n+1 time… gravel bike itch to be scratched!

Not had a road bike of any shape or form for about 8 or 9 years after I fell out of love with it due to the generally appalling driving standards and not wishing to die on a bike ride. However, I need to get more miles in and have discovered a route to work which is 22 miles or so, 15 of which is along a canal path. If I can get this done once or twice a week I am sure my fitness will improve and I’ll be doing my bit for the world.

TI can commute outside of rush hour so the roads shouldn’t be too busy. The final 7 miles have some decent hills in them so I wouldn’t want to ride an MTB for this but ideally, so a CX/Gravel bike seems to tick the boxes.

Like the look of the GT Grade Carbon Ultegra which seems to be well specced and is 20% off at Evans at present for the 2016 model. Being a Santa Cruz tart, a Stigmata obviously appeals but they’re expensive and don’t have mudguard mounts which puts me off somewhat.

Genesis maybe?

What others should I be looking at up to say £2.5k or so. Not in any rush as quite likely to not use it much over winter anyway, so maybe I should wait to see if there are any January sale bargains?

Meh, get a Zwift subscription

😉

Norco Threshold SL?

Orro Terra Discus – Great Bike, very comfortable, 105 Hydraulic disc brakes, good wheel set although tubeless would be preferable. mounting for proper disc brakes and clearance for 42mm tyres I believe.

I’d buy a cheap one first to see if you use it. I fancied a gravel bike, nearly bought a fancy pants one but then backed off and bought a lower spec in the sale. Never used it bar a ride to the end of the road to set up the speedo. Sold it on and luckily didn’t lose out.

Cannondale Slate?

Mason Bokeh, that’s top of my n+1 wish list. Well, top of the gravel bike list anyway.

Genesis Vagabond – covers road/gravel/trails 😉
I’ve been happy using it for bridleways & local gravelly/green lane trails, and with a set of road wheels I’ve done a couple of 60+ mile road rides.

I’ve got a Grade alloy, although its upgraded quite a bit from standard spec. Mines more of a road bike now but the standard build managed a ride from London to Hinkley all on canal paths so it’ll do it.

Some considerations – if you’re commuting you’ll need to carry stuff to and from the office. I get my work shirts and trousers cleaned near work but I still seem to end up taking quite a bit of ‘stuff’. I now use a carradice roll flap thing on the back but I wouldn’t want to use it off road as I’m not entirely confident in the attachment to the frame. Similar with panniers, just depends how rough the canal path is. So you may or may not need rack mounts.

The carbon grade is apparently a bit of a bastard for fitting mudguards. I’ve not had the problem on the alloy one, but theres a thread on here about it.

There’s the Jamis Renegade Elite which gets rave reviews
Genesis Datum is pretty pimp and bang on 2.5k
Cannondale Synapse comes in around the 2.5k mark for the Ultegra one
Kenesis GF or Tripster
Or go full pimp and look at the New mason 650b job

Best thing to do is test ride, obvs! I like quite a head down, roadie position and struggle to get the grade low enough at the front – I now run a -17 degree stem. However if you don’t ride much road then a more upright position might feel more comfortable.

Stif have the Niner RLT 9 on sale ATM. Love mine (alu version).

I have a carbon gt grade, and it’s a nice enough bike, pretty neutral handing so quite versatile. I’ve not got round to looking for full guards for it yet, just used an ass saver. But I have a caad10 rival disc bike with guards and 28mm tires, which is my winter trainer. In truth, and this is probably me not embracing ‘gravel’ riding or not really knowing what it is, there is nothing I use the grade for that I couldn’t do on my caad10. I have a cx bike for racing and more off road duties, so the grade really just has become a n+1 road bike. I’ve used it for some multi day tour type rides, back roads and some dirt track stuff here and in Norway. But I used to do this on the caad10, and will now it’s wetter. Equally as a road racer, I’m probably more comfy on the caad10. Since the wet/ dark months have started the grade is just gathering dust. It’s not the bikes fault, I either need to work out what gravel riding is or move it on. I’ve scratch the itch the op has, but realised it’s not offering me personally that much.

