Here’s the thing. GRINDURO is not ‘gravel.’ ‘Gravel’ is not a thing. It’s also not nothing.

The second in a trilogy on the process of designing a dream gravel bike, this piece walks through the way I refined my thinking and design for my custom T-Lab X3 modern gravel bike build, translating principles into specific decisions.

The first in a three-part series on the process of designing a dream gravel bike, this piece walks through the way I conceived my custom T-Lab X3 modern gravel bike build. This is a principles-based approach, which is meant to support decision making that lands riders on bikes they love.

Two-hundred kilometer rides every month through winter; doable? All I actually needed was an objective, something to look forward to through the dreary days of November, as daylight hours diminished rapidly, and the stark reality settled in: winter was coming. And not just any winter; COVID-winter.

I try to paint a picture here that’s more about building a holistic understanding of the environment you’re riding, and a degree of ‘mastery’ around decision-making than about telling you which tires you should buy. That’s the last thing I want to do. I want to help you develop a deep understanding of the requirements you’re working with, which you can then assess against your priorities. This will ground good decision-making.

The early phase of the pandemic threw me for a loop; not right away, it took time to settle in. Work on the computer, Zoom meeting after Zoom meeting; I struggled. I read a lot of fiction in an unconscious effort to escape a reality I had little control over. When do we ever have ‘control’? Never. But we think we do. I had to ride my bike in a way I’d never needed to before.

Smooth surfaces, in the form of narratives and infrastructure, gloss the past and physical spaces that constitute each of our realities.

I believe life is for living. It has taken me years to manifest conscious thoughts about gratitude on a regular basis, and for me, gratitude is always associated with the recognition that I’m fortunate to have a healthy, strong body, or rather, to be in this moment, a healthy, strong person. Now. Later? I don’t and can’t know. All I can know is whether I’m capable now.