Don't hate me (new gravel bike)

Mason Bokeh

https://www.planetx.co.uk/c/q/bikes/gravel-adventure-bikes/on-one-free-ranger

£1800.00

& I’ve got 650b x 50mm tyres on it.

Mason Bokeh

of which I have a lovely 54cm frame in beautiful Filter Green for sale to someone with size 8 feet or less!

Wiggle/CRC have some good prices on various Rondo Ruut variants at the mo...
https://www.wiggle.co.uk/bikes?s=ruut&ris=1&o=2

I recently bought a Cotic Cascade and absolutely love it!

Sonder Camino or nukeproof digger both within budget.

The top end digger comes with decent dt swiss wheels and looks good value. Sonder are always good value and the Camino is a pretty versatile bike. I have a Camino and really rate it and the latest version is a bit more mtb-y with dropper routing and more aggressive off road geometry changes

Having said that I’m also a fan of a rigid mountain bike albeit they’re not as popular as gravel bikes. Worse on road but better off. Depends on your compromises really but both can be great fun.

I was recently tempted by a CGR. But realistically I don't put enough road miles on to choose that over the gravel.

So that's your first decision really.

Ended up with a Cannondale Topstone which was crazy good value. More importantly, it was available immediately. Ribble have quite a backlog.

I'd still like a Ribble Gravel though.

If you can wait, I’ve got a canyon Grizal which I really like.

Mine’s Carbon, you’d be able to get the same frame with GRX 400 for £2k or the AL version with GRX810 for £1800 ish

I was recently tempted by a CGR. But realistically I don’t put enough road miles on to choose that over the gravel.

I have a Ribble CGR which was intended to replace a Pinnacle Arkose, which I haven't got round to selling....😎

Anyhoo, the CGR makes a very good account of itself off-road. Maybe ever so slightly livelier than the Arkose, but definately fits the bill of a great all-rounder and is a fine gravel bike.

There's a shop near me with some discounted topstones in stock. I'll go take a look next week.
That on-one looks a bit racey for me. Unless I'm seeing it wrong?
Sonder looks nice. Will take a closer look tomorrow. Same for the nukeproof.
My MTB is a canyon spectral and I had a bit of an issue with their customer service so I'll leave that one thanks.

Edit: forgot to thank everyone...... thanks!

My research suggests gravel tyres don't go larger than 50c so if you can fit 700x50 then there's no point in 650b

I got a focus atlas back in November and now ride it more than anything else.

Puts the fear back into bridleways..

My MTB is a canyon spectral and I had a bit of an issue with their customer service so I’ll leave that one thanks.

It’s a shame they can’t get that right more often as their bikes are really good.

I hear you on canyon…reason I got a Camino was because after nine months of waiting for a canyon grail it arrived with a dent in the top tube and numerous scratches. They offered me £50 which was less than the postage and all signing cardboard box that was meant to prevent said damage. They also wouldn’t replace they would only refund and make me order again, at the new price that had gone up £200 and which had another 8 month wait.

Not the best service.

Ps quite like the look of the ragley trig in purple with tan walls but that may be because I grew up with bikes in the 1990’s

I’ve been pretty happy with my Giant Revolt. Feels a lot more solid than the Arkose it replaced.

I went full CX bike when I was gravel curious. For what it lacks in tyre clearance (it still takes 40mm tyres) it more than makes up for it with its fitness flattering sheer speed on twisty singletrack.

Modern aluminum frames are very good and only about half a kilo heavier than the carbon equivalent.

I'd look to trying a few out as gravel bikes seem to be getting as wide in its subgenre types as mountain bikes.

I recently bought a Cotic Cascade and absolutely love it!

I've just finished building one up, only had a test ride on it so far but it feels good. Hopefully get a proper ride tomorrow.

Was also thinking about getting a ti Camino, but just like the extra gnarlyness of the Cascade.

I have a ribble cgr sl with 2x 105.

Mainly use it as my road bike. Im getting similar times on that as the road bike it replaced.

I've a 2nd set of wheels with 40mm tyres as I can still fit mudgaurds with them. They will fit a 50mm tyre with no guards.

I find the gearing a bit hard on climbs sometimes but it's handled some very technical off road.

Its marginally faster than my rigid scandal with mtb tyres over 40 miles of mixed technical terrain but not as much fun downhill and a rougher ride.  But as its also my road bike I'm very impressed with it.

If your doing mainly gravel I'd buy this instead but with 700c wheels. Has the 3 bolt carbon fork for bike packing but I'm not blown away with the colour scheme although they do a raw ti version 🤔

https://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/ribble-gravel-al-sport/

If your doing mainly road with some gravel buy the cgr

Or go for a rigid Mtb like a carbon on one whippet? At £900 or £1100 with better gears and upgrade the wheels.

