, the mesh hotels. That's what I have. Those are really nice.

Steve 49:59

Yeah, you can tend to on some of the especially mixed terrain. Uh, you might uh if your hands are out on the hoods, you might have to go through a tight tree section, you might scrape the tree a little bit, right? And so that's yeah, I mean, there's thorns, there's right.

Kristin 50:14

Okay, so what special skills are there well, I I I know the answer to this because I was watching Sophie yesterday too. Like, what skill set do you think serves a gravel rider best?

Steve 50:25

Typically, if you're already a mountain biker, then you're fine gravel riding. Yeah, right, because we've seen certainly many pure roadies who get freaked out as soon as they leave the pavement. Right. And I think it might be because there is a small level of drift on anything off-road. Small. Or large. Or a large amount of drifting.

Kristin 50:53

I think you have there are times, there were times yesterday I was like, go wherever you want to go, sweetie. I will just be here for the ride. And just the bike was deciding where she wanted going to update.

Steve 51:04

Uh, sometimes the rear wheel may slide sideways a little bit, where you know, in a gravel rider and an empty and a mountain bike rider won't even notice it or won't even phase them. It's just one of those things where it'll just completely they're you know, a roadie's brain will just go, Oh my gosh, I'm falling.

Kristin 51:20

Yes.

Steve 51:20

And same thing going downhill on very, very loose gravel. The bike is is just basically you gotta let the bike in a lot of ways find its own line, and it is drifting and it is rolling across the tops of all of these little these these rounded pebbles and everything. And I probably the brain of somebody who's used to being planted to the ground probably freaks out.

Kristin 51:44

Yeah, I do think a mountain biker transitions easier to gravel biking than a road rider because the other thing is watching Sophie, who is more of a mountain biker, that's her her past, fly away from me. She had her weight back, she had her petals level, she was standing on them. Like she was using a lot of those basic mountain bike skills on going down the Jeep section.

Steve 52:09

Yeah, that one jeep section.

Kristin 52:10

Yeah, the one jeep sections. Even I was like, You were going so fast. She was like, part of my brain said, Maybe I shouldn't be going this fast. And then the other part of the other part of her brain was like, we're exactly right. Um, I mean, I think road riders can obviously get that skill set, but oh absolutely it's it's it's it's it is it is learned though. And well, and I think it makes you a better road rider. I think I do think that mountain bike skills or cyclocross skills or whatever those because make you a better road rider, right? Because you are gonna hit sand, you are gonna hit, you know, you may have to jump off onto grass. I think those are all really good skills to have. Anyway, all right. The last thing I want to hit, and this in itself could be its own show, I know, but let's just talk about where you where we can ride a little bit. Um, like where first of all, where do you find when you were putting together say yesterday's route, like where do you go to find to stitch together these this is a whole show. Okay.

Steve 53:14

And yet so for yesterday's ride, yeah. What did I do? So I I I create all my routes in Rye with GPS.

Kristin 53:23

Okay.

Steve 53:24

And Rye with GPS does have a heat map showing where other riders have gone.

Kristin 53:30

Oh, okay.

Steve 53:31

It's not great because it's fairly new.

Kristin 53:33

Okay.

Steve 53:34

Um, so in another window, I will have the Strava heat map up. So that is, and you have to have a premium count to look at that. Yep. Um, and so that is a great resource to see where other riders have been. And then I am using other multiple maps with, say, so I can go to street view. Now, the the thing with gravel courses is you're trying to find more dirt roads and more trails, yeah, and those don't have street views. So sometimes you're actually looking at the intersection where it the road veers off of the paved road that does have the street view to look at things. And so you so basically it's like five different windows of different maps that you're going back and forth between to come up with the with the course.

Kristin 54:27

Okay, but for the rest of us, is there a way if I go to ride with GPS in a certain area, people somebody's already done it?

Steve 54:38

Somebody will probably have saved. Oh, absolutely.

Kristin 54:40

Which I think is the coolest thing about the new technologies.

Steve 54:43

Like, so after I we did this that ride yesterday, yeah, I did two things. I cleaned it up a little bit and then posted it public. Oh, sorry. And then I created a whole second one um that was in my whole compact, you know, um series of rides where I I like to put as many miles as I can in a small area.

Kristin 55:09

Yeah.

