put dropbar on that blue bike. might even be fairly easy because it looks like it might have 7 or 8 speed rear derailleur and those should work just fine with dropbar lever.
That beach cruiser is just about where mountain bikes started. 1960 vintage single speed coaster brake 2.25 inch tires. They rode them down "repack" hill.
I went on a city tour and we were handed beach cruisers. The over-2" x 27.5 tires and burly frame let me go down curbs and over the usual potholes and construction gravel, although my teeth rattled each time 😅 Never underestimate beach cruisers.
Aww man, the best bike for the job was the one that stayed in the van... That GT Tequesta looked perfect for the type of riding they were doing! I hope it shows up in another video soon.
That Schwinn has greater gravel pedigree than you know. Look up Klunker bikes. They were the original Mountain Bikes. People took old cruisers, and modified them for trail riding. Then they started taking gear parts from road bikes, and transplanted them into the cruiser frames. Those were the first MTBs. And even the legendary MTB rider Gary Fisher rode a Kluker bike like that in the 70s. That Schwinn is like a modern version of one of those Klunkers
I'm contenting myself with buying brifters to convert an old hybrid I don't ride much to a gravel bike. I have some drop bars and some decent stem options in the parts bin, gotta resist buying nicer versions though.
Great video with an absolutely bang on message. I'll definitely share it with my bunch of likely lads with whom I go "beer cycling" around the Belgium countryside (Belgian bar/cafe to cafe/bar on mixed terrain) - the bikes used and fitness levels of the group being as varied as the surfaces ridden, but fun is always had by all!
Thank you for giving us a video of the adventure and fun of just riding bikes, dealing with weather and problems and just enjoying the heck out of riding bikes!
GT Bikes - the most underrated bikes in MTB and solid performers across other disciplines. My GT Alloy Sensor Comp cost me £1650 in 2018 and is still going strong and does everything bikes costing three times the price. I've upgraded the forks, shocks and converted to shimano 12 speed from the original 11sp. Optimised other parts (bit of Alexing going on!) I don't know much about Road bikes but I imagine GT road bikes offer the same brilliant value and quality - It's sad that GT have ceased production. Very much enjoy the programmes, regards and seasons greetings 🎄Tony Sadler South Wales UK 🏴
Conor looks very much like the archetypical, old school bike rider of the 1920's with that riding posture. 😆 Love the content, keep at it! Happy holidays and whatnot.
This is hilarious, although I think the bike I would have picked for this kind of things is what is usually sold in department stores here (USA) as a "dual sport" bike, it's a cheap city commuter with geo somewhere between road and MTB, usually fits tires up to around 40mm, and has MTB gearing. They're gravel bikes that aren't sold as such
I always enjoy the challenge videos, they are fun to watch! It's a shame Hank was sick this time. Honestly, I think you guys were pretty lucky. I really believe Hank had the best bike for this challenge!
My daily bike is a 1980's mountain bike with a long stem and swept cruiser-esque bars and a sprung Brooks saddle with a large saddle bag hanging off it it (think Carradice etc.) It's very similar to how Connor describes his cruiser as far as handling goes. With its 3x7 gearing and 2.3" tyres I can spend all day on it and still finish the day smiling. It was assembled from parts in my spare parts bin, and gets an upgrade whenever I find something I like more than what's already on it without having to spend any serious money to do so. I've probably put $300nzd into it over the past 4 years, which makes it exceptionally cheap transport too.
This kind of stuff is what i love to see from channels With your reach. showing people that might be on the fence about biking what joy you can have without trading an arm and a leg!
Kudos to Conor for going off-piste with the bike choice, it made for an interesting video. Thanks to all at GCN for all of the content in 2024. Happy New Year to all. I hope Hank is back up and riding soon.
Another cool aspect of the Corvette cruiser is that the split top tubes were meant to fit a Schwinn brand cup holder in between. You could toss your phone, coffee or beer in there.
I bought a Trek 800, which has been converted to 1x and cruiser bars fitter. Got it purely to tow my daughter, but it quickly became my comuter too. So comfy and fun to ride.
