Gravel race bike checks!

[Suvi_Loponen]

I said I would do a bike check of my Gralloch Ultra rig, as it never made it to the pro bikes gallery that Alex and I did for the site. And thought that by sharing it here, I’d get an opportunity to see your rides too! I know there were a few Escape members riding the Ultra, and probably more at the UCI race and the sportive, and I am curious to see what you all rode!

So, to kick off with mine…
——
Bike: Argon18 Dark Matter, size XS

Tyres: Schwalbe G One RX Pro 50 mm (measure 53 mm), inflated to f19/r20 psi. No inserts… and zero punctures!

Wheels: Zipp 303 XPLR

Groupset: SRAM Force AXS XPLR, and I had a 40T chainring with 10-46T cassette. Wish I had easier gears by the time I was on climb 3 out of 50. I put Blips underneath the handlebar and that was the best decision I made because I spent a lot of the climbs sitting on the tops & more upright. Also helped when eating snacks & riding one-handed.

Top tube bag: POC Ultra 1.7l; liked this one a lot, it held all my snacks and some spares nicely. I packed most of them in here, and a few on the Velocio hydration vest I wore. Also had a SILCA Elettrico Micro pump (and shockingly, no manual pump…), Dynaplug, cable zip ties, multitool and a small battery bank stored here for easy access.

In frame storage: Here I had two tyre levers (think they are Vittoria ones, they work) and two Aeron TPU tubes, and a couple spare Dynaplug plugs. Why I decided to store those here, don’t ask me…

Handlebar and seatpost: I changed these from the stock ones, and the one on is a 38 cm Seido Tackle (aluminium) bar, the flare is a bit much to my liking but it was the best I had spare at home. The seatpost is an FSA inline one, as the bike comes with a setback…

Saddle: My trusty Specialized Power Comp Mimic. This is not what came on the bike, but my absolute fave.

Lights: Knog rear light and Lezyne 1200 front (I only had to do less than 2h in the dark so was happy with these).

Hammerhead Karoo 3 computer - it needed a bit more juice from the battery pack to survive the whole 16h ride. But I also didn’t use the battery save mode much because I wanted to see the route on the screen at all times and stare at the distance left number that seemed to go down oh, so slowly.

Ass Savers Win Wing: nearly left this at home but glad I had it. I hate a soggy bum.

[Blair_Cabot]

What’s your food strategy for such a long event?

[Suvi_Loponen]

I like to get quite a lot of my carbs from drinks, so I had 5 packs of Styrk drink mixes (450g of carbs in total) on this, and the feed stations had carb drink as well – tho it felt very diluted. I was aiming for about 65g of carbs per hour while on the bike, so I had gels, bars (maurten, rice crispie square) and sweets etc to eat too. And then topped all this up with sandwiches, crips, bananas and boiled potatoes at the feed stations.

One thing I’ve learned is to have stuff you actually like to eat… I had been saving a bag of Haribo Favoritos from my last trip to Spain specifically for this, simply because I love eating those sweets so they felt like an actual treat.

[Chris_Potter]

Great to see you breeze past me on the first hill Suvi!

My setup for the Ultra:

Bike: Trek Checkpoint SL6 Size XL

Tyres: Schwalbe Rick XC 2.25 Front & G One RX Pro 50 mm Rear inflated to fr21/r26 psi. The newer Silca Ultimate sealant. No insert, no punctures!

Wheels: Bontrager Aeolus Pro 3V

Groupset: SRAM Mullet with Rival E1 levers + XO Transmission Rear Derailleur. 40T Chainring on a PM spider. I put this on specifically for the event and was very glad I did, per Suvi’s comments, ~5000m of elevation over 320k, I was so glad to have a 52T bailout gear. Never needed the top end for extended periods

Bags: Tailfin top tube and half frame bag. Top tube bag had gels/bars + dynaplug, and i’d put my powerbank in there if needed to charge my computer. Half frame bag had a spare couple of layers including waterproof overtrousers (very changeable weather) powerbank, pump (flextail electric + Topeak manual), multitool and a couple more spare gels.

In frame storage: Two tyre levers, two TPU tubes, CO2, Restrap tyre patch kit

Saddle: The stock Bontrager Verse Short Comp which i actually think is a brilliant saddle

Lights: Exposure Toro under the bars, Exposure Joystick on my helmet, Exposure Blaze rear.

Garmin Edge 840 computer which had a ton of life left at the end, very happy with this computer

Ass Savers Win Wing: Like Suvi, very glad to put this on given it was a wet afternoon/evening

Fuelling: 400g of my own carb mix in 1x750ml bottle, 300g Precision Hydration Mega Gel in another, then a variety of OTE and Styrkr gels/bars that i ate over the 17.4hrs it took me. I probably averaged about 80g/hr carbs but lost track a but. Many boiled buttery/salty new potatoes at feed 3. Water was in a 2L USWE Rush Hydration pack. Pic below pre mullet

[Andrew_Broadway]

Ha, funny seeing you pop up here Chris! Interesting seeing your setups

This was my setup:

Bike: Ribble Allgrit Large (like a metal bike)

Tyres: Vitoria Peyote 2.1 upfront, with a 50mm Terro T30 in the rear, inflated to fr22/r26 psi. Caffelatex sealant. No insert, no punctures (well, at one point a rider behind shouted my rear had punchered as she got a faceful of sealant, but when I stopped to check it was all sealed with no loss of pressure)!

Wheels: DTSwiss G1800

Groupset: SRAM Apex XPLR AXS. Had a 38t Chainring with a 11-46 cassette. Very thankful for the bailout gear.

