a 58cm surly disc trucker has just come up for sale locally, i’m 193cm, the owner thinks it will fit.

richellicott – Member
…I’m glad I’ve got the choice of 2 great bikes but if I could only have one it would be the 29er…..no, the gravel bike…..

Easy, dropbars on the 29er, and use 2″ fast rolling minimal tread tyres, and you’ve got a dual purpose bike.

I reckon 29ers make the best gravel bikes.

Now that puts a completely different spin on things for me,
“drop bars on a 29er hardtail”
Re geometry what do you reckon would be a suitable contender?
(keeps going back to drool over malvernrider’s vagabond!)

Thinking of selling this and the cdf for something cx nice

Easy, dropbars on the 29er, and use 2″ fast rolling minimal tread tyres, and you’ve got a dual purpose bike.

I reckon 29ers make the best gravel bikes.

True that.

Drop bars is one thing. 29ers another. So far – so versatile, but the ‘ideal’ geometry in a broad sense for a given rider would naturally vary (Road/Race-Tour-MTB)

The Vagabond forinstance feels to me like a skinny-ish steel MTB with drops. Fine for me because that’s exactly what I want. Most of my riding is tame, I climb a lot, and require all-day comfort on long back roads and farm tracks, rarely seeing an A road but quite often open moor. Looking at pics of the so-called gravel genre it seems some enjoy more road-racing geometry even off the beaten track.

I’m still lost as to the difference between ‘gravel’ and ‘CX’? Anyone? I’d be happier to call my ‘monstercross’ an ‘ATB’ for today.

CX bike- drop bar skinny-ish tired bike for racing off road

Gravel- drop bar middling tired bike for speed on unmade roads. Or, if you prefer, a road bike for unmade roads.

That’s the best I can come up with. It’s all marketing terms, but I suspect gravel may cover the broader use- sort of ‘cross country’ vs ‘xc race’.

I’m just happy because manufacturers are really getting behind the sort of road/drop bar bike I always liked the look of. Light and sprightly enough to be a road bike but versatile, all with a change of tyres.

Thanks for the explanation swanny, seems ‘gravel’ and ‘CX’ could be a simple tyre-change apart?

To a degree I suppose- like sticking xc racing tyres on a ‘trail’ bike? It’ll be a lot closer, but the angles will be different…. If I understand rightly, ‘proper’ gravel bikes are slacker than ‘proper’ cross bikes, which are for racing. Plenty of slacker cross bikes about though, which are heading into drop bar Mtb territory and etc etc etc. Try one and see if you like it!

I suppose it’s not really describing the bike, but what you do with it. As I say, lots of brands are making drop bar bikes which hover around the ‘everything but mountain biking’ job, lots of kit to go with them too and I am happy about this because when time comes to change my ‘cross’ bike (done all of two races) I will have a lot of choice!

fudge9202 – Member
Now that puts a completely different spin on things for me,
“drop bars on a 29er hardtail”
Re geometry what do you reckon would be a suitable contender?…

Older 29ers with steeper head angles. I’ve done this with 4 29ers so far.

The best were a On-One Scandal, and slightly better a Ragley TD-1.

For bang for the buck, the Scandal is best and also lighter if 100gms or so is important.

Here’s my Scandal. Comfy for a 120 mile day ride and just as at home offroad.

You just need a decent CXer that will take both 33mm and 40mm tyres…

Oooh, that is pretty!

@bikebouy what is that?
Rather lovely sir, getting the real itch to have one bike to ride to and on the trails.

Giant TCX innit?

https://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-gb/bikes/model/2014.giant.tcx.advanced.1/14988/66571/

A bit too pricey for me!
Ideally I would like a lovely steel framed carbon forked, disc brakes, able to run racks and mudguards in the winter and able to take 40mm knobblies.
Any suggestions?

It’s a Giant TCX Advance 1.

I’ve raved about it on here for sometime now, it still excites and rides amazing. I use it for all sorts, CX racing, Gravel races, long distance off road, NCN bashing, local CX thrashes, woods, single track … Winter road …

I love it.

I have a few scraps on my new claud butler bike from coming off recently and looking at the scratches are irritating me. I have noticed this website selling RAL colours that are applicable to bikes. Has anyone ever used them before i think they mainly do car paint? MPEX heres a link http://www.mpexdirect.com/touch-paint-products

In an effort to help me come to a decision I took the Horsethief out twice in the last week to Castlewellan and thoroughly enjoyed it, yes there are places where the cdf would have coped admirably but when things got a little rougher that’s where the Horsethief excells.

DECISION MADE: I’M KEEPING BOTH!

Sounds like a good decision. File under 1st World Problems 😉

Picking this thread up again, and following another asking about 26″ “Gravel tyres” the other day, is anyone looking at their piles of, apparently worthless, old 26″ frames/forks/wheels and mulling over any sort of 26″ wheeled Franken-Gravel-tourer?

I am getting closer myself but bars and tyre choices seem to be the main factor that would tip it either towards a “Gravel”/”monstercross” Build or the other way and end up with a rigid, semi-slick tyred MTB… Decisions, decisions…

Anyone loving their gravel/adventure/road bike that…….No to be the voice of dissent here but its just to limited.

Anyone loving their gravel/adventure/road bike that…….No to be the voice of dissent here but its just to limited.

Limited for your particular requirements, or ‘limited’ for adventure/mixed-terrain/back-roads touring, extended bivvy/camp trips and general use? (my requirements)

Picking this thread up again, and following another asking about 26″ “Gravel tyres” the other day, is anyone looking at their piles of, apparently worthless, old 26″ frames/forks/wheels and mulling over any sort of 26″ wheeled Franken-Gravel-tourer?

I bought an old M-Trax to build exactly that. For touring and back-roads/bridlepaths. Lightened it a lot with hand-built rims and full XT, thumbshifters, whacked a Charge Spoon and some taped bar-ends on the straight bars. The rest was down to tyre choice. With winter mudguards I can use anything up to 1.75 (Land Cruisers for instance). General touring I use Marathon Racers. Considered drop bars bit the cost of converting was stacking up. It functions very well, swift, bombproof and almost handsome 8)

Though fter trying the Vagabond I thought – enough, someone made what I’ve been trying to make! And 29ers just feels so much more – satisfying. Feels (to me) easier to roll over obstacles with drops and 29 wheels than it does with straight bars and 26″. Being picky. They also made it lighter. Just.

I am getting closer myself but bars and tyre choices seem to be the main factor that would tip it either towards a “Gravel”/”monstercross” Build or the other way and end up with a rigid, semi-slick tyred MTB… Decisions, decisions…

. Choose your bars then choose yr tyres?

Well I could wander out to the garage now and just assemble it as yet another MTB, all the necessary parts are in there (somewhere).
My initial thought was to simply go and buy a 29er, but then I thought why spend the extra money when I have a cheaper, albeit smaller wheeled, option already…

Comfortable riding position(s), luggage capacity and the ability to mix on/offroad is really all I need, I won’t be rushing anywhere on it, and while my London Road could do all of that I quite like it as it is…

So it’s either going to be flat bars (already got several), loop bars (cheap version from SJS) or maybe drops/flared drops (although this would mean some new levers). Loops are winning at present never tried them so they would be a bit of a novelty, so more MTBish on the bars front.

As for tyres it’s a sort of separate question, I have plenty of 2.1-2.5″ knobbly 26ers already, but a bit less tread might suit the application, and something more like big apples would give some cushioning plus reasonable rolling and an OD not too far from a ~700x25c road bike wheel, while still being able to go offroad comfortably. I would just slap some pannier racks on an leave them fitted too so as to make it the default utility/touring/load lugging option…

That’s my current thinking at least…