(whoosh)
- You may be thinking we've flown all the way out here,
to the Caribbean but you'd be wrong.
We've come to Northern Poland to do an epic ride.
- Mate I can't wait.
We're going to be exploring beautiful beaches and forest.
It's going to be so cool.
And we are literally going to Hel and back.
- What?
To hell and back?
Oh, mate, I didn't sign up for this.
- Mate, no you idiot.
Not the fiery realm of eternal damnation,
where evil souls are subject to punitive suffering
and everlasting punishment presided over by Satan.
Literally to Hel.
It's a place down there,
at the end of this stunning peninsula.
- Wow, it looks absolutely mint.
- Oh Poland, who knew?
(upbeat, calming music)
(upbeat, cheerful music)
To do this epic ride and celebrate all things Poland,
we thought it'd be an ideal opportunity
to ride a Polish bike.
Fortunately, our mates at Rondo
have agree to source us out.
- Now I have been doing my research
and designed a route on commute
that takes in these epic tarmac roads,
but also some of the awesome gravel and fire roads
that this part of the world has to offer
and to be honest mate, we've got to go down them.
I'm excited.
- Well fortunately, Rondo has the perfect tool for the job.
I'm going to go get it.
- Ooh, I wonder what he's going to get.
- Check these out. - Oh my gosh.
They look insane.
- That's your one. - Look at that!
What's it actually called?
The Rondo HVRT? (stammers)
- It's pronounced hurt, the Rondo Hurt.
It's an aero road bike, ideal for racing
or riding down roads like this at 50 kilometers an hour.
Well, what you do.
But it's also got some tricks up its sleeve,
making it ideal for those gravel trails
you were on about as well.
- Right mate, I reckon without further ado
we need to get on these things.
Ooh, I'm excited mate, you ready?
- [Ollie] Yeah man.
- [James] This is going to be good!
(upbeat rock music)
Nothing like a solid headwind.
(upbeat rock music)
Our route will take us along the stunning Hel Peninsula,
literally, as Ollie says, to Hel.
Then we will ride back along the peninsula
into the mainland along the Baltic coast,
where we will loop round on a mixture of forested roads,
gravel trails and beautiful plains
and past (speaks Polish) and back towards the peninsula,
just north of a town called Puck.
Yeah, you have to spell that one correctly.
And then, it's to the finish.
(upbeat, cheerful music)
- Right, before we go to Hel and back
I'm going to tell you a bit more about the HVRT.
So, fundamentally this is a bike that's designed to go fast.
It would be equally at home in a criterium, a road race
or just blasting down one of your local rapid roads.
Consequently, it has all the features of an aero-road bike,
so you've got dropped seatstays at the back,
Kamm tail and flat back tube profiles to reduce drag.
A bladed fork and seat post
and some rather novel aero features as well,
such as this blade, well fin on the fork here
that covers the front brake calipers.
They're designed to smooth the airflow over the front brake
but, regardless of how much drag it saves,
it just looks absolutely awesome.
The geometry is aggressive,
allowing you to adopt a low and aerodynamic position.
And also alluding to the bikes racing credentials,
you've got these rather trick two-tone deep section wheels
from Hunt with the Rondo graphics on
and that's tubeless ready as well.
At the back, we have some compliance features
so if you noticed the rather interesting looking seatstays
that curl round at the back,
they're designed to bow slightly,
which is a rather clever little idea.
(peaceful music)
Now this is where the list of features
on most aero road bikes ends,
but the HVRT has some additional,
rather unique and clever features.
Check this out.
The geometry is variable thanks to this; the TwinTip fork.
This insert can be taken out, flipped and put back in again,
and doing so completely changes the handling of the bike.
You can go from a lower, shorter, snappier handling bike
to a slightly taller, longer, more stable handling bike,
ideal for rougher terrain or descents
and tire clearance is massive.
It's even bigger than James's selfie collection.
For God's sake.
You can get 30 millimeter tires in here
if you use 700c wheels,
but if you go for the larger volume 650b wheels,
well, you can get up to 47 millimeter tires in there, huge!
