Some call it “off season”, some call it Cyclocross season. Whichever you are, it’s 100% fat-tire season now that road is over. So a few weekends ago, we decided to get a little group together and head up to Westchester for some gravel riding.  We picked a route that has been previously posted about on the journal. However, we may not have picked the best day for it. 

First, a quick dash to Grand Central Station and onto Metro North

We started out great by meeting at the Katonah Metro North station— Erwin actually decided to ride there from Brooklyn. A bunch of TBD guys, including our new teammates Yosef Fertel and Mitchell Napolitano, plus a recovering Austin King, along with some friends from the Wyld Stallyns. Armand Wilheim brought out his new Santa Cruz Stigmata, a beautiful gravel machine rocking 650b wheels. 

The forecast had put rain at 20%, hardly something to be concerned about. Off we went, quickly hitting a gravel road. Westchester really has some gems for gravel riding, you just need to find them. Thankfully this route has plenty of that.

A few hours in, we got caught in the rain. Straight up bad luck. There must have been a cloud following us because on the way back on Metro North, we were the only ones wet. Between the rain, flats, differences in tires and bikes, it was one of those adventures where you go up, change the route, and everyone ends up finding a different way home. We’ve started off the gravel off season by getting the bad luck out of the way early, so expect karma to give us some good foliage pics in the coming weeks.

It made for some cool pictures though, and Erwin made it back to Brooklyn via the OCA trail for an absolutely epic day out: