Geoff Kabush underbiking on Hornby Island

Hornby Island is known as sublime oasis of smooth, flowing singletrack. It’s also where Canadian cross country racer Geoff Kabush cut his teeth as a mountain biker back in his youth.

With the racing schedule on hold, Kabush is back on Hornby revisiting his old haunting ground. This time, though, he’s on underbiking the island’s trails the Open WI.DE. gravel bike instead of a real mountain bike. Hornby trails are smooth, but are they that smooth?

Geoff Kabush grew up riding mountain bikes in the ’90s and is no stranger to underbiking. So it should be no surprise that he’s quite comfortable riding a gravel bike on mountain bike trails. After all, they’re just fancy 90’s mountain bikes, right?

Or maybe the Canadian, known during his World Cup days as an exceptional technical rider, is just so smooth on his Open WI.DE. gravel bike that he’d make any trail look easy. It’s not the first time Kabush has taken a gravel bike fully off-road. In 2018, he won the Iceman Cometh mountain bike rice on his Open U.P. drop-bar bike, racing against a field of fat tire competitors.

But, “90s mountain bike” or not, that bendy log skinny looks tricky.

Geoff Kabush – Hornby Island Underbiking.

More from Geoff Kabush on the trails, and his Open WI.DE. set-up:

“Just a small sample of the amazing trails you can ride on drop bars. So many more scenic trails up on the mountain and more connecting every part of the island. If you have more than 3-4 days I highly recommend bringing the drop bars along with a short travel mtb. This vid is on my OPEN WI.DE. set up with Shimano GRX, 27.5 x 2.1 Maxxis Aspen / Stans Crest CB7 wheels which is super fun on this mix of roads and singletrack.”