Thinking of making a move on a commuter/gravel bike that will give me more motivation to bike to work.

I currently own an RT-58 but want something I can take on a few off-road paths and bridleways as this would make the commute a bit more interesting.

Not looking to spend much at all and stumbled across one of these, anyone got any experience?

Might consider a pair of cheap road wheels for recreational road rides and use it for both.

I’ve got one I picked up cheap just to try a bit of general drop bar bashing about (not racing). I’ve only had one off road ride on it so far and it’s the first cx bike I’ve had so I can’t compare it to anything else.

The sora kit all works fine but it’s not as smooth as the 105 or ultegra I’ve used on other bikes… although I wouldn’t expect it to be! The brakes seem ok for cable discs but not spectacular.

On the plus side the frame looks nice and tidy, and the internal routing makes it all look pretty clean.

Biggest negative about it I would say is the stock wheels which weigh in at 2.5kg, so you might want to think about swapping them out if you want any sort of acceleration out of it. Luckily I had a spare set of 29er wheels I could stick on it instead.

If you’re looking at the new size large one from gocycleshop on ebay then I stuck in an offer which was a fair bit under their asking price and was surprised when it was accepted with no counter offer.

HTH, Tom