I posted a thread the other day about a cheap drop bar bike from GO the other day vut thinking I should up my budget as I might get pissed off pretty quickly with naff brakes and groupset.
Are there many options at around £1000?
So far I've looked at Saracen Levarg and Cube NuRoad, Boardman adv 8.9. All have GRX with the Boardman having Hydro brakes for a bit more money.
Any other ideas? Ta
I've got my old Pincale Arkose which was my gravel/commuting bike. That had/has Avid BB7s on it. They were okay, but not brilliant. I'd defintely go for hydro for the extra money. Assuming you're looking at drop bars then upgrading to hydros would require complete new shifters as well, so probably cheaper to pay the money up-front when getting a new bike.
All have GRX with the Boardman having Hydro brakes for a bit more money.
I had the original ADV 8.9 as my first gravel bike and it was brilliant.
It's a great frame full stop, not just for the price. And the Shimano hydro brakes are well worth having IMO.
Second hand?
I picked up a 5 rides old, immaculate Genesis Vagabond for £550...
My Facebook page seems filled with some reasonably priced bikes at present, even allowing for a few quid to spend on some new tyres or drive train.
Yeah, I'd kind of assumed OP might be using C2W with the £1k figure, but I'd also go secondhand personally.
Plenty of those Boardmans (Boardmen?) about usually.
I don't think I can access C2W as I work for a charity. I asked a couple of years ago and was told no.
I have a 2018 NuRoad and it's been a great bike, although only the frame, forks, headset, TRP Spyre brakes and crankset are original now (I destroyed the original wheelset riding MTB trails and broke the 1st RD, everything else has just been upgraded for the sake of it). Anyway, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them.
FFIW the TRP Spyre brakes are better than some of the lower end hydros I've tried.
Might be worth looking at Sonder too.
Edit to add, I'd look at 2nd hand bikes too. Some absolute bargains around at the moment.
https://www.merlincycles.com/felt-breed-30-grx-gravel-bike-316151.html
Decent value if you want new, not checked out the geo or reviews though.
I got a lightly used Marin with GRX and a dropper for about £580 which has been great.
Merlin also have their own brand gravel bikes that are worth a look. Plus look at the Decathlon range.
Blimey - that Felt ⬆️ looks like amazing value!
Hard to ignore that Felt.
Good review of another model here: Felt Breed 20 review | BikeRadar
Looks to be on the sportier side, but that will suit a lot of riders obvs.
Hiya,
I have a Nukeproof Digger comp on Shimano GRX and my son a Ribble on Sram Apex. The Shimano at this price point much easier to maintain and fix. I'd probably say save a bit more and maybe go for a Sonder Camino Al GRX it will be money well spent and will be cheaper to run in the long term, to be honest.
JeZ
I've got a Boardman adv 8.9 and I reckon its really good. If not using cycling to work scheme then definitely worth looking at second hand. Got mine about 18 months ago and was £600 for virtually brand new bike.
Merlin have some decent value Felt's
https://www.merlincycles.com/felt-breed-30-grx-gravel-bike-boxed-bike-1-317980.html
Second hand?
As Matt says.
There are lots of nice second hand bikes around just now that are not selling.
The weather being all over the place will have had a lot to do with that,and the fact that (maybe) a few people have been suckered in to the ' buy a Gravel bike' ,then discovered it still needs to be pedaled 😉🤣👍
The discount has dropped from 10% to 8% at Halfords (7% at Tredz), but don't forget to buy a cheap British Cycling membership, unless you have a similar discount card already.
https://membership.britishcycling.org.uk/member-rewards-hub
Another 10% off Halfords with "CYCLING10" at the moment too - it was a while ago but I have stacked the discounts before too.