My first time on proper gravel.
As many of you know, the SALA crew went to Girona in early April. Typical of us, we planned the trip very last minute, and as such we didn't rent the bikes with much anticipation. One of the main reasons is that we trusted we could get some bikes from our friends at Megamo.
After two days of amazing road cycling, we finally managed to visit their Headquarters. We got to know the amazing team, they shared some of their plans and also told us all about the brand. I really loved the history of the brand, full of color and amazing stories. As we were walking through their showroom I fell in love with some of their vintage mountains bikes and jerseys, as they are very bright and playful.
Later on I found the one bike that spoke to me, the BUFF team editions. Its design is amazing, mixing vibrant colors that really speak to my personality. I asked them if I could test it, and to my surprise they said yes, however they only had the Silk model, meaning the gravel one. I didn't care. I said yes!
As we rode the streets back to our airbnb, I noticed that the bike behaved almost like my road bike, very nimble, agile, and light, which put me at ease.
The next day, as we all got gravel bikes in the end, we decided to do a gravel ride. We texted our friend Mike for a tour, and instead of sending it to us, he decided to join us as our personal guide. I was a bit nervous about the ride, especially since I had never really done gravel. I mean, I had done a little bit, but never a whole tour.
As soon as we started, I noticed the Silk Buff was catching the eyes of everybody everywhere we went. The pressure was on! Getting out of the city was easy -- first road, and later hard-packed gravel. I liked the feeling of not having cars around, only other bikes and people running on the trail. As we got farther from the city, the road started getting more "technical" (I don't really know what that means), more difficult... we started getting into some trails with bigger rocks, and crazy ups and downs. To be honest I was scared, I'm coming from a 25mm tire, but thanks to the 45mm tires the bike has, I had no issue! It was relatively easy. I started getting a bit more confident, and a little later we had this twisted descent into a muddy section. Hien went first and fell -- nothing crazy, just lots of mud on her bib. Then it was my turn. I slid, but the bike kept me standing, again nothing, all good!
As the ride went on, we went through amazing fields, beautiful old towns, some punchy ascents followed by fast descents! On many occasions I thought I was going to get a puncture, or worse, die!! But nothing. The bike took all that beating without any issue, and better yet, I had fun. At many points we had to cross rivers, and by the end of it, I became a master of crossing them. My only regret: not having gravel shoes!
At the end of the ride, the bike was very, very muddy. I was too, to be honest. But I felt very proud of riding about 80 kms of gravel on an amazing-looking bike. I liked it so much that I'm thinking of getting it! The cool thing is that it's now available at SALA. Thanks to me!
Things that I love about the bike:
-Design. Life is too short to ride boring bikes.
-Electronic shifting. Worked amazing, changed my game.
-Big fat tires. I mean, I'm coming from 25 mm, so these were comfy AF.
Things that I didn't like:
-That I couldn't take it home?
-Very limited, and difficult to get.
-Hard to color-coordinate with my outfits.
Check it out HERE