I would also add that I'm really enjoying gravel riding, I got a Pinnacle Arkose on cycle to work recently and it's been great on local bridleways, I'm not in a hilly area so my MTB is overkill but the gravel bike keeps it more interesting. I bought a set of road wheels so I can easily switch from gravel to road.

The Planet X/Titus Goldrush looks good. I’ve got the new version of the Fireline and I’m very impressed with the quality for the price.

Recommend what you own - I have a Spesh Diverge. Nice bike- mine is the Alloy version, but I upgraded the wheels and went to 10 x 1 with a wolftooth front ring.
Its lovely on and off road.

Hey,

Just ordered a Nukeproof Digger Comp. I'll let you know how I get on with it, when it arrives. Btw Chainreactioncycles.com have a sale of them on:

https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/nukeproof-digger-comp-alloy-bike-2022/rp-prod202649

A word on the sonder with GRX groupset. They are taking orders for delivery in December? Bit weird to be honest the Nukeproof looked better value and on sale, what's not to like.

JeZ

I have a digger - good choice. Last years model with DT Swiss wheels and dropper. All I've done is put some wider bars on it. It's been great fun riding easy trails here. Also did a pretty big loop around CyB and was perfect for that. Not the lightest or the fastest on road with the 47mm tyres but a brilliant all rounder.

Replaced my Planet X Tempest which was a far better mile muncher but nowhere near as much fun off road.

Vitus Substance might be worth a look. For £1300 up you'll have carbon fork, hydraulic disc brakes, and Shimano GRX 2x11 group set or Sram 1x12. I use mine as a commuter mainly but there is a section of very rough unmaintained road / farm track on the route that I'm chasing a KOM on.

I have just been through the same dilemma and selection after my Arkose got stolen. I chose the Vitus Substance VR-2 in the end - the other suggestions here were all in the mix and decent bikes, it just came down to the stupid FSA bottom brackets that all the others came with - only compatible with FSA cranks, and last about 5 minutes in my experience. The Vitus has a shimano BB with the GRX crankset.

I've got a Ragley Trig and think it's ace. The usual 1x11 Shimano GRX with hydraulic brakes, carbon forks, decent finishing kit and they were discounted at CRC last time I looked.

I have a V3 Camino, I love it and ride it a lot. To the point where I think i might upgrade to something a bit fancier soon.

I’m not in a hilly area so my MTB is overkill but the gravel bike keeps it more interesting.

Ditto - too flat where I live and the 'good' bits are too far apart for a good MTB ride, hence my Sonder Camino is ideal.

I’d look to trying a few out as gravel bikes seem to be getting as wide in its subgenre types as mountain bikes.

100% this.

Personally I have little to zero interest in loading masses of kit onto a bike and riding it halfway round the country. I use my gravel bike as a 1-3hr cleanser, fast, light, smash it along bridleways as fast as I dare, get tucked in and try to do road bike speeds when on tarmac, dive it off kerbs etc through the villages.

My next one will be more along the lines of things like the Nukeproof Digger or the Carbon Diverge - nice and long, good tyre clearance, but light and fast as opposed to sturdy. I wish there more Gravel bikes not riddled with mounts and bolt holes on every tube, adjustable dropouts etc all I need is a single bottle cage!

I wish there more Gravel bikes not riddled with mounts and bolt holes on every tube, adjustable dropouts etc all I need is a single bottle cage!

i think you have just invented the CX bike..

Lots of good sensible answers here

I think aluminium is fine

i have an old Arkose with a steel fork. Which is stupid. But I think the steel forks flexs well.

Other options to those abobe

Sonder do the Santiago Tour if you want steel. It has space for 47mm 650b

https://alpkit.com/collections/sonder-santiago

The kinesis Trispter AT look great with slight better tyre clearance

https://www.kinesisbikes.co.uk/Catalogue/Models/Adventure/Tripster-AT

Buy now £900 which seems crazy

This has got me thinking. Do I need an Escapade?

Escapade doesn't have the tyre clearance for me. 50mm in 650b fair enough, but I want 50mm in 700c these days.

Thats why I ended up with a Cascade, even morerer space for big tyres. Get that not everyone needs that though. I'm not trying to get a 90s mtb with it, just makes sense for me for rutted up bridleway bashing.

Fustle causeway https://ukgravelco.com/fustle-causeway-gr1-review/

Fearless warlock if you are capable of building a bike yourself
https://ukgravelco.com/fearless-warlock-frameset-review/

Above mentioned cascade but that's more mtb than grav
https://ukgravelco.com/cotic-cascade-review/

Left field, ghost grappler
https://ukgravelco.com/2022/09/13/surly-ghost-grappler-review/

Puts the fear back into bridleways..

