I picked up this bike in Korea kind of on a whim and I’ve been so pleased with it on road. It’s oh so comfortable and the stock tires with the solid strip down the center give it excellent on road manners and smooth rolling. Honestly not sure of the complete spec because as mentioned above, I bought it in Korea, which by the way has amazing prices on specialized, so maybe it’s spec’d different than NA or EU? Anyway, I’ve done around 1000km on road and yesterday was my first gravel ride.
I think I’m hooked.
I’m in Tacoma Washington which seems to be a great place for gravel riding. Doing a quick search I found plenty of great rides within about an hour of home. I chose to go with a nice ride posted on a LBS page, joyridebicycles.com, I’ll post the Strava link in the comments. The ride was just over 40km with just under 1000m of elevation. Tons of amazing views and very little traffic. I was alone 98% of the time with just a few passing vehicles, four other bikes at the start, and one family having a cookout at a nice viewpoint.
As for the bike, it was incredible! Having spent enough time on road I had no doubt it’d be comfortable, and still I was surprised! The future shock 2.0 absorbed all the vibrations and a lot of the bumps excepting some of the more chunky stuff on the descent from the top. The tires also surprised me! I ran 45psi still being tubed and not wanting any pinch flats. I don’t think I experienced any slippage except on one of the initial climbs where the sun hadn’t reached the trail and the grade was quite steep, 12-15%.
Things I plan to pick up before the next ride/ possible upgrades
– fenders. I’m sure it helps keep me, and more importantly the bike a bit more clean.
– go tubeless? The idea of airing down sounds good. I do it on my motorcycle, so why wouldn’t I do it on my bike?
– some storage. Probably a small saddle pack, and top tube bag. Any recommendations are appreciated.
Thanks for reading. If you’re in the area and haven’t done it definitely check out the ride
by No_Yesterday_9666