As you realize, a broccoli bike has entered my life, and somewhat than spurn it or cower from it or just ignore it and hope it goes away, I’ve determined to embrace it. In so doing, my hope is not only to study why these bikes are so widespread (or not less than why increasingly more firms hold attempting to cram increasingly more fashions down our throats), however to find the elusive and legendary Spirit of Gravel, or “SPOG.” (Has another person used that one already? In all probability. However I’m not a part of the neighborhood so I can’t say for positive.)
In so doing, I count on to undertake a profound metaphysical journey venturing deeper and deeper into the metaphorical Tunnel of the Unknown, on the finish of which I hope to search out…myself.
One of many first issues I’ve realized concerning the Spirit of Gravel is that if you’re looking for it in earnest you see it in all places.
Did you see the gravel?
There it’s:
That’s some big-ass gravel.
My subsequent transformational expertise occurred this previous Friday, shortly after ordering my intern to add that day’s put up, upon which I hopped on the PRJCT GRVL broccoli bike and made straight for the South County Trailway. I used to be just some miles from house once I rolled via the spot the place there’s all the time damaged glass as a result of the identical assholes should get drunk there each night time and smash their empties, upon which I heard the telltale sound of a puncture, solely wetter as a result of this was a tubeless tire with sealant in it. I may additionally really feel the splatter of liquid SPOG on my naked calves.
Rolling to a halt I may see I used to be dropping SPOG shortly:
In a short time:
Certainly, the Spirit of Gravel had made bukkake all around the bike:
Actually I’m fairly positive it’s pregnant now.
Hoping that maybe the sealant may ultimately do what it was imagined to do, I spun the wheel round in an effort to carry extra SPOG to the wound–and to my utter reduction the scorching sound stopped! So I received again on the bike and began driving once more…and the hissing sound of escaping air returned nearly instantly. What was happening?!? I assumed this magical tire juice meant you have been by no means imagined to get a flat once more!
As I stood there with a quickly deflating tire leaking spoodge everywhere, my first intuition was to announce to anyone who may occur to be inside earshot, “Okay, that’s it, I give up gravel!” I then started to calculate how lengthy it might take me to stroll house and get my Roadini, and whether or not I’d have any time left for a journey if I did. However then I remembered this was not only a journey, this was a quest–a quest to search out the Spirit of Gravel. If this have been a real gravel journey–the Mid Kanza, say, or the Soiled South–and I have been a real gravel rider, would I quit, summon an Uber, and return to the consolation and safety of paved roads and thin tires with internal tubes? Or would I attain into my Suitcase of Braveness and my Saddlebag of Provides, repair the issue myself, and proceed grinding away alongside a floor strewn with Very Small Rocks in the direction of a private finest?
As soon as I’d stopped crying, I opted for the latter.
Now, as I’ve talked about earlier than, I’m no stranger to tubeless. Actually, I’ve been utilizing it in a mountain bike capability since 2011 (longer than many gravelistas have even been gravelling!), once I took supply of my erstwhile Engin:
[That was a nice bike.]
Nonetheless, in all that point, I’d by no means skilled an precise flat tire whereas driving tubeless. Sure, I’d sometimes return to the bike days after a journey and discover a tire had gone flat, however squirting extra sealant in there usually solved the issue. Oddly, you’d assume this may have made me right into a tubeless convert, however by no means underestimate the depth of my resistance to vary, or my common distaste for the tubeless tire mounting course of.
All of that is to say that in fifteen years of part-time tubeless use I’d by no means plugged a tubeless tire. Actually, till PRJCT GRVL I’d by no means even owned a tire-plugging equipment, and easily carried a spare internal tube as an alternative. Nonetheless, the unprecedented problem I skilled in mounting the tires on the PRJCT GRVL bike (significantly, my thumbs are nonetheless sore) made me understand it might be practically unimaginable to get a tube in there on the aspect of the highway, and that I additionally wanted to hold some tire plugs always whereas driving it.
So I had what I wanted; now I had to make use of it, having solely watched a single tutorial video a number of days earlier than.
First I discovered the opening, which wasn’t troublesome due to all of the SPOG:
Then I reamed it out with the new canine fork on my new multi-tool, which matches towards each intuition you’ve got when coping with a brand-new bicycle tire, after which I stuffed a plug in there, feeling very very like an anxious surgical resident as my affected person hemorrhaged air and sealant:
Then I inflated the tire with my mini pump, sure I’d executed it incorrect and that it wouldn’t maintain air:
However to my shock and reduction the affected person didn’t die on the desk, and the restore did maintain air:
And sure, I understand that is utterly routine to lots of you, however it was my first time–and like different firsts in life it was actually brief and actually messy and I used to be actually, actually nervous the entire time, however now I really feel actually good about myself and wish to brag about it to anyone who will hear and I’m able to do it once more.
With the tire now holding air and the bike rideable, I noticed I may now go house and get one other bike, and that’s when the Spirit of Gravel spoke to me for the primary time.
“Preserve driving, belief the restore,” it mentioned like Obi-Wan.
And so I did, abandoning me a big puddle of SPOG:
I ended a short time later to ensure the plug was nonetheless holding:
And happy that it was I headed for the paths:
Some have been nonetheless too icy and muddy to be gratifying:
Others have been fairly ridable:
And nonetheless others have been blocked by Amazon vans:
Somebody should have ordered a bunch of gravel parts for his or her gravel bike utilizing the brand new Amazon Gravel Prime service.
At this level you might be questioning, “So how do you just like the bike?”
Properly, I’m having fun with it very a lot, however I can’t make any sweeping pronouncements about it for the next causes:
The paths have been an excessive amount of of a multitude to do way more than hop on and off of them right here or there, so I haven’t been capable of do any sustained graveling
I’m nonetheless feeling the consequences of my crash over the vacations, which suggests I’ve needed to journey much more gingerly than I normally do
As with every new bike, I’m nonetheless within the fussing-with-stuff interval, which is important, but in addition distracting
On the similar time, there’s a honeymoon interval with any bike, and also you don’t understand how you actually really feel about it till you’ve shared a toilet with it for a couple of months
Nonetheless, I lastly really feel like I’m near being recovered, and I additionally really feel just like the bike is near being dialed in, so if the paths dry out and keep that method for a bit I sit up for extra pain- and fuss-free driving.
