Cheap gravel/adventure bike with hydraulic brakes?

Might be looking at a longer commute soonish, from my current 2 miles which I do on my FS vitus escarpe, to about 12-13 miles, with probably 70% tarmac and the rest gravel/unsurfaced roads/hardpack bridleways.

Obviously I’d want something a lot faster rolling and to keep the miles and wear and tear off the mtb, so looking at cheap gravel bikes, I’d want hydraulic brakes though – mainly because upgrading from cable brakes on a £500 bike doesn’t make sense for the coupe of hundred quid it would cost.

So, spec me a cheap gravel/adv bike with hydro brakes and ideally nice wide bars please! The cheaper the better! :)

https://www.merlincycles.com/merlin-roc-disc-105-road-bike-2018-114799.html

https://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/CBPXFMAPEX1/planet-x-full-monty-sram-apex-1-hydraulic-disc-gravel-bike

trek checkpoint al4, tiagra hydraulics £1200

Any of the vitus gravel bikes on CRC. Only one has hyd brakes and it bumps the price up considerably. Why do you think they are a must?

My Arkose 2 is 1X9 and has hydraulic discs on. Was about £650 new. And i love it!

Decathlon Triban RC520, £730. Has TRP HyRd semi hydraulic brakes.

Any of the vitus gravel bikes on CRC. Only one has hyd brakes and it bumps the price up considerably. Why do you think they are a must?

Cable discs have probably moved on a bit since I last used them, and I see there’s dual piston ones now, but I’d be doing a fair mileage through busy town traffic with cars/pedestrians etc and I’d just prefer the reliability and power that hyd brakes give. I was sort of hoping there’d be a few bikes out there well under £1000 with hyd brakes too, if I got a cable braked bike I’d probably end up upgrading them sooner rather than later.

My TRP Spyres are OK but I’d prefer hydros, you can feels the cable stretch / brake wear etc. I’ve looked into it and the very best new deals are around £350 for new shifters and calipers. In hindsight a new bike with Hydros would be a better buy, those TRP HyRd look awful !

My TRP Spyres are OK but I’d prefer hydros, you can feels the cable stretch / brake wear etc. I’ve looked into it and the very best new deals are around £350 for new shifters and calipers. In hindsight a new bike with Hydros would be a better buy, those TRP HyRd look awful !

Jeez, are they that much?! Yeah, hydros for me, looks like there a few bikes around under £1k which makes it decent value. Just above £1k brings a few more options but I’d prefer not to stray into 4 figures if possible.

I’m now about 400 miles into commuting on a Triban RC520 and its been OK so far. At the tail end of last year I was using it on some bridleways but TBH that’s got too muddy now (for any bike) so I’m sticking to roads.

Early on I swapped the stock 28mm tyres for 38mm. These are the largest it’ll take, and there’s not a lot of clearance. I couple of times I’ve got a leaf caught and been convinced (by the noise) that I’d got a massive puncture!

One thing I have noticed is that changing tyres/tubes has just about killed the speed. Now that I’m staying on road for the next month or so I’m tempted to swap back to the originals.

I’ve had some teething problems, but to their credit, Decathlon have sorted everything free with no quibbles.

HTH

Rob

Have a look at the pinnacle arkose range.

You’re right to want hydraulic brakes. I had mechanical on my Boardman and they’re rubbish compared to my arkose.

What’s your budget?

That PX Full Monty is probably your best bet. Check whether there is a PX London Road in HRD for similar as that is another option. PX were also doing their XLA cheap (Apex HYD for £799) which is more of a CX bike, and I don’t know if it has guards or rack mounts.

Sonder (Alpkit) Camino AL is £1049 in Apex HRD.

I’m not going to argue that good mechanical disks are as good as full hydro, but for commuting and what you describe a set of trp spyres would be more than adequate.

If you get hung up on hydros you’ll end up making compromises elsewhere on the spec.

Note however there is a big difference between the spires and a couple of other cable disk brakess I’ve tried..promax and bb5s were downright dangerous.

Yeah – I’m pretty happy with BB7s. Once set up, and using compressionless outers, they are really good. The main issue I have with them is when swapping wheels as they take a lot more adjusting than hydros do (mainly due to how close the pads are to the rotors).

My 2p

I hated BB7’s, underpowered and a faff to adjust them as pads wore out,although at least the lack of power meant the pads lasted longer than those in hydraulic brakes!