And that's also facilitated by the dropped chainstay,
which you may have noticed at the back,
but that's enough of my yakking.
Let's get on with the ride.
(upbeat, exciting music)
I had no idea the landscape in this part of the world
was like this.
I'm completely ignorant towards it,
but it's like the Midwest.
It's like Kansas.
- I think we have lucked out with the weather as well.
I mean, look at it.
(upbeat, funky music)
Ollie, it's 30 degrees and I gave you one job,
and that is to put bottles on our bikes.
- Yeah, my bad, sorry about that.
But in my defense, I thought we were going
to Northern Poland near the Baltic Sea.
I thought it was going to be freezing.
I thought it was going to be snowing.
It's 30 degrees man.
- All right, I'll let you off,
but fortunately I have put in a stop in the route
and I'm going to treat you to some Polish cuisine.
- Oh yeah, I look forward to that.
- What do you think Polish food is?
- No idea, not a clue.
- You wait, you wait mate.
There's a treat in store for you.
(calm, peaceful music)
- So this is an aero road bike right,
so you may be wondering why aren't the cables
fully integrated into the bars, and stem, and frame.
Well, I asked Rondo this
and the reason is they could have done
but they've deliberately chosen not to
because they wanted to keep the bike practical
and good for traveling, and things like that,
especially considering its multi-use abilities.
- Which makes sense.
- Yeah, also this slot in the seat post,
do you know that's for?
- Yeah, now I do know the answer to this.
This is so you can easily fit a light or even a race number
and anyone who's tryed to fit a light on an aero seat post
will totally understand this 'cause it's literally--
- [Ollie] It's genius, isn't it?
- [James] It literally is genius.
(calming, cheerful music)
Look at this.
Going through the woods, we've had some flat.
We've even had some beach.
I mean, it's pretty cool isn't it?
- I'm loving these forests.
I love forests in general.
Big fan, got a lot of time for trees.
- And I was just thinking,
you took that last town sign,
so I guess here's my chance!
- Mate, a win's a win!
(upbeat music)
- Oh mate, we're into a headwind now.
How you feeling?
- I'm alright mate.
Legs have woken up a bit.
- That's good. - I'm alright.
- Well we've got quite a bit to go, just to let you know
but we've got some surprise in there.
You ready? - Yeah.
- I can't wait to show you where this all goes.
(calming music)
Right, by my calculations, the route
will go straight on down there.
But I'm slightly worried about our tires
'cause that looks a lot rougher than I envisioned.
- Yeah I'm a bit worried about it as well.
What's that down there, on the side of the road?
It appears to be two pairs of 650b Hunt wheels
just left by the side of the road.
- What?
What are the chances of that?
- If you believed it.
It's almost as if it's been staged.
All right, let's go put them on.
- Let's do it.
I'm excited now.
Ooh, look at these.
- Ooh, look at that.
There's a note.
Free to a good home.
- We're definitely a good home, aren't we?
Let's do it.
(peaceful music)
- Right, I think we can't carry our wheels,
so we should probably just leave them here,
free to a good home.
- [James] All right, let's do it.
(peaceful, adventurous music)
How much fun is this?
- [Ollie] It's amazing, isn't it?
- It kind of makes this surface
feel like you're just floating on top of it.
- Yeah, so much fun.
- And it's just transformed the bike.
If I like two bikes for the price of one.
- Well, the thing is, the intention of the bike is
that it's for someone who spends 90% of their time
riding on smooth tarmac,
but when they see some awesome gravel like this,
they don't need a whole other bike.
They can just swap the wheels out if they want to,
and it's there.
But you've also got those adjustable axles
to change the geometry and the intention there
is not that you would have one geometry for on-road
and one geometry for off road,
but you've got the ability to tweak the geometry
to your own personal preference.
So if you like the more nimble, more agile--
- The more aggressive, let's say.
- Yeah, kind of handling bike
and I like something a little more stable, and predictable--
- And gentlemanly, would you say? (laughs)
- If you say so.
