A Different Flavor

Drop bar bike, 40mm tires, and single track. Why not?

I was talking with a customer at the shop the other day whom I have known for many years. We were reminiscing about a trip we shared to Vail, Colorado to ride mountain bikes in 1994. It was two weeks before the World Mountain Bike Championships. There were several foreign athletes there preparing for the biggest mtb event on the calendar.

Well, this customer and I were trading stories of our time there when it came to our mind that we were riding on what amounts to antique equipment, compared to today's steeds. Hard tails were the order of the day. If you were cutting edge, you might have a front suspension device sporting a whopping 63mm of travel. Otherwise the "working man's rig" usually was a steel hard tail with a rigid fork.

So what? Well, keep in mind that the UCI Worlds were there and that downhill was part of that championship weekend. Otherwise known as "DH", the likes of which today is contested on bikes that do not resemble XC rigs at all. Dual suspension, of course, and eight inches of travel, or round abouts. Okay.....so we rode the DH course. Yes.....on hard tails. Not only that, but some of us that went out did some back country riding, not unlike what you might see in an enduro event today. On hard tails.

It might surprise you if you try it.

 Now, I am not at all trying to say that we were tougher, more core, or whatever. We were just riding like anybody else, and back then, this was normal. People cleared trails without dabbing without suspension. Folks did stuff that, back then, wasn't weird, out of the ordinary, or seen as being "more pure" than........well, whatever. You get the drift. It was what it was.

So anyway, here I was the other day riding local single track on a drop bar gravel road bike with 40mm tires. I was reminded of that conversation and "the old days". I was having fun and doing things on that bike that maybe many wouldn't think to try, or want to try. I get it. You don't have to buy in to using one bicycle for everything. But if I could only have one bike, this type of bike would be it.

Road, gravel, single track, this bike can do all of that, and pretty well too. Now, of course, I don't have to stick to one bike, and I won't. However; if you are looking for a "one bike solution", especially in the Mid-West, you could do a whole lot worse than this type of bike. It's certainly a way to do it.