Bags: Restrap Race Toptube bag filled with sweets. Alpkit Possum frame bag with additional proper food - didn’t really need this. I wasn’t planning on stopping long at any feed station so took my own food, but in reality on such a short route I didn’t really need much proper food. Salomon vest with a 1.5l bladder and Precision Fuel&Hydration flow gel bottle and spare clothes.

Saddle: SDG Belair 3

Lights: Gacion

Garmin Edge 840

Ass Savers Win Wing: Forgot mine but the waterproof shorts came to the rescue.

Fuelling: Precision Fuel and Hydration Flow Gel, Tailwind carb mix and plenty of sweets (cola bottles and giant strawberries for the wind​). Also carried 2x 750ml bottle, but started with these empty except for carb mix. Filled them up at Feed Zone 1 when I’d worked through a lot of the bladder, and then again at FZ3. Bladder was refilled with Tailwind high carb mix at FZ2 where I had a drop bag.

Unfortunately I didn’t take a before photo, so there is just a dirty post ride photo…

[JC1979]

This is great. How about an escape collective version of the old GCN bike vault thing for people to share photos of their bikes at any time, in one place?

[Laurens_Stevaert]

Ha, bottles with covers, that’s smart!

[Andrew_Broadway]

Definitely needed!

[Peter_Burghardt]

Agree on hating the soggy bum. I’ll put on some kind of rear fender is there’s even a chance of rain or wet – the weight penalty is minimal and the comfort benefit is huge. I’ve got a Win Wing and a seatpost-mount that both work well.

[jasedepuit]

This is really cool. Thanks for kicking it off @Suvi_Loponen !

@JC1979

This is great. How about an escape collective version of the old GCN bike vault thing for people to share photos of their bikes at any time, in one place?

We have a whole category for that:

Community > What I Ride

[JC1979]

@jasedepuit

We have a whole category for that:

Community > What I Ride

How did I miss that.

[Suvi_Loponen]

I so wish I had those too! Ate so, so much grit on this ride

[Jack_Dunsmuir]

Sad to have missed you during the weekend Suvi but congrats on the second place! We were enjoying dot watching you, Iain, and Sam throughout!

My rig for the Gralloch UCI is a basically just a modded out version of what I ran 2 years ago for the same race.

Frameset - Rondo Ruut AL1 - I love this frame, but it aint no racing frame. Every single vibration gets sent through the aluminium and straight to my shoulders - taking recommendations for managing this in lieu of a new frame.

Groupset - Sram Force XPLR D2 - 40T front with a PM. Before this weekend I would have said flawless but sadly had a few chaindrops (all on fast downhills) - maybe a chain catcher needed for next time

Wheels - Zipp 303 XPLR S

Tyres - Vittoria Terreno T60 Pro 45mm Front and back - Front about 22 psi and rear about 25 - measure about 48mm on the super wide zipp rims. About the grippiest tyres I have used on the fast loose descents near the start of the day - little bit draggy on the long road sections but not the end of the world.

No bags as was wearing a hydration vest with some front strap storage - bulk of nutrition was using high 5 energy chews - think I ate about 30 through the race along with 2 carb bottles - refilled one of them at a feed stop and also found their mix very watered down.

Spares carried - pump, 2 levers, plugs, 2 spare tubes, & valve extenders for said tubes as nobody seems to produce an 80mm valve 48mm wide tube for gravel

Bit slower than I wanted to in the end but between the cramps that everybody seemed to be having and the vibrations through the frame, I will take a finish.

[Tjaard_Breeuwer]

Do you find the long top tube bag to be an issue, as far as rubbing while pedaling, or creating standover issues when stopped?

[Peter_Burghardt]

For the vibration, maybe something like a Redshift stem?

ShockStop Suspension Stem for Gravel, Road and Mountain Bikes – Redshift Sports

[JC1979]

@Peter_Burghardt

For the vibration, maybe something like a Redshift stem?

Or the uk made USE Vybe stem. I have one, and it’s great, in part because the compression and rebound characteristics can be adjusted through independent preload in both directions in addition to different elastomers. Elastomers do change behaviour across temperature spectrum, so as with old suspension forks, things deteriorate somewhat in cold weather.

Sus fork would be better though. Only thing that puts me off is the service intervals.

[Stephen_Poole]

FWIW, I can vouch for the Redshift stems re comfort. They add little weight or complexity, don’t cost a mint, are tunable, require zero service and are unnoticeable most of the time (in a good way). They also don’t prevent carrying stuff on the fork, or running dynamo wiring easily, or limit tyre clearance; I have zero interest in suspension forks on gravel bikes. On MTBs they’re perhaps a necessary evil, but (along with electronic shifting) the things most likely to be unrepairable in the longer term.

[Peter_Burghardt]

Agree. I’ve had a Redshift on my gravel bike for several years. It does what I want it to.

The only suspension fork I might consider for the riding I do would be the Lauf, because zero maintenance, but it doesn’t fit my current budget.

Lauf Grit 3rd Gen - Lauf Cycles - gravel bikes, mountain bikes and road bikes

[JC1979]

@Stephen_Poole

They also don’t prevent carrying stuff on the fork, or running dynamo wiring easily, or limit tyre clearance;

Not necessarily.

Re the limiting carrying stuff on the fork. Cane Creek Invert and the DT Swiss fork both have cargo options (although reduced capacity compared to rigid fork, which is maybe what you were getting at).

As for reduced tyre clearance … yes, but then there is evidance to suggest that with a sus fork fitted, there is no need to go as big with the tyres.

Dynamo wiring difinitely becomes rather more messy, and full fenders are seemingly ruled out.

[Stephen_Poole]

^ True enough, but the weight, complexity and maintenance still apply, and a shorter head tube => smaller frame bag and/or bottles; I’ll pass thanks…