Whether leading bicycle tours through Boston’s city streets on a fleet of Dew Plus or descending Maui’s Haleakala Volcano on a Process 134, Mike Gaffey’s first choice for reliability is Kona.
Having finished 2023’s Atlas Mountain Race in Morocco, my 2021 Kona Rove LTD endured. This year’s colder, longer, and harsher course includes tarmac, jeep trails, gravel roads, washboards, single track, ice cover goat trail passes, collapsed 19th-century colonial piste carriageways, and soul-crushing sandy deserts. During this eight-day odyssey, my Kona was a monster. This is my customized setup.
The Rove’s chromoly steel frame allows welding (if needed). In ultra-distance bikepacking, everything fails, loosens, and/or breaks (e.g. bottom brackets, rims, hydraulic brake housing, saddles). You need commercially available and/or self-supported options in these remote, developing regions.
In Kyrgyzstan’s 2022 Silk Road Mountain Race, my frustration caused me to jam my chain and snapped my dropper hanger, destroying my derailleur. After welding and finding a 9 speed replacement derailleur, I still scratched. I switched to the 1x SLX Shimano drive chain with 30T chainring and never looked back. With the micro spline, I switched to a 12 speed 11-51T cassette. You need those larger rings for the steep climbs.
My cockpit was converted from the drop bars to a 760mm Envy flat bar with Ergon GP3. This allows more control on the descents. XTR component’s brake and shifter levers work seamlessly with the stock GRX hydraulic brakes. My Profile Design aero bars allow various hand positions and bag configurations.
Keeping the Verso carbon fork allows adjustable bottle mounts. Water capacity is critical in the desert.
My Redshift suspension stem and seat post provides some comfort and control. Selle Italia SLR Superflow saddle was a gamble that paid off; grippy, light and dependable. And the Garmin Edge 1030 Plus provided my navigation over the 1,336 kilometer 20,270 meter crucible.
