After 15 years of riding mostly track bikes, I started riding road bikes 2 years ago. Got myself an older bianchi, loved the idea of gears, and then I fell down the rabbit hole of gravel bikes in the last month. Today I picked up a new Kona Rove 700AL, and damn, I fully get the hype. Did a 50km ride through a mix of road and trail and I haven’t had this much fun on a bike since I first got into cycling. I know it’s just an entry level bike, nothing special like I see posted here or raced on youtube. But damn, what a blast. I wanted to get into it primarily for bikepacking, and that I’m now in my 30’s and riding brakeless fixed gears is becoming increasingly difficult. Really excited to take this camping in the coming weeks. I feel fortunate to live in a part of Canada with endless miles of trails. A partial thanks to this sub for the inspiration just by reading everyone’s posts.
Only upgrades I plan to do is probably a seat, 42c tires (currently equipped with stock 40) and perhaps a wheelset down the road.
by DogThatNeverPerished
1 Comment
Awesome! If you find yourself on chunkier gravel you may also want to checkout something like the Redshift Shockstop Stems when you get there. To me they make a world of difference over rougher gravel before you get into suspension forks etc. Relatively cheap quality of life change for a notable difference.