Gravel / Gravé / Gnarmac / Groad / ATB

@laurenced

this is the correct answer

Rider has long fingers

Couplers just to get it in the car/shed? There's no way that's going in a travel case

Oh yes. Who's the maker? Can't zoom and enhance skills enough on my phone to make it out.

@Thrustvector Seven cycles
@PhilDAS I think so, didn't have a story with it

A lot of tandems have them, makes it possible to fit into a normal bike box. My tandem doesn't have them and we need to split it into two boxes to fly, one for the wheels and misc bits and the other for frame.

Interesting. Didn’t think you’d even be able to fly with non folding/splitting tandem frame

Ritchey make a tandem that splits into 3 pieces, i think you can actually fit it in a "travel" bag

Tandems aside, virtually every single bike in this thread (mine included) look basically like this:

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To you guys rocking road plus/ 38c+ / adventure bikes in road guise, is there any tangible loss of speed on a standard road ride, that would stop you taking it on a club run for example? Trying to work out how limiting these setups are in that direction as an expense of being much more off-road capable

They are slower, heavier, less aero on road. What did you expect? Of course you can still do the club run anyways, just a bit handicapped

In hindsight I think we could have flown with BA and Iberia with just taking the wheels off and cutting and shutting two bike boxes together.

is there any tangible loss of speed on a standard road ride, that would stop you taking it on a club run for example?

Don't really notice much difference, ran 38mm 650b on club ride and hill climb.

A lots less of a difference if its a normal road bike with 650b tyres.

Riding with the same tyres in 700c might make a difference but haven't ridden them in that sizes for ages to tell.

GCN did an interesting video
where they rode some of the Paris-Roubaix cobbles on different bikes at a fixed power and actually found that a mountain bike was faster than a road or cross bike. So I feel like considering the amount of gravel, potholes, etc. on UK roads, I'd actually be faster on something like a 32c than the 25cs I've currently got. I'm definitely less confident on skinny tyres after I lost traction in a corner once and skidded out on my side. (Annoyingly it was in a sportive and there was a photographer stood right where I crashed, but he didn't take any awesome pictures of me sliding along.)

It also probably depends on what the club is like - if they're full-bore, carbon/eTap/Di2/deep rims everywhere roadies then it might be more of an impediment than a bunch of stragglers riding their commuting bikes.

However, I don't know whether 38c+ is pushing it too far out of the "optimum" window.

Anyway, I don't have enough clearance for anything bigger than 25cs on my frame though. So I was thinking about buying the Alpkit Camino Al frame and swapping my groupset onto it with mechanical discs. Has anyone ridden one? Are there any better options out there that can take front and rear racks and have discs and big tyre clearance? I only want the frame and the Alpkit one is £300 and I probably don't want to spend more than that.

Have been scouring eBay - I've been looking at the Boardman CX Team frame as there's millions for sale, so you can get the frame and forks for <£100 in some cases. No front rack though. There are plenty of CdFs as well and I do like them, but I feel like there's gotta be lighter options. I also have Arkose/various Ridley CX frames on my eBay saved search thing.

Yeah, I'm still agonizing over the 32mm or wider? question as well. Definitely want more than the 28s I have on my main road bike so that I can handle the forest trails I frequently find myself on when bikepacking in unknown territory.

I did my first outing with 47c 650b Horizons on Sunday, the bike is heavier than the 700c road bike I have and I was not slower or faster, just more comfortable.

But if I got a custom road bike made it'd be around 32mm 650b with guards or 38/40 without.

Anything above 32 is kinda wasted on road which affects the geometry (and ride quality) of the bike.

At my body proportions I am more fan of the radius of 650b than the tyre widths.

I went from riding a Bob Jackson audax frame with 700*23c to a Cotic Escapade with 700*42c.
I think my average speed has dropped by ~0.5km/h, but comfort and enjoyment is greatly improved.
The only time I feel the Cotic is slower is on big downhills, due to being less aero, but that's probably more a function of the flared drops more than the tyres.

I'm looking forward to bouncing around on my 700x42s. Though they're only contis so not expecting plush suppleness

35psi

I liked 38c but you notice the rotational weight. Not slower but feels slower.

The only time I feel the Cotic is slower is on big downhills, due to being less aero, but that's probably more a function of the flared drops more than the tyres.

I'm terrified riding down big hills on narrow tyres with caliper brakes. Is it actually slower or does it just feel slower? Because I reckon for 95% of people the improved traction and lessened road buzz will mean that you're faster with big tyres.