I’ve gone for a Ribble Ultra Tri Disc
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What were your choices? And any reason you went for the Ribble? They’re nice bikes, my niece has one. Particularly like the current aero road bike they’ve got.
At the £3.5 - £4k price point it was between the Ribble Ultra Tri and Dolan TR1 mainly. Also looked at the BMC one, but that had a bit of a “wheel tax” to add on too. Trek, Canyon, Specialised etc were all on the pricey side even for entry level. Prices have certainly gone up since I bought my Cannondale Slice 6 years ago for £1200
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I’ve still got my slice hi-mod, the first gen that Chrissie rode, but one of the mech stops is damaged so would need electric gears.
Although it is possible it might get dug out of the loft for next week.
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A lad I trained with lots in 2020 had the rim break version a very very good bike handler he loved his, issues with front hydration and rear storage initially but quickly sorted ( free) by rubble.
Only seen one disc in the flesh … better looking than the Dolan for sure.
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I like that grav bike! Maybe when i’ve scratched my IM itch this year i’ll flog my tt bike and become a gnarly graveller instead! 
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I feel I should be embracing the gravel world and jumping in and buying a bike, but then I’m reminded that where I live I’d have an hour of riding on busy roads at each end of the ride to get too and from the rough stuff and I think I might as well stick to the road.
Maybe when we move out of the city, but then I’ve got an itch to buy a MTB and try some proper off-roading 
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You heading back home(ish)?
Hamsterley Forest 
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And Dalby.
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We used to go to Great Ayton/Roseberry.
Filmed Dirt there in ‘94
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Goes off to his cupboard filled with old stuff…
@Poet – I’ve been wearing my Jason McRoy ring since 1995!
It seems like a long time ago, because it was! 
Cheers, Paul. 
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Get the gravel bike, they’re wonderfully versatile. The distances you can travel, terrain you can navigate & things you can see will 
Controversial suggestion coming up…
Hire an eMTB to see how you get on. At dedicated MTB places they are almost in the majority & there is little to none of the condescending looks anymore. With you being a big unit & no longer a spring chicken by the time you retire you’ll get to enjoy all the fun of the gnarly stuff you feel you’ve been missing out on.
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The point of the gravel bike is that the hour on roads is not a chore that it is on a mountain bike, so you can explore off road from a base in the city.
But I get that sticking to roads means you can explore further and faster. I put slick tyres on my gravel bike and I’m planning a few days out but will likely stick to quiet roads rather than going off road for the sake of it.
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There was a headline earlier saying that the 3 peaks CX has banned gravel bikes from the race, mountain bikes were banned some time ago.
I’m sure they must have a definition as I doubt there’s much difference 
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A lot of modern road bikes will take a 32mm tyre; mine will. So if it’s pretty dry, chainstay mud clearance won’t be a problem, and you can ride on both road/gravel on the same bike. This assumes the gravel is pretty smooth. I’ve certainly used my Endurace on farm tracks & bridleways with 32mm tyres, and it is a bit bumpy, but doable. So smooth gravel would be fine e.g. tow paths/fire roads.
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That sounds like an old blazer committee making an “in my day” decision. I know CX competitions have a max tyre width that most gravel bikes can exceed, but if someone rocks up with a gravel bike with CX tyres on it, is anyone really going to be able to tell the difference?
Gravel bike tend to have more relaxed geometry for more endurance type riding, v. CX bikes racing for 1 hour on tight, twisty tracks. but not sure that technically they breach any rules if the tyres are thin enough.
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Bought a Gravel bike earlier in the year.
Ridden it off road once, it’s a terrible experience after owning 29er mountain bikes for years, gravel is just the latest fad, it makes no sense, a mountain bike with the right tyres/gearing does a better job.
However I have ended up riding the gravel bike a lot; the lanes round here are so broken up that the extra tyre width is really useful, I have swapped it onto a faster but not quite slick tyre. It’s basically become my training/winter bike and I really like it for that purpose.
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Definitely, then they’ll wonder why entries are reducing, bit like time trials.
Fell running moved on a bit but I think they needed to protect themselves from parkrunners trying to do an AL then getting hopelessly lost!
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Have you done the Sharpness Canal end-to-end? I should really undertake to paddle the full distance one day. I think it’s 16 miles? So defintely a whole day thing!
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