Wild Boar Chase in the Forest of Dean: Why the Argon 18 Dark Matter Was Perfect
Some rides expose the wrong bike within the first hour. The Wild Boar Chase did the opposite. By the time I had settled into the 80 km off-road route through the Forest of Dean, the Argon 18 Dark Matter felt less like a compromise and more like the obvious answer.
Some background. This all came about when Tim, my Argon 18 rep, popped in with a pack of biscuits (take note all you other reps) to say "Hi". The conversation ended with me asking about borrowing his Dark Matter as I had an event to do at the weekend. You don't ask, you don't get, and I ended up with a bike I'd been wanting to try out for a while. Riding it around the shop car park is one thing, a full day out pushing it to it's limits is another. Happy days.
The Wild Boar Chase is not a gentle gravel spin on smooth fire roads. It was a proper mixed off-road day, with fast tracks, rougher forest sections, loose surfaces, climbs that asked for traction, and descents where confidence mattered as much as speed. On paper, a racy carbon gravel bike with 50 mm tyres sounds almost too specific. On this route, it made complete sense.
The route asks a lot from one bike
The Forest of Dean is exactly the sort of place where bike choice gets interesting. It is not pure mountain bike terrain, but it is not polite road-adjacent gravel either. The surfaces keep changing, and that is what makes the Wild Boar Chase such a good test.
There were three of us on the ride. Jen finally had her chance to fully test out the Reilly Gradient, whilst Will brought his S-Works XC race bike. I'd set the Reilly up in a more relaxed, touring spec. The Dark Matter has two options from new, the 3D with 25mm more stack, but this bike was in low stack race spec.
Three different bikes, how would each fare?
The S-Works, being a mountain bike, had the lowest gearing, so how would this fair against the gravel bikes? In truth, I already knew that gravel bikes climb better than mountain bikes. I have no idea why, all I know is that they do, unless the terrain is seriously techy. On the day, the Dark Matter was the much faster climbing bike, as long as the terrain didn't get too technical.
The majority of the climbs were road, single track or gravel. A win for the gravel bike.
The 50 mm tyres were the right call
This was my first time riding 50mm wide tyres on a gravel bike. I'd always wondered if it was a bit of a fad, something where you really should be on an XC bike instead if you think you need them. I'm happy to eat my words. Whilst I'd become used to 45mm Hutchinson Touaregs on the Reilly, this event really demanded that bit extra.
I'd ridden some pretty varied ground on the Reilly and never really encountered any problems. The Hell of the North Cotswolds (HONC) had been pretty straightforward on the 45mm Touaregs, but the "Full Boar" route we did was that bit more aggressive in places.
On loose forest tracks, the extra volume helped the tyres sit into the surface rather than skate across it. On chattery sections, they took the sting out of repeated hits. On climbs, especially when the ground was broken or damp, they gave enough traction to stay seated and keep pedalling smoothly.
A narrower tyre might have felt faster on the cleanest sections, but the route was too varied for that to be the priority. The extra width gave real benefits all day:
More grip through loose corners
Better comfort over repeated rough sections
More confidence on descents
Less fatigue from vibration
A bigger margin for line choice when the trail got untidy
That last point mattered more than I expected. On a long off-road ride, you do not always pick the perfect line. Sometimes you are eating, drinking, sitting behind another rider, or just getting tired. A bigger tyre gives you room to be slightly imperfect.
The carbon frame kept the ride sharp
The surprise was not that the Dark Matter felt quick. With a racy carbon frame, it should. The surprise was how well that sharpness suited the whole route.
On the faster tracks, the bike responded immediately. When the surface opened up, it encouraged you to press on. It never had that dull, overbuilt feel some off-road bikes can have. Every acceleration felt clean, and the bike carried speed well on rolling ground.
That matters on an 80 km event. You are not sprinting all day, but you are constantly making small efforts. Closing gaps. Pushing over rises. Getting back up to speed after a gate, a bend, or a rough patch. A responsive frame makes those efforts feel less wasteful.
The Dark Matter also had enough stability to stop the ride becoming nervous. That balance is hard to get right. Too racy, and the bike feels tiring when the trail gets rough. Too relaxed, and it can feel flat when the route speeds up. Here, the geometry and frame character felt well matched to the ride.
It felt like a gravel race bike that had remembered real gravel is not always smooth.
It made the descents more enjoyable
The Forest of Dean has a way of making descents feel alive. Even when they are not technical in a mountain bike sense, they demand attention. Surfaces change, corners tighten, and loose patches appear just where you want to brake.
The Dark Matter gave me the confidence to stay loose and let the bike run. The wider tyres played a big role, but the frame and overall handling mattered too. It tracked well through rougher sections and did not feel skittish when speed built up.
Whilst many of the descents were single track or gravel fire road, the route down to the River Wye included some technical rocky climbs, followed by the same type of rocks on the descent. Whilst most of the course could easily have been handled by 40mm or 45mm tyres, this is where the 50mm came into it's own.
It was still efficient when the pace lifted
The risk with big tyres is that the bike can start to feel a bit sleepy. That was not the case here. The firmer tracks and road sections never felt slow or "draggy".
After the feed station at the final split point, we knew we had to up our pace. The first half had been ridden at an easy pace, now we were reminded there was a cut off time for finishing, and we were tackling the long route. It was now time to really see what the bike could do.
The odd thing was the noise made by the Schwalbe G-One XR Pro tyres on the road. You get a peculiar whine that sounds similar to an e-bike motor. A few odd looks, and some mild protestation, then time to press on.
The perfect bike is the one that fits the day
No bike is perfect for every ride. A hardtail mountain bike would have been more forgiving on the roughest bits. A lighter, narrower-tyred gravel bike might have been quicker on the smoothest sections. But across the full 80 km, the Argon 18 Dark Matter hit the sweet spot.
It had the speed for the open tracks, the grip for loose and rougher ground, and enough comfort to keep fatigue under control. Most of all, it made the ride more fun. That is easy to overlook when talking about tyres, frames, and geometry, but it is the thing that stays with you afterwards.
Last year I rode the short route on a Basso Palta II with 40mm tyres, and loved every minute. Less technical parcours, different bike, same outcome, same silly grin. My first encounter with the Wild Boar Chase was 12 years ago. I was a pretty novice rider, so my hard tail MTB was the perfect choice (even if gravel bikes had been invented at the time).
However, as a more experienced rider these days, pushing longer, more technical terrains, a wider bike choice has become available. The 80km "Full Boar" is the sort of ride that rewards smart bike choice. For me, the Dark Matter with 50 mm tyres was not just suitable. It was exactly what the route asked for. Fast, composed, comfortable, and ready for the changing character of the forest.
So, how did the other bikes fair. Will's XC bike obviously handled the rough stuff the best, but was slower in the climbs and ran out of gears on the faster road sections. Jen, on the Reilly, did a shorter, less technical route, which gave the traditional Reilly magic carpet ride. So the Reilly won the comfort game, no real shock there.
Given the full route had a bit of everything, and a need to push on so as to make the cut off time, the Dark Matter ticked all the boxes. As Will and I entered the finishing straight, we each knew what would happen. Suggestions of "rolling in together" was never going to happen. In a sprint finish, there was only ever going to be one winner, racy gravel bikes are always faster.
That said, with the 3D system added to allow the bike to be less agressive, and with all it's mounting points for luggage, the Dark Matter could easily have been the ideal tourer on another day.
Maybe that's the next adventure....
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