RIVERSIDE GRVL 900

BEST ADVENTURE BIKE PRICE $4,000 WEIGHT 21.8 LBS (56CM)

- A.C. Shilton

THE DIRECTIONS TO ME COULD NOT HAVE BEEN ANY clearer: If John Kerry's people called, I should transfer them directly to Steve. Steve managed the D.C.-area bike shop where I was a college-aged sales urchin. It was the early 2000s. Kerry, then a Senator from Massachusetts, was licking his wounds after his unsuccessful presidential bid in the most relatable way: buying a custom titanium Serotta. The knowledge that a celebrity purchased the bike, and its high price tag, helped forge my early internalized biases about titanium bikes. Simply put, they were nice, but not for me.

My next job was at a triathlon-specific store with a rack full of titanium-framed Litespeeds. And though none of them were as spendy as Kerry's Serotta, I wasn't allowed to ride them. I wouldn't throw a leg over a titanium bike until the store's owner called in sick one day. A colleague double-dog-dared me to secretly take one around the block. I was out the door seconds later.

Immediately, I loved the bike's lively and warm timbre as I furtively cruised the suburban Virginia streets around the store. Again, nice, but not for me, I thought as I wiped the bike of any clues it had been ridden and slid it back onto its rack.

It's been nearly two decades since these experiences. Despite owning a fleet of bikes worth well more than my 401k in those years, I had never considered a titanium rig. Titanium is for politicians. Titanium is for dentists. Titanium is for people who, you know, actually have a 401k.

Then, Bicycling asked me to review a titanium bike that (honestly) would fit into my woman going-through-a-catastrophic-divorce budget. As I assembled the Riverside GRVL900, I wondered: What other things have I assumed were not for me but maybe actually are?