A SLOW START & A FUN BIKE

I am going to get this out there straight away. This season so far has been shit for riding. Ignore the fact that I have gotten soft and don’t like riding in the cold, the windy or the wet. It has just been shit. But….If you are not riding, you have more time to wrench on bikes and my bikes are getting really dialed for the season.

I’ve mentioned this unique WH Bradford Designs Adventure Cross many times. This bike has evolved more than any bike in my collection. I’ve mentioned this bike has taken more time than any other to find the “sweet spot” where I consider it done. Well, at least for now, it’s done. I love this bike and now it’s time to ride it more.

Notable changes since I last posted and wrote about this rig.

• NOS Salsa CroMoto stem. This was an old custom stem I ordered back in the day when QBP purchased Salsa Cycles.

• New Cedaro frame bag. I can sew my own bags, but I love the Cedaro crew and they’ve sewn a lot more frame bags than me (I have sewn less than 10). I simply wanted a really tight fit from a really good maker on this rig.

• Shorter cranks. When I put new cranks on my Meriwether Ti gravel bike, I installed the 170mm cranks I removed from that bike on the WHB.

• Settled into a 430mm chain stay length for the best balance of ride comfort, tire/mud clearance and ride feel. I love how the swinging drop outs allow me to adjust the ride quality and feel of this rig.

This bike is just so, so good and dialed.

Hopefully, your season is going better than mine. I hope to turn a corner here soon with our MTB trails opening up for the season. Hope to see you all out there somewhere!