Steve 55:10

Right? So that way you could always truncate it. Um, and so created basically created one of those.

Kristin 55:16

Yeah. Yeah. Now, one thing I did want to talk about really briefly, because there are times we'll be going for a ride and we will pass a sign that says like do not enter, and I'll be like, dop, but and and you'll be like, no, that's allowed because that's do not enter for vehicles. That's do not enter.

Steve 55:31

Oh, right. So that's that's a show that I do want to do, but yes, you're absolutely right. There are different levels of do not enter signs. So, for instance, there's a section of power line here that we use a lot, and it says no trespassing, and there's a little fenced-in area with a little building that for the for the power equipment guys. Yeah. Okay, and then but but the gravel road that follows underneath the power lines is continuing on. You're like, well, that looks great. Why can't I mean no trespassing? Well, that whole land is town public, town forest property.

Kristin 56:03

Okay.

Steve 56:04

Okay. So they're just basically leasing that land. So when they're like that, no trespassing sign is they don't want people going into their equipment area, right? Right. But they have really no say on the fact that we're following the on the town forest property on the gravel road. Yeah. Right.

Kristin 56:21

And we had an interesting situation last weekend when we were in in Duxbury, where our good friends live. Um, we take the the point road out to Gurnett Point, and that turns into Plymouth. And when you get, most of the time you can ride all the way out to the it's called Bug Light and the Plymouth Light Station, which was a old lighthouse. Um, and most of the time you can do that, no problem. But in the summer, they put guards up because it's private roads, and they're and they stopped us, they stopped us and said, no walkers and hikers can come through here, no bikes. But what was so interesting was they had a sign-up that read vehicular trespass is a violation of chapter 266, section 121A. Well, that that law, because I looked it up, makes it a crime to enter private land without the owner's right while using or possessing a powered vehicle, e.g., an ATV, dirt bike, or car. Bike, not our bikes.

Steve 57:27

Right. Not in the law that they're stating.

Kristin 57:31

Huge, huge sign. So we end up we ended up.

Steve 57:35

This is going to be state by state, but you know, there is a private road as in the landowner owns the road.

Kristin 57:41

Yes.

Steve 57:42

But then in so certainly here, we have a lot of of roads which are not accepted by the town. So the town is not going to maintain the road. Right. But they are also roads that were created with they have no owner.

Kristin 57:56

Right.

Steve 57:56

So these are private roads technically because the town doesn't own them.

Kristin 58:02

Right.

Steve 58:02

But so I had looked up to the road.

Kristin 58:04

No, the people aren't.

Steve 58:05

But the but none of the people who own the houses and their their parcels of land own it either. And so I've looked up the laws on that, and they'll those have uh no, you like you, they they have no right to restrict people from those roads. Yeah. You are not allowed to um park on those roads. But you can't drive that there.

Kristin 58:29

Yeah. And what's crazy about this one in particular is they're trying to preserve this historic light at the end of this beautiful place.

Steve 58:37

Yes.

Kristin 58:38

And they're even trying to solicit. Which is owned by the federal government. Which is right.

Steve 58:42

And they're the Coast Guard.

Kristin 58:43

Um, no, I think they've I think that's the point, is it has reverted, it's it's being preserved by an organization. Um they want to preserve Bug Light, they want to preserve the the the Plymouth lighthouse, and um and they're looking for donations, but you can't get out there. Like once you were out there, we were reading all the historic signs. I was like, this is a little mini museum out here that apparently nobody can get to. So it's just it is important to know the rules. We don't want anybody getting in trouble, but also recognize there's a lot of places you can go that maybe you didn't realize you could. Right? Right. Break the law. No, just kidding. All right, anything else on gravel bikes? No, we have a question from Tiffany. And this this might be a hard one to answer, but Tiffany is someone who rides a gravel bike, a road ride, a road bike, a mountain bike, and her question is what is the right type of recovery items I should have for each bike? Like I go out if I'm not going far with a quick link CO2 plug kit and a multi-tool for my mountain bike, and I feel pretty okay. But should I bring a tube? Should I bring tire irons for my road bike? Like what basically can you have a one-size-fit-all toolkit for every bike you ride?

Steve 1:00:08

Possibly. Okay. Um certainly if you're tubeless on all of your bikes, then you then you can. I mean, you want to make sure that your multi-tool covers all your bikes in terms of the tools you need.

