……….Diverge.

I would like it to do:

the morning commute and the evening commute which all cover road, canal paths which are mainly paved, bits of farm track and some little bits of Singletrack that aren’t technical at all. Those little runs around the park next to the Velodrome in the Olympic Park at Stratford (the locals will know what I mean) and also sometimes the red route at the mtb track next to the velodrome (this is all part of the commute) and then more roads.

Then generally my riding consists of everything above but in more detail, I’d also like to head out a bit with some friends who are dedicated roadies, when I say dedicated they only ride road and it’s not about racing, just riding.

I should also say at this point I have a brand new Ultegra 6800 disc groupset and a pair of Hope 20Five wheels which I’d like to use on this build.

About me, I love riding and I’m in no particular rush to get anywhere, just looking for the next tea break 🙂

I’ve had a look at so many different builds and bikes my head hurts. The Diverge just seems to cover it all, the Orbea Terra is another possibility but the geometry is more appealing on a diverge.

I’m guessing CFH should be along soon to confirm this will be the correct and best choice I could make!

Budget wise I’m unsure, my current thinking is the Diverge Elite (Alu one @ £1250) and then strip and pop my parts on. I can go higher if needed or frame only.

Reading this back does it sound like I’ve made my mind up? I haven’t, as I said I just can’t see past the Diverge, hmmmmm maybe I’ve blinded by the marketing.

Escapade?

Proper little do it all bike – only issue I’ve had with it recently was that I ripped the mudguard off when i cocked up a 2ft drop (landed it, just clipped the guard)

If my Solace Disc is anything to go by I bet the Scott Addict Gravel frames are good fun

We have some Diverge ESWs at work. They’re lovely. All the customers to like them.

I think the max tyre width is about 35mm on them. Is that enough for you?

You could go ti for a bit more wad…
£1750 (full bike)
http://www.spacycles.co.uk/m1b0s21p3552/SPA-CYCLES-Elan-%28105-triple%29

Can’t talk you out of the Diverge, but just to say that I assume your wheels are not SCS width hubs. If so, I think you’ll need a different rear mech hanger to use them.

IMHO the weakness of the Elite DSW is the brakes, but if you’ve got a set of hydraulics to go on, it would be awesome. (Are the mounts compatible, btw??)

Our ESWs came with the “bent” hanger and use standard hubs.

Do you mean ‘ESW’, or ‘DSW’? (I don’t know what ESW is, if that’s what you meant…)

Have deleted the word ‘width’ in previous post, as SCS is about cassette spacing rather than hub width (sorry) – The cassette sits slightly further inboard on SCS hubs.

My DSW has the ‘bent’ hanger and while a standard disc hub fits, the chain fouls the hanger when it’s on the small sprocket:

SCS hub:

“Normal” hub:

Anyway, no big deal, as straight hangers are (supposedly) available.

Sorry for the diversion 🙂

https://www.alpkit.com/sonder/bikes/sonder-camino-ti-frame-and-fork

Sonder Camino ti frame only for a grand would be my choice if I had wheels and a groupset going spare.

Hi tillydog- your pictures explain scs hubs well – does that mean that you have to use a scs hub on the diverge, are they readily available? If you use a regular hub and hanger is the chain line angled too far out? I like the Diverge and the tarmac disc but that too has the scs system and this looks like a very unique standard

Thanks

… does that mean that you have to use a scs hub on the diverge…

No, there is another derailleur hanger without the offset which allows standard 135mm hubs (see the pictures at the bottom of this pdf ).

I *believe* that this takes the worst case chainline (small-small) outside Shimano’s spec (ref ) I’d be surprised if it caused a problem in real life, but I’m no expert.

It is an odd-ball standard, unique to Specialized, as far as I can tell, but a few people do seem to offer SCS hubs – Hope, for example.

Thanks Tillydog,you have swung me back with the small small comment!

The DSW (smartweld) frame is not/never has been SCS AFAIK, only the carbon frame. Specialized equipped the DSW with a set of SCS wheels though, which is the reason for the offset hanger.
The hanger that the frame needs for regular wheels is the Lucky Callahanger Long.
Having said that, I’m not sure what changes Specialized have made for the current model year (my bike is 2015)-they might have ditched the SCS wheel set on the DSW frame, in which case it would come with the regular hanger.