Slightly slack geometry for road though
Fork offset helps, the trail is spot on for indended use I'd say - a bit shorter trail than current / average gravel trends. Good combo to create a bit more front-centre for bigger tyres and guards.
There’s something really jarring about the huge headtube and undersized top tube. I presume there must be a reason behind it, does it offset the presumably compliant top tube to maintain torsional rigidity? Given they’ve used custom chain stays I’d have thought they could have used a tapered top tube to achieve the same?
I don't think it brings much to the party structurally TBH, it may just be down to off the peg headtubes available from Reynolds?
But My Guess is that it's a bit of future-proofing for routing (I can't fully make out cable routing in the images) it's possibly just so the frame can accommodate integrated routing through the upper headset, this seems to be the way the Road and Gravel frames are generally heading now because:
1 it looks cleaner
2 it is actually easier/cheaper to manufacture requiring fewer bosses/ports/stops on the frame itself (Discuss).
3 Presumably more 'premium' punters will now be going wireless for their gears so you only really need to think about brake lines (and IF using current Di2 wires in the Chainstay/seattube)...
But Yeah, cables and hoses?
For clarity I was talking about the headtube on the Strael not the Roadfinder. The Roadfinder looks good, the Strale is the one with a great big beercan sized headtube and a skinny top tube It just sticks out as odd when the rest of the frame is so nice.
That and the cable routing. The traditional stops on the headtube are great for avoiding paint rub. But with electronic shifting being so popular maybe they should have been something modular / threaded in or 3D print them onto a headset cup even. I'm being picky, but for £1400 if feels like and afterthought. The Sonder I've ordered is a bit of a mess as well but ticked some other boxes.
The Strael has virtually the same (maybe even the same) head tube as the Roadfinder - both 44mm bore, 46 and a bit in the middle and 48mm at the very ends. Here is an offcut from one.
The Strael top tube just looks tiny in comparison because it is a 25.4mm tube squashed oval to 30 wide and 20 deep. The Pashley TT is round and a bit bigger diameter so looks more balanced against the HT.
