Many people have been riding gravel for decades, including of course Gerard, but 2018 was the year every bike company decided they needed to brand at least one bike as a gravel bike. When we introduced the Exploro back in 2016, many people didn’t understand why. Most people didn’t see the need for such a bike, until they tried it. Since the launch we have organised many demo events, to let cyclist experience how much fun the Exploro actually is to ride: and everyone that joined one of our rides came back with a big smile on their face: ‘so much FUN to ride this bike!’ was the overriding feedback we got.
Most roadies who go ‘graveling’ mention the possibility to ride off the increasingly dangerous roads, the expansion of the options where to ride (after trying the Exploro many people told us that once they went back on their road bike they felt very limited in the roads they could choose to ride), and that it is so much FUN to ride. Also, the fact that they could ride the Exploro like a pure performing road bike by simply switching wheels/tires make the Exploro a great bike to own.
When we did demo rides with mountain bikers, we were ourselves amazed what tricks they could do with this bike. I have seen many cool tricks/jumps/wheelies during these demo rides that for most roadies just look too crazy. And FUN they had too!
The feedback from the demo rides with mountain bikers was very positive too: ‘Don’t need to give up riding in nature, continue to have FUN, AND now i can add more SPEED to my ride: who that’s cool!
The great thing is that you have such a wide range of wheel/tire options that you can really tailor the bike to your preferred riding style and territory: from slick 30mm road tires all the way up to 2.1″ MTB tires, and anything in between.
My prediction for 2019?: even more, we are risking gravel overload! But it’s easy to see why: it is appealing for roadies and mountain bikers.
Wish you all a Happy New Gear in 2019!