I'm slowly but surely realising I just can't ride my current gravel bike the way I want to on a lot of the terrain I want to ride. I'm stuck with 40mm tyres for now and even tubeless with inserts I'm just puncturing, damaging tyres and even dinging rims too often. Mostly on fast loose landrover track descents where you're going just too fast to avoid every little sniper rock on the trail. Monday evening surfing down loose and chunky new forestry tracks and tearing my rear Terreno was the last straw.
Until such time as I can afford that new Grizl/Secan/Revolt with 50mm tyres I'll have to make do. The Superfly has always felt fast and I actually doubt it will be any slower over big days than the gravel bike, I even tried chasing a PB on a 25 minute steep gravel climb last night on the gravel bike and couldn't beat the time I set on the Superfly previously.
My only reservation, especially for longer days, is that I REALLY miss the hand positions of the drop bars, especially forearms on the top, hands on the hoods sort of semi-aero tuck. Inner bar-ends on flat bars is sort of halfway there but I can't find any long enough or fat/flat enough to replicate the tops/hoods thing. So as a true Dylan Johnson acolyte I turned to aero bars, specifically the Pro Missiles with the independently adjustable pads. I actually also really miss the drops on descents as well but that's just too expensive/faffy.
I now have three sets of bars/bar-ends (the Ergon mini-bar ends are just there because they're integrated with the grips) and was rightly laughed out of my local shop at lunchtime, being reminded that I'm not Lachlan Morton 🤣
Thankfully tomorrow's ride involves a long shift down the Great Glen into a headwind so hopefully they'll come in handy and I can prove the doubters wrong
Flame away!
Thought you had a lovely basket on the front too...until I realised it was actually a patio chair behind 😉
Haha, yeah, actually that's a horrifically cluttered background to take a picture against, not to mention the state of the lawn etc... 🤣
Grass needs cutting. Its not No Mow May yet.
I like how you've colour coordinated all the shit you have cluttering the background with the colours of the bike.
Damn, I'm only up to two sets of bar ends on mine (im a total convert to inner bar ends and definitely my most used position for xc)...ive got to try harder 😣
Looks like a hardtail mtb with fugly bars rather than a gravel bike to me, but it's hard to tell if I'm looking at the lines of the bike or looking at the lines of your garden furniture. Can you take a picture of it against the fence to try and make it look a bit better!?!?
Looks like a hardtail mtb with fugly bars rather than a gravel bike to me
No, you were right first time, I guess the point of the post was that handlebars aside there's really not much between my hardtail MTB and my 'ideal' gravel bike. It's just a shame that trying to solve the handlebar issue has resulted in such fugliness.
Oh and despite the fugliness and the extra ~2kg weight it really does feel fast on bona fide gravel terrain, makes me wonder just how 'champagne' it has to be for a conventional gravel bike to be the faster choice...
Can you take a picture of it against the fence to try and make it look a bit better!?!?
I think it's gonna take a bit more than that 😉
I salute your willingness to do your own thing though OP.
Aren't the aero bars a bit high to get you out of the wind? I am just asking the question, never used them myself.
They're not really for the aeroz, that would just be a side benefit (if only by bringing elbows in). And yes, I bought the 50mm riser out of desperation almost, didn't have time to tinker or experiment. Probably only needed 30mm.
Ultimately though they're just for comfort on long days, I initially had a couple of back-to-back 200km days planned this weekend with some extended tarmac sections, but otherwise too rugged for the gravel bike, so wanted somewhere to hunker down and give the hands and arms a rest.
Is the reason you can't fit wider tyres to your gravel bike because it's got limited clearance and/or rim brakes?
I had a similar mis viewing to Fazzini except I thought, ‘why is there a pannier rack on one side only?’ until I realised it was another patio chair
Aren't the aero bars a bit high to get you out of the wind? I am just asking the question, never used them myself.
There seems to be a bit of a trend currently in aero positions on triathlon bikes etc. where higher forearm rests and slightly taller front ends with your arms closer together are 'better' as it closes off the cavity in front of your chest/between your arms and shoulders compared to lower and wider position. Also because it's a more sustainable position where you can see forwards without popping your head up and causing all sorts of disturbance to the airflow which then takes a long time to stabilise again.
The jury is out on whether having a beer belly would achieve the same result in filling this cavity, and be more enjoyable to attain.
I've had Cane Creek Ergos and Aero bars on a hardtail. It worked pretty well on mixed surface routes. My aero bars were fitted quite a lot lower than that though.
Personally, I like the riding position of drops, especially on fast descents, so the gravel bike still wins out most times.
The Topstone is currently fitted with 650x47 Rutlands which I find pretty much spot on for whatever tracks I point it down. Punctures and wheel.damage don't seem to be part of my experience. I think it's possible to go far too low on tyre pressure, trying to avoid rebound/improve comfort but then resulting in tyre/rim damage. Maybe it helps that my Topstone has a flexy rear end but I can't say it was an issue on my Amazon either.
Oh and despite the fugliness and the extra ~2kg weight it really does feel fast on bona fide gravel terrain, makes me wonder just how 'champagne' it has to be for a conventional gravel bike to be the faster choice...
Pretty much all down to tyres and what terrain the tyres are best for. A gravel bike with the same tyres as an MTB will not be noticeably different in speed (at least not at my 15mph average speed gravel riding anyway).
