Break-Away Gravel Disc Ride

I've recently come to the realisation that I absolutely have justification for owning a travel bike. I work away from home about 75% of the time now and when I do I tend to be in places for a week at a time or more. As exciting as that sounds it sucks to not have any sort of regular thing in your life such as being able to cycle everyday after work so for my sanity I need a solution.

I've been bringing either my road bike or fixed gear with me when we're travelling by road (UK or Ireland) recently but looking at future workload there's going to be plenty of trips to further flung destinations that will require travelling by air so unless I shell out for a quality bike box and suffer airline sporting goods fees I'm not going to be able to get any cycling in. Also worth mentioning I'm not hugely keen on travelling with my other bikes in the back of the van as it's only a matter of time before they get damaged despite best efforts to pack them well.

I thought about going with a Ritchey Break-Away Steel Road but then the more I thought about it I thought I should really be building something a bit more versatile for this build as there is plenty of potential of ending up in places with really sub par roads so something more All-Road/ Gravel would be preferential.

I also thought about going for a Ritchey Break-Away Steel Cross but I can't help but feel that if I am building a more gravel oriented bike I'd obviously want disc brakes so that's kind of ruled that out for me.

Obviously the only logical outcome here is to treat myself to a custom built frame... I did look into S&S couplers but I can't help but feel like they're a bit clunky and an inelegant solution compared to the Ritchey Break-Away system using the seatpost as a stressed point to join the top tube and seat tube/ seat stays.

So far that narrows spec down to disc brakes, big tyres and Break-Away coupling.

• Do I go for cable or hydraulic discs? I get the feeling that with regular travel the hydraulic discs would be a nightmare to have to bleed regularly compared to using the Ritchey cable connectors with a set of TRP Spyres or some other quality cable disc?

• Should I go for 650b or 700c wheels and what tyre size should I allow for? Riding will probably be about 75% roads of varying standards with 25% gravel/ fire-roads/ dirt track?

• Should I go for a 1x groupset and if so which? I'm partially tempted to just try and pick up a cheaper mechanical Dura-Ace groupset when the time comes around or perhaps Ultegra? Bearing in mind reliability and ease of setup with Ritchey cable connectors is important...

• Budget is of some relevance in this build so it will be a steel frame with carbon fork. Any suggestions for tubing or forks? I've been looking at the Columbus Futura Gravel fork.

• BB recommendation?

• Axle recommendation?

• Same goes for frame builder. I'm not set in stone regarding who the builder is and to some extent it will be dictated by price so any suggestions? A Ritchey Break-Away Steel Road is about £1600 so I'm hoping I can get this frame in around about the £2000 mark.

Also a fun bit of all of this is that whatever the finished product will end up there will be a pair of them made as my colleague who I travel with the most is also a keen cyclist and would similarly like a travel bike for these work trips.

I'm probably forgetting loads of things here but any suggestions or recommendations welcome!

This sounds