Ha! Best way to describe a gravel bike 🤣

There's some well priced bikes over at Merlin cycles at the moment. Personally i'd go for aluminium if i couldn't stretch to carbon fibre, that said i do see the appeal of steel, but personally i think the weight would end up bugging me for what I use theses types of bike for, and Merlin have a steel model available as well.

https://www.merlincycles.com/wilier-jaroon-grx-steel-gravel-bike-227561.html

https://www.merlincycles.com/wilier-jareen-grx-alloy-gravel-bike-190123.html

https://www.merlincycles.com/merlin-malt-g2x-grx-gravel-bike-2022-197443.html

+1 for Vitus Substance. Great fun off road and not too shabby on it. I've got the 2020 CRX version (carbon, 1x and 650B wheels) although I've switched from the SRAM gears to GRX (much betterer).
Took it to the Alps a few weeks ago and it coped brilliantly with some alpine gravel but also was fine on some of the road climbs.

I was recently tempted by a CGR. But realistically I don’t put enough road miles on to choose that over the gravel.

So that’s your first decision really.

Ended up with a Cannondale Topstone which was crazy good value. More importantly, it was available immediately. Ribble have quite a backlog.

I was also looking at the CGR, noting that it’s supposed to be available soon, but also noting a lot of unhappy people on the Ribble twitter page complaining about mega-delays, so I started to look, as I guess you did, at what is available right now, and came across the Topstone. The reviews I’ve seen describe the Topstone as a road-ish bike. Does that match your experience? Is it more “road-y” than the CGR?

@drj have you looked at the vitus, kenesis, merlin, nukeproof bikes?
Maybe worth a look, if here and now is what you are looking for 😉

JeZ

I don’t understand why you would wait for a ribble when others are in stock and in some cases discounted.

I don’t understand why you would wait for a ribble when others are in stock and in some cases discounted.

You’re right. I started looking at the Ribble from good reviews and recommendations here, and it is supposed to be available more or less now. I was put off a bit by hearing of experiences, some from Twitter and one from my sister-in-law, that all revolved around non-delivery, so I decided to cast my net wider and I’m grateful for the suggestions; Vitus especially looks interesting!!

Genuinely love my Goldrush, brilliant on the badger divide, but also capable enough to do the beast in the peaks. Changed the bars for wider ones and added a dropper post, put on some x-wide Hunt wheels. It is just brilliant, off to gravel Dieppe to Paris and back in a couple of weeks, comfy, quick and capable. The geometry is spot on 👍👍

There’s some well priced bikes over at Merlin cycles

I've one of the Merlin own brand bikes.

It's nice, light, well specced.
It's got quite narrow tyre clearance - maybe 40/42mm in the back.
I've put a few thousand miles on mine, and it's holding up well.
If you ever want to run mudguards, don't bother as the fork is missing half the mounts (!) and the frame mounts vary from tapped to random holes. And Merlin don't give a fig about it.

Mason Bokeh

Over £1000 above OP's budget. What makes it worth it? (Genuine question)

My thoughts exactly. I did wonder when I asked for 1.5-2k (full bikes) why the bokeh was suggested. Nice though.

Current list is:
Canondale Topstone (available local at discount)
One one Rujo (availability?)
Titus Goldrush (good value)
Nukeproof Digger (good value but not local)

I guess the first look should be the Topstone as there are some available at a good local shop at a discount. So good support and availablity. Plus the whole local business thing.

So I'm testing the following, both in alloy frame version:

Cannondale Topstone 1
Giant Revolt 0

Mostly because that's what's in stock in my size at my local shop. I like the look of them both but leaning towards the Topstone due to the Saab Vs Ford nature of the brand's. Never had a Cannondale. Will happily get the Giant if it's a better ride as they obviously know how to build a bike.

Cyclingtips have just done a bit of a group test of gravel bikes

https://cyclingtips.com/2022/09/our-favorite-bikes-from-the-2022-gravel-and-all-road-field-test/

Thanks I did see that too. Looks like the salsa is popular. A quick search shows it's hard to come by (as are many). Being small I actually need a small bike. It's not like I can go for a medium with longer stem and post if I needed a large.

So tested both bikes today and settled on the Cannondale. Stem is touch long but the rest is great.

Thanks for the advice.

2 rides in on my Topstone 1 and it's a shame I didn't get one of these ages ago. Just feels right. Yesterdays ride was 16 miles of 50/50 road/dirt and felt quite worn out by the end. Also need practice with no suspension up front to prevent flats.

Also need practice with no suspension up front to prevent flats.

Are you still running tubes on it?
Definitely tubeless for gravel bikes and when you change the tyres, put in one of those run-flat foam inserts. I've got the Vittoria Airliner but there are a couple of other brands as well. Made a huge difference.

For some reason, the frame/wheel combination I have is quite sensitive to tyre pressures; there's a fairly small window between "pinch flatting / burping the whole time" and "so hard it rattles your eyeballs out".

The middle ground of being just hard enough not to pinch or bottom the rim vs just soft enough for good grip and traction" took a while to find but the Airliner inserts have hugely widened that gap, it feels much better to ride.

I've just won a Ribble bike of my choice up to £2.5k in a competition😀. Still don't know what to buy yet.

Win!