One of my favorite places to ride a gravel bike is Cape Cod. There isn’t much actual gravel there but there are lots of wonderful unpaved sand roads. There is great single track, too, some of which is manageable on a gravel bike. But the Stigmata I am riding had Maxxis Ravager 700c x 40mm tires and in the really soft sand they bogged down and I had to hop off and walk.

Panaracer Gravelking SK 650B x 50mm

So I ordered some new 650b wheels from Industry Nine – chosen to match the existing hubs on the 700c wheels with Industry Nine 1 to 1 hubs and Easton rims and making swapping wheels easier. Lou at Pedal Montclair helped me select the right tires: Panaracer Gravelking SK 650B x 50mm which float better… but not in the really soft stuff – fat bike required ;-). We added a new Sram Rival 10-44 cassette – identical to the one on the 700c wheel –  and were expecting the wheels to be easily swapped with no adjustments necessary.

Well, with the old (actually only 400 miles!) chain the new cassette was crunchy, so for now I will wait until the chain is ready for replacement and see if that works with both cassettes smoothly.

But overall my Cape Cod riding is improved and requires less walking.

Schwalbe G-One RS 700c x 35mm

Back in NJ I changed the old Maxxis Ravager tires out for some new Schwalbe G-One RS 700c x 35mm tires set up as tubeless because I spend more time on tarmac and the trails don’t really require such gnarly tires. I inflate to 25psi rear and 20 psi front for trail comfort.

Now the bike with the 700c wheels feel more like a road bike but are still able to handle trails nimbly.

All is good for now!