My first proper job was the trigger. I commuted by public transport and kept thinking I wanted to get home on my own legs.
Around that time Barcelona launched Bicing, the city's bike-share. I used it daily and felt the change fast, in body and mood. The catch was that Bicing only worked inside Barcelona, and I needed to leave the city: I was riding out to Sant Feliu and Sant Sadurní. So that same year I bought my first folding bike: a Dahon Curve SL. The Bromptons already had me, but the price was out of reach.
The Curve was great with its 16-inch wheels, until it wasn't — the kilometres kept growing. Next came a Dahon Vector, a premium folder with larger wheels and racing lines. Faster to anywhere, still folded to stay with me.1
From there I jumped into mountain biking with a Trek 6300. I started exploring the hills around me and realised what I loved was hunting out singletrack, and technical descents above all. That's where the hardcore-MTB seed was planted: I kept chasing harder, more technical lines, so I went all-in on enduro with my first proper frame, a Santa Cruz Butcher. Then a long list: YT Capra, YT Tues, Liteville 601 Mk4, Pole Stamina 140. Built several gravels — Genesis CdF, On-One — and fatbikes (On-One Fatty). Tried 29+ with a Singular Rooster and a Surly Krampus, rigid steel enduro with a Last Fastforward, and dirt/pumptrack on a Pole Tomu, now a Saracen Amplitude. My current daily MTB is a titanium rigid Velouria Sober from a small Alicante builder.2
That many bikes only made sense because I learned to wrench. I do all my own maintenance and have built more than one from a bare frame. 14+ wheelsets hand-built by me. I'm self-taught, independent and curious by nature, and that's exactly why I love doing this stuff myself. I've got plenty wrong over the years, but that's how you learn: the mistakes are what give you the experience, and the satisfaction of not depending on anyone. So when I write here about a Muc-Off tubeless conversion or a Quad Lock mount on the G-Line, it's something I've actually done with my own hands.3
Back to folders. Bromptons always fascinated me, and a move into a smaller house forced me to shrink the bike collection. So I finally bought a C-Line. The moment I rode it I realised it should have been my first folder all along — the same thing thousands of Brompton owners will tell you.
Just a few weeks after I got the C-Line, Brompton announced the G-Line: larger wheels, the same legendary fold, ready for trails and rougher tarmac. That hit every box I care about — exploring paths without being limited by 16-inch wheels, real kilometres possible, and the most perfect fold ever shipped on a bicycle.
Folding Gravel is what I wish I'd found before buying any bike: someone independent who actually owns the bikes and rides them, tells you the good and the bad without selling you anything, and shoots his own photos instead of catalogue shots.
Find me: Instagram · @gersteel
