New Bike Day (2 weeks ago)

Sonder Broken Road.
First Ti bike and first 29er MTB. So far so good. It’s really nice to ride and the Ti certainly takes some of the sting out of trail riding.
This is intended to be my do-most-of-it bike and will hopefully see a good few miles bike packing in the summer when (if) lockdown eases.
Got to say that Sonder/Alpkit were great to deal with. Answered all my queries, offered good advice and let me customise the bike as much as I wanted/could afford.

Very nice and very similar to my Ti Broken Road that landed with me back in December!

It’s a great frame, my first Ti, have to say the ride quality is a revelation compared to my last HT. I also hope to get some bikepacking in this Spring/Summer which is primarily why I went for the Broken Road. For me this bike is such a good all rounder and highly adaptable given the sliding dropouts

I’ve now got x2 wheelsets so can run 29er or 650b +. Both new wheelsets are significantly lighter than the Sonder Nova’s(c700g) which is noticeable when rolling and getting up to speed

On 650b+ with low pressures the ride is super smooth and the Nobby Nics have endless grip.

I’ve also upgraded the brakes as the Sram Level are not the best. New carbon bars and cockpit tidy up with Sram matchmakers too

Have to echo your comments about Alpkit. Very helpful and reponsive.

Enjoy the bike 👍

Very very tidy, welcome to the Sonder club

@lillski74 Mine came with the new Sonder Alpha 29 wheels and they seem very good. Enduro bearings and good spoke tension. I think I’ll keep them for a while but in the meantime I am on the lookout for a rear or pair of 27.5 wheels, preferably with blue Hope hubs.
What width rims are your 650b+ and what width tyres are you running? I already have a 650b boost front wheel with 30mm internal width rim that I bought a while ago but am wondering if 35mm width and 2.8” tyres is the way to go.

I spec’ed the bike with SLX drive chain and Deore 4-pot brakes and they are great. I currently have the Sonder Confucius bars fitted as I wanted them for bikepacking. I am going to fit a normal bar for everyday use, hopefully a Vibrocore one from Spank. I also bought a pair of rigid Frontier forks with the bike which I will swap in for longer road-based tours.

@dove1 mine came with the 38mm rims however I switched out the WTBs for Nobby Nic’s (new version) in 2.6

Admittedly that is not true plus but I wanted to size down slightly so I could also use the tyres on my Hunt Trail Wide rims which are 30mm internal width. The 29er rims are also 30mm laced to Hope Pro4’s with Maxxis 2.4 Tyres

The wheelsets are like chalk and cheese and it’s great to have the option to swap out for different rides

I like those Sonder bars – I need some for bike packing, when and if that comes around again!

Will have to get a picture up later

Sounds like you have been through the same thought process as me, @lillski74.
I run 2.6″ tyres on my other 27.5 hardtail and they are just right so I think that is what I’ll do on the BR. Nobby Nics are a favourite tyre of mine as well so I’ll probably go for those again.

Very nice indeed. Have some wonderful adventures on that!

@dove1 yes the new NNs are the business defo recommend in 2.6 as they come up true to size

Out of interest what is the spec of the Frontier fork that you got?

Is it the same offset etc?

@lillski74 – it’s just the standard fork that the Sonder Frontier rigid is equipped with. It is suspension corrected and has a 51 offset. It has mounting points for cages on the legs and I fancied that for road tours.
Sonder cut the steerer to the same length as my Reba forks and fitted a crown race for me so it should be a simple swap when required.

How does the Broken Road handle descents and more technical stuff when not loaded?
I’m really keen to get one for bikepacking, but realistically, more of my time is just shorter blasts in S Wales and occasionally a trail centre
I didn’t want something too upright but don’t want to get a Signal or Frontier as I dont think they’ll be as suitable for bikepacking

So far so good. The riding position feels very similar to my Bird Zero Mk1. I have ridden the Broken Road on Pwca and several sections of Cafall at Cwmcarn without any problems.
I’m a wheels on the ground rider though so can’t comment on how it would be at jumps and big drops.

I didn’t want something too upright but don’t want to get a Signal or Frontier as I dont think they’ll be as suitable for bikepacking

Isn’t the Frontier primarily designed for bikepacking? Don’t see why it would be any less suitable than the BR, just a bit heavier.

Sweet ride.

You’ve got one of those paving slabs cut on the diagonal. OCD time…

2.6 isn’t really plus size, neither is a 30mm internal rim. A 2.6 will have a considerably smaller volume than a 3″ (even a 2.8 is noticeably smaller than 3″). That will result in the BB height lowering quite a lot (as you’d essential be running 650b in a 29er).

You’ve got one of those paving slabs cut on the diagonal. OCD time…

I know. It irritates me every time I walk past my garage. There is also another diagonal cut further along the path. The slabs were obviously laid by some sort of mentalist when the house was built.