What does not remain to be seen, however, is the fact that riding “off the beaten path” or “gravel grinding” is fun.\u00a0 Really<\/strong> fun.\u00a0 In fact, it's some of the best fun you can have on two wheels.<\/p>\n Regular readers will recognize that I've long been a huge proponent of riding on unpaved surfaces.\u00a0 From tips about dirt road riding<\/a> to an unhealthy obsession with racing Battenkill<\/a> a number of times, I've been churning through dust and dirt for years.\u00a0 I've done a lot of road, crit and track racing since the Battenkill years, taking me away from the dirt.\u00a0 This year I decided to return to the unpaved madness for Monkey Knife Fight 9<\/a> and seriously put my gravel grinding legs to the test.\u00a0 To say I failed would be critical: I simply didn't hack it all.\u00a0 Partly due to fitness, partly motivation and a little touch of equipment choice made for a long day.<\/p>\n Well, it's time to rectify that with a #newbikeday<\/a>.\u00a0 But why did I choose to go this route?\u00a0 For this Motivation Monday, I'll chat about the road less traveled, why it's so nice and why you should think about turning down it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Gravel grinding isn't something new, but it's really newly popular.\u00a0 While pro cycling has recently embraced gravel events like Strade Bianche<\/a> and the addition of dirt to grand tour stages<\/a>, amateurs have been flocking to gravel events for years.\u00a0 Events like Battenkill<\/a>, D2R2<\/a>, Raspititsa<\/a> and Dirty Kanza<\/a> have a huge following.\u00a0 And the incredible thing about it is that they have a huge following among “legit” riders.\u00a0 No freds here, people.\u00a0 Not by a long shot.<\/p>\n You see, these gravel grinder events elevate the typical “organized ride” from an event to an experience.\u00a0 Not only is it an experience, it's an experience that takes the mundane of riding\/racing a bike and makes it exceptional.\u00a0 There's an element of adventure, excitement, and unpredictability present in a gravel grinder that rarely exists\u00a0in road events.\u00a0 Now, don't get me wrong, road racing is a blast and the people are cool, but there's something inherently predictable about\u00a0it.<\/p>\n Many of you no doubt followed my progress towards Monkey Knife Fight<\/a>.\u00a0 You'll probably also know that this year has been extremely tough from a motivational standpoint.\u00a0 Racing didn't even really sound fun this year either.\u00a0 After spending the whole winter on the trainer and moving to a new state, there wasn't much training time put in.\u00a0 Because I left my previous gym, I didn't get much strength training done this off season.\u00a0 Weather during the late spring and early summer has been exceptionally unpredictable, making trips to the track iffy at best.<\/p>\n More than anything, I just didn't have the ambition to race on the road this year.\u00a0 It's not that I don't love the scene, it's just that I didn't feel like doing it.<\/p>\n Monkey Knife Fight really did reignite my love of riding the road less traveled.\u00a0 What it also did was remind me how hard it is on the body to ride rough gravel roads on a stiff criterium bike.\u00a0 So the search was on.<\/p>\n I went through a number of possibilities in the search for a gravel bike.\u00a0 There was the Colnago Prestige<\/a>, the Scott Addict Gravel<\/a>, the Ridley X-Trail<\/a> and several others.\u00a0 I ultimately settled on something that made all the other bikes I test rode seem like a kid's BMX bikes.<\/p>\n I settled on a Parlee Chebacco<\/a> swathed in custom paint.<\/p>\n With the bike built and tested, I was blown away.\u00a0 The advances in gravel technology have truly yielded an amazing experience.\u00a0 It really can handle anything you can imagine throwing at it.\u00a0 With a good small block tire selection (I'm using the Vittoria Terreno Dry tubeless<\/a> in 40mm width) it's smooth and fast on pavement.\u00a0 The thick, meaty rubber makes it a beast on anything that's less than smooth and buttery.<\/p>\n In the past 3 or 4 rides on the Parlee, I've had more fun riding a bike than I have had in the past year.<\/p>\n I've not bought a new bike in about four years.\u00a0 Well, nothing except my purpose built track bike, but that's a different creature altogether.\u00a0 I forgot the excitement and thrill that comes along with a new bike.\u00a0 It's doubly powerful with a new bike that will expand where I can ride comfortably.\u00a0 I understand the thrill that gravel bikes bring, and I love the feeling of joy from just tearing ass down an unpaved, gravelly “road” with the confidence of wide rubber and powerful braking.<\/p>\n And that's what Motivation Monday is about.\u00a0 It's about what motivates me to get out and ride.\u00a0 For you, it doesn't have to be a new bike.\u00a0 It might be a new set of wheels, new bar tape<\/a>, the first ride on a power meter<\/a>, or whatever stokes your desire to ride.<\/p>\n Whatever it is, just find your stoke and build on it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On this Motivation Monday, I’m talking about the thrill of #newbikeday and how it’ll push me to get out and ride more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,118],"tags":[55,5692,60,5408,187],"yst_prominent_words":[5318,2134,1442,5397,220,5690,5687,975,218,5392,5388,5391,301,5401,5691,302,4990,222,4969,5688],"wppr_data":{"cwp_meta_box_check":"No"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Motivation-Monday-gravel-grinding.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13743"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13743"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13749,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13743\/revisions\/13749"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13743"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=13743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Solitary](\"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/IMG_0156-300x225.jpg\")
<\/a>The Greatness of Gravel Grinding<\/h2>\nThe road less traveled<\/h3>\n
![\"Parlee](\"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/parleechebaccogravel-1-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a>#NewBikeDay<\/h3>\nMotivation Restored<\/h3>\n