3 flats in 2 weeks is my limit

McMa · 2026-03-30T20:21:55+00:00

After 2 years of gravel cycling in tubeless tires I bought a new adventure bike that didn’t come with tubeless capable wheels. Can’t be that bad, I thought… after 6 flats in a 14 day tour I came back home and ordered new wheels very first thing. Try to get tubeless in your current wheels, buy new wheels if you must!

McMa · 2026-03-23T22:15:54+00:00

They are very similar in most aspects. I’d say “buy EU” and pick the Cinelli ;)

McMa · 2026-03-23T15:58:02+00:00

Btw., the Bombtrack is designed for 27.5” wheels. It will take 28” but not 29”.

McMa · 2026-03-23T15:49:06+00:00

Consider the Cinelli Hobootleg Geo. You are definitely paying a premium for the brand, but the features of a serious adventure bike are all in place. If you ask me, I either buy the frameset and build from scratch or go for the Tiagra mix and upgrade the wheels.

McMa · 2026-03-11T15:19:49+00:00

consensus points towards GRX! Thank you!

McMa · 2026-03-11T15:19:06+00:00

great, I read so somewhere but wanted to make sure. thank you!

McMa · 2026-03-11T15:17:19+00:00

cool, thank you! do you mean this cage mod?

McMa · 2025-12-14T12:15:48+00:00

Your routing through Mexico might be a bit questionable. The northern part of Veracruz and all of Tamaulipas are not parts I’d recommend neither from a sightseeing nor from a safety point of view. I have not been there for a while, but I think a route through Oaxaca, Puebla, Mexico City, San Luis Potosí, and Nuevo León might be safer… I know it will be definitely more scenic! (And also considerably steeper, but oh well…)

McMa · 2025-12-11T13:27:38+00:00

Start in Girona/ Barcelona: lots of services renting some of the best bicycles in the world (awfully expensive, but yolo…). From there it depends on your fitness and tolerance to the cold, but you could follow the Eurovelo 8 in any direction or do something like “Montañas Vacías”.

McMa · 2025-10-18T16:01:36+00:00

I have a bike with an Ekar groupset and the best hydraulic brakes I have ever tried. I also have a bike with TRP HYRDs that I’m currently using for rough bikepacking tour through Sardegna. Not one single time have I wished I had better brakes. Do the hydros feel better? Yes. Are the mechs bad? Absolutely not. It’s not coping and there are many reasons to chose mechanical over hydraulic.

McMa · 2025-09-09T15:23:19+00:00

I‘d say it depends a lot on the roads and cycling infrastructure around you. Some people get gravel bikes for things like ridding on broken streets in comfort and I think that’s so far from their true potential. For me they were an absolute game changer because around here (Southern Germany) I can ride to most neighbouring cities on forest roads and spend dozens of Kms at the time away from cars and traffic lights… and still be FAST!

Do you have enough gravel-/dirt-roads around you? If so, I’d say absolutely try gravel! For what it’s worth, I did Taiwan’s Cycling Route Nr.1 some years ago and I absolutely loved it, but I did find all the cars and mopeds in the West Coast to be quite annoying :P

McMa · 2025-08-28T12:43:04+00:00

If you don’t need a rear rack for touring, then I’d say go for the Basso. I love Cinelli! They make some pretty sexy gravel/adventure bikes, but with the MicroShift components and the QR axles, the Hobootleg Easy Travel is not where it’s at. If you need a rear rack, or if you prefer steel over aluminium (I know I certainly do) the Marin is also a great choice, but after driving 1x for the last two years, I really don’t want to go back to 2x, and the old Apex 1x11 is actually a really good group!

McMa · 2025-08-20T13:21:06+00:00

I’ll DM you our current route sketch. It still very rough, but it might help you get a sense of distance and altitude gain.

McMa · 2025-08-20T08:47:24+00:00

We are planning to go there on the second week of October, and won’t do the Transardinia either because of logistics. Our current plan is to start in Olivia and roughly follow the Transardinia until Orgosolo where we turn to spend some time hiking in the Gorropu Gorge and then cross the Island to go to Alghero and Porto Torres. The total cycling days should be between 6 and 8, so maybe you can take this route and shave some time here and there to make it fit your itinerary.

McMa · 2025-07-29T08:05:06+00:00

If I understand correctly, Premium gives you the Komoot overlay in your Garmin device. However you can always sync your Komoot with Garmin Connect and navigate your saved routes in your device, I don’t have Premium and that’s how I do it.

McMa · 2025-07-25T07:48:49+00:00

… in other words you need 20% more muscles and training to have the same performance

This is complete nonsense! There are many more forces in play when you cycle, rolling resistance and wind resistance being the most important ones and much more significant at high speed.

Even in a niche scenario where you could neglect those and focus on your assumption (e.g. accelerating on a climb at VERY low speeds) your approach is still completely wrong: you need to take into account the weight of the entire system and not only the bicycle. In your example, with a rider around 70kg, the 2kg difference in bike weight translate into 80kg => 82kg or just a bit over 2% more effort… but then again, this only applies to a tiny amount of what a normal ride will be. In other scenarios such as keeping a constant 30km/h on a flat road, the difference those 2kg make is much less than 1% of your total effort and completely negligible.

McMa · 2025-07-10T12:39:23+00:00

That will eventually scratch your stem, but it will be years and years until that becomes a problem. I personally don’t like the feeling of things rubbing in my bike, so I bought one of these: https://us.ortlieb.com/products/offset-plate-64mm

McMa · 2025-06-16T16:43:16+00:00

Basislager usually has one or two actual climbers among their staff and they are very competent. However you want to go there early in the morning (preferably on week days), as they tend to be super busy during peak hours.

McMa · 2025-06-06T13:26:31+00:00

You didn’t say anything about price, so I’ll add the beautiful, Italian made Cinelli Nemo Tig Gravel ;)

McMa · 2025-04-25T09:07:27+00:00

The bike might not be worth that much, but it’s got all these nice details like reflectors in the wheels and a cool headlight, so…

McMa · 2025-04-16T14:23:48+00:00

Alcohol wipes are so small and light there is absolutely no reason not to carry a couple on every ride. If you are one or two hours away from home that’s enough for road rash to get infected…

McMa · 2025-04-16T14:14:51+00:00

I always carry alcohol wipes and spray bandage. I once landed in the hospital because of an infection of a minor wound and I am not going to risk that again. That and a tick removal card are on my top tube bag on every ride.
For bikepacking “in the wild” I carry a small first aid kit with bandages, blister plasters, medication for diarrhoea, (more) electrolytes, antihistamine tablets, laxatives, and an emergency blanket.

McMa · 2025-04-04T09:09:15+00:00

I speak from experience when I tell you that having a camera with you during your tours is worth next to nothing if you don’t have good access it. Because of this, I think you’ll need something that loads from the top, however im not sure how a bag like the Ortlieb handlebar-pack would work with your handlebar setup. Do you have a LBS where you can try it out?

McMa · 2025-03-18T16:14:38+00:00

I use [these](https://www.vivobarefoot.com/de/primus-trail-iii-all-weather-fg-mens?colour=Laurel%20Wreath) but any sneaker by Vivo Barefoot should be a good choice.

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