u/uramug1234

I went out on a sub 24 hour adventure with around 60km of riding, mostly on day 2. This area is about an hour South of Stockholm, Sweden and features great chunky gravel roads, rideable xc singletrack, lakes, trees, and excellent camping. Weather was perfect swedish summer and I slept great. Just an amazing little reset for a quick weekend trip to the woods. Bike is setup for a 12 day trip to Norway and the main goal was just to test some new gear. Everything worked well so I'm ready to go next weekend!

My Bombtrack Hook Ext came with a 40t chainring (setup 1x) and paired with a an 11-42 cassette. It didn't quite have the climbing capability that I am looking for with this bike so I've changed out the chain ring. Now running a 34t chainring from Wolftooth and I love it! I definitely spin out on paved downhills now but the goal is to avoid those and hit some singletrack instead. Still more than fast enough on gravel so this is definitely how the bike is supposed to be setup.

Sunset photo at about 2200 here in Stockholm, gotta beat the heat somehow!

Took the Bombtrack Hook Ext out for a nice 60km, 1000m climbing gravel ride this afternoon. It was an uncharacteristically warm day for Stockholm (26C) so the shade in the forests was greatly appreciated. These 650x2.2 Dubnitals are just so much fun, there were quite a few rocky and rooty sections with steep climbs mixed in. Stuff that would have been plenty fun on my hardtail MTB. But I think it was more fun with this bike, especially since there were plenty more smooth sections like in the photo.

I've tried a few different wheel and tire combos on this bike and I love how much it changes the character of the bike. Started out with 650x2.0 WTB Rangers, then 700x40 Schwalbe G-one RS, followed by 700x35 Continental GP5K, and now 650x2.2 Continental Dubnital. This has allowed me to do a 315km road ride, countless gravel day rides, a bit of singletrack riding, and some longer multi day bikepacking adventures. Yes this is just the duality of a gravel bike but I love using it to the fullest. I think long term I'd like to keep my dual wheelset as this 650x2.2 and the other as a 700x45 fast gravel set like the G-one RS. I'm looking forward to doing more bikepacking and more unloaded singletrack. Really curious how far this can encroach on territory I normally ride with my hardtail MTB.

I have successfully gone on my first bikepack of the season! I have been busy this spring training for a 315km road ride (that I did with this bike a week ago!) so I haven't had time to go adventuring. Since I have an upcoming 12 day adventure planned in Norway in a few weeks, I wanted to shakedown some new gear locally. Plus I've always wanted to cram in a midweek overnighter as a commute to work. It went great, rode about 100km and 1400m total, about 70% gravel. I'm packed like I would for the big trip, just stuffed the food dry bag with work clothes instead. Way more stuff than I needed for an overnighter with lows around 15C of course, but it was a good way to test everything out. Love how versatile this Bombtrack Hook Ext is since it excelled with my skinny road slick tires just the same as this proper 650x2.2 knobby setup. Only thing that went wrong on this trip was being eaten alive by mosquitoes but that's a solvable problem!

I was so excited to finally install my new tires today and take them out for a spin in the woods. This bike came with 650x2.0 WTB Rangers which were fine, nothing special but fun enough tires on some gravel. I had been running the bike for a while on 700x40mm Schwalbe G-one RS on another wheelset. And then just completed a long road ride event with Continental GP5K in 700x35mm. The character of the bike has been so different with all of these tires!

Now I have absolutely maxed out my tire clearance with the Continental Dubnitals in 650x2.2. Not sure what they measure out to in metric and I still dont really understand why tires are measured in imperial above 2 inches. But I do think they are a bit narrower than the 56mm conversion would suggest. Plenty of clearance at the front but the rear is a bit tight. Nothing like some of the "will these fit" posts I have seen, but with gratuitous amounts of mud and fenders it would be tight. The intent is that these are summer only, I will be running something narrower with spikes in winter here in Sweden.

A bit tired from my 315km road ride yesterday, so only a quick 10km spin today to test these out. Excited to really go adventuring soon since they felt very capable and fast on single track.

I just committed myself (by booking round trip train tickets and a hotel stay on either end in Oslo) to a bikepacking trip this summer! Right now my options are quite open and wanted to gather opinions on route choices. I will be in Norway trying to do a bikepack route starting in Oslo from 12-23 July. Ideally I will just ride straight from the city but am open to using train logistics. Rough idea I have is National gravel route 1 (towards Trondheim), then west to Flåm via a popular route, and south again to Oslo. I'm riding a steel gravel bike with 650x56mm tires, plenty of experience riding and just looking for adventure!

https://www.komoot.com/tour/2996901386?ref=aso&share\_token=a1hBqxCt2tgUfPtWm39DEFq4GPpL8Y24AHD1TlBChSWv01VN9q&t\_s=referral&t\_cid=route\_share

Hahaha these tires are so fast! I wanted a fast set of tires for my second wheelset, for those rides that are 80/20 pavement/gravel. This is especially for the longer rides if I won't encounter rough single track, mud, or other terrain. So far they are wicked fast on pavement, work just fine on the smooth stuff, and didn't feel too sketchy rolling over some rocks and roots.

Took the TJ out for my first MTB ride of Spring. Yeah the snow has been melted for quite a bit but I've been busy riding road and gravel to train for a big event in June. So I hadn't had time to get the TJ out on a trail. I am so happy that I finally did, it was so much fun!!

I went on a nice 200km ride yesterday here from home in Stockholm, Sweden. And while yeah that's a long ride by any metric, what blew my mind was the elevation stats. Gaining 7000 feet in that distance isn't that abnormal in other places with mountains, but here my max ASL height was 300 feet! Beautiful day but no wonder why my legs are so done the next day.

How much gravel do you think a ride needs to call it a "gravel ride". Yeah it doesnt really matter, just go out and ride! But I did wonder from an academic standpoint what y'all think is the minimum. Considering there was only one 5km sustained section of gravel, this felt suspect to me. But either way I had a fun day and it was properly fast riding the bike on pavement nonetheless.

My quick after work ride today to celebrate the sunny warm day to end April. After a long dark, cold winter it's so nice to just have dry conditions and pristine gravel. Yeah 90% of this ride was pavement but the patch of gravel I hit was my favorite part. Gonna be a great summer of adventure with this bike.