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All the targeted YouTube spots for the Ribble CGR have started to sway me towards the idea of a single disc braked, 1×11, drop-barred bike which I can have 2 wheelsets for, one pair with 25mm slicks for swift(ish) road riding and one with 35-42mm treaded tyres of some sort for er… Gravel-ing?

And I was very taken with the idea of a CGR AL (and briefly the 725 steel version) with Rival 1, Until I spotted the PX London Road SL with Force 1 for just £1k (£500 less)…

Now I’m pretty sure I’d get on with a new London road, I’ve got one of the shonky seat tube specials that is still probably my favourite bike to just get out and ride after 3 years of robust use.

And I can see a 1x type bike with a couple of wheelsets actually working as a road bike as well as a gravel/CX bike… Or am I just a complete sucker for the marketing?

Please talk me down, I don’t really have a spare grand at the moment (we’ve just moved) but I’m on the verge of making a “business case” to the management…

New 2019 Arkrose looking an option, in stock March.

Canyon grail carbon, my do it all bike, one wheelset 2x (not the swiftest of read riders but the engine not the bike is the problem)

single disc braked, 1×11, drop-barred bike which I can have 2 wheelsets for, one pair with 25mm slicks for swift(ish) road riding and one with 35-42mm treaded tyres of some sort for er… Gravel-ing?

You have described my Tripster.. (apart from the swift bit, but thats not the bike’s fault.)

I once tried running a mountain bike with two sets of wheels. Turned out to be more trouble than it was worth and I vowed never to do it again. Spare wheel for the turbo trainer, but that’s as far as I go now.

am I just a complete sucker for the marketing?

Yes. Undoubtably. But don’t let that stop you.

I have an Arkose 4 (105) with 28c tyres and mudguards for audaxing (have done London-Edinburgh-London on it) and another set of wheels with 40c nanos on for gravel use. It’d be nice to have separate bikes but it works!

I run my Salsa Vaya like this

1. Hope pro 4 on Wtb Sti25 650b with Soma Cazadero tyres for gravel/off road and tarmac in between.

2. Hope pro 4 on WTB Sti25 700c with Paris Roubaix 32 tyres for the roads

Had toyed with selling the 650b wheels but going to run two sets. With having the same hubs it’s an easy change over.

I have an Arkose with 38mm Slicks

So I just change pressure for on and off road.

It has its limitations and i keep thinking about tyres with some tread….

The CGR is a good bike. I have one. Not a 1×11 but a 2×11. Good value for money but the Alu version is very rigid. Wish I’d got the steel version, but don’t think they did one when I bought mine. But then I have an iffy back. Happy to sell you the bike minus wheels!!!

2 sets of wheels works perfectly on my Tripster: Mavic Ksyrium Pros and Ksyrium Allroads. I could imagine different hubs might makes the brake config awkward, but I can swap over without issue.

I use a Spesh Diverge as pretty much a do it all road/gravel/cross/credit card touring/bikepacking bike with just a change of tyres, I have avoided tubless due to the phaff and regular tyre changes, although I do now have spare wheels.
Its 2x though, works well until Spesh recall it and I have to dig out my creaky old roadbike!!

I run my caad x with 2 sets of wheels. It’s a bit heavier than my other road bikes but if you aren’t trying to smash strava pbs it’s perfectly functional as an all rounder. I suspect the same could be said of any gravel/cx bike. I don’t notice any real difference in geometry tbh.

My gravel bike has 43mm GravelKing SKs (and a Rival 1 drivetrain) and i’ll happily go on a 4 hour pavement ride if i’m in the mood.
Unless you’re the race-y Strava KOM type i’d say a gravel bike would be perfectly fine with one wheelset.

