FULL NAME
Travis Bramley
HISTORY WITH SPINERGY
2024 is my first year riding on Spinergy hoops! I'm fortunate to be a rider for Moda Bikes in the UK, and they were eager for me to race and ride on Spinergy, which is a staple on many of their top-end models. Prior to this year, I knew about the brand through the BWR partnership and other riders in the scene, mostly North American athletes. Now, I'm excited to bring my own bit of European spark to the team!
ACCOLADES
- Two-time GBR Elite UCI Gravel World Championships selection.
- Top 10s in several international gravel races, largely part of the Gravel Earth Series & UCI World Series events.
- Former draft-legal triathlete, with multiple British Youth titles and experience racing on the international stage.
BIOGRAPHY
Hey, Travis here! With a first name like that, you’d be forgiven for thinking I have US roots, but I was actually born and raised in a city called Plymouth in the south of England. I discovered gravel in 2022, diving in at the deep end at a round of the UCI World Series in Sweden. Then, racing for an ‘elite’ UK multidisciplinary team, I was quickly hooked and dedicated my 2023 calendar to the discipline, going to incredible places like Kenya, Iceland, and of course, some of the big US races. In 2024, I made the jump to riding ‘privateer,’ allowing me to work with brands that I really wanted to, like Spinergy!
I’m also a postgraduate student in ‘Global Sustainability Solutions’ at the University of Exeter, which nods towards my other deep passion in life besides cycling – sustainability and all things nature. It runs through all of the various veins in my life. In a professional sense, I’m Exeter City Football Club’s Sustainability Officer and am lucky enough to be sporting a modified version of the team’s home strip as my cycling kit this year. From a personal and sporting perspective, I’m trying to minimise my footprint wherever possible. I’ve been vegetarian since the age of 18, have planned my racing calendar to half the number of flights I took last year, and rent electric vehicles or use public transport whenever I can between events and training.
Yes, it may be hypocritical to say I’m somewhat a ‘sustainable athlete,’ but my aim is to build a platform from which I can advocate for positive systems change for the planet while understanding how I can reduce my own footprint.
My deep-rooted joy in nature and environmental conscience is partly why I’m so drawn to gravel as a discipline. Instead of doing multiple laps around an often mundane road circuit, you really get to experience the awesome places that races are held in and around, as opposed to just sticking to the well-travelled, tarmac roads.
WHAT I RIDE
I ride my Moda Legato ‘gravel’ bike everywhere. Road, gravel, hill climbs, cyclocross, you name it. Spinergy wheels can more than keep up with those demands – just sometimes requires a change of tyres! I’m riding the bombproof GX32 wheelset in training. UK roads and trails are notoriously hard on bike ‘bits,’ particularly if you’re over 80kg like I am. After several months of throwing everything at them, they still run true, smooth as butter, and I’d actually have no reservations running these aluminium wheels in more rugged races.
When aero is the name of the game, I run the FCC 47s in races. Deep, but not too deep, you really notice the difference when swapping onto a set of these. They may be marketed as ‘road’ wheels, but I’ve found them to already stand up to the test on several occasions over the smoother-flowing gravel.
The PBO fibre spokes are what truly set these wheels apart, especially on rougher terrain – you notice the difference in comfort and compliance between those found on Spinergy and just standard, rigid spokes. Wheel reliability is a huge thing for me this year, after damaging a rim on the first stage of the Migration Gravel Race in Kenya, falling out of the top ten and way down the GC over the coming days as I went through dozens of tubes.
DISCIPLINE
Gravel
OTHER MAIN SPONSORS
- GSG Custom Cycle Clothing
- Moda Bikes
- Exeter City Football Club
- MET Helmets
- Schwalbe Tyres
- TORQ Organic Nutrition
- Deda Elementi
@travis_bramley