Gravel Riding Chit Chat

Mine has the SRAM Apex 1 but figured I could swap out the BB and fit the Rival 1 AXS wide.

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What do I need to know about off-roading with a gravel bike?

What is tubeless?

How do I know beforehand that a route will be too hard for a gravel bike?

Why shouldn’t I use my P1S pedals?

Etc?

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For the love of all that is holy, don’t do this.

You seem to barely be able to afford to keep one bike road worthy, let alone either buying one for gravel, or woe betide, using your roadie :roll_eyes:

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:sweat_smile:

I’ll chuck the bike in the bin after the first puncture

Cant afford anything so using cycle 2 work debt to sponsor it

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Could be weeks until I get my voucher so I am forced to procrastinate further.

Discounted Diverge has gone so my plans are in disarray.

Might just get some 32mm gravel tyres for my steel tourer/commuter, remove the mudguards and racks.

Can you put a GRX group set on a touring frame?

Convert it to disk?

A few of my riding mates have the Sonder Camino gravel bikes, well priced and lots of build options, worth a look.

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Yes. Yes they are :heart_eyes:
The Sedona Ti is gorgeous :heart_eyes::ok_hand:t4:

And only £2.2k for the frame and fork :white_check_mark:

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For a budget brand frame and fork? I’d buy a Lynskey on sale from the states.

PX used to do a complete Ti gravel bike with Force CX1 for that.

Edit they still do:

-10% if you sign up for their spam.

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An el-Camino with hydraulics can be had for 1400.

Not sure why I am encouraging, gravel bikes are utterly pointless in the UK.

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I bought a Ti Pickenflick which had poor clearance of the small chainring rubbing the frame. I really liked the bike but through PlanetX warranty they needed to get a replacement Tempest frame due to something like a 6 month wait for a replacement Pickenflick frame (they swapped everything over). It is 2x but full ultegra and no problem with knobbly wide tyres for the mud and fun. Did a wild camp (one night) ride in the Peak District a few years ago and really should do some more. Have also done a couple of Cyclocross races on it which if I can get some bike fitness back would love to do some more. I do like the Tempest but kind of liked the Pickenflick more, but overall glad I’ve got it.

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FTFY :joy::white_check_mark:

I’ve five bikes, but, if I was starting again, I’d choose a Ti gravel bike with rack and guard mounts :ok_hand:t4:

32mm tyres on the OEM wheelset for commuting and winter riding.
28-30mm Pirelli P-Zero’s on some Zipp 404s for summer road use.
42mm Pirelli Cinturato on some Zipp 303S for off road.

Then get some PDW “fenders” for winter/commuting duties.
And a Tailfin Alloy Aeropack to carry my work gear. Then buy all of the other “bits” from Tailfin for bikepacking.

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Pretty sure you mean an AL Camino?
Or have you actually found an electric Camino for £1,400 :exploding_head:

As per above, I was scared of disc brakes 6-7 years ago, so bought a Ribble 725 SL and BMC SLR02 rim brake instead of a CGR Ti. A decision I now regret :sob::face_with_peeking_eye:

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So my experience with gravel has been hateful. I get the use case in the US or Spain where there are miles of roads and trails made of graded gravel. But here in the UK the ‘Gravel’ is mostly made up of rutted boggy shite, a hardtail 29er is a better tool for this. Granted it will be slower on the road, but the time will be made up while the gravel bike riders are mincing around trying to get through the ruts whilst brushing the mud out of their beards.

But on the flip side my gravel bike has served as an excellent winter bike, all be it a very slow one, so at some point I will chop it in for a halfway house bike, the one I have my eye on is the Enigma Etape. It can take wide tyres for the bad roads, has luggage mounts and will be faster/lighter than the Orbea plodder. The Sonder Colibri Ti is a candidate also.

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Yes, Pedantry fans, I meant the AL Camino.

And I will keep my flashy Aero bike, for thirty days a year it’s the perfect tool to go fast with the sun shining.

(15 of the 30 days are in Lanza/Girona.)

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Have you been on the gravel there?
Also, what’s it like out there?

I didn’t like Mallorca, as it felt like a Tesco version of a cycling holiday.
I imagine (or at least hope!) Girona is like Waitrose?

Surely the waitrose folk are need gravel bikes riding around tuscany?

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Does Abersoch have gravel? :joy::joy::joy:

no - but it has dragons!

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I’m halfway here except it’s a carbon frame, and I only have 2 wheel sets, so have to swap the tyres from wide road to wider off-road in the summer. It has a similar geometry to “endurance” bikes so quite racy for off-road but not racy on-road like an aero-road. And heavier thanks to all the mounts and strengthening, but a few kg on the bike is less than the extra kgs on the rider.

@LordFlasheart I get that a MTB is better off road, but that is kind of not the point. You can have fun off-road on a gravel bike at much slower speeds than a mountain bike, because it’s so less stable. And then on the road you can get a bit more speed to get to the next bit of off-road.

As for winter bike, it’s great. I always commuted on a cyclocross bike anyway, this is just the logical option now, especially as cross bikes have gone full on race mode and don’t have the mounts.

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