I ride for fun, i’m not racing anybody, and personally I don’t feel like my 43mm tires are holding me back on pavement that much. It’s still perfectly enjoyable and doesn’t feel like I shot myself in the leg. I’ll happily trade in the added comfort for a bit of lost speed. Now after owning a gravel bike i’m pretty sure i’ll never have a bike with smaller than 35mm tyres again, even if my plan was to only ride pavement. Now when I try a road bike with 25-28mm tyres I just don’t understand why did I even bother torturing myself in the past on those things.
All IMO.

Running a DeAnima custom steel gravel bike. Short stays but can take 650b 2.1 inch tyres with ease. Running XT tubeless wheels with Racing Ralph’s and Pacenti Forza 700c wheels with Schwalbe G Ones. Bloody brilliant frankly. Ultegra 34 46 up front and 11 42 out back. One by on a gravel bike would just piss me off as I use it for pretty much everything from backpacking to road riding to scooting around on mountain bike trails and everything in between. I may have mellowed a little to 1x on an mtb but for the road, it is a definite no for me.

But I digress. Gravel bikes are great. They are everything I wanted my cross bike to be but better. 😄

Defo can be done to your satisfaction but 1×11 on road would be a sticking point for me – I don’t really like it and think I’d prefer 2x for both if I was running just the one bike (I’m happy riding my cross bike on road but I fit a double crankset once the cross season is over).

Well probably the 2 most varied rides for me on the gravel bike
This one, chain gang trying to make the finish of the Tour of Britain stage, plenty of turns out front
https://www.strava.com/activities/1821115597
Hope Pre Peak on a wet and crappy day!!
https://www.strava.com/activities/1782541029
Tour of the Borders, long hard day out there, average roads
https://www.strava.com/activities/1813828388

Only variation on the 3 rides were tyre pressure

Whyte Friston owner for 1 year here. Probably my favourite ever bike. I’ve eulogised over it many times on here, so feel free to check out my gravel-oriented posts for more info. Road it a lot last year. Everywhere. In all conditions. And absolutely loved it. Sooooo much fun. Also rode my 901 a fair bit on the trails. Only rode my Cannondale road bike once. Which probably says it all.

TBF, I plan to ride the Cannondale more this year. It’s quicker, yes. But’s that probably the only advantage. The Friston is like a dog that hasn’t been out for days – it wants to pull in every direction and explore. Perfectly at home on the road – plenty of grip/traction and the handling is insanely well balanced. Off-road it’s like a riding a wild boar. Get one. Ride it. Everywhere.

I have three sets of wheels for my Amazon. It takes a maximum of five minutes to swap them over. I reckon it would be a lot less if I had hydro disks rather than BB7s.

But 1x? Nah.

2x here also on my Vaya , just more versatile

2x would be better on and off road

Hmmm, Nobody’s really managing (or trying) to dissuade me are they.

My justification (in my head at least) is that it would be a rationalisation of my two most frequently used bikes, my aging rim braked, 130mm spaced, 2×10, carbon road bike and my bargain bin build 1×9, cable disc braked, 135mm spaced aluminium “Gravel bike”, both are great but both have compromises I’d like to address.

Part of the idea of this consolidation comes from the disc braked synapse I rode on holiday last year, it was a very capable road bike, but it clearly had the capacity for bigger tyres and more off-road… And then 1x just sort of makes sense (for me), I just don’t need a 50t chainring and it doesn’t take very complex maths to work out you can still have usable climbing gears with a big cassette and a 42/44t ring, I think I could put up with the larger steps on the road, and generally it just seems to make life simpler…

The only sticking point is even with chopping both bikes in I doubt I’ll be able to swing a carbon bike and a decent group/brakes so I’m drawn more towards an Al frame with a carbon post and slightly wider tyres to soften the ride.

That LR-SL with force 1 seems a bit too much of a bargain up against the CGR AL…

I’m working towards a similar setup, self built on a ridiculously cheap shark CX frame/fork/wheel deal which I think you can still get… Currently have 40×11-36 on it, planning on swapping to 34-50 up front when I get round to selling the fancy road bike. Probably going to get a set of £100 tubeless wheels from superstar as the spare set, although I pretty much always ride with a slick at the rear and gravel tyre on the front.

