On the finish of August, I raced the masters gravel nationwide championships; my first ever Nationals in any occasion, regardless of having raced bikes for the higher a part of 20 years since my early teenagers.
It was raced partly as a part of a race-prep characteristic we wished to do right here at Cyclingnews, however I would be mendacity if I mentioned I wasn’t tremendous excited on the prospect.
Just a few months prior, with the race on the horizon, I made a decision I could not line up at such an occasion with an ill-prepared bike. I spend my working day studying and writing about aero hacks and marginal positive factors, so to disregard the potential positive factors alone setup felt like sacrilege.
In any case, I firmly consider that tech can enhance efficiency on all terrains. Given riders resembling Dan Bigham and Dylan Johnson can push the envelope of kit optimisation – on what we are able to solely assume is a considerably smaller funds of each money and time than their WorldTour-funded counterparts – it confuses me to see professional groups and professional riders not benefit from what are seemingly straightforward wins. It clearly works too, Bigham has since made a profession out of it, optimising himself to a World Hour Document title, and having fun with a spell at Ineos Grenadiers earlier than a current transfer to Bora Hansgrohe.
On the highway, optimisation primarily surrounds chasing aero financial savings, however with its slower speeds and rougher terrain, gravel is a bit more complicated. Aero nonetheless makes up a lot of the total resistance at race speeds of round 30-35km/h, however rolling resistance makes up a considerably better portion. Grip, dealing with and gearing are of better significance too.
For my race, I wished to discover a bike that blended aerodynamics, racy geometry, and an honest weight. I wished large tyres to enhance my rolling resistance and a variety of gears to sort out the various gradients of hills.
All through the previous few months, I have been pulling collectively a gravel superbike that tackles all of these issues effectively, however in a approach that is a bit of extra refined when in comparison with the likes of Chase Wark’s loopy Lauf Siegla and Dylan Johnson’s Felt with shaved tyres – each of which seen in our Unbound 2024 tech gallery.
The newest race content material, interviews, options, critiques and professional shopping for guides, direct to your inbox!
The body: Ridley ASTR RS
Any superbike construct wants a powerful start line, and what higher place to begin than a model new, unreleased gravel race bike, ridden to 4th place at Unbound?
As talked about, I wished a light-weight, aero body with massive tyre clearance, and there aren’t too lots of these round. The 3T Extrema Italia is one among them, with 57mm tyre clearance, however at 10kg for a full construct when my colleague Will reviewed it, it wasn’t the proper selection. The Lauf Siegla might have additionally been an possibility, with comparable clearance however much less aero optimisation.
Throughout this analysis section, out of pure likelihood, I obtained an e mail from Ridley sharing particulars of its soon-to-be-released bike.
Referred to as the ASTR RS, it has an aero body, a body weight of 890g, and when run 1x it could possibly settle for tyres as large as 52mm. Even higher is that it comes with 36cm handlebars in my dimension. It is a bike that, as concluded in my current Ridley ASTR RS assessment, I actually consider is the way forward for gravel race bikes.
I thought of going even narrower with the loopy Lambda bars that Will examined earlier this 12 months, however with the one-piece cockpit of the Ridley being designed across the body, I felt the aerodynamic advantages of going narrower could be offset considerably by switching to a separate bar/stem with exterior cables. And not using a wind tunnel to check it empirically, I made a decision to play it secure (and straightforward) and use the bars that had been already fitted to the bike.
SRAM Purple XPLR AXS groupset and Zipp 303 XPLR wheels
One other stroke of luck whereas planning got here via the launch of SRAM’s new flagship gravel groupset, full with progressive new Zipp wheels.
The groupset, Purple XPLR AXS, is 1×13, makes use of the wonderful new hoods from the lately launched Purple AXS highway groupset, and leans on SRAM’s mountain bike Transmission for some intelligent new gravel-specific componentry. Amongst which, the Full Mount UDH mount for the rear derailleur with gives speedy alignment, the ‘Magic Pulley Wheel’ which lets them maintain spinning in the event that they get blocked with particles, and the truth that the rear mech might be disassembled, with particular person elements accessible to rebuild it within the case of injury.
With its launch, the choice of which groupset to make use of grew to become a simple one. I’m an enormous fan of GRX Di2, particularly the hood form and braking energy, however I did not suppose I would want the extra vary of a 2x chainset and I would heard good issues about this new groupset in Tom’s Purple XPLR AXS assessment.
