All over Europe, spring is doing its best to emerge from winter. The air is warmer, and yet the skies are too often grey and filled with rain. Close friends tell me that even on the Cote D’Azur the rain has been incessant, leaving roads flooded and limiting the opportunity to cycle outdoors. Thankfully, though, here at home in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, we’re blessed with having a seemingly endless supply of hard-packed and rocky trails – many of which are ideal for gravel biking. Yes, this somewhat recent addition to the myriad of global cycling sub-cultures, now provides me with the means to escape and to challenge the weather, as I continue to feed my cycling soul.
Ultimately, off-road cycling means adventure; and, from a personal perspective, some of my most enjoyable rides ever have been on wet days into the hills. I recall once racing down a gravelled track near the hidden lake of Semer Water, with a small herd of sheep racing before me, contained only by the drystone walls that lined this ancient shepherd's route across the hills. Today though, the sheep are absent on my ride, but the main criteria remain the same – to end the ride with a great café stop!
I’m excited too, as my ADHX45 arrived for me this week, delivered by my colleague here at TIME – Dieter... and I need no excuse to get out and start using it in anger. I spend the weekend doing those small and important things: fitting new pedals, new bottle cages, a top tube bag and checking that the bike had the right tyres for the ‘road to gravel’ riding that I plan to be doing lots of. Now, with the bike ready, I can simply ride away from the house and start exploring. I can ride as we all once did as kids – one bike, all-roads, all passion, all smiles and perhaps a sweet snack once the ride is over.
Living on the edge of a national park is amazing for all forms of cycling. It’s simply a case of me riding down two streets and I’m onto some of the most amazing and isolated roads in the country – and with only a short road ride and climb to the village of Galphay. Once I arrive at this beautiful Dales village and its stone cottages, an old oak gate opens up and leads me onto an historic gravel track that wends its way past a 16th Century timber-framed manor house, before the excellent trail releases me into the vast network of top-grade gravel tracks that take me further away from people and closer to adventure.
A Gravel Bike that Honors TIME's Racing Heritage
The great thing about the ADHX45 is that the skilled artisans and designers at our European factory have spent a considerable amount of time – pardon the pun – thinking about how the bike will be used and then ensuring that everything about it is on point. It's a bike created for this type of riding and these roads and tracks. Yes, it carries forward that iconic engineering excellence that has led our industry in carbon bike frame production since 1987. However, when you dig deeper, there are several small and subtle elements to the frame, ensuring that it has the necessary strength and lightness for the road to gravel and all-road riding that so many cyclists are now looking for. When you think about it, why have two bikes when one ADHX45 does two things so well. As a cyclist I don’t necessarily want to redefine N+1, but I do want to make the most of every ride – the ADHX45 allows me to do so.
The bike features a longer wheelbase and more fork offset than the Alpe d'Huez X. It also maximises the 45mm gravel tire and is dialed in to take on those gnarly back roads with ease. However, and it’s a big ‘however; it also behaves extremely well as an everyday road bike when fitted out with narrower tires. Now, I don’t plan on coming off – who does. I will however, ride hard at times and I want to know that the bike can tackle the technical gravel that lies ahead. And I want the freedom to just ride – to mix tarmac and trail at will. Having the freedom to ride direct from the door and to mix things up – yes, this evolving form of riding ticks a very important box for me.
Fundamentally, the geometry of the ADHX 45 is at ease pushing hard on long climbs, and remains comfortable for all-day riding. It’s the kind of bike that you want close to hand when your cycling friends suggest a ride out into the Yorkshire Dales hills, to the best coffee haunts – and for me, it was time to test this out!
The toughest and best-riding carbon frames
With my local landscape being so inviting for mixed cycling, the ADHX45 is a real winner. The frame has that unique braided carbon structure that we frequently talk about here at TIME. However, it has more than just that, and every little aspect of its use has been catered for. The frameset features a new structure, incorporating Bio-Based Dyneema® fibers, which are 15x stronger than steel. This additional innovation enhances the impact resistance and strength at key intersections without adding weight. Woven into the Braided Carbon Structure (BCS), these fibers, along with Vectran, improve vibration damping for a smoother ride, making the bike durable for aggressive gravel use. Add to this, the reinforced fork structure, using Kevlar fibers to dramatically reduce the risk of total failure and separation in this critical area, and the ADHX45 is ready to take on the mix of adventure that lies ahead on the road to gravel experience. It’s a bike that carries forward an important engineering heritage and rightly places itself alongside the best carbon bikes in the world. When you add the styling to the obvious ride capabilities, and to the level of technology and innovation that created the ADHX45 – then, it’s art on 2-wheels.
As I reach the hills, lined by trees and small woodlands, with more isolated and weathered tracks awaiting me, I can feel the benefit. The bike stays firmly in control, being sharp and responsive as my body tries to flow with the landscape. More importantly, it remains supremely comfortable on the mixed and technical terrain. For me, when riding feels like this, it’s one of the moments where you pause time and your mind slips into reverse as you recall similar trips on 2-wheels from childhood. I’d frequently set off from home on my road bike, traversing the nearby hill, before following forest tracks for endless unplanned miles. It wasn’t gravel biking per se; that was many years into the future. It was simply the natural activity that so many kids did whilst growing up – riding that one bike that went everywhere. And, as I turn the cranks and look around at the sublime natural landscape, I unleash that adventurous spirit, with the bike enabling the freedom to explore at random and with a renewed sense of abandonment.
Explore your limits with the ADHX45
Whilst the road to gravel genre is continually evolving, with riders asking more from their bikes; there’s a growing understanding that cyclists want the opportunity to ride ‘their own bike’ and not just some anonymous ‘off-the-peg' option that may or may not fit in every aspect, or which ultimately may not be the best bike for them. The ADHX45 – like all the frameset options here at TIME – allows you to press pause and to work with our retail partners and bikefitters, to create your own unique bike. One that fits you properly and which perfectly suits the riding that you want to do.
Right now, for me, as I exit the gravel track near to western Nidderdale, I have options; a choice between a regular favourite cafe, Johnny Baghdad's on the square at Masham, or a slightly further ride onto the market town of Bedale and the ‘Leadout Clubhouse’, TIME dealership and cafe, where they bake some of the best carrot cake in the area. Sean and Lisa at Bedale win the day on this occasion, and as I climb the road that leads me to the open vistas across the national park, I’m already looking forward to the seemingly endless descent of the tree lined and ribboned track that winds its way chaotically through the magical sounding Nutwith Woods, before dropping me onto the wild meadows at Nutwith Common, into Masham, with only a few easy country miles between me, Bedale, and carrot cake.
The road to gravel experience has tested my limits and tested the ADHX45, on some of the most unrelenting cycling terrain in the U.K... Thankfully though, I’m riding one of the best carbon bikes in the world, and my smile is as big as the slice of carrot cake that I'm looking forward to enjoying in a few minutes time, and looking across at the TIME framesets hanging on the shop wall, waiting to be built into dream bikes for new members of our global TIME community.
As I arrive at the café, there’s already another ADHX45 outside, parked up with tea and cake waiting to be eaten. However, it’s warmer inside, and I’ve earned the comfort and carrot cake, as I share conversation and the warmth of a shared cycling culture with Sean and Lisa at their little oasis on the edge of the national park, where TIME is always on the menu.
