Category: Components

As the system stands for the flat bar user, I think it presents a good value when you stack it against what is available for flat bar electronic shifting. The drop bar market will be another level altogether. Let’s see what happens, but this bears watching.

WTB has some really good non-puncture protected gravel/all road tires in their line, but there was no puncture protected version, until now. The SG2 gravel tires seem to be a good addition to the range as long as you understand that the width indicated on the side wall may not match the width of the tire in reality.

The Roval Terra Carbon post has a definite smoothing effect upon the ride, if you have a fair amount of seat post extension with the bicycle you install it in. The compliance is there, but so is a perceptible amount of vibration reduction coming up through the saddle.

The 700c x 40mm WTB Byway SG2 tires have now been ridden a bit more to bring us to the final mid-term article on the three SG2 tires we have on review here.

Spinergy has been famous for using an alternative to stainless steel spokes for years. Their spoke is based upon a use of a special fiber. Specifically a spoke with “over 30,000 strands of polyphenylene bensobisoxazole fiber”. These fibers are then coated with a chemical, water, and UV resistant material which can be colored. The PBO spokes also have three times the strength of stainless steel, according to Spinergy, at half the weight of stainless steel spokes.

The Archer Components D1x has been easy to use after the somewhat confusing instructions were navigated upon set up. I loved that I had an easy to operate system which could be tweaked in the field. Shifting is great, maybe not as fast as some premier electronic systems, but as good as any fresh mechanical system and this with old, tired parts.

The Roval Terra Carbon Post is another device which has been designed to help with rider comfort. A seat post with some ‘give’, if you will. That is nothing new, of course, but Roval feels that their design does it better, so let’s see what it is that makes this seat post tic.

The calling card for this wheel set is the promise of a smoother ride. In that the Atomik/Berd Ultimate wheel delivers upon that promise. The Berd spokes are unique and their qualities are what gives this otherwise fairly plain wheel set its appeal.

This tire isn’t a ‘bad’ tire, but for the MidWest it isn’t a tire that lights a fire underneath me when I ride it. It does the job well enough, sure, but with its slightly harsher ride quality and lack of volume, it isn’t on the same plane as the Resolute or the Byway, both of which we are testing in this series of SG2 reviews.

This was the model I was most concerned about going into this review. Since the standard Resolute is still my #1 gravel tire, I was really hopeful that the SG2 model would at least approximate what I liked about this tire.