Product Testing.

As mentioned earlier this week rides have been hard to come by, either because of a busy schedule or the rain.  Yesterday afternoon I headed out on the Evergreen to test some new tires I may use at Gravel Worlds.   I also put them on some new wheels, Hed Ardennes + LT.  Hands down the easiest wheel I've used to set up tubeless.  Held air without sealant, of course I've added some.  The Nox wheels are awesome but almost too wide.  I've yet to have great success setting them up tubeless.  I've been blaming the tires but now I'm starting to wonder.  I will set these up with a more aggressive tire and make the call which to use once I do a bit of recon out in Nebraska.

When using tubes I usually run the tires at 60-65 psi.  I had the tires yesteday around 50 psi.  I actually stopped to see if it was leaking air, nope!  The ride is so different...in a good way.  So much more comfortable and despite the lack of tread in the middle I rarely slipped out on climbs unless I was really pushing it.  Because they are 34c's I wasn't super confident going into soft corners at speed.  This may come as I get used to the tires.  On the initial running I was very happy with this set up.  On Saturday I will use them up at my parent's cabin.  The gravel there is softer, chunkier and much hillier...a good test.

The ride itself was great.  The humidity was all but nonexistent and very low winds.  The last several times I've done gravel I've gone south but yesterday I was able to go north.  I even found some new to me roads.  Morrison County has some of the best gravel roads...narrow, windy, and not well maintained!  I ended with 70ish miles in a bit over 3.5 hours.
Today the older girls have a play performance so I'm heading out soon to get a ride in before hand.  After the play we head up to my folk's cabin for a wedding reception type thing tomorrow.  Taking the road bike out and heading east.  That means a "flat" ride!

Sunday, or Monday (haven't decided yet), we head to Madison.  Jen and the girls will bop around town and hang out with Jen's brother while I will be at Trek World checking out the new stuff for 2017.  Back Wednesday next week to scramble around finalizing everything for the mountain bike race on the 7th.  Hopefully I'll race!  Then the 8th we head out west for our family vacation!  Can't wait.

Happy Weekend.