It is funny that two of the three bikes in the video (GT and Schwinn) are from the same parent company... In the US one of the companies basically only sells bikes at Walmart and similar stores, and the other one announced they are pausing operations worldwide. I love my walmart Schwinn... I got it on sale a year ago brand new for the equivalent of 175 pounds.... it is an MTB that came with 1x8, 29x2.6 inch tires in house branded everything, including elastomer fork. It also had a kickstand. It weighed 35ish lbs. It now has deore 1x11, carbon bars, marzochi bomber fork, homebrew shimano hydraulic brakes (mt200 hoses and calipers, non series rotors and current gen deore levers), hunt wheels and maxxis 2.35 tires. It weighs about 28 lbs. I use it primarily for bikejoring so I don't break my good bike when one of the dogs decides to go squirrel...
Thanks Alex, Conor , and crew . Cruisers rule...nearer to sand ! How much mud did Conor have on his back ? Should have weighed the jacket . Merry Christmas to you all , thanks for everything you do , inform and entertain .
I have a cycling theory. The deep felt pleasure of a ride is inversely proportioned to the conditions of the ride. More joy can be found on crap weather rides then you find on mild sunny days with gentle breezes.
Connor's bike is gorgeous. That bike with a couple of upgrades would be amazing to ride. Alex bike was just too standard to look at, but he had fun which is what matters. Really fun video.
A favorite episode well done! Lots of laughing and just dealing with the mechanicals because… it happens and we deal with it- love the Cruiser and at 6’7” the upright position was perfect for Alex to draft behind to catch a blow!
Last time I went to Hawaii our hotel had beach cruisers you could check out and it actual made a pretty capable gravel bike. Aside from the weight and lack of gears it worked well on the gravel trails around the grounds. I got in over 10 miles just on the resort grounds on a single speed cruiser.
Don't tell everyone, they're my local gravel tracks! But seriously, I ride on the area with a relatively cheap alloy, Giant TCX, with mechanical disc brakes, 11 speed with a 1x chainring and 35mm Panaracer Gravel King tyres. It's all the bike you ever need to get off-road, it goes well on tarmac and is pretty easy and cheap to maintain, as long as you look after it. All these new gravel bikes are great, but not really required unless you're going to race gravel, or do epic bike-packing trips where all the extras can be useful.
I live here in the North Bay Area, CA USA (Napa Valley) and have owned many cheap hybrid bikes. They work, but not well. The old saying the more you spend runs true and my best bikes have been $1000+ in price.
Seems that Conor had Type 1 fun and Alex had Type 1.5 fun, so the Schwinn Corvette wins! I have a Schwinn Stingray from the early 1960s that is a load of fun to ride short distances. The next challenge needs to be Conor and Alex on the same bikes plus Hank and his bike sometime in the new year. Cheers GCN!
This made me happy for my mom who got herself a cruiser style bike as her intro to cycling. Comfortable!! But perhaps not made for hills (beaches aren't known for hills tho, eh?)
We need more of Conner on the beach cruiser... If Santa is missing any reindeer this Christmas he could do worse than call Conner and the trusty cruiser 😂
@@gcn And of course the road through Imber village is open to the public next week, I believe from the 28th to the 1st, so a fantastic opportunity to explore on the bike, even more of Salisbury Plain 🙂👍🏻
They say gravel bikes are just 1990s mountain bikes. So I went and bought a 1990s mountain bike on Facebook Marketplace - plus a second one for spares, and some loose spares from the local bike coop [including a more comfy, tourist-y handlebar] Result? The most fun I have ever had on two wheels, for around €100. Money well spent. And to help Connor: beach cruisers are great for the job, above all if you have flat gravel roads around. And if you don't - just slap on a Tourney 3x crankset, a Tourney non-indexed front derailleur, and a Rotoshift front shifter to match the back one, and you are good for about €50 (even less if you rummage through the rust at your local bike coop).