Alongside the groupset, SRAM additionally launched a crazy-wide set of wheels, the Zipp 303 XPLR SW, which have a 32mm inside width. That is 3mm wider than the subsequent widest I can discover (the 3T Discus 45/40) and a full 8mm wider than the DT Swiss GRC 1400 wheels that come customary on the ASTR RS (whereas weighing nigh-on the identical!)
Their solely downside is that tyre selection is at present restricted to a handful of permitted choices together with the Goodyear XPLR (designed with the wheel) and a few of Schwalbe’s vary. No matter that, I needed to give them a go.
Tyre selection
Main into the race, with tyre selection so restricted for the wheels, I had a few suitable choices at my disposal.
The primary was the Goodyear XPLR Inter, which bears a reasonably light-tread, however at 45mm is designed to work aerodynamically with the rim.
The second was the Schwalbe G One R, a barely extra closely treaded tyre as compared. It has obtained quite a few constructive critiques from buddies and colleagues alike, and one which I’ve beforehand gotten on effectively with too. The one draw back was that this was narrower at 40mm. I felt as if I used to be losing the large tyre clearance supplied by the ASTR body, however the wider 45mm possibility was unavailable on the time.
With relentless rain hitting Gatehouse of Fleet the place the race could be held within the weeks prior, however a fast-drying course with a protracted highway part, I used to be not sure of the selection, so took each to the Airbnb I would be staying at for the times main into the race.
A day earlier than the race, regardless of the solar shining at my Airbnb within the Lake District, an e mail got here via from the organisers saying that the automotive park for the race was so flooded that it was unusable, and with that I made a decision I would have to make use of the Schwalbe’s heavier tread and settle for the narrower width. Because it transpired, the 40mm tyres really measured nearer to 45mm on these rims anyway, so I do not really feel I misplaced a lot, and the sidewall-to-rim transition was clear, as per Zipp’s intentions when designing the rim.
It is also price mentioning that, forward of a later race, I attempted to run Vittoria’s Air Liner Gravel Gentle contained in the wheels, however they had been so large that the liner merely sat within the channel and supplied little or no safety. For that reason, SRAM actively says to not use a liner, which is perhaps a cause to keep away from them.
I as a substitute switched to the DT Swiss wheels, full with Vittoria Air Liner inside a Terreno Dry 2.0-in tyre. Though round 500g heavier in whole, this unlocked a capability to roll over just about every little thing within the bike’s path.
CeramicSpeed bearings and chain
It appears a superbike construct is not full in 2024 and not using a point out of ceramic bearings, and who higher than CeramicSpeed – arguably the market chief within the area – to show to for some further free velocity through lowered friction?
With the Ridley ASTR RS utilizing a press-fit backside bracket, I sourced an equal from the Danish model, alongside a pre-treated raceday chain from its UFO sequence.
The UFO chain alone is claimed to be price two to 5 watts, and there is a further – albeit unquantified – saving from the underside bracket. Whereas the associated fee per watt saving is not the most effective you will get, this was a no brainer for me on such an essential race.
I did need to add within the model’s Aero OverSized Pulley Wheel too, however with SRAM’s new groupset having solely simply launched, a suitable system is but to be made accessible. Possibly that is one for subsequent 12 months’s construct!
Apidura baggage
Whereas not accessible in time for nationals, for a later race, I optimised the bike even additional utilizing a set of Apidura baggage which have been designed particularly for this body.
This includes a body bag that fills the area behind the pinnacle tube and a high tube bag that sits behind the stem. Collectively, they’re mentioned to be price 2.6 watts at 36km/h (the profitable common velocity of the boys’s Unbound 2024). Ridley Categorized rider, Piotr Havik, used them for Unbound the place he completed 4th, and I am informed he continues to make use of them – empty in lots of races – merely for the aero acquire. Why would not you?
The subsequent construct?
With a aim of qualifying for Worlds in 2025, my thoughts is at present bouncing concepts round for the subsequent construct. Ought to I run 2.2in tyres on discs? Possibly these 22cm Lambda handlebars, or maybe Speeco’s ABB bar? Can I run Categorized with a 60T chainring?
What would you add? Electronic mail me and let’s construct one thing loopy.