The best product test is a bike ride
Houffalize isn’t exactly the easiest place to ride a gravel bike.
The course gave us a good opportunity to see what the riders and their equipment would be dealing with on Sunday. We looked at the surface, the conditions and how everything behaved out on the course. For the riders, a recon is about knowing what’s coming and making the final decisions around their setup.
For us, it’s also a very useful form of product testing. Because no matter how much testing you do in a controlled environment, there are things you only learn when you put a product on a bike and actually ride it.
“Hot wax is just a no-brainer when it comes to gravel. The dirtier the conditions, the bigger the benefits compared to an oil-lubed chain"
Not everything can be tested in a lab
We test our waxes and products extensively. Controlled testing gives us data, allows us to compare different formulations and helps us understand exactly how a product performs. But it’s only part of the picture.
That’s why we like getting out on the bike with our Clean Chain Club® athletes. During a ride, the conversations are different. How does the drivetrain feel? What happens after an hour? What does the rider notice? How should we prepare the chain for these specific conditions?
Riders like Greg and Lawrence spend an incredible amount of time on their bikes. They notice small differences very quickly, and that feedback is extremely valuable to us. Often, something we learn during a ride like this eventually makes its way into the next version of a product or into something completely new.
Picking the right setup for the race
After riding the course on Friday, we decided on the chain setup for race day. All riders used our Race Wax Tablet. The chains were hot waxed on Saturday using the Performance Wax Heater and then ridden in for approximately one hour during an easy coffee ride.
The race chain setup:
→ Race Wax Tablet
→ Hot waxed on Saturday
→ 1h coffee ride to run the chain in
→ Applied using the Performance Wax Heater
Nothing particularly complicated. Just making sure every chain was properly prepared and ready for Sunday.
Real riders, real conditions, real feedback
Working with athletes isn’t only about seeing our logo at a race. For us, the interesting part happens in moments like these.
Riding together. Talking equipment. Trying things. Asking questions. Getting honest feedback from people actually using our products in the conditions they were designed for. A lab can tell us a lot. But sometimes the best product testing simply starts with a bike ride.
Get the best gravel setup below
The good thing is, that you can ride the exact same setup as Lawrence & Greg:
