Reading the Trail
I had a fun gravel ride earlier this week on Arroyo Trabuco Trail . I did an out and back, which has an access point about a mile from my house. It’s actually a fairly technical trail for me. Yet, I felt really confident on this ride. I recently changed out the tires on my Franco Grimes Bicycle to Gravelking SS Panaracer. That's a less knobby tire for dry riding and less rolling resistance when riding tarmac. Riding on this trial tested the gravel-ability of these tires! They did well, but I wondered about switching them out and going back to the Gravelking SK Panaracer, which is definitely a gravel tire. On the return, I was moving fast and accurately reading the trail well. At one point the trail went down and across a dry creek bed that I didn’t read well – and my skinny slick gravel tires just sank into the gravel. Dead stop - I couldn't peddle out of it. I should have gone across the creek bed just a few feet up, but I didn't see that option on the apporach. I had