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As above, any owners/rides/reviews of the Tripster ACE?
It seems the Tripster ATR gets some love on here but I can't afford £1500 on F&F alone... I'm hoping that the ACE is an alu version of the Ti ATR? Geo doesn't look wildly different (ACE has shorter head tube/lower stack, VTT a few mm shorter, less BB drop, shorter chainstays than ATR).
It seems it has to be a full bike, but I'd be looking to set it up as a geared commuter/firetrail (gravel/New Forest style off road) bike with drop bars and hydro discs.
Any thoughts appreciated!
It seems an odd bike when I looked at it. Its a flat bay build isn't it? So not really like Tripster. Its also on of those bikes that looks to have road bike length top tube. Clearly this works for many but I'm sure its too short for me
I'd also argue the hearing doesn't go low enough for loaded touring but your mileage may vary
Other options inlude
The kona Big Rove ST. Which is more cash but has lower gearing and to my mind looks a better length
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Or if you don't believe in the magic of steel then the Pinnacle Lithium offers quite alot for the cash (£700)
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But just to be clear all your getting here is key board warrior speculation
Oh and Giant do the Tough road and Genesis do a flat bar tourer as well
Thanks ampthill.
If not clear from the first post, I'm looking for a budget Tripster-a-like, so would switch out the bars for drops... I want a road bike to chuck about, commute on (with guards for winter), be comfortable on pave, and that I can sling on big tyres and bounce around off road (pretending it's a rigid 29er). It seems a full on CX bike might be a bit of a handful for century rides etc and I'm not likely to actually race any CX (certainly not competitively). I liked the idea of decent clearances. Kind of Moon-on-a-stick territory unless I buy into the quiver killer gravel bike niche!
If going the Pinnacle route, I'd look at the Arkose, or maybe the Cotic Escapade for steel, but was hoping that the ACE frame was similar enough to the ATR frame, and I could move on all the bits I didn't want. I'm happy to build a bike up from spare bits, so F&F is fine.
I was going to bodge my Inbred into some kind of cross bike until it got nicked...
Ok so the usual candidates include
London Road from planet X
Genesis Croix de fer or CDA
The Arkose gets Tiagra for £800 which is way less then adding STIs to an Tripster and ending up with sora. I get the impression this bike is the same idea. Not a CX bike. A versatile bike for on or off road
Giant do some weird and wonderful variations on a theme including the Revolt which has space for huge tyres and the AnyRoad
The Specialized AWOL ticks all the boxes as well
I think it looks great
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Although selling a bike with just a front rock seems odd
Although selling a bike with just a front rack looks stupid to me
Wary of London Road following the recent QC issues...
But more keen on F&F than full bike as I can then play with the build.
No Kinesis/Tripster lovers care to comment?