Let's not make fun of kickstands. I have added them to a couple of my bikes and they are well worth it. So they weigh a few grams; well worth it when you need to lay the bike down somewhere in the boonies
Do I see Conor on a Schwinn?! Yes! And if you’re crazy enough, you can spin up to decent speed on beach cruisers: I got my old Trek Classic (the bike I returned to cycling with after a 30 year hiatus) up to 27mph on a flat stretch in Brooklyn, NY.
The best ever rides were the ones where you had an entry level bike and struggled through your first big rides. Always felt like you had achieved something.
Long story short the only bike I had for 2 years was my mom's old Raleigh (like a classic 3 speed but it had a 5 speed). I rode that thing everywhere for transportation and recreation.
I rode 80km around the end of summer, and my friends asked me "What kind of a bike do you have that you can ride these long distances?" I have a cyclocross but apparently a beach cruiser would have been enough :D
Now Conor has discovered the roots of mountain biking, will we see him doing backflips on GMBN soon? The message of the video is great, have fun with whatever bike you have and if you ride into a mud puddle, it will be the same result anyway.
On a serious note, for £200 you can buy a seriously good gravel bike on marketplace, as so many people are basically giving stuff away on there. I got a Merida Cyclocross 300 for £160 earlier this year and it has a list price of £925. There are loads of example of this kind of bargain out there.
watch "return of the scorcher". its about how the mountain bike craze started on Mt Tamalpais with schwinn beach cruiser bikes. They decided to add gears to climb up hills.
for some of our trails in Ontario the gravel riders who ride them say that because they are multi use trails that a gravel bike should have 3 in wide tires
Being under biked is great fun occasionally when you get to go back to the good stuff. For those that don’t have a fleet of better bikes at home, I can’t help feeling you miss the middle ground again and again, it feels like superbike or supercheap, actually most people are in the middle. There’s a reason brands hit price points 500, 1000, 1500, 2000 euros, dollars, pounds etc. diminishing returns start to kick in after that, I’d be interested to see where you think peak value vs return sits.
Walmart sells a $250 gravel bike call the Ozark Trail G1. I've seen a few RUclipsrs beat it up on some tough looking single trail. Only problem is it doesn't come in a size that fits me (I'm 6'2") I myself am looking to get the Poseidon Ambition X, which is about $750 and seems to be one of the best entry level bikes around. They also make a popular model called the Redwood that has a bit more aggresive MTB geometry with 2.4" tires. There are definitely some great budget options out there for people new to gravel.
What's the next cheap bike challenge you'd love to see us take on? 🤩
Whatever you do next, Alex should have his bike brought for him and delivered to the challenge. Either that or his parts bin confiscated.
One that all the presenters turn up for.
put dropbar on that blue bike. might even be fairly easy because it looks like it might have 7 or 8 speed rear derailleur and those should work just fine with dropbar lever.
Valley of Tears on a Raleigh 20 🤣
Alex should enter a cyclo-cross race on his cheap bike.
Conor's sunny attitude made that dull day the most fun to watch for sure. Awesome ride guys. Cheap fun!!!
His frozen jaw towards the end made us all chuckle!
Finally, a video that I can actually relate to, budget bikes and rough surfaces, just like in my country. W vid
Another thought: despite nothing you did playing into bike materialism and consumerism, I found it 100% inspiring to get out and ride my bike!
That beach cruiser is just about where mountain bikes started. 1960 vintage single speed coaster brake 2.25 inch tires. They rode them down "repack" hill.
Beat me to it!
I went on a city tour and we were handed beach cruisers. The over-2" x 27.5 tires and burly frame let me go down curbs and over the usual potholes and construction gravel, although my teeth rattled each time 😅 Never underestimate beach cruisers.
Looks like Alex had a nice ride and Coner had a lovely walk.
