ieve's Squall of Consciousness
Entry 20 - Ellie the Gravel Bike
(May 16, 2026)
Ellie is the newest steed in my stable. She is joining the ranks of Telos the 2018 Hyundai Accent and Florence the 2025 Triumph Scrambler. And... sorta Apollyon the 1996 Toyota Tacoma.
Ellie is a brand new Kona Rove DL Gravel Bike. (Do bikes have years? Is she 2026 vintage?) She's... some kind of a hybrid between a road bike, and a trail bike. I'm not intersted in doing any crazy jumps or downhill at extreme speeds mountain biking -- and I'm not... super interested in being part of a lycralord roadbike peloton cruising through stop signs along the coast. So - something in-between. Something that can take me into nature, and keep up with traffic in the city. The Scrambler of bicycles.
Rove DL at KonaWorld.com
I have only had Ellie for 1 day. I bought her yesterday. The trunk on Telos the Hyundai Accent is broken (I hear clicky-clicky in the mechanism so the electrical part is working, some part of the actuator is working, but whatever links the actuator to the actual moving-the-lock-pawl part of the mechanism is jammed or broken.) SO -- I didn't want to just take the wheels off and stick her in my car, I had to wait until the next day (Saturday) to drive home and get my dad's truck to go pick up Ellie completely intact.
(I have my own truck, a beautiful (actually Apollyon is ... not beautiful but... he's cool) 1996 Tacoma, but he's also on the healing bench because last time I got the suspension fixed at an auto shop, they did a by-the-book repair... and he actually has extra-long springs in the front for a lifted suspension, but they replaced it with a totally stock shock, and that mismatch took just a couple days of driving forces to completely fuck things over. Anyway Apollyon needs a new stock-Toyota-length spring to match the probably-still-intact stock travel shocks... and maybe some new upper control arms... and maybe some new lower control arms while we're at it. So he lives in my parent's driveway waiting for the day when my dad and I align our ADHD motivation waves and actually get it repaired.)
Today, dropped doggie off at parents house, borrowed truck, went to bike shop, got Ellie, brought her home, went for a ride, and -- holy crap my legs were tired. They're already not used to really hard biking effort, and I spent ~45 minutes yesterday on the fitting. Which is very fancy - this rig where JT the Bike Wizard was able to move the handlebars out and in, move the seat up and down, simulate going uphill, and get my feedback on what feels better/worse. It was 50% bike fitting and 50% introduction to the sport of bicycling. That was super cool - he recognized that I was a total noob who really didn't know what he wanted (I came in asking for a hardtail mountain bike, but I'm really glad I left with Ellie the Gravel Bike) -- He basically gave me the entire like, lore and history of bicycles, what all the different types are, what's popular, what's not popular (evidently hardtails are not popular), and asked me what kind of riding I actually wanted to do.
I want to... be able to do road biking, probably primarily, but not hate my life entirely when I turn onto a dirt, fire, or gravel road. But I don't foresee myself going along rock gardens, super technical single track, down the side of a mountain. So my initial impresion of 'I want to get a hardtail mountain bike' turned more into 'I want something more general'.
He was walking my through the potential options for gravel bikes, but I saw Ellie on the wall there in the shop, with light green paint and a kinda retro steel frame. I went through the whole exercise of sitting on the fitting rig, cycling at 90rpm for 45 minutes while the bicycle wizard asked for my physical measurements and changed the handlebar/pedal/seat geometry asking what felt best and helping me find the optimal spot between cruising geometry and go-fast geometry.
It was ... probably >50% a coaching session. What do you _actually_ want out of your bike? Do you want clipless (clipped-in) or regular flat pedals? And then helping me find shoes when I decided maybe this clipess (clipped-in) thing seems like a good idea after all. What kind of actual bike do I want? And then once I got on the test rig, he seemed happy to try to impart as much of his wisdom as he could fit into our... probably ~3 hour session. What part of my butt should I be sitting on? How do I hold my shoulders and my arms? What cadence should I be pedaling at?
That dude was freaking awesome. If I wasn't buying a bike from them, the fitting / coaching / consulting session for 3 hours would have been $350, but since I did buy a bike from them it was $75, which seems ... very much worth the money. And little things, like "how do your feet hurt in those cleats?" --> Well they kinda hurt, I have a hotspot after pedaling for 40 minutes --> Adjusts them to move the cleats slightly and the hotspot went away. A-mazing.
...
Took Ellie out for our maiden voyage today - through the beach town, over to the bike/walking path along the river delta, about 6 miles total. It was ... to be honest, pretty brutal - my legs are NOT used to driving those specific muscles that hard. My bike rides so far have been extremely slow easy pace, just spinning around my parents neighborhood, trying not to fuck my knees up.
(I've been at PT for the last 3 months after getting knocked off my motorcycle by some asshole suspected-drug-dealer BMW driver, so ... not fucking my knees up further has been the #1 priority.)
But ... with the feet fully mechanically attached to the pedals, and the alignment job from the cycling shop, I didn't notice any knee issues at all. Which, I guess is the goal of a professional alignment. But I'm so fucking excited to have a way to drive my leg muscles and cardio system without the limiting factor that has been my knees and calf muscles (which are limiting my ability to run.)
So, although my legs are totally wrecked from yesterday's "yeah just keep it at 90rpm so we can dial in the mechanics at speed" bike fitting, they managed a 3 mile out and 3 mile back maiden voyage with Ellie. And -- even when I got to my endpoint and decided it's time to turn around, my feet just kinda... clipped out without having to consciously think "ok lets rotate our feet/hips so we don't fucking fall over".
...
I'm very excited. Although... this is a whole ass new hobby, and not a cheap one. Just a bike? Ha. No. 'Just a bike' implicated buying shoes and pedals, and then a ... whatever you call a tank bag for bicycles full of like a pump and tools for changing flat tires... and I found that the poly garmet I wore under my shorts caps out right at about 45 minutes (today's ride length) before it bunches up and starts to cause friction issues. So now I gotta buy specific bike shorts. And who even knows what else lol.
I love her -- Ellie the Gravel Bike. She's so pretty, and she goes so fast, I can just keep up with traffic, and I haven't tried... actually riding on gravel but ... it's right in the name so surely that's something she can handle. Looking forward to many adventures together.
- 🜌
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