Forget the bike, let’s hope no two people come through those doors at the same time – diy disaster! 😉

🙂 They’re both cupboards.

Well I’ve clearly been riding off road too long. Fitted the dropper remote and I’m just so much happier being able to drop the saddle. Even used it a few times on the road to get a bit lower on descents.

Also, I’m not sure if it’s the flare, the height, the width, the drop or some combination of them all, but I think this is the first drop bar bike I’ve ever ridden where I actually feel comfortable in the drops.

Despite this bike being more at the MTB end of gravel I’m really loving it on the road. The 47mm Byways zip along just fine and the more relaxed (basically touring bike) geometry feels great at the end of a long ride. I set a PR on a road descent (despite it being dark and wet) beating all the times I’d set on my “race” bike with its 23mm GP4000 tyres, so they clearly roll just fine. Although dropping the saddle probably helped 🙂

Yup, i’m quicker on several descents on my Parkwood than on the roadie… That says more about me than the Parkwood though i bet 🙂

Yes, me too 🙂

That may be because they are riding gravel roads on them and not going down any steep/technical singletrack? Even riding down the steepest gravel road where I live I stay seated.

Doesn’t mean anyone is right or wrong just that your use is different.

Both can be right. Although I end up taking my CX bike down a lot of technical (for a CX bike) trails, Swinley blue and red, local singletrack, etc. Yes a dropper might help, but for me it would kinda defeat the point of having a fast, lightweight, but not particularly easy to ride bike. It’s meant to maximise the number of will I / won’t I make it moments on a ride and the speed/comfort opens up more local-ish trails.

So a dropper isn’t wrong, but if it’s right then why not a suspension fork, 70mm more reach, riser bars, 2.2″ tyres, etc as well.

I guess because they would all compromise performance on the road and turn it into a mountain bike. I guess I don’t really see adding 300g to the bike as much of a compromise to its basic performance and it’s worth it to have the option of dropping the saddle when I feel like it. But as you say, there isn’t any right or wrong here, just personal preference. It took roadies long enough to realise that the extra weight penalty of discs was worth it and personally I expect they’ll cotton on to dropper posts eventually too, but I could well be wrong of course.

 I expect they’ll cotton on to dropper posts eventually too,

I don’t think so because this bit;

I set a PR on a road descent….. dropping the saddle probably helped 🙂

Still confuses me.

Hopefully this will help:

So a dropper isn’t wrong, but if it’s right then why not a suspension fork, 70mm more reach, riser bars, 2.2″ tyres, etc as well.

You pick the parts that you want on your bike. I prefer a flat bar over a drop bar so use that, but I prefer narrow tyre (28c) compared to 43c or more. I also prefer very responsive bikes that most would immediately describe as twitchy.

I build the bike I want to ride which is a mix and match of road, MTB and track components and while I think it is the right bike, in 99% of peoples view it is definitely the wrong bike.