My Boardman ADV 9.0 is rapidly becoming my favourite bike ever. So good I wondering why I need my road and MTB.

Just get the tyre compromise right and you don’t even need 2 sets of wheels. A 32 would be fast on road and still fine on gravel (dependent on what sort of gravel you ride on).

Unless you are talking about extremes and riding 200k on the road one day and then 50k on single track off road another day.

Just get the tyre compromise right and you don’t even need 2 sets of wheels. A 32 would be fast on road and still fine on gravel (dependent on what sort of gravel you ride on).

This is true for me, 32mm slicks are fine on road and work ok off it as long as mud isnt an issue. I have found though I dont venture offroad on the gravel bike much in winter. I dont really trust the mudguards. I use 38mm G-One Allrounds for more offroady than mixed rides. If I kept the G-Ones on I wouldnt keep up on the road group rides I do.

I run two sets on my Arkose (it’s an old one so not massive tyre clearance).

I swapped it over to road wheels yesterday – Mavic Aksiums with gp 4 seasons (anybody know where I can get 32s for less than the price of a new house?)

I have been commuting on my sturdier wheels (hydra rims on dt 240s) with a mixed mode tyre (vittoria randonneur trail) but they just don’t fit under the mudguards and it’s a bit too wet to commute without them.

The skinny tyres certainly make the occasional gravel cut through interesting (i.e. sketchy AF)

I do take my current gravel bike offroad quite a bit through winter, it does get quite muddy.

Thinking about it the switch over from gravel to road trim might involve more than just a simple wheel swap…

^ depends what you mean by gravel. I have one bike that does hilly 200km+ rides on generally poorly surfaced roads and more open mixed byways and lanes rides, ie Ridgeway in summer etc. 650B x 47-50 does all that well. Makes a great bikepacker/tourer also.

CBA swapping wheels. I want to make the rides up as I go, not decide when I’m in the garage. If I want a fast road bike on 25s I’ll get the road bike out, accept the sketchiness on local road surfaces and won’t have the needs for guards etc. Rarely do road-only rides where actual speed is vital either and for the same effort over a 4hr+ ride the 650B bike isn’t much (at all?) slower. It just isn’t as snappy-feeling on shorter sprinty rides.

No chance I’ll be fitting 1x to the all-road bike though.

I started out with this ‘one bike to rule them all’ thing. I also had two wheel sets (identical hubs, discs and cassette types, so had no problems switching)…but, as usual, a spare wheelset morphed into another bike.

I now have a 2*11 Tripster ATR for general touring and road duties, and a 1*11 (XTR/R685/XX1) Litespeed T5G for mucking about on.

I can still swap wheels between the bikes, but it’s a pain and would only do that if a mechanical reason prevented me using the bike for its inteded purpose.

EDIT – I also have a Niner RLT which is really a big tyre commuter, but which I’ve also done 110-130mile sportifs on.

I have conti crossspeed 35s on my Croix de Fer and use them on all surfaces. Not sluggish on road and great on fire tracks and easy singletrack.

My justification (in my head at least) is that it would be a rationalisation of my two most frequently used bikes, my aging rim braked, 130mm spaced, 2×10, carbon road bike and my bargain bin build 1×9, cable disc braked, 135mm spaced aluminium “Gravel bike”, both are great but both have compromises I’d like to address.

Well that’s almost exactly what I did. My ageing Defy now sits as a wheel off turbo only machine, and I moved to a 2 x 10 Bergamont Gravel bike. Forget the two sets of wheels unless you want a fast bike for the Summer, I have G Ones but those or Gravelkings will do. Mine sits ready for 1-4 hours of anything, from a 4 hour endurance ride to one hour lunchtime to/from the canal side Cafe without changing anything its very refreshing. The bigger tyres are a little more comfortable too.

