Still sorting my fit out on the Kona Jake the Snake and thought I’d test it out on Centennial Park’s gravel trail late yesterday afternoon. Man… talk about under biking. There’s some gnarly tree roots on the section of trail I chose to do, stuff that I’d bomb over willy nilly on my old dual suspension MTB, but even hopping up a gutter on this thing is more challenging.
I was going slow, real slow, and I had to pick lines. There was quite a lot of soft sand and I’m surprised the thin 35C tyres tracked just fine, but then I scored a flat, and well, that was the end of that.
I’ve never had an issue with flats all those years riding MTB’s, but I was running butyl tubes back then. I doubt I would have scored this flat if I ran butyl tubes, but 150g vs. 35g TPU tubes got the better of me with the build.
Need much more testing time, but I’ll look into tougher gravel specific TPU tubes with butyl tubes as a backup plan, and if butyl doesn’t work I’ll look into going tubeless (but I’d rather not).
I was so close to picking up a 90’s MTB before pulling the trigger on this bike. I like the concept of underbiking, but after yesterday’s ride I’m not so sure anymore. IE: I would have had a lot more fun on my old dual suspension trail bike.
As is, the bike is fine for easy gravel trails (Gina wanting to hit some chill gravel trails in the mountains was the catalyst in the first place), and out of all my bikes it’s also the only one I would comfortably lock up outside the local grocery store so it makes for a good pub bike (which would stop me from going too far with bling bits!) and with eyelets all over the frame it would make for a great wet weather bike too.
But hey, this is what testing is all about, and I’m sure with more testing I’ll figure out where I want to take this bike.