You could have a Shand Stoater for that money.

Tredz seem to have the 2016 Grade 105 Carbon at £1,500. My neighbour recently got one of the alloy 105 models for £750, which may be a good place to start.

OP: How much “road” riding will you be doing? With needs including a lot of towpath miles, I’d be considering something with 35c tyres and be concerned less with weight than comfort.

I had a Cotic Escapade for 2 years: running a mix of 29er wheels, 105, BB7 brakes and full-length mudguards. It was great for commuting, touring and ok for road rides (including the odd sportive).

I swapped it for a more road-focused Kinesis 4S Disc, which is a good 25% lighter and accelerates like a rocket in comparison. It’s great on tarmac and for dry commuting. However, I also transferred the Escapade’s parts to a flat-bar Surly Ogre – as I still needed something for wet commuting and general all-purpose duties.

I got laughed at for my Marin Four Corners Elite, but when it was 1200 in the sale, plus the VAT back when I exported it out of the country with me, it became even better value.

Only put 150km on it so far, but I’m not feeling as if I’ve had the shit kicked out of me like I did on my CX bike.

That’s a pretty serious budget for a gravel bike. You can pick up pretty good ones for around a grand

I’d probably go for a Shand or an Open UP with that budget

Any other requirements apart from mudguards?
Rack mounts?
Tyre clearance?
Gearing?

Stoater would be/is top of my list at that budget. Lovely looking bike, great guys to talk to about them. But I’m a sucker for a proper looking steel bike.

Yeah a shand stoater
Mine

I contemplate selling on and off but this was a top end build and I’d probably lose a fortune

Don’t forget to grow a beard to go with the bike.

Open Up is £2200 for the frame and forks isn’t it. Still lovely though, even more so with the WTB horizons fitted.

Focus Paralane?

Or a Canyon

Or ‘Dale as mentioned

There are some nice Focus builds available – either the Mares CX or the newer Paralane.

I use my Mares with two sets of wheels – one with slick Road tyres, one with WTB Nano tyres. It handles both disciplines really well.
Plenty of clearance for tyres/mud, thru-axles front and rear, and available at sensible prices. Decent after sales too, should you need it.

Any excuse

Great input chaps! It will need mudguards but unlikely to need a pannier or gears for big hills.

What’s the key difference between frame materials? Weight and comfort?

I have a Genesis Datum 10.

It is a lovely bike, seems very fast compared to my commencal meta.

I wish it had rack mounts for an adventure bike, but it has mudguards as it is my commuter bike, gets used every day to cycle about 20 miles, can’t fault it.

I have never had a road bike before as I never understood why anyone would want to suck on diesel fumes.

In budget, double butted titanium. I run 42c Soma Cazadero tyres with mudguards on mine.

Nipped to the Evans near my office at lunchtime and had a nosey. They had a nice Norco Search in the sale – carbon with 105 and hydraulic disks for £1500. Seemed like good value at 30% off. He reckoned the Search would be better suited to my road/canal commute rides than the Threshold which is more of a CX race bike.

The Shand looks like a nice bike but I am unsure if the extra weight of steel would outweigh the extra comfort? Is there an element of just being ‘different’ with a steel frame?

The weight of steel is more of an issue if you are a skinny racing snake.

Otherwise its a lurve thing. Have a Soul, got a steel road bike on order, and lusting for a Stoater. Had a good nosey round the Cycle Show a couple of months back and nothing in carbon, or even titanium, really got me wanting to buy one.

Ended up having to decide whether to get the Condor road bike or the Stoater. Ordered the Condor, so PLEASE STOP POSTING YOUR STOATER/STOOSHIE PICTURES 👿

This, so this, if there was more money available:

That Donhou is lovely, but even with my best man-maths hat on I can’t justify £4k for a commuter bike (coming from someone with more Enve bits on my Santa Cruz than I care to think about!).

