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Why no Gravel bikes at Karoo2Coast?


sjaaknelson@gmail.com

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Did the K2C 2018 and there were a couple of gravel bikes in the mix.

Wouldn't repeat what the last one we passed was saying about his bike, look at it this way if it was on TV there would have been a lot of beeping to do.

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Recently sold my mtb and ride everything with my GB. Cant understand why Gravel bikes arnt allowed on a jeep track race. Already entered.

I have done a couple K2C's and I would not want to take on the descent from the top of Ouwapad on a gravel traveller. People will be pushing their gravel bikes on that descent and having already hiked up the front of that hill for the last hour folks will be anxious to get going. I always blast down that hill. Walkers will be a nuisance and dangerous.

 

But then not that anyone cares about what anyone rides. Last outing for me was 2018 and e-bikes were not allowed either, yet a good few passed me.

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I suppose they have their reasons.

 

Whatever they are I'm sure they thought pretty hard about it and the people they would prevent from entering.

 

One of those rules that exists for the median and not the extremes. ie some people can ride it on a gravel bike but the average person arriving there on their GB will not.

 

BUT many will ignore the rules. Up to you. But if you are DQ'd or really don't enjoy the experience then that was a decision you took knowing the rules.

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I have ridden the route on a gravel bike and enjoyed it - I’m capable on mine but I have no doubt if I ride it on K2C I would be ruining the fun downhills for the guys on regular mtbs by slowing them down on bumpy sections

 

Some guys could keep their gravel bikes at the pointy end but the fact is it’s not a gravel race

 

There are many gravel races you can do or you can just go ride the K2C route on another day with mates

Edited by Wayne pudding Mol
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Recently sold my mtb and ride everything with my GB. Cant understand why Gravel bikes arnt allowed on a jeep track race. Already entered.

Probably not a bad idea to check before you enter if you can use your bike.

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When we did it in 2019 i was at one stage riding with a guy on a gravelbike....with flatbars. I was on my fully rigid mtb. The only real difference between our bikes was the size of the rubber we were on. There were guys on 90s POS vbrake mtbs with bar-ends.

 

“Opportunity lies in the ambiguity of rules”....lol

 

PS: yes the guys on the trailbikes blasted past on the descends...but they were not that many, and you catch and post most of them on the neverending accends when they have to haul all that suspension up a hill for 10km lol. The average guys take it easy regardless. It’s busy if you arent chasing a podium. I caught a guy pushing his “flat” ebike going up that last brutal hill just before Simola too.

Edited by MORNE
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I did K2C on my gravel bike in 2019 (at least 2 others starting in A batch too) Had a blast until I punctured just before kom se bos). Then got caught in the moerse storm when I eventually got air to stay in the front wheel after a second puncture. It was a very different race to my dual sus in previous years, but if given the choice I'd do it on the gravel bike again provided the conditions aren't wet and muddy - I could barely see at the finish with all the fine spray that came off the front wheel, mtb tyre mud blobs I can handle. ????

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