😂😂😂
These Top Gear inspired videos are my favorite. Fun adventure and friends taking the piss out of each other and their purchases
When you set £200 limit and Alex immediately goes to his parts bin at home. 😀
Alex is a cheater
He didn’t even point out that Ritchey WCS handlebar. There is no way that bike came with Ritchey anything! 😂😊
His parts bins a whole shop😢
He could get like 8 dura ace cranks for £200.
he is just a bit nerdy - but he represents a large part of the audience and is therefore in the right place here
Aww man, the best bike for the job was the one that stayed in the van... That GT Tequesta looked perfect for the type of riding they were doing! I hope it shows up in another video soon.
Should probably make Hank ride it on Belgian Waffle Arizona or Rock Cobbler
Right?? 90s mountain bikes is what gravel bikes seem to be evolving into and GCN leaves us hanging.
In light of what we found out last week, more GT's to honor the brand.
@@dvs620 Hear hear!
Hank should also ride this track
That Schwinn has greater gravel pedigree than you know. Look up Klunker bikes. They were the original Mountain Bikes. People took old cruisers, and modified them for trail riding. Then they started taking gear parts from road bikes, and transplanted them into the cruiser frames. Those were the first MTBs. And even the legendary MTB rider Gary Fisher rode a Kluker bike like that in the 70s. That Schwinn is like a modern version of one of those Klunkers
This reminds me that I haven’t looked at bikes on marketplace for 20 minutes
I'm contenting myself with buying brifters to convert an old hybrid I don't ride much to a gravel bike. I have some drop bars and some decent stem options in the parts bin, gotta resist buying nicer versions though.
There’s probably a great deal out there waiting to be noticed but never actually bought
Thank you GCN, this is perfect Christmas viewing 🤩🤩
Great video with an absolutely bang on message. I'll definitely share it with my bunch of likely lads with whom I go "beer cycling" around the Belgium countryside (Belgian bar/cafe to cafe/bar on mixed terrain) - the bikes used and fitness levels of the group being as varied as the surfaces ridden, but fun is always had by all!
that's the spirit
That sounds like my kinda fun. Enjoy ❤
Thank you for giving us a video of the adventure and fun of just riding bikes, dealing with weather and problems and just enjoying the heck out of riding bikes!
GT Bikes - the most underrated bikes in MTB and solid performers across other disciplines. My GT Alloy Sensor Comp cost me £1650 in 2018 and is still going strong and does everything bikes costing three times the price. I've upgraded the forks, shocks and converted to shimano 12 speed from the original 11sp. Optimised other parts (bit of Alexing going on!)
I don't know much about Road bikes but I imagine GT road bikes offer the same brilliant value and quality - It's sad that GT have ceased production.
Very much enjoy the programmes, regards and seasons greetings 🎄Tony Sadler South Wales UK 🏴
Conor looks very much like the archetypical, old school bike rider of the 1920's with that riding posture. 😆 Love the content, keep at it! Happy holidays and whatnot.
This is hilarious, although I think the bike I would have picked for this kind of things is what is usually sold in department stores here (USA) as a "dual sport" bike, it's a cheap city commuter with geo somewhere between road and MTB, usually fits tires up to around 40mm, and has MTB gearing. They're gravel bikes that aren't sold as such
Merry Christmas Gents from America. Thanks for all the great content this past year and God speed in the New Year.
Happy holidays!
I always enjoy the challenge videos, they are fun to watch! It's a shame Hank was sick this time. Honestly, I think you guys were pretty lucky. I really believe Hank had the best bike for this challenge!
My daily bike is a 1980's mountain bike with a long stem and swept cruiser-esque bars and a sprung Brooks saddle with a large saddle bag hanging off it it (think Carradice etc.) It's very similar to how Connor describes his cruiser as far as handling goes. With its 3x7 gearing and 2.3" tyres I can spend all day on it and still finish the day smiling. It was assembled from parts in my spare parts bin, and gets an upgrade whenever I find something I like more than what's already on it without having to spend any serious money to do so. I've probably put $300nzd into it over the past 4 years, which makes it exceptionally cheap transport too.
Lovely stuff. Beach cruiser for the win. Also a three daggers sausage roll... Hard to beat.
This kind of stuff is what i love to see from channels With your reach. showing people that might be on the fence about biking what joy you can have without trading an arm and a leg!
