Dafuq?

It’s a skinny 29er HT with drops.

Has that thing got a dropper on it?

Yes, yes it has 😉

I think I’d love that bike (with some chicken levers added) FWIW…

Pretty sure I’d seen something like that a few years ago

Looks fugly. Really fugly.

Somewhere like ashton court, that thing would be a hoot I reckon.

Exactly my thoughts wrecker. Or the Mendips. Or a lot of trails that people actually ride mtbs on.

Marketing men and their niches eh ?

I do like that Pivot. It would make a lot of sense on many of the trails near me, though I’m finding rigid forks and Nano 40Cs to be fab at the moment.

DR, I remember seeing/posting that one a while ago, during the Taipei show. Madness.

Sweet Jesus – that Niner is an abomination. 😯

I like that, looks like it’d be prefect for tearing up the Ridgeway

What are those forks?

Edit – it wasn’t a Niner I’d posted before. Looked similar, IIRC.

The forks are the new Fox CX forks

RockShox Roubaixs were a little ahead of their time it turns out!

Just buy an old school cross bike ,they have worked on the 3 peaks for over 50 years !

All the wrongs. (Bar fat and leccy)

You are Stevie Wonder and I claim my white stick.

Gravel is going soft 🙁

Sure I saw a full-suspension “gravel bike” in amongst Taipei photos?

Sure I saw a full-suspension “gravel bike” in amongst Taipei photos?

Pretty sure I posted it somewhere! Looked like the Niner. Fugly.

Adding all the MTB toys like Droppers and suspension forks is sort of missing the point (IMO).

A “Gravel” bike should be a simpler machine… Otherwise:

It’s a skinny 29er HT with drops.

Full circle you say?

The whole point of “gravel bikes” is riding regular trails on a cx bike faster than over biked IT managers on £5k sussers. I guess they need something new to spend their money on.

Full circle indeed – anyone ever ride a Rockshox Roubaix?

heres the one from Taipei

New for 2019.

Note the integrated hydration resource centre.
Making your bike power you.

That grundig shot is epic!

Wonder how much that top bike is and how a head to head would be against an XC 29er… if only there was a magazine to cover such a test. Also wonder if BC will allow drop bars in XC races again (assuming they’re not allowed) or suspension in CX races.

Drop bars and suss fork are so 2008 dahhling. 😉

[url=https://flic.kr/p/5c4CJy]2008_0810fodniche0056[/url] by multispeedstu, on Flickr

Plots are being lost or marketing exposure is being achieved, unsure which.

how a head to head would be against an XC 29er… if only there was a magazine to cover such a test

I love CX / all-road bikes but on even basic Chiltern singletrack a light rigid 29er with MTB bars will leave a CXer (sus forks or not) behind on all but the open flat hardpack bits. 40mm forks don’t make up for the bars / position and 35-40mm 700C tyres, and a dropper on a bike with drop bars seems daft to me, your handling ability with drops is so compromised in the first place (Tomac and a few other highly skilled riders excepted).
I did like the Slate that I rode for an afternoon though. That was fun. Sus added something but wasn’t convinced it was enough to justify the fork cost, faff etc.

I’ve been rocking a dropper in my Genesis Vagabond on some rides. Works very well 🙂

Wonder how much that top bike is and how a head to head would be against an XC 29er…

Poorly as jameso says. Unless it’s hardback or smooth and not too twisty singletrack there’s no comparison. There’s a strava segment near here that’s nicely graded trail or tarmac for the first mile and half and then singletrack for the last half mile and the strava compare things shows I can be about the same time on the cross bike going in to the singletrack and 40 seconds behind at the end. Plus you just get more tired trying to go fast which I think is as much about the position as the smaller tyres etc.

And yes anecdata etc but through most singletrack I’m quicker on 26″ hardtail let alone a 29er.

More to the point, it just looks wrong.

That APRO from Taipei does look just the thing for some of my local roads though.

You’re still thinking digitally – attempting to compartmentalise stuff.

Think of the bike spectrum as a long squiggly line with a few loops, diversions and dead ends along the way. Draw another line if you want.

You can have pretty much anything you fancy.
Great isn’t it?

Stop worrying about it.
Think analogue.
It’s better for your head.

What Rusty said. Absolutely.

You can have pretty much anything you fancy.
Great isn’t it?

It is, agreed. I see some of these bikes as great things for very few people but that’s no reason not to make them, if a brand can justify it or just wants to do it then all good. Sometimes they work way better than you could predict.
Nothing will convince me that drops are good for off-road handling though .. he says, on the way out the door to ride a drop bar bike off-road again : )

I loikes

Excellent news James.
🙂

In that case, can I have a hub gear specific Arkose with huge tyre clearance, post mount, 90/135, 653 tubing, 50cm, in purple?

And a Ramin, same spec but in Easton Ultralight?
I’m thinking a nice pale yellow possibly a pink?

Thanks.

I think, as others have said, the range of bikes out there now means that you are bound to find something that suits you. And I would also suggest that bikes like these give people the freedom to be crap.

fourbanger – Member
The whole point of “gravel bikes” is riding regular trails on a cx bike faster than over biked IT managers on £5k sussers.

I could be mistaken, but I’m not sure that that is the point and don’t discount the possibility that the over biked rider of the £5k susser is actually the husband of the IT manager. It happens.