Gravel Bike

Do Planet X have a shop to visit?

I need a gravel bike, dropped bars, big-ish tyres, hydraulic disks, mounts for guards and rack, double chainset and not more than about £1200 – £1400.

Does such a thing exist with from Plant X or someone else?

You just described most of the mid-market gravel bikes out there!

https://www.merlincycles.com/merlin-malt-g1x-apex-1-gravel-bike-2020-150729.html

showroom
All operations Store, Mail order, Deliveries & Returns operate out of a single location listed below.

Merlin Cycles Ltd
A4 Buckshaw Link
Ordnance Road
Buckshaw Village
Chorley
Lancashire
PR7 7EL

I think Planet X will have plenty to look at for that price range, sure you could arrange something. Failing that there’s loads of folk on here who have them so you can maybe nab a test ride.

p.s. Brant, Brant, Brant

Most (or nearly all) of the ones I’ve seen at around that price seem to only have a 1x drive train. I really need a double on the front.

This looks promising though!

https://www.merlincycles.com/merlin-malt-g1-tiagra-gravel-bike-2020-147541.html

apart from the cable disks.

https://www.evanscycles.com/cannondale-topstone-disc-105-se-2019-cyclocross-bike-EV338216

this is what i’ll be buying if our finance department ever get their shit together and start the GCI scheme.

Not anymore, which is a shame.

>https://cyclingindustry.news/online-specialist-planet-x-closes-its-only-retail-outlet/

The Canondale looks nice! The thing to be careful about with cyclocross bikes is that some of then don’t have mounts for proper mudguards. That one looks like it does though.

There’s a long old thread about these…

https://www.evanscycles.com/pinnacle-arkose-d3-2020-adventure-road-bike-EV339948

I’m sure that PlanetX have been advertising turn up and build your bike offers. So you probably can go there.

I rang up to ask if I could pop in and pick up a frameset but I wasnt able to unfortunately

Thats a shame, I’d really like to get a chance to sit on a bike that I might be spending a good chunk of money on. Same with Merlin, all theirs appear to be built to order according to the web site.

Planet X do offer that build your own bike option but you have to buy it first and they just don’t seem to offer a double chain set version unless you go for the much more expensive bikes.

Decathlon?
£850 for Shimano 105 and carbon fork.

They’ve got LTD version with 650 wheels and 1x SRAM Apex coming out tomorrow for the same price.

LINK

Merlin advertise on their site that they have a shop attatched to the warehouse. Bought a Malt G1-X frameset it’s very good so far.

I’m now looking at Ribble! Are cable disk brakes as bad as I seem to think they are?

Giant Tough Road SLR GX 1?

I find bb7 are spot on, I think cables have a lot of advantages over hydro tbh

When I was looking for gravel, I got in touch with my local Kinesis dealer, they obtained a demo bike from the Kinesis fleet,

I had it for a day to use, liked it and then ordered.

Easy.

Cable discs, no problem. Less to go wrong than with hydraulic. IMO.

Pinnacle Arkrose D3

That is all

Recently replaced my Kaffenback with a FullMonty SL frame in the sale. New wheelset and swapped the parts over in an afternoon.

Have to say it is well, super light. 650b 40 something tyres is where it’s at for pot-holed cyclelanes and kerb hopping. Was wary of a stiff Alu frame but paired with the tyres would not change for anything else now. The TT seems on the shortside or may be the angles, but with some Ritchey Comp Venturemax have never felt so in contol on a drop bar bike before. Tis a joy to ride and PX delivered next day too.

I’d been toying with the idea of a monty but went for a London road in the end. It is very nice 🙂

How are you getting on with the 1x on the road? I can easily spin out my mountain bike which is my concern with getting a gravel bike with the same arrangement.

While I use a big ring on the road bike has not been an issue on the gravel bike. I think it depends where you are riding. I guess there is always the option to buy a bigger ring?