Best nod towards every-person joy. Truly proving GCN is about enjoying the ride... not marginal gains. Well played GCN.
Kudos to Conor for going off-piste with the bike choice, it made for an interesting video. Thanks to all at GCN for all of the content in 2024. Happy New Year to all. I hope Hank is back up and riding soon.
Another cool aspect of the Corvette cruiser is that the split top tubes were meant to fit a Schwinn brand cup holder in between. You could toss your phone, coffee or beer in there.
I bought a Trek 800, which has been converted to 1x and cruiser bars fitter. Got it purely to tow my daughter, but it quickly became my comuter too. So comfy and fun to ride.
You call it gravel riding, I call it the best maintained bikepath in germany.
😲 You mean Romania, my country, surely!
Looks like where „RadNetz BW“ will send you. 😂
Love these challenges using bikes people can actually afford! super fun! get well soon Hank (James)!
Love my trek checkpoint for winter. Heck of a lot of fun 🚴🍺🚴
It is funny that two of the three bikes in the video (GT and Schwinn) are from the same parent company...
In the US one of the companies basically only sells bikes at Walmart and similar stores, and the other one announced they are pausing operations worldwide.
I love my walmart Schwinn... I got it on sale a year ago brand new for the equivalent of 175 pounds.... it is an MTB that came with 1x8, 29x2.6 inch tires in house branded everything, including elastomer fork. It also had a kickstand. It weighed 35ish lbs.
It now has deore 1x11, carbon bars, marzochi bomber fork, homebrew shimano hydraulic brakes (mt200 hoses and calipers, non series rotors and current gen deore levers), hunt wheels and maxxis 2.35 tires. It weighs about 28 lbs. I use it primarily for bikejoring so I don't break my good bike when one of the dogs decides to go squirrel...
Talk about making lemonade, that's alright there 👍👍
The B roll footage of Conner has made my Christmas!
Thanks Alex, Conor , and crew . Cruisers rule...nearer to sand ! How much mud did Conor have on his back ? Should have weighed the jacket . Merry Christmas to you all , thanks for everything you do , inform and entertain .
Conor’s shoes alone might weigh just as much as everything Alex is wearing, so we can’t clearly declare a winner 🤣
I have a cycling theory. The deep felt pleasure of a ride is inversely proportioned to the conditions of the ride. More joy can be found on crap weather rides then you find on mild sunny days with gentle breezes.
I think it's because you have to choose to enjoy it, so you have to cling to the joy that much more strongly.
nice one fellas "you don't have to spend loads of money to have fun" is a great philosophy for cycling.
Cheap bike challenges are my favorite videos. It reminds of the cheap car challenges on Top Gear.
'obscured by some dura ace cranks' hhhaaaaaaaaaaaaa nice one
“My bike computer is telling me I’m getting good drafting behind Connor”. Well duh! Not sure you needed a bike computer to tell you that 😂😂
This just goes to prove that whatever bike you have that is the right bike for a ride. It is always about the fun.
Merry Christmas to the GCN family. May it be a day filled with joy and new bikes for all. Speaking for everyone. We love you all!
Conor is an absolute joy
Cowhorn handlebars Connor! Haven't seen them since the seventies. I wiped a nostalgic tear from my eye.
Alex : "Gravel doesn't have to be expensive"
Also Alex : "The bike is worth about 5.5 times it's original value " 🤣
Alex’s mindset: "If I have it, it’s practically free." Time to install that Dura-Ace groupset!
@@gcn 🤣😂🤣
Connor's bike is gorgeous. That bike with a couple of upgrades would be amazing to ride. Alex bike was just too standard to look at, but he had fun which is what matters. Really fun video.
Thanks!
A favorite episode well done! Lots of laughing and just dealing with the mechanicals because… it happens and we deal with it- love the Cruiser and at 6’7” the upright position was perfect for Alex to draft behind to catch a blow!