What are people’s view’s in Ribble bikes? I can get a CR3 CX Carbion with full Integra groupset and mavic wheels for £1600 leaving room for a Di2 upgrade maybe?

http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/ribble-cr3-cx/build/

How tall are you?

Selling my Whyte Saxon Cross Team at the moment, 2016 bike with full SRAM Force hydro groupset, easton tubeless rims etc. Was £1999. It’s a 52 (but fits more like a 54-55cm owing to Whyte’s ultra long ETT’s) which fit me ok at 5ft10, but probably goes down to about 5ft6 ok.

I have a Scott Addict Gravel and its the business. Great for winter road riding around the dodgy Hampshire back lanes, as well bridleways, fire tracks and the New Forest gravel paths. Love it.

Thanks mboy but I need a 56 (6′ tall) so I suspect it may be too tall. Why are you selling?

the Canyon Endurace is a fantastic weight (7.5kg?) compared to metal bikes.

I’d question whether the whole frame is 853 for the money this is going, for but should appeal to MTBers

http://www.tritoncycles.co.uk/road-bikes-c5/road-c37/kona-roadhouse-road-bike-2016-p17219

(and go via cashback site if you buy from Triton).

If you want to self-build then Niner RLT steel and alloy frames are half price at

http://www.topfun.com/en/buscar?controller=search&orderby=position&orderway=desc&search_query=RLT&submit_search=

I am waiting for the new Orbea Terra to be released and replace my aging pro6. They are going to be lovely…

Thanks mboy but I need a 56 (6′ tall) so I suspect it may be too tall. Why are you selling?

Probably a 54 (measures more like 56-57 from other brands) but yeah 52 will be too small.

Selling cos I’m either on my 160mm FS bike, or my sub 7kg road bike. My riding is VERY binary, either one extreme or the other. The Saxon Cross is an awesome machine, but I just hardly ride it! If I was commuting to and from work the “fun” way on a bike, it would be the ultimate bike for that though IMO.

If only these were being imported into the UK

http://www.wilier.com/en/products/int/gravel/jaroon

I’ve got a Shand Stoater and a 2016 carbon Grade, both Ultegra. I really enjoy riding both but they’re pretty different in practise. The Grade is much lighter, stiffer and I was pleasantly surprised by the type of trails I can hammer it down. The wheels (Grails on DT Swiss) are good and the geometry suits me (I have long legs, short torso). I love it and can now keep up with my mates on their carbon road bikes. But its natural home is ‘gravel’ or in the UK rough farm lanes and tracks, smoother bridleways etc. It’s unbelievable comfortable, so much so that I still check to see if I have rear flat sometimes.
The Shand obviously looks a lot better! I use that a bit more for touring (with its rack mounts) and I’ve fitted guards easily enough. It would be quite a fancy commuter! Both have pretty sedate handling, compared to a race bike, but that’s a good thing for my riding.

I have the Grade Ultegra Carbon and absolutely love it (2500miles useage), It’s now my main roadbike and I’ve also been using it on gravel\bridleway rides over the summer. I run 30mm tubeless Schwalbe S-Ones and 35mm SKS Bluemels year round (fit no probs), both work fine even on smoother offroad\gravel.

It rides great on road and is surprisingly capable offroad, for more offroad orientated riding I would probably go for something with more clearance though. It takes 35mm tyres max without guards with poor mud clearance, but thats not really what it’s for.

It takes 35mm tyres max without guards with poor mud clearance, but thats not really what it’s for.

This is the big downside to my Grade, I’m sure GT said they would take 38s, my alloy one struggles with 35mm and has already taken some paint of the chainstays where the tyre rubs.

If you do go for a Grade make sure you know what tyres you want to fit and whether you’ll need lots of mud clearance.

i have this years version of the Ridley

If only these were being imported into the UK

http://www.wilier.com/en/products/int/gravel/jaroon

They are…

Where are you based? I’ll find out who your local Wilier dealer is…