I really dislike cycling in winter, in bad weather. There are a lot of difficulties with this, which make me angry and discouraged. It’s cold, so we need more clothes and also more time to prepare. It’s dark, because days are much shorter. I have very good bicycle flashlight, but I don’t like it anyway. It’s a mess, because of conditions, rain, snow we must clean our bike every ride. Not only bike, but also ourselves and flat, if we don’t have special place for our bike. Finally, it’s dangerous, because of lack of light and weather conditions, we have more changes to accident – independently or with car. Solution? Use trainer. But trainer is boring… Really? Not with Zwift.

I have carbon-based frame and fork on my CX bike (used also as road bike and gravel) and I make a lot of experiments with it – changing chainrings, wheels, derailleurs, tires. One of interesting test was carbon-based handlebars. I decided to buy it and try, on road cycling, but also on light terrain. After few months I really can’t recommend this solution, because of many disadvantages and a lack of real life advantages. Maybe you can say something different about that, but I don’t have great opinion about carbon in this place.

I wrote few times about tubeless or about tyres which I use in tubeless system – for example Schwalbe X-One on CX rides, Schwalbe Pro One on road (road tubeless), and Panaracer Gravelking SK as gravel allround tyres. After more than I year, I decided to stop this madness and go back to inner tubes. Why? Because tubeless isn’t perfect, and on real, amateur usage, can be very problematic. Read more to see why.