Last time I went to Hawaii our hotel had beach cruisers you could check out and it actual made a pretty capable gravel bike. Aside from the weight and lack of gears it worked well on the gravel trails around the grounds. I got in over 10 miles just on the resort grounds on a single speed cruiser.
17:47 it was one of those rain channels that threw me off for my dislocated shoulder
I loved the music in this, much better than the usual electronic music from Temu
We’re glad you liked it! The shipping was definitely worth it.
Merry Christmas from Finland 😃
Don't tell everyone, they're my local gravel tracks! But seriously, I ride on the area with a relatively cheap alloy, Giant TCX, with mechanical disc brakes, 11 speed with a 1x chainring and 35mm Panaracer Gravel King tyres. It's all the bike you ever need to get off-road, it goes well on tarmac and is pretty easy and cheap to maintain, as long as you look after it. All these new gravel bikes are great, but not really required unless you're going to race gravel, or do epic bike-packing trips where all the extras can be useful.
Fun to watch, even if Robert caught more punctures during a single ride than me over 15 years. ;)
I live here in the North Bay Area, CA USA (Napa Valley) and have owned many cheap hybrid bikes. They work, but not well. The old saying the more you spend runs true and my best bikes have been $1000+ in price.
Seems that Conor had Type 1 fun and Alex had Type 1.5 fun, so the Schwinn Corvette wins! I have a Schwinn Stingray from the early 1960s that is a load of fun to ride short distances. The next challenge needs to be Conor and Alex on the same bikes plus Hank and his bike sometime in the new year. Cheers GCN!
This made me happy for my mom who got herself a cruiser style bike as her intro to cycling. Comfortable!! But perhaps not made for hills (beaches aren't known for hills tho, eh?)
Rodeo on GCN, the collab I didn't know we needed.
every time I see Connor riding his bike, I get the circus tune in my head
"do do do-do do-do...." 😂😂😂
We need more of Conner on the beach cruiser... If Santa is missing any reindeer this Christmas he could do worse than call Conner and the trusty cruiser 😂
Alex breaking down a lot makes this more of a Top Gear Cheap Car Challenge
Hey Connor, perfect upgrade material. Put a 2x on it and it will be an awesome machine.
Great video. The Salisbury Plain / Imber Perimeter Path, just a brilliant and unique place to ride a bike
It really is!
@@gcn And of course the road through Imber village is open to the public next week, I believe from the 28th to the 1st, so a fantastic opportunity to explore on the bike, even more of Salisbury Plain 🙂👍🏻
They say gravel bikes are just 1990s mountain bikes.
So I went and bought a 1990s mountain bike on Facebook Marketplace - plus a second one for spares, and some loose spares from the local bike coop [including a more comfy, tourist-y handlebar]
Result? The most fun I have ever had on two wheels, for around €100. Money well spent.
And to help Connor: beach cruisers are great for the job, above all if you have flat gravel roads around. And if you don't - just slap on a Tourney 3x crankset, a Tourney non-indexed front derailleur, and a Rotoshift front shifter to match the back one, and you are good for about €50 (even less if you rummage through the rust at your local bike coop).
It's Gravel Cycling Network again .
I've done a drop-bar conversion on an old Trek 820. Makes a fantastic gravel bike
Let's not make fun of kickstands. I have added them to a couple of my bikes and they are well worth it. So they weigh a few grams; well worth it when you need to lay the bike down somewhere in the boonies
Do I see Conor on a Schwinn?! Yes! And if you’re crazy enough, you can spin up to decent speed on beach cruisers: I got my old Trek Classic (the bike I returned to cycling with after a 30 year hiatus) up to 27mph on a flat stretch in Brooklyn, NY.
great video. best in ages. any chance you can share this loop on Komoot? looks great fun on a nicer day!
Genuinely laughed out loud at the carbon bottle cage.
Marginal gains are everything! (get a flat tire)
The best ever rides were the ones where you had an entry level bike and struggled through your first big rides. Always felt like you had achieved something.
Heck yes, that's what it's all about, fun!
This is why I have 40mm in all my bikes. Having 32 or 35 might be 1min faster but changing the tube is around 5mins.
