appeals to me these days.. I’ve kinda gone off the daft trails and am happy bimbling about out easy stuff/roads these days, so this seems ideal for me.

I’ve been kicking about with my front suspension in lockout for an age now, and I barely shift out of my middle ring these days, 36T, 11-34(9 speed). And short drops seem to appeal to me also. Plus i’m at the 5 year mark, so it’s new bike time!

My attention has been peaked by the Arkose 4, drops, 1×11, I like the sound of that(42T+11×42, is wider than what I current use so should be ideal I think, I can spin out the 36×11. don’t need any less than the 1:1, though I guess option is there to swap out to a 40 or 38T if my hills get bigger), bigger wheels and no suspension sound good, I reckon the weight will also be great for light bike packing duties, ie arkose, plus tent/sleeping bag/roll mat = not much more than my current bike.

So what’s the thoughts on this, and what other alternatives should I be looking at in a similar price range?

https://www.evanscycles.com/pinnacle-arkose-4-2018-adventure-road-bike-EV306247

The Arkose is pretty hard to beat for value for money. The only thing I’d want is bigger tyres! You can sort that out later tho..

Boardman cx team does a good job of being an adventure road bike for £900 or less with 1×11 and hydro discs. The new Boardman adventure road is 2x Shimano equipped that might be worth a look. 1x does seem a compromise for loaded up bivi trips

None of the bikes I use for  bivvying or touring are 1 x  set ups as you need the spread of gears when  loaded up and weight saving is a bit pointless when carrying kg of kit

Evans or boardmans for bang from your bucks

I also would not go 1x unless you are used to singlespeeding.  There are some fast bits of road around but if you end up on some track you might still be on a 1:3 struggling for traction.

Also like you considered 1x gearing but after advice went for 2×11 on my Vaya

Unless you like pushing, 1:1 is quite a big gear if laden on steeper tracks and trails – I’d much prefer a spinny gear on longer rides

I use a surly for bikepacking duties, 2×10, 22/32 up front and 11/34 (i think) out back.

i rarely use the little ring when the bike is unloaded, but i use it regularly when fully loaded.

draw your own conclusions from that.

i would go 1X if I wasn’t going to load it though.

I’ve just ordered an Arkose two. As I will be doing some camping trips and also some unloaded road riding the double chainset was essential for me, to get sufficient range without massive jumps between gears.

Cheers all for the imput, interesting thoughts.

Looking at gear ratios, as this has been on my mind.

9 speed

11 / 13 / 15 / 17 / 20 / 23 / 26 / 30 / 34

36T – 3.27, 2.76, 2.4, 2.11, 1.8, 1.56, 1.38, 1.2, 1.05

22T – 2, 1.69, 1.46, 1.29, 1.1, 0.95, 0.84, 0.73, 0.64

11 speed

11 / 13 / 15 / 17 / 19 / 22 / 25 / 28 / 32 / 36 / 42

42T – 3.8, 3.23, 2.8, 2.47, 2.21, 1.90, 1.68, 1.5, 1.31, 1.16, 1

38T – 3.45, 2.92, 2.53, 2.23, 2, 1.72, 1.52, 1.35, 1.18, 1.05, 0.90

Guessing the question there is, it’s easy enough to change out a 1x chain ring, would I be happy with those gearing options, would 0.9 be enough for bike packing, hmm.

Question on that then is what does the arkose 3 come with, looks like a 48/32 on an 11-32?

https://www.evanscycles.com/pinnacle-arkose-3-2018-adventure-road-bike-EV306246

Is the praxis that that comes with a 52/34 or 48/32 which, even then, only gives you a low gear of 1:1 anyhow. I’m not too fussed about the higher ends for the gearing anyhow, hardly like I’m going to be bombing about silly fast. But the double doesn’t really make sense either then? Give you closer gearing, but no wider range without swaping it out?

Guessing the other question is if you swap out a 42, with a 38T(or even 36T if possible) do you need to shorten the chain? Is it possible to leave the chain as is and swap out willy nilly?

I think the Arkose is lovely. I was thinking about buying one at the end of last year.

I’d also not worry too much about the range of the 1x (or at least, not let it put you off a bike you like). I’ve been riding around a CX bike as a general purpose road/cx/mtb substitute for the last 3 years or so on an 42x 11-36 and while it is a bit short on range it’s enough for most things. I admit, I wouldn’t want to tour on it.

It’s getting a bump up to 1x with a 10-42 shortly which should give me a lot more spare. The nice thing about the 1x is that it’s easy to change chainring- I’ll have a 38t for most things and a 42t for occasional ‘proper’ road days. Depends if you mind the gear spacing (I don’t).

It may not work for you, but then again it might. Just the loss of a mud catching front mech swung it for me.

would these fit on that? Should do eh? Give the option of going form 34 to 44. and anything in between (Sram only going down to 38.)

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/hope-retainer-cx-ring/rp-prod147698?gs=1&sku=sku538571UK&pgrid=55375185827&ptaid=pla-425642926209&utm_source=google&utm_term=&utm_campaign=PLA+All+Products&utm_medium=base&utm_content=mkwid|sZMgPaIRr_dc|pcrid|253998738371|pkw||pmt||prd|538571UK

That crankset you can fit a direct mount ring to, so in theory all the way down to MTB sizes if you needed. The 38 I’ve bought from superstar is direct mount, the new 42 is the sram that came fitted.

Can’t provide any actual confirmation of how they work yet as they are still in a box upstairs.

cheers, think what I really need to do is bounce about some hills in 3rd and a 4th, on the granny on my current bike and that’ll give me an idea if I could get away with a 38T on the front.

Here’s a question, what effect will going from 26in to 700c likely have? Given say the same gear, same tire width, tread etc. is it harder or easier to push the bigger wheel in the same ratio? harder I’d guess, as you will go further per turn? Though that’s perhaps offset some as it’s a lighter bike, probably lighter wheels (guess here that gravel bikes will have lighter wheels than an mtb, ie lighter rotating mass?)

26x 2.0 is slightly smaller in outer diameter to 700×25.

ive fitted 700×35 wheels on an old orange P7, no problem, but there wasn’t loads of mud clearance.

Cool, cheers, aye, I’m just basically realising you need to take tyre circumference into the equation when looking at gearing.