Headsweats Contest

Headsweats fans! Don't forget to enter the January HeadsweatySelfie contest! There is actually one a month throughout the year!

1. Take an awesome selfie in your Headsweats
2. Post to your Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram using the #HeadsweatySelfie hashtag
3. Be entered for a chance to win a free piece of headwear!

They will pick 2 lucky winners at the end of the month. Good luck!

Gravel Gear; Bars, Stem and Seat Post

Not so much a necessity for the bike to move from a commuter to a gravel ride but I plan to switch out the cockpit and seat post. As with all my other bikes I will be switching over to 3TCycling parts. For this ride I went with the Pro Version on all three pieces as indicated by the white stripe.

The Stem is the classic Arx Pro Stem, personally I prefer the wider faceplate of the Arx vs. the ArxII. The Team Stem has a red stripe and the only difference is titanium bolts, which would be very fitting as it’s a titanium frame but that would throw of the cosmetic look from the Ergoterra bars.

The Ergoterra Pro are 3Ts aluminum CX bars and by design offer a wide drop bar for cyclocross, with flared drops for elbow clearance on rough ground, and a reinforced central section for crosstop levers. It is tailored to provide more control over technical terrain. They too are available with a red stripe which are the Team version and are carbon fiber

Many Pros opt for aluminum bars over carbon fiber as carbon can become razor sharp if it breaks. When compared to aluminum which is much more likely to just bend under impact. With that said the latter seems a much safer bet. While I have no plans to crash it’s bound to happen sooner rather than later.

The final piece is the seat stem which I went with a Doric Pro with a 25mm set back. I have the Pro version on my Mountain Bike and the Team version on my road bike. There’s no doubt the carbon stem offers a bit more flex but I compared to the Lynskey I will not have anywhere near as much stand-over height and any flex would be lost, plus it’s the same argument for crashing too. This stem is actually retired and it took a bit of hunting around to locate one. I finally found one in Canada!


So now all I have to do is mount it all!

Gravel Gear; Tires

With at least 3 gravel rides this year I need to consider a raft of new equipment. As posted here I picked up a Lynskey Cooper CX bike. It’s a great bike but was built for commuting and as such there are quite a few thing that I need to change out. First up are tires. The bike came with 32mm Gatorskins, great for commuting, not so good for off road. After a fair bit of research and some running of the budget numbers I opted for a set (and a spare) of the Clement X’Plor MSO tires. Not the most expensive, nor the cheapest but tires that had received some very solid reviews.

From their website: The X’Plor MSO is an adventure tire designed for mixed conditions. The combination of smooth-rolling center knobs and aggressive shoulder lugs provide great traction and durability for gravel roads, trails, cyclocross, urban assault and even pavement. The MSO will fit on your cyclocross or gravel bike, commuter, and touring rig and comes in two sizes: 700 x 32mm and 700 x 40mm.

I decided on the 40s which should be a more comfortable ride vs. the 32s.

Clement is an old French company which was established in 1928, it was then sold to Pirelli and then lay dormant when Pirelli left the bicycle tire market. They were relicensed in 2010 and the brand is enjoying a second life. Beyond the technical aspect of this tire there was a lot of appeal of the history and European roots of the company, check out their website here.

Besides who doesn’t like a company that has a Griffin as a Mascot!

Once I have some miles on them I post my thoughts.