Long story short the only bike I had for 2 years was my mom's old Raleigh (like a classic 3 speed but it had a 5 speed). I rode that thing everywhere for transportation and recreation.
Nice. I did the Devon grit mini on a £30 Diamondback Sorrento with no issues.
I rode 80km around the end of summer, and my friends asked me "What kind of a bike do you have that you can ride these long distances?" I have a cyclocross but apparently a beach cruiser would have been enough :D
Route looks boss - please can you post the route?
It is not winter when it is 15C+ and some drissle‼️
Its a summer day in most northern countries‼️
Besides that a great show as usual‼️🥰🥰
Try tube sealant (like Slime) - this works for me only with little weight penalty. Only problem - tube must have removable cores.
I think my people came to the US from that area. Looks like a nice place to ride. Do it again when we can see it
Very enjoyable..... Could of been a longer video as well.
"The epitome of what gravel bike is about, IT MEANS ANYTHING."
GCN: Alex you have a 200$ budget
Alex: I got some Dura Ace at home 😂.
That is such a Conor bike choice, but a really sweet choice
Now Conor has discovered the roots of mountain biking, will we see him doing backflips on GMBN soon?
The message of the video is great, have fun with whatever bike you have and if you ride into a mud puddle, it will be the same result anyway.
Captain slow rocking the cruiser
On a serious note, for £200 you can buy a seriously good gravel bike on marketplace, as so many people are basically giving stuff away on there.
I got a Merida Cyclocross 300 for £160 earlier this year and it has a list price of £925. There are loads of example of this kind of bargain out there.
watch "return of the scorcher". its about how the mountain bike craze started on Mt Tamalpais with schwinn beach cruiser bikes. They decided to add gears to climb up hills.
This makes me want to dig out my bike from storage and get out there. Hopefully if I sit quietly the feeling will go away. It's cold and damp outside😅
Yeah the upright position slows you up...especially when you're 8 feet tall!! Alex gets to rude behind a billboard!😂
for some of our trails in Ontario the gravel riders who ride them say that because they are multi use trails that a gravel bike should have 3 in wide tires
Excellent video @gcn, really enjoyed that. Please could you make the route available for download?
Adam (joke) - the least you could do was to fit some Dura-Ace cranks to it ….
that saved many of us from making the same joke!
It took a LOT of self control to not fit DA cranks
@@alexpatonGCNnext time do it 😂
I had to keep looking at the thin handlebars, the little fixing clamp screaming at me: "It's going to break right here. 😅
Being under biked is great fun occasionally when you get to go back to the good stuff. For those that don’t have a fleet of better bikes at home, I can’t help feeling you miss the middle ground again and again, it feels like superbike or supercheap, actually most people are in the middle. There’s a reason brands hit price points 500, 1000, 1500, 2000 euros, dollars, pounds etc. diminishing returns start to kick in after that, I’d be interested to see where you think peak value vs return sits.
Walmart sells a $250 gravel bike call the Ozark Trail G1. I've seen a few RUclipsrs beat it up on some tough looking single trail. Only problem is it doesn't come in a size that fits me (I'm 6'2")
I myself am looking to get the Poseidon Ambition X, which is about $750 and seems to be one of the best entry level bikes around. They also make a popular model called the Redwood that has a bit more aggresive MTB geometry with 2.4" tires. There are definitely some great budget options out there for people new to gravel.
You need to start a series with entry level gravel bikes. Then on a budget slowly upgrade them to show new riders what to expect.
Schwinn beach cruisers made into what are now called "klunkers" were also the first mountain bikes.
Alex calling Conor slow after Conor waited for Alex with all the punctures is funny. I wonder if Alex couldnhave caught up had Conor kept going.
Great job!!!!
Alex dodging the rules like that Matrix scene where Neo dodges the bullets
I have a beach cruiser and took it to the forest ride. That was fun but you can easily hit a root by a pedal
Connor! Awesome job!
Any of the G CN bunch remember the SPAM winter challenge, great event back in the day on them trails