"My Giant XTC Advanced was my first mountain bike, I bought it off a friend who grew out of it and it was exactly what I needed. It carried me through a year of mountain bike practices (3 days a week) and 6 races all throughout New England my first year. After I graduated high school I wanted to continue riding with the race team so I came back as a coach. 4 years later I am still a coach on the team, but I decided to invest in a full suspension bike with 29" wheels to grow my riding skills more. I ended up with a Juliana Wilder which you can read about in another one of our bike checks if that peaks your interest. 

Once I started ripping my Wilder, my Giant XTC was put on the back burner. It sat in my garage for a year collecting dust before I started thinking about what to do with it. I thought about selling it to one of the riders on the mountain bike team, but I really didn't want to let it go. I mentioned it to my co-worker Chris Perez and he asked me if I wanted to turn it into a gravel bike. I don't know how I didn't think of doing that since I was looking into purchasing a new flat bar gravel bike. Why not recycle my old bike into something new? That is when the fun began...

The most necessary upgrades that I needed were: a rigid front fork, new tires and 29" wheels. Of course I ended up with more as I went along...

The front fork I decided on was a leftover fork that came stock on Trek's 1120. The 1120 isn't being produced any longer so these were on closeout. The fork is carbon fiber which is light weight and helps absorb some of the vibration from the road and trail. 

For the wheels I went with Bontrager's Kovee Pro wheels. These are also carbon fiber. My Giant XTC came stock with 27.5 alloy wheels with pretty chunky rims. They were heavy and smaller diameter wheels are slower. Usually, you can't just switch a bike over from one size to another since there isn't frame clearance for it. Thankfully, the XTC has dropouts in the frame to fit a larger 29" wheel if the rider desired (which she did). Along with the rims I added some new reserve tubeless fillmore valves. These came stock on my Juliana and I won't ever buy another type of valves again. Fillmore valves don't get sealant clogged and they push a lot of air when I need to pump or seat the tire. 

Of course I needed tires so I went for the highly rated Continental Race King tire. I wanted something light and speedy but grippy and flat resistant. This tire has it all and looks great on my bike with the deep tan wall tires.

During all of this, I happened to need a new chain so of course I chose to wax it. Chain waxing is something new we have been offering at the shop. As someone who is maticulous and doesn't like when things aren't clean, completely washing my bike and drivetrain every time after I rode got old quick. Waxing basically eliminates any dirt or grime from sticking to the chain, deleting the task of scrubbing my drivetrain. All I have to do after a ride now is gently hose the chain and drivetrain and the little bit of grime washes away. Waxing is also more environmentally friendly and makes your chain and drivetrain last up to 10x longer.

I also swapped the dropper post for a lighter weight Thompson alloy seatpost and added some SQ Labs inner bar ends for better aerodynamics. 

Then I wanted to see the finished weight of the bike after upgrades. I turned to the scales of truth for answers. In the end I saved a whopping 6lbs from the original weight of the bike (see the photos below)."

"The real question is: How does the bike feel?

4 words: Speedy, Fun, Light and Comfortable! I absolutely love riding this bike. It has the character and feel of my days riding it on the singletrack but is speedier and better on the road and gravel trails. I have been riding a few days a week with my (much faster) co-workers and am finding myself continuing to improve every day. If you looked at the first photo in this article, I did my first gravel race on this newly upgraded XTC over in Thompson, CT: The Natchaug Epic. It was the longest race I have ever done but I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge. The good thing about this race was it was not timed throughout the entire thing. The only timed section was the last mile and a half. This made it so my co-workers Chris and Michael (who got me into this race) were able to stay with me throughout the race and I didn't feel the pressure of having to go "race pace" the whole time. To my surprise: I ended up placing 4th for women in my category! I bonked pretty hard at mile 25, but I managed to finish strong with some encouragement from Michael, Chris and my GU Roctane gels.

During the race I stayed comfortable the entire time. My hands never got numb, my new seat was comfortable, and the bike pedaled swiftly through the whole race. I also liked using the top tube bag that was gifted to me from Chris right before the race started. It was perfect for my phone, Gu gels, Skratch bars, and MCC stickers (can't go anywhere without those). I had plenty of extra space and it was great having everything I needed right where I could reach it. My position was also perfect so I didn't experience any pain from how I was sitting on the bike. I do wish I had my inner bar ends that were added after that race, but I guess I will have to test them out next year at Natchaug... 

Overall, It was such a unique experience taking my old bike, upgrading it and turning it into something new. I think every cyclist should have the experience of upgrading a bicycle they love or building a bike from the frame up. It really makes it so a bike is completely your own and it is really fun watching the whole thing come together. If you are interested in something like this, come by the shop and talk to our skilled mechanics. They will help you pick out exactly what you want and help guide you to what will exceed your riding goals, just as they did for me throughout this whole process. "

- Ryann