obrentharris 

San Francisco skyline in far distance. Taken from Mt. Tamalpais, Marin County.
Brent

Bingod

i love riding that trail. My new favorite SoCal gravel ride/loop is to take Zuma Ridge up and over to the Backbone then follow it to Encinal, then Yerba Buena and lastly on to Sandstone Peak, then continue down Yerba to PCH and down the coast back to the car.

Bingod

Congratulations. I love my 2014.

HTupolev

First pic isn't on gravel, but the ride definitely included gravel. The prominent mountain (Pilchuck) is the same in all pics.

croni

Looks nice.

croni

That looks amazing

Matadors

I have been following the canals around my county just to find areas I have never ridden.

franswa

How long does that canal path go for?

franswa

Fresh oil

mattcalifornia

Awesome! How do you like that Grevil? I've seen a surprising number of them for sale for pretty decent prices, so I was wondering why. I'm looking for a gravel bike but was worried the Grevil might be more race oriented and not single-track capable. But it looks from your pic that maybe that's not the case. I'm currently leaning toward an Ibis Hakka MX, if I can even get one these days. What do you think?

howardv

Love my Grevil. I've put about 2,000 miles on it so far and it's been a fantastic bike. The single tracks that I've been riding have mostly been tame. I'm not too comfortable on the more technical terrain. I'd say the Grevil is more road and race than technical tracks. But I chose it because I ride 20+ miles of highways and canyons to get to the dirt. Of course there are other gravel bikes which are more geared for dirt than road, you have to see what suits you best.

I also test rode the Hakka. It's an awesome bike. But the Grevil felt more comfortable to me. I'd attribute this purely to out of the box geometry fitting my body better. This will be different for every person, so it's not a good or bad point of either bike, just your body and your preferences. I actually like the Hakka better since it has less proprietary parts, such as no aero stem or seat post. Much easier and cheaper to upgrade in the future, such as adding a dropper seat post. I don't believe this is possible on the Grevil due to the aero seat post. And I think anything aero on a gravel bike is kinda useless and more of a hype.

So if you get a chance, test ride both. They're both great rides!

mattcalifornia

Thanks! I'm in LA too. Where did you test ride a Hakka?

howardv

From Helen's Cycles in Santa Monica. They're an authorized dealer for both Pinnarelo and Ibis (along other brands). Just a heads-up, my Pinnarelo was assembled horribly. Took it back mulltiple times with issues and they couldn't fix it properly. Finally, I took the bike apart and put it back together properly myself. Bottom bracket wasn't torqued properly, cassette and derailleur hanger were loose, and handlebar/stem weren't torqued properly either (along with other minor things). Once I put it back together, it rode like a dream. I've purchased a lot of bikes from them in the past and they have a history of screwing up the assembly. Just a warning!

Hmmm

The fall leave coverage here makes for some very comfortable gravel. After December it gets too rainy and muddy so I tried to get out on gravel as much as I could before the rainy months.

Witterings

@franswa

Would love to ride somewhere like that !!!

What's teh bag on your handlebars ... think I~m going to end ip going this route as I can't seem to find anything the right size that goes on the rear that I can fit a rear light in a place that has good visibility.

chancelucky

Great day for having a gravel bike. I found this fire road just about 9 miles from home. 3.5 miles out until the mud got to be a little much. This is near Jordan Lake in North Carolina.

mattcalifornia

I went to Helen's today. They don't demo gravel bikes any more. : (

howardv

During Covid they don't do rentals or demos. But you can still take a new bike for a test ride around the block. At least they allowed that a few months ago.

mattcalifornia

I think it's also because they just don't have enough stock to justify having demos. I'm not sure how much I'll really be able to tell by riding around the block, but maybe. Thanks.

franswa

It was a great ride! Only went 30 but have the option to do 100 round trip. The bag is a Roadrunner California Burrito bag.

franswa

Another out of town Jaunt. Steeper climbs and a much harder surface than last weekend, with larger rocks. Really looking forward to getting my 650b setup for a more comfy ride.

Hiro11

Remember summer everyone?

franswa

What a brutal week it has been here in Central Texas! Finally got water last night, after five days without. Fortunate to have had electricity the whole time. Hard to believe it was 70f yesterday.



Lots of downed branches and trees that made it like an obstacle course.

franswa

Got lost again

djkashuba 

Sonoma by djk762, on Flickr