- Now this bike won't be completely unfamiliar to you.
It's the same frame set that Si and Josh used
on their bikepacking epic across Morocco.
Only this time it's got a bit of a different purpose.
My name's Katherine, I've been part of the GCN team
for over a year now and I've set a very big challenge.
Could I complete The Dirty Kanza 200?
Well, I said yes, and a couple of months later,
quite a lot of training later,
I'm here in Kansas, just a day out from the race.
And this is the bike that I'm going to be doing it on,
the 3T Exploro LTD.
(lively music)
So before we talk a bit more about the bike,
lets go into the event, 'cause I think that'll give you
a bit more of an insight into the equipment choices.
The Dirty Kanza is a 200 mile,
or rather 206 mile, or 330 kilometer,
gravel endurance race, here in the flint hills of Kansas.
It's grown massively over the last 13 years,
and now attracts over 2000 riders from all over the world.
I'll be riding this, the Exploro LTD.
It's a mile-munching off-road machine,
and that's just the rider.
Now lets start with the frame set,
'cause it's really something quite special.
Now 3T is the first brand to really
step into the aero gravel bike market.
And for good reason too.
Now you might be skeptical,
why would you need to be aerodynamic
when you're going off-road?
Typically a lot slower than on-road.
Now there is a really good reason,
when you're riding off-road you're not always lucky enough
to have a total route all off-road,
and there's likely to be road sections
linking up different bits of trail.
And if you, like me, are spending the whole day
in the saddle, then any speed advantage like that
is going to be massively beneficial.
Now 3T call this Sqaero, get it?
Square, aero.
And it's been designed to be just as fast as a road bike,
even with 40 mil knobbly tires and two bottles,
as shown in the wind tunnel.
Now that's pretty impressive.
Now one of the biggest advantages of this 3T frame set
is its ability to not only take 700C but also 650B wheels.
You can still very comfortably fit a gravel tire,
but if you wanted to go for something a bit chunkier,
like Si did out in Morocco, you can go down to 650B
and have a lot more clearance,
not only for the tire, but also the dirt.
Now I was really lucky to try out
both the 650B and the 700C wheels on this,
and even though the 650B was a lot of fun off-road,
especially with a two inch mountain bike tire,
I think for The Dirty Kanza I'm going to
stick with the 700Cs with a 40 mil wide gravel tire.
As for those longer distances
I think it's going to be a bit faster.
Moving on to the group set,
this has got a SRAM Force one by set up,
with a 42 chain ring on the front,
and a 10 to 42 on the back, so a massive range of gears,
which is great.
And I'm a big fan of the one by set up,
it's super simple, there's less to go wrong,
and it even saves a little bit of weight.
Now lets round off the bike with a finishing kit.
On top of the 3T aero seat post we've got a fi'zi:k Luna,
and it's actually a women specific mountain bike saddle.
Even though I've used the fi'zi:k Arione
on-road for a few years and found it very comfortable,
I thought for this race I wanted something a bit different,
that gives a bit more comfort over those
very long miles, especially off-road,
which is why I've opted for a mountain bike option.
And so far in training it's been really comfortable.
Moving forward to the cockpit now,
we've got a 90 mil 3T Apto stem,
connecting to a 3T Superghiaia carbon bar.
Now this is a gravel specific bar,
with a decent amount of flair,
and that's related to the width of the bars,
so at 40 centimeters it's not huge on this model.
But I have to admit, it was the first time
I'd used gravel bars with flair,
so it took some getting used to.
I think after a little while and getting used to descending
in the drops, in that much wider position,
I'm actually a bit of a convert,
so I'm getting on pretty well with those.
And attached to these are a pair
of SRAM Force hydraulic brake levers,
stopping a pair of 160 mil disc rotors, front and rear.
The pedals are from Shimano and they're the SPDs.
And now for the finishing touches,
I've got a pair of Elite bottle cages,
with a rubber insert to try and keep those bottles
in place over some rough terrain.
My Wahoo is mounted up front on a stem mount,
a bit unusually.
I've got some electric tape on the seat post,
just to stop any rubbing from my seat post bag,
and finally some shrink wrap cable housing up the front,
just to keep it all neat and tidy.
Now hopefully by the time you've seen this video,
this bike will have got me all the way
around The Dirty Kanza and to the finish.
And if you like this bike, remember to give us a thumbs up.
Now if you're feeling inspired to try a bit of gravel,
or you just want to brush up on your gravel skills,
check out this one with Si: How to ride gravel.