Subscribe now and choose from over 30 free gifts worth up to £49 - Plus get £25 to spend in our shop
My Gravel bike didn't show up so I'm trying to figure out a way forwards.
My road bike that gets used on the trainer through the winter and some spring outside riding (or injury recovery rides) is a bit long in the tooth and doesn't really excite me.
I'd ordered a mid spec Addict gravel bike so it could do double duty as an infrequent road bike but get more actual gravel use but as this isn't coming I'm looking for ideas for another solution.
Gravel or monster cross that wont suck if I did a 100km road ride?
I have convertable hubs, cranks, flared drop bars, every stem length ever made, 650b 22.5 rims, 29er 25mm rims and also a rigid fork off a genesis tarn (bit long though at 510mm a2c?).
Carbon catalogue frames out of China seem to be the quickest and most available product right now but open to suggestions?
This looks ace
chiner cross
but, is monster cross a case of may as well have got a 29er hardtail for even more trail usefulness
Have you cancelled the Addict? You say the road bike is a bit long in the tooth so I'm guess clearance might be an issue but what size tyres do you reckon you could fit? Easiest might be to put some new tyres on the road bike until the addict arrives...
(It might just be the low TT but) that bike in the link looks pretty long to me, and that's what you want to watch for if you're putting drop handlebar on a frame for a flat one
Gravel bike used on 100k road rides is ok. A monster cross would suck after about 30k.
Planet X London Road frame might be an option;
Room for 43mm tyres, discs, aluminium
I've used mine for 100km Audax (with 32mm road tyres), currently running 43mm Rock 'N' road tyres, on 700c rims, could run 650c apparently
My road bike that gets used on the trainer through the winter and some spring outside riding (or injury recovery rides) is a bit long in the tooth and doesn’t really excite me
Is that the bike, though, or the fact that you use it for road rides, which don't really excite you? Assuming it's not a totally shit bike, a gravel or monster cross, even a sensible tyre choice for road, won't be as suited to a 100km road ride as your road bike. How long would a new bike make a pure road ride exciting for?
Trouble with buying a crossover/do-it-all/compromise bike when you don't have one already is that you don't know how you're going to use it, whether you're going to use it all the time, or whether you're always going to choose the more focused bike for the ride you're doing.
I've got a Singular Peregrine. It's been on 100+ mile road rides with 28c slicks, 100mile 50/50 off/on road rides with 33c file tread tyres, raced "cx" and BOTB with 2.0"knobbies. Ragged round my normal mtb routes as fast as possible, long, bonafide actual gravel rides (Finland), a fair bit of bikepacking and 5, 6 years of daily commuting.
Would I choose it as my only bike for pure road rides - no.
Would I choose it over an actual mountainbike for most of my trail riding - no.
Would it be my first choice for every bike packing trip - no
If you held a gun to my head and told my I could only keep one bike, would it be this one - very possibly, but only if I could keep a few sets of tyres!
If I'm on my mtb (aggro-ish hardtail 29er), I use road climbs for wheelie practice and keep my routes in a fairly compact area that's the most fun for descending. Going further afield means much more time on the flat. If I take the Peregrine out, I enjoy riding hard and fast on flatter trails and the odd bit of road, I go further, see more, just peg it everywhere. fast feels fun, up, across and down (thought the downs are obviously slower!) . It's a brilliant way of getting more/different fun from the door.
I guess the question isn't really "Would I be better off with more focussed bikes?", but "Do I feel drawn towards the kind of mixed on/off road routes where a gravel/monster cross would really shine?"
Sorry about the lengthy, gushy post. When out on 2 days ago and had a flippin' brilliant time!
All great info thanks.
The addict isn't coming unfortunately.
My current road bike is a 2013/14 era CR1. 105 spec. I sold my ultegra spec 2016 CR1 as it wasn't getting the use to justify rack space and I cashed it in before it started to loose too much value.
That gen CR1 will take a 23c tire.. possibly 25c but a 28c tire definately won't fit..so there's no option for gravel'izing it.
Every year I say I'm going to get proper fit again but keeping missing the kick start.
Spring/ summer theres a good crew that repeat our only "safe" local road ride. A 70km out and back up a valley. Beyond that it's drive to road loops.
Gravel has taken off here and we have more FSR inventory to bash out some different distance.
I don't think a better road bike would make me ride more road. Im not excited by out and backs generally and the only other local road option, the highway between Vancouver and whistler (and Pemberton) is so much buisier with way worse drivers now than it was when I would suffer the out and back riding for fitness sake. Driving to ride makes no sense either as if I'm travelling I'll go ride some more amazing BC MTB trails.
Ta
I’d get a gravel frame with good clearance. I’ve done everything from full Ironman, 140 mile mixed terrain, big gravel rides and mountain bike trails by mixing between 28 slicks on 700c, 33 and 35mm gravel and cross tyres and 42mm on 650b. You’ve got the wheels already by the look of it.
I've done 100 mile plus rides on my PX London road with 28mm road tyres. It's just my gravel bike these days with 40mm Nanos, but it works as a rod bike as well.
Tick