Santa Cruz Stigmata as (winter) road bike?

I am not sure if this is a crazy idea or whether it might actually work!? Has anybody tried the Stigmata as a winter road bike.  It has plenty of tyre clearance, should be comfortable and you can run pretty much whatever groupset you want on it, from Tiagra to the lovely new Sram 13 speed !

It has a threaded BB, and presumably could be built with a Hope headset and with 32mm slick tyres, would it work?

Is it a daft idea, or might it work?

Why would it be a daft idea?

It wouldn’t be a particularly great road bike, but it would do the job just fine I think.

It would work, you can fit guards and it looks like a front mech as well. Specialized Diverge and lots of other gravel bikes would be similar.

Mrs Kilo has the juliana, which i think is fundamentally the same, she finds it a bit under-geared on the road at times being 1x and off road geared other than that it’s a good bike.

I’m not worried about the gearing, as I could built it with any groupset which works for me.  Apparently in the Giant range the Dyfi and gravel equivalent are identical geometry.

I think they used to be “proper” cx bikes – high BB, fairly steep angles etc but I suppose newer versions might have eased off on that

I use my On One Free Ranger for both gravel and road, with two wheelsets (50c GravelKings on one pair and 30mm Schwalbe ProOne’s on the other, both tubeless) , but still the same 1x gearing.

I did a 190 mile 2-day bikepacking trip in the Highlands late last month and a 300k Audax at the start of the month – oh, and ride it in all seasons 🙂

I was on chaingang last night with someone on the Cervelo fast gravel bike (with road tyres on), it was no impediment to them at all.

A friend has one as his winter road bike, seems as good a choice as any.

My winter road bike is a Specialized Diverge, another gravel orientated frame.

I’m on a different gravel bike frame (Dolan GXC) but built up as a road bike. The reasoning was for more laid back geometry / pannier and mudguard mounts mainly – plus not too expensive.

Running 11 speed Ultegra di2 / Hunt 4 season road wheels / Conti gp5000 30c tyres (with tubes) etc.

Doesn’t feel any slower than the Caad12 I had before – but my lower back is much happier.

When gravel bikes became more popular c2018 maybe, a lot on our cycle club got one as a winter road bike – tyre clearance, mudguards all great.

Several later said that 1x gearing didn’t work so well on a group road ride – bigger jumps between cogs made it harder to find a comfortable cadence. Might be less of an issue as gearing has changed since.

I use my Diverge as a winter bike too. Maybe check the geo with a Stigmata, they must have relaxed it a bit in later generations. If you can fit mudguards and are comfortable using a ‘nice’ bike in nasty conditions then why not. (It rarely gets cold enough for roads to be salted where I live.)

Dave Rome from escape collective just reviewed the new stigmata

It rarely gets cold enough for roads to be salted where I live

Username does not check out!

I think they used to be “proper” cx bikes – high BB, fairly steep angles etc but I suppose newer versions might have eased off on that

The current one has a 69˚ head angle I think, same as a Sonder Camino, and is a tad longer too. Based on the Camino it’ll be reassuringly stable on the road. I’m sure it’ll work fine, but it seems an expensive sort of winter bike option unless you’re also planning to ride it as a gravel bike.

Personally I’d get a cheaper frame and a tiagra level groupset as if it’s ridden in proper winter conditions it’ll get trashed. If it’s going g to be one of those winter bikes that only ventures out when it’s dry and stays away from mud/muck strewn back lanes then go for it.

The SC looks long and slack, which might make it better for technical offroading, but for on road I’d suggest there’re more suitable gravel bikes such as the Cervelo mentioned above.

The current model I wouldn’t, the long/slack geometry would make it feel a bit boring as a road bike for me, I’d like one as a gravel bike though.

there are some deals to be had on the previous generation frame though, that would work better for road use – https://startfitness.co.uk/products/santa-cruz-stigmata-3-cc-carbon-gravel-frameset-2022-lavender

For me, if you’re not planning to take it off road at all, I’d look for a high clearance road frame instead, I use my gravel bike (a previous generation Sonder Camino) with two sets of wheels, it always feels really underwhelming as a road bike, it was the same with the 3t exploro I had before. Something like a Defy or a Domane will just be nicer as a road bike.

I just use whatever bike I have all year round so don’t really get the winter road bike thing.  I have probably got wetter during spring/summer this year than I have in most winters previously.  But then I don’t have to deal with salted roads as the council don’t bother with that on minor roads I ride on.

I would happily use a Stigmata all year round if I was into buying expensive bikes..

I would happily use a Stigmata all year round if I was into buying expensive bikes..

Ooft, just looked – just the frameset costs more than my carbon On One Free Ranger running Force 1 AND two sets of wheels/tyres.

I was on chaingang last night with someone on the Cervelo fast gravel bike (with road tyres on), it was no impediment to them at all.

Aspero-5? I have one and it is awesumz. It’s not any slower than the 15 year old Storck that it replaced and is far more comfortable. Great off road too. Unfortunately the middle aged porker sat on top doesn’t do it justice.

Another Aspero owner (though not a 5)

Still very happy as both a gravel bike and a winter road bike – mine is 2x

as above a diverge would be a good option or a cannondale topstone, both gravel orientated, if you have the money got the stigmata

or go TI the ribble CGR is £1k off at the moment, or sonder/alpkit do a gravel race now to fit between the gravel camino and adventure road calibri

I use one as a mudguarded road bike, works great. Done over 10000km on it including LEL. It’s the previous version (the current one is much slacker). I run it with a 2x AXS groupset and 32mm slicks with PDW guards. In fact, my partner has just bought the Juliana equivalent frameset to do the same. She previously used a Carbonda frameset (same as an on one freeranger) to do the same thing and that worked pretty well too, until she crashed it. Problem with the Aspero is no proper guard mounts.

A road bike would be lower, have a shorter wheelbase and longer reach and lower bottom bracket. So would handle so much better on the road. When I rode my cross bike on the local circuit, this was more noticeable than what I thought it would be, when compared to my road bike.

But some folk would probably prefer the more relaxed handling of the cx bike though. Maybe try one first.