My gravel/off road speeds on regularly ridden loops are the same with riser bars and with drop bars with rest of bike being unchanged.
Is the reason you can't fit wider tyres to your gravel bike because it's got limited clearance and/or rim brakes?
Yeah, limited clearances, the rear of the frame could take a 45mm tyre, but the front fork can only take 40mm. I could replace the fork to run wider but if I wanted a nice carbon fork it would cost me £500, and since I got the forks painted to match my custom frame it would cost another ~£150 to get the new fork matched.
Basically I didn't have the prescience to build in space for wider tyres on my custom gravel bike when I had it made and have now outgrown it a bit. Would still be cheaper to upgrade it than get a new bike but I figured it would make an excellent winter road bike with space for mudguards and fatter/spiked tyres when required, thus replacing the ageing winter road bike.
Personally, I like the riding position of drops, especially on fast descents, so the gravel bike still wins out most times.
Yeah absolutely, and narrow bars in general for the singletrack bits, I reckon a gravel bike/CX bike handles better than any MTB when the going is tight, just not when fast and rocky...
The way the (Ali express?] chain ring offsets the orange of the frame bag and the blue of the towel draped in the background... upsets my eyes. And the green. 🤢 atleast no one will want to nick it 😃
Well done for going against the flow,will be interesting to hear how it performs on the route you have planned. Just be prepared to get asked if you are from Germany,and is this your first time bicycle trekking 😉 🤣
Oh, and as sirromj hinted, Ali express has the answers so another purchase may be imminent. Just search Long Distance Touring Bike Composite Butterfly Handlbar.
You're welcome
🙂
Excuse me! I'll have you know the chainring is Absolute Black, albeit yes, probably bought on sale for being an odd size and nearly obsolete bolt pattern 😂. I could swap for a nice blue Raceface ring but it's not oval and my knees would explode or something...
I think I can fix the green by using my black tool bottle, just a bit of s squeeze getting a 29er tube in there...
Joking aside, I'm surprised this is 'going against the flow', I thought this sort of setup was becoming more common amongst the long distance fraternity...
I think we need a rider's POV pic for the full Franken-sense.
Aside from the potential loss of control on bumps with the aero bars, it's spring and you probably have to be wary of advances from amorous stags wanting to rutt with it while you're out. How many tines does your bike have now?
Can you not just get some drops on there? Something with a super-short reach like Ritchey Beacon or Salsa Woodchipper wouldn't require a much shorter stem (perhaps just 10mm less than you have now).
And if your mech is Sram's exact actuation, it may have the same pull as the road shifters -- I used to run a GX mech with a Sram bar end shifter, probably 10 speed though.
Tht's the bike I wish I'd not sold -- my current thing is a dropbar mtb conversion
t's spring and you probably have to be wary of advances from amorous stags wanting to rutt with it while you're out.
I think this comment is the winner 😂
Can you not just get some drops on there?
Depending how this weekend goes I might invest, I think I have all the component parts except bars and shifters. Again, would be weighing it up against just buying a new gravel bike with bigger tyre clearance, e.g. one of the Guant Revolts with 50mm tyres, which would also be significantly lighter.
Did similar with an old SS Carbon Superfly (thanks to Chris Hinds for inspiration) with a Wheels Mfg horizontal dropout hanger, a Tanpan 11 and an old XTR mech. Ratios are low due to max c/ring size, and BB maybe a little tall, but otherwise lovely.
Apologies for dirty slabs/weeds etc.
@13thfloormonk That's a perfectly cromulent bike. It's proof you have embiggened your appreciation of velo art. A bike should be built with no concern for what others think, just for what you want it for.
I raise your bid with this monstrosity, the Fat Scandal. 16 years ago it was almost impossible to get fatbike stuff and I wanted to try it out.
The front fork was a bodge I made out of two suspension forks - if you look closely you'll see the lower legs are clamped to the stanchions. The idea was to give me an adjustable fork so I could also experiment with geometry (eg head angle could be adjusted by raising or lowering the fork, and trail could be adjusted by reversing the fork crown).
The bike was surprisingly effective, a great compensator for my unskillful riding, but the front wheel could write cheques the skinny back wheel didn't like in snakebite territory.
But I must say you've inspired me to consider resurrecting this 'creation'. Maybe I should try a 650b wheel in the back with a 3" tyre (I know a 29er 3" won't fit)
Is it me or is the front wheel a bit pissed in the POV photo above?
I think it looks awesome 👍
I bought a time trial.bar to go.touring on an MTB in early 2000s. It was a great faster for no effort on the flat and absolutely felt like cheating in the best way possible.
Another fan of the OPs bike here. Love seeing a bike that's evolved to a purpose.
Fwiw, if you want a slightly neater solution on the same bike, a Surly Moloko bar would do a great job. I use mine in TT mode quite a lot on road sections and it's not far off the comfort of dedicated clip-ons.
I am a convert, added TT bars and Schwalbe thunder burt tyres to my hard tail for the Walesduro.
Extra comfort for arms and nice pedalling position can roll along at 20mph on the flat.
Took the TT bars off and added SQ lab inner bar ends for the dirty riever 130.
If it works it works but you are a a tiny stones throw from realising that you need one of these ☺️