Kristin 1:00:21

Put it in all the places and turn the bike.

Steve 1:00:23

Yep. Um, obviously, CO2 is universal, plug kits are universal. Um, quick links. Now, quick links, you might want to have the quick links for all your different bikes, because those are probably going to be different. Um now, a quick link is tends to here's the a quick link tends to be almost useless if you don't have a chain tool.

Kristin 1:00:45

Oh.

Steve 1:00:45

So there's no point. If your multi-tool doesn't have a chain tool, there's really not too many points, there's not really a point of carrying a quick link. And the reason is because if your chain breaks, it usually breaks in such a way that you need to get re you have to remove the offending link. Okay. It's not like your quick link breaks on your chain and you just replace in the quick link. That quick link almost never breaks, some other link.

Kristin 1:01:09

Okay.

Steve 1:01:11

So that's a that's just one to a good one to think about.

Kristin 1:01:13

You need a tool that allows you to break the chain to take off the phone.

Steve 1:01:18

When you say breaking the chain, that means pushing a pin out. Yes. To take out the broken one, right? Um, be aware that if you're shortening a chain by a link, you may not be able to shift. Well, you may not be able to shift into your largest cog in the back.

Kristin 1:01:33

Okay.

Steve 1:01:34

Okay. Um, but I I I don't want to say you can't shift there. If you do shift there, you may rip your derailler off your bike and completely do a lot of damage. So if you if you have the know-how, I would limit it out. Yes. Um, you can you can certainly check it um first, but anyway, that's okay.

Kristin 1:01:55

No, that's an important that's an important thing to check for.

Steve 1:01:58

And then and then it really comes down to the the spare tube. So whether you're carrying a spare tube or not, I typically do have one. Um don't usually I'm on mountain bike rides that are local in the in the in the trails where you're not all that far away from walking out. Um but the tube because you're probably on multiple different tire widths, that's uh that's a hard one. You could, in theory, get a tube that will do everything that if you're especially if you're running larger road bike tires, like 30 or 32s, so you could get a tube that's really sort of for that oh like 40 millimeter ish range that you can stuff into your road tire, right? It'll be a little difficult, but that'll go in, but that will also expand up enough in a 2.4 mountain bike tire. So you can get home with at least enough pressure to get home. It will be just kind of like a balloon. The more it expands, the thinner it's gonna get. So it's a little bit more fragile.

Kristin 1:03:04

So we had a friend who said he brings a tube all the time, in part because he's he's an e former EMT and he can use it as a sling too, like just as a part of his first aid kit.

Steve 1:03:17

Uh, the only other thing I would say for road tubeless is that your tubeless plug kit should have a knife. It is super helpful to be able to cut off the little extra bit of um sticky bacon string sticking out of your road tire um to get those as flush as you can um with a little knife. And some tubeless plug kits actually include a little knife.

Kristin 1:03:44

Um because otherwise it could get it.

Steve 1:03:46

Because otherwise, especially on hot pavement, though that is it rolls around, it can rip itself out. Yep.

Kristin 1:03:51

Fun. All right. Well, anyone who wants to ask a question, we have a new email address. Podcast at steve the bike guy.com, and you can send us a question there, or you can leave a comment using fan mail. And that actually um reminds me, so since going video on Apple Podcasts, we have gotten a lot of new listeners/slash viewers. That also means we've gotten some more uh ratings. Some of them were not five-star. Um, anyway, we're grateful for any rating. But if you do like the show and would like to help support it because we now have this flood of new people, yeah. If you could give us a five-star rating, um, that would be great. And if you gave us a one-star, tell us why. You can say it's because we're annoying. That's okay. I have read my share of bad reviews in the world. All right, I think that's it for this show. We should wrap it up. All right. Cycling Together with Kristen and Steve is a production of Steve the Bike Guy, an independent bicycle shop in eastern Massachusetts, and Sundon Marketing, a full-service marketing communications agency.

Steve 1:04:59

If you liked the show, please leave a review or share with a friend. And for show notes, links, or to leave a comment, question, or topic suggestion, visit cyclingtogether.bike.

Kristin 1:05:08

You can follow the shop on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok at Steve the Bike Guy.

Steve 1:05:13

Alright, we will see you next time. Well, what will the topic be?

Kristin 1:05:16

I have so many ideas. Bye.