As you know, over the holidays I completed the assembly of a broccoli bike. After finally triumphing over an internal cable routing system that nearly killed me, I was looking forward to fully exploring the bike’s gravelosity, but shortly after completion we were ravaged by the worst winter we’ve had in years. This meant I was unable to do much more with the bike than ride it for as long as I could stand on salt-strewn roads until losing all feeling in my extremities.
But finally, as of this past weekend, the snows had finally melted, the trails had finally dried out, and I was able to resume my ongoing Search for the Spirit of Gravel (or at least the Spirit of Gravel Marketing), Lob be praised:
As I’ve noted before, my Search for the Spirit of Gravel (Marketing) mostly just involves doing the same mixed-terrain rides I’ve been doing for years on bikes as diverse as the Milwaukee…
And the Jones…
And the Pine Mountain…
And the other Jones…
And the Platypus…
And the Roaduno…
And the Milwaukee again…
And so forth.
The main difference here being that, instead of simply riding a versatile bicycle on a wide variety of surfaces as humans have done more or less since the invention of the bicycle, I’d be doing it on an Industry Standard Gravel Bike, or “ISGB,” in order to determine whether or not this new category of bicycles has truly brought anything new to the experience:
So, has it? Well, after weeks and weeks of frigid temperatures and knee-deep snow and drivetrain-eating slush and doing the same short road ride over and over again, being able to finally undertake an improvisational route and alternate between road and dirt at will in temperatures comfortably above freezing was positively sublime, so I don’t want to attribute too much of the utter joy I felt to the bicycle alone:
Though I can safely say it left me wanting for nothing, and it’s certainly very much at home on the various surfaces you’ll find in between the road and the tricky* mountain bike trails:
*[I think I’m going to stop saying “technical” mountain bike trails. It’s a little pretentious, isn’t it? You’re riding a bike, not rewiring your car. Difficult trails aren’t “technical,” they’re difficult. Or, more accurately, they’re tricky, since as soon as you dismount and walk your bike through the so-called “technical” section they’re not really difficult anymore, are they?]
Do I, someone blessed with a multitude of bikes of varying geometries, tire widths, etc. also need an ISGB? I do not. But do I see how a normal person with a regular road bike and a regular mountain bike who buys complete bikes from a bike shop and for whom stuff like frame material and brake type isn’t a philosophical issue might also get an ISGB and end up riding it more than either their road bike or their mountain bike because it sort of splits the difference? Yes I do. And while there are all sorts of ways to approach all-terrain riding, certainly the ISGB is a convenient and effective over-the-counter solution, and so it absolutely makes sense they’ve become so popular.
But while I may be willing to accept and even embrace the ISGB, unlike normal people all this stuff very much is a philosophical issue for me, and I still prefer to forego electronic shifting and hydraulic brakes. So the Sword Black drivetrain has been a good compromise, since it’s a modern single-ring drivetrain with integrated shifting, yet it’s not only entirely mechanical and Hyperglide-compatible, but also quite cheap:
In fact, it’s so cheap I didn’t even really look at what I was buying, and I wound up with a low gear of 42 teeth:
Even though it “officially” comes with a 46:
A low gear of 40×42 is fairly high for a bike like this, though for my purposes it’s just fine, since I’m not loading the bike up with camping supplies (as if!) and riding through a mountain range for three days anytime soon. And if I do need a lower gear, 9-speed cassettes from Microshift are delightfully inexpensive, so big deal.
As for the shifting, it works very well. Yes, if I go straight from, say, this shifter on this bike to the Microshift, I notice that the shifting’s not as crisp, but that’s the kind of thing you forget about after like 10 minutes. (In fact, 90 percent of pretty much all differences between bikes you forget about after 10 minutes.) At the same time, the shape of the lever body is extremely comfortable–maybe one of the most comfortable I’ve used. Overall, the only area where it truly falls short (literally) is…the nubbin:
Look, I don’t hate the nubbin. It’s there, and it does what it needs to do, which is upshift. But it’s still a nubbin, and as such it’s a little harder to find than the proper paddles on the other systems.
In fact, on regular Sword (what I’m using, Sword Black, is the budget version), it seems they even revised the nubbin to make it less nubbin-y:
But I don’t regret the Sword Black in the least, especially given the price, and if I were doing it all over I’d probably still buy it, nubbin and all. (Unless I did a bar-end friction type thing, but I have multiple friction-shifting bikes already and the whole point here was to embrace modernity…at least to the extent I’m able to tolerate it philosophically.) I don’t even think I’d bother with the regular Sword, since apart from a slightly larger nubbin (which is still a nubbin, let’s get real here), you mostly just get an extra gear and a derailleur with a clutch, and so far I’ve had absolutely no indication that this drivetrain would benefit from the addition of a clutch in any way. It’s also held up well so far despite the fact that the trails are rather debris-strewn after the harsh winter and I’ve managed to suck up most of it:
So yes, I like it, nubbin or no nubbin:
Plus, a modern ISGB doesn’t preclude you from using accessories from companies with a different sensibility:
To wit:
Yes, that’s a Bananasack, and yes, I’m using it to carry not only a sandwich, but an actual banana:
What’s more gravelly than pulling up a piece of retaining wall and enjoying a light trailside lunch?
Plus, once I’d emptied my sack (sorry)…
…I stopped at the store on the way home for coffee, butter, and cheese (yes, I am attempting to stop my heart, thank you very much), all of which I was able to carry home in the Bananasack. (I’ve taken to keeping a small lock in the top tube bag, which is sufficient for securing the bike during short stops in suburban gravel country.)
Now that’s how you gravel.
Oh, speaking of gravel and stopping at the store, awhile back Pearl Izumi sent me these already inexpensive “All Road” shoes, and I see that they’re now on sale:
Like their bargain road shoes, which I’ve been using for years now, these are holding up well, and the rubber sole means you can walk both confidently and silently when you stop for coffee, butter, and cheese. So I will continue recommend Pearl Izumi’s low-cost shoes for the frugal cyclist who is interested in clipping in to his or her pedals.
So all in all, a fine weekend’s graveling:
If only they’d stop routing the cables through the frame these mainstream bike companies might really be onto something.