Just don’t let anyone convince you its “just as fast”. They are not – they are heavier and the tyres have greater resistance which isn’t to say you can’t keep up on a club ride it’ll just be a little more effort than a dedicated aero road bike with 25mm tyres. Not necessarily a bad thing.

For me over the winter period and in general having one bike as a ready to go bike is excellent. Summer speed thrills in a pace line is a lot more fun on a dedicated properly setup road bike IMO but that could just be that I like my light aeronroad bike a lot.

This bike brought back memories of what was considered suitable for gravel 60 years ago.

Behold! Granpa’s one bike for road and gravel. 🙂

Nice steel 531 frame, reinforced front fork.

And he would have revelled in the choice of ratios a 4 speed hub gave him while riding the same stuff as we do.

If you took that frame and put 650b wheels in it, you’d probably be able to fit up to 45mm tyres so it might work even now if you were happy with rim brakes.

If you’re on a budget, it may be worth finding one of those and setting it up to suit with modern running gear.

Just don’t let anyone convince you its “just as fast”. They are not – they are heavier and the tyres have greater resistance which isn’t to say you can’t keep up on a club ride it’ll just be a little more effort than a dedicated aero road bike with 25mm tyres. Not necessarily a bad thing.

See that’s the point I thought might be a bit more prevalent when I started the thread. And back up the page when I said I like both bikes but just want to address their respective shortcomings. It occurred to me, why not simply do that?

I’ve obviously got the space for multiple bikes, and both currently get used as intended. Maybe I should stop trying to balance lots of competing needs/compromises in one bike and accept that the two bikes work as is. I could just spend a bit of time and money sorting out drivetrain, braking and wheels on either one and probably end up happier, without spending as much on a whole new bike…

It sounds just like what I do. With my Whyte t130 ha ha. Road, gravel, trails and bpw, same bike.

You can easily do everything with 1 bike, but it will have good days and bad days depending on what you’re doing?
For me, it I go out and average 22km/h on road, does it matter, nah, not really. It’s all being outside and enjoying

Personally, i dont think you are wrong.

The reasoning for me is that i do a fair few short recovery rides before work. I have a park and a nature reserve and the London tow path network near to me, all of which have “gravel” pathways which I wouldn’t take road tyres on. So, i was swapping the Defy rear wheel on / off the turbo for long rides, and a bought a SSCX for the rest. I was swapping lights across the two bikes constantly.

Yes i could stay on the road but one direction is commuter traffic the other a 12% 1.5km climb – not as useful as riding on empty pathways for recovery at 5am.

Now the Bergamont stands ready for any kind of ride at whatever time or surface and actually its cushioning more “robust” build, paint and disks has proved a mental reduction in stress levels. I have no prep for short or long rides, but still have the good bike staying in good condition for glorious summer rides.

Bargaintastic…

https://www.rutlandcycling.com/bikes/road-bikes/bergamont-2018-grandurance-expert-carbon-all-road-bike-black_383006?currency=GBP&gclid=CjwKCAiA1ZDiBRAXEiwAIWyNC8nNOECaM3djk2ofToe_eWWCpP5PvD1Hyu2UiVlf-u0WujlYtOimthoCGMMQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

CTC or road cc as they insist on calling themselves now have a review here
https://road.cc/content/feature/253291-roadcc-gravel-and-adventure-bike-year-201819

I run two sets of wheels and three sets of tyres on my Fargo 2×10.
I put the Big Apples on last spring and haven’t taken them off yet as the winter has been so dry in Devon.
I have G-One All Round as a winter tyre waiting to go on and MK2 knobblies for if I ever get really off road.

Been there done that ! On one pickenflick set up 1×10 with spare wheels for road use. Felt it cumbersome off road and undergeared/heavy on road 🙁

Proper road bike and mountain bike are more fun 🙂

or buck the trend and fall off the bandwagon..
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bs3LpCZl0Ke/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=yhedx0t0k4x3