There are plenty of bikes that fit neatly into categories and do so to great success, but once in a while a bike comes along that defies categories and does so in such a spectacular and singular manner that it can make a person re-evaluate the categories altogether. I started chasing the idea of the perfect gravel bike back in 2014, believing any bike worth riding needed to work across different lifestyles and all terrain types. Over the next 10 years, as I tossed aside gravel bike after gravel bike, Brian Szykowny of Hudski Bikes was synthesizing his own bike journey into a singular manifestation: the Dualist.
The Dualist is non-dual: it is neither mountain nor gravel, and yet, when measured in either category it performs at a higher level than its spec sheet would suggest. Between the geo and the tubeset, the frame feels phenomenal, achieving a ride quality that is surreally good whether on long road rides, backcountry expeditions, local trails, or campground cruising. Out of the box it is something of the perfect hybrid of an XC and Gravel bike, with an emphasis on performance-cost ratios.
What’s truly remarkable is the way that a ride can take you between different surface types and terrain gradients and the Dualist doesn’t just adapt, it disappears. Every other bike I have ridden has forced me to make adjustments in my mind and in my riding style, but only the Dualist has allowed me to just ride as hard, as silly, as fast, or as loose as I want. Categories are necessary shorthand for relating to the world, but the Dualist finds its way into and through practically all of them.
I am curious if y'all are on rigid MTBs or more capable gravel bikes like Hudskis or Stooges or the other rad bikes out there. Where is the line between mountain and gravel for your riding?
I do really like bikes in this vein. This year I spent some time with my (now sold) Knolly hardtail with a custom steel rigid fork to correct for the long travel fork. It was super fun on rough gravel and mellow trails, and unlike my other mountain bike I didn’t want to kill myself on long paved connectors. Ultimately not the best platform for this experiment and I’m building up a more XC-oriented hardtail to take its place but I may still swap on the rigid fork for bikepacking and gravel rides just because.
I think my biggest issue is that with decent brakes and geo you can ride a bike like this pretty hard on smooth trails but the geo writes checks the bike and body can’t always cash. It was pretty fun on smooth flow trails and green-blue jump lines though! Like a big slack dirt jumper.
I have a Marin DSX, although it still has gravel rather than MTB tyres. It's miserable on anything but smooth surfaces.
I’ve been pretty curious about this bike. I have a real dislike of drop bars, ergonomically at least, but really like gravel/adventure rides where you do some of everything. Bikes are better and more capable than ever, to the point i find they make riding boring at times. Incredible to look at my $8000 trail bike and decide my beater fixed gear will be more fun. Spending too much time driving to trails, just riding trails, takes the fun out of bike riding for me. Having bikes that encourage just riding out the door and going over everything helps hit the reset button to just enjoy riding a bike.
Riding a Surly Krampus, Soma fixed gear, and a SC chameleon (either single or fixed) for these adventure rides. Fixed gear trail rides are a whole nother level. Highly recommend.
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