Spyre’s on the other hand aren’t shit. They’re not great, but they’re not so bad that I’d rip them off and bin them. They’re probably as good as hydraulic brakes were a few years ago pre shimano servo-weave.

I ride my vagabond off road on moderately steep trails and intend to commute on it (25 miles each way, mix of gravel, main roads and town riding). You can “feel the cable stretch” but it’s not a dissimilar amount to the level of give in a hydraulic system, might even be a bit less. The disadvantage isn’t the power, it’s the changeing of the cables to keep things running slick (but then they don’t need bleeding so 6:1/2doz)

ideally nice wide bars please!

Horses for courses, I had my reservations about wide flared bars for gravel bikes, but everyone and their dog was going wider and wider so I bought a pair. And hate them. The flare is nice but something narrower like the original On-One midge bars is on my upgrade list as trying to ride on the hoods with hands wider than shoulders with a reach longer than a road bike just feels wrong. It’s like someone took a perfectly fitting road bike and hit enlarge 10%, great for stability off road, but ruins the ergonomics.

If anyone wants a set of selcof serrato’s as swap for something narrower but still flared, drop me message (they’re easured 440m on the tops, which means the hoods and drops are wider still)

BB7’s, but now £500

https://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/EBPXFMA1/planet-x-full-monty-apex-1-bike

Hi,

Used quite a few cable operated disc stoppers on drop bar bikes.

I thought BB7s would be the pinnacle but since I changed pads into Swiss Stop and rotors in center line on TRP Spyres (paired with SRAM Force brifters) I changed my mind.

Sure thing they won’t be as good as hydraulics, but they are more than adequate.

Wide bars wise it is all to personal preferences. Since I tried Midge back in the day I’m going wider and wider every season or two.

Currently on 500mm Funn G-Wide. You might laugh but can’t ride narrow, non-flared bar anymore.

They feel so awkward and out of control… But as mentioned, all to personal preferences.

Cheers!
I.

A friend of mine is selling a 2016 Specialized Diverge Comp Carbon 54cm if that would be of any interest?
Hes hardly used it, I think hes after about a grand for it.

Cable discs have been ok. I’ve had BB5s, Promax (both a bit sh*t), Shimano CX (pretty good) TRP Spyre (better, but sensitive to set-up) and BB7 (genuinely very good).

On my better (gravel) bike I have SRAM Rival HRD, and the difference is significant (apart from eating pads in wet & muddy conditions … but that is more about pad compound/type).

I’d consider cable brakes on a budget bike, so the Full Monty with BB7s would be an excellent choice at £500. But if I could afford to pay the extra for Hydraulic brakes, I would.

Yeah, no – hydraulic brakes for me, on different commutes there’s hills where I’d hit 25-30mph on my mtb so probably 35mph+ on a gravel bike. Plus the traffic and pedestrians jumping out randomly I just want the comfort of knowing I’ve got decent stopping power when I need it!

I have TRP spyres on my Arkose. Hydro brakes combined with a bar end shifter, I got used to it very quickly and get on with it just fine

I had some cable Spyres which were rubbish, very wooden and not very powerful. Just got some fairly basic Shimano cable discs and they are very good, plenty of power and feel.

The hydraulic 105 I’ve had for a while are powerful but I wouldn’t say they have masses more feel/modulation than the Shimano cable discs. The hydraulics probably need some new pads and the bulbous hoods probably don’t help.

Ribble Endurance got a decent writeup in Cycling mag this month (or last, can’t remember…)

https://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/ribble-endurance-al-disc/

Looks like around £900-£1100 is the mark for a gravel/adv bike with hydros then, the Canyon Grail is £1099, the Sonder Camino AL is £1200, there’s a few others in that range. The Planet X does look very good value too.

There’s also the fact of not wanting to keep (if I upgrade my Vitus, which with a new job I would be doing!) nearly £5k’s worth of YT Jeffsy or £2-3k’s worth of titanium hardtail in the works bike rack most days…

Might have to see if there’s any demo events going on to try the £600-700 gravel bikes out against something nearly twice the price :)

That Ribble endurance only has room for 30c tyres, a bit skinny. However, you can spec their CGR AL with the SRAM Apex 1x HRD groupset for… £1099. Yet another at almost exactly the same price :p Both through axles front and rear on the Ribble, that’s not something on most of the bikes at that price.

