Horses for Courses

__With little known about the SRMR route, other than that it's going to be very remote, and mostly unpaved, a lot of attention has been paid to what the ideal bike setup will be. Here, we take a look at a few of the options, from MTB, to gravel, and something in between. __

What bike? What tyres? What GPS? These are just some the gear-related questions that the riders of this first edition of the Silk Road Mountain Race will have been asking themselves (and each other) over the last few months. As the first arrivals begin to assemble at the start in Bishkek, we are already seeing some very different answers to these questions.

If ‘time spent in reconnaissance is seldom wasted’ then Lee Craigie certainly hasn’t been wasting any. Having spent a few weeks in Kyrgyzstan already with her faithful Shand Bahookie (Jimmy to his friends) we imagine they are both already pretty used to the altitude and the terrain. Lee’s setup is nearly the same as she used in her most recent Tour Divide attempt, as well as her recent second place on the HT550.

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Her choice of super-wide 12 speed gearing for the climbs and Jones-style handlebars for long days in the saddle all make sense - but even with a lightweight carbon fork and wheelset, an MTB may still prove slower on the smoother, flatter sections of the course (if there are any).

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Moving on, and we can see that the pairing of Chris Hall and Rob Quirk have taken a more ‘gravel’ approach to their builds. Rob - of Quirk Cycles - built both bikes himself, and the latest one (that he'll be riding) was designed specially for this event.

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Whilst Lee’s MTB is fully rigid, Rob’s gravel bike actually features 30mm of suspension in the form of the wild looking Lauf fork. Some very expensive looking deep-section Zipp 303’s complete the build. If anyone from the Zipp warranty office asks, Rob has asked everyone to attest that the wheels never left Surrey, and any rock damage is just from potholes.

Also pairing drop bars and suspension is Bombtrack ambassador Joachim Rosenlund, who will be riding Bombtrack’s latest adventure bike, first spotted at Eurobike this year. No details on a name yet, but we do know that this aluminium dropbar bike runs on 27.5 MTB wheels, has 40mm of suspension out front and Joachim may even be running a dropper post.

Having completed the HL550 on a gravel bike last year, if there is anyone that can tame the rocky backroads of Kyrgyzstan on drop bars, then it’s probably Joachim.

Jay Petervary is also lucky enough to be riding something new from his long time sponsor, Salsa. Whilst we expect many others will be riding the Tour Divide-inspired Cutthroat, which Jay helped design, the man himself will take to start line on one of the v4 Warbird prototypes that have been around since Dirty Kanza.

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Unlike in more road-focused events, like the Transcontinental, only few riders in the SRMR seem to have opted for aero bars. Jay has chosen to keep it speedy with a set that feature flip-up arm rests, giving him a few more hand positions, and this might be just what’s needed after a few days on the rough stuff.

Who’s got the right bike for the hills, who's on the wrong bike for the rocks, and whose bike will make it out through the black hole of Bishkek's 'oversized luggage' system in time?

Stay tuned to find out.