Much of my riding last summer was confined to the road. That is probably heresy to admit in these pages, but a combination of injury and time and location ensured that if I was gonna turn the pedals, then the venue would be mostly paved. Given the choice of riding pavement or not riding at all, the allure of road rides increased profoundly.
Bear in mind that my “road” bike is an Ibis Hakka MX, with 42-millimeter-wide tires and disc brakes. If I am feeling super sporty, wistfully contemplating shaving my legs again for the first time in decades, I might run some skinny 32c tires. But the fatties are generally where it is at, especially on the combination of degraded old pavement and gravel roads where I live. And even then, with those bulbous tires, the whole package still only weighs 19 pounds. After a summer of floating that bike uphill, it was a shock in September when I got back to the business of riding mountain bikes in real mountains. Mountain bikes are fat these days!
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