(calm, peaceful music)
- Here we are.
It's on the right here.
This it it.
You ready for some Polish cuisine?
- [Ollie] I sure am.
(calm, funky music)
- [James] Oh, that was good.
So we made it to the cafe
and I've ordered us some food mate.
- Good, 'cause I'm starving.
- But, I'm going to be honest, I did struggle with the menu
as it's all in Polish, but that aside,
I think I've ordered the most traditional Polish cuisine.
- Right, I cannot wait, what is it?
- Well it's called Pierogi.
(stutters) (Ollie laughs)
It's something like that.
- Well, whatever that is, I hope it tastes good.
(James stutters)
- Yes, this is Polish dumplings, Pierogi.
- I like that. - Yeah?
(calm, peaceful music)
- [James] What do you reckon that is?
- Well, do you realize Hank, that your genius route
is actually taking as past the ruins
of a Soviet era nuclear power plant?
- A nuclear power plant?
Dude, we need to go.
- No, no, it's alright mate.
Don't worry, it's safe.
- Have you not seen Chernobyl?
- Don't worry, it was never, ever completed.
It was never turned on, it was never radioactive,
it's completely safe, we're fine.
- I bet you've got some more geeky facts on you about this.
- [Ollie] I do, as it happens, I do.
- [James] Go on then.
- So when they were building this,
the plan was it was going to use the water
from a local lake as the coolant
and they we're going to circulate the water in and out
well, out of the lake and back into it,
and in doing so, that would have raised the temperature
of that entire massive lake over there by 10 degrees.
- [James] Natural jacuzzi. (Ollie laughs)
- [Ollie] But they never finished it.
- [James] No.
- [Ollie] Pretty cool, isn't it?
- That's wicked, isn't it?
- Well, that bit was.
(calm, peaceful music)
- Right mate, we're on the back straight of the route
and it's all pretty much tarmac, but to be honest,
I think I'm going to stick with these 650's.
- I'm glad you said that,
because I'd be inclined to do the same.
I'm not ridden 650b's before,
but it's been bit of an eye-opener for me
and they're just so much fun.
- They are, aren't they, they're great.
- And it's not like we're in a race.
We're not doing the Tour de France.
We're just out having a good ride, enjoying ourselves,
and the added comfort you get from the bigger volume tire,
it's great. - It's a bit strange.
They're on an aero bike with these wheels,
but there's something about it.
- It's just fun.
- Yeah, it puts a big smile on my face.
All the way back to Hel.
- Full gas. - Yeah.
- Maybe I can put the 700c back in.
I'm going to have to try and keep up with you.
- Come on mate.
(upbeat, funky music)
(calm, peaceful music)
- Mate, we're getting close to the end now
but it's been amazing, hasn't it?
- Oh, absolutely beautiful riding around here.
- Look at that! - Stunning, isn't it?
It's a beautiful coastline, beautiful forest.
I love it.
- I have to say, it's been cool riding
650b wheels on a bike track,
'cause it's just a bit more relaxing isn't it?
- Do you know what, I could get used to this.
They roll really well.
I've never ridden 650b wheels before,
but a bit of an eye opener for me, to be honest.
(happy, funky music)
- Boy, it's incredible isn't it?
Look at this.
What an ending.
It's like we're about to cross the world.
(happy, funky music)
- Tell you what mate.
When you think of beautiful places to come ride a bike,
Poland isn't a place that, before coming here,
would have ever have been in the forefront of my mind,
but how wrong we were.
- But it's been stunning hasn't it?
And we've got some amazing roads,
some bike paths and some fire roads too.
If you've enjoyed getting a look at maybe a new country,
then do let us know in the comment section below.
- Yeah, give this video a like
and share it with your friends
and well, fundamentally I mean,
it's just great to ride in a cool new place
on some cool bikes--
- With beautiful weather.
- Yeah, and good company as well.
- Oh, thanks mate.
I want to come back, do you want to come back?
Poland, who knew?
- Well, the Poles.
- (laughs) Yeah.
(happy music)