I’m also looking for a gravel bike with hydraulics and it would appear the Boardman ADV8.9 and Checkpoint AL4 are about the cheapest at 1000/1050 quid respectively, other than the Planet-X stuff. The Sonder Camino AL is no longer cheap, the Apex model is now 1200 and the Rival model is 1400 and those are the “sale” prices, the RRPs are even higher, which I didn’t think was allowed. I thought you could only state sale prices if it’s been sold at RRP for some time but that might be an old rule that doesn’t apply here. I don’t know if it’s Brexit but I’ve scored Sonder off my list at those prices, a 300 quid increase is ridiculous.

Worth noting that the tektro oem pads are woefull. Which possibly explains why spyres are a bit marmite. Stick some decent pads in them and there’s a huge improvement.

Not a ‘classic’ gravel bike but if you want cheap and hydros. and don’t mind a flat bar I’d have thought that this would do the job – https://www.evanscycles.com/pinnacle-lithium-4-2019-hybrid-bike-EV339939

There are some higher spec. options too.

My Saracen Hack is in the classifieds with HyRd semi hydraulics, they’re great and it’s a great commuter. I’ve just reduced it to £400 too.

It’s a 56cm frame, pm me if you’re interested.

So I’ve been offered the job so it looks like the new commute will be happening in the next 4-8 weeks – I’ll be driving some of the time due to shifts, but will be aiming to cycle at least 30-50% of the time too.

13 miles, 540ft of climbing so should be doable easily within an hour on a fastish rolling bike.

I believe it’ll be outside bike racks so obviously don’t want anything super expensive, I’m leaning towards a 1x system too because, well, front mech.

I’m liking the look of the Ribble CGR AL with the SRAM Apex 1 and Mavic Allroad wheels, which comes out at £1150.

My hack is still for sale. £400 with semi hyrdo brakes, but it’s not 1x.

I was riding @ 40 mile round trip on it, I think it would be perfect for 13 miles.

I picked up one of these for commuting yesterday.. https://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/kona-rove-al-bike-road-bike-p399869

Seems a good price when the current model is £700 and similar spec and in my opinion not as good looking. I will try it for a while and upgrade the brakes if i feel they need it.

I’ve got a Boardman ADV 9.0, fantastic bike and can swap up to 700. Just put some tubeless Gravel Kings and it flies.

It’ll be a few weeks before I buy anything just yet, going to do a test run on my mtb tomorrow to see how slow it is. I’ll need to see what the bike facilities are like too, I know they have showers but not sure about anything else.

https://www.paulscycles.co.uk/m7b0s197p9328/CUBE-NUROAD-PRO-2018 if you will fit a Cube 56cm frame…

https://www.cube.eu/cz/2018/bikes/road/road-cyclocross/nuroad/cube-nuroad-pro-blackngrey-2018/ for geo

You really can’t get any better value than the Arkose range. I’ve got last years 2, which is currently on clearance for £800, but they only have mediums left.

https://www.evanscycles.com/pinnacle-arkose-2-2018-adventure-road-bike-EV306245?xid=176013&awc=1302_1550326898_c7107fc9a02fcc714ed186fd35c35116&utm_source=awin&utm_campaign=176013&utm_medium=Affiliate

https://www.evanscycles.com/pinnacle-arkose-2-2018-adventure-road-bike-EV306245?xid=176013&awc=1302_1550326898_c7107fc9a02fcc714ed186fd35c35116&utm_source=awin&utm_campaign=176013&utm_medium=Affiliate

Cheers – I’m 6ft 3in so would need an XL in pretty much everything.

Picked up a pinnacle arkose 4 (sram hydros) just before New Year. 600km of supercommuting and winter road rides since and i love it. Currently setup with guards and 28mm gp 4 seasons, will change back for a planned adventure day into the Brecons next month. So far very much so good and the brakes are the business.

Just done a test of the commute, 55 minutes at 13.9mph average, on a 14kg 140/150mm FS bike with 2.4/2.5 minions at 45-50psi.

A good chunk (70-80%) is tarmac but I’ll want to be using it more than just the commute, I think I’m settled on one of these combinations:

Ribble CGR in either Ali or Steel
650b with WTB horizon 47c or 700c with WTB nano 40c

I’d need to average 17mph to get the commute down to 45 minutes which I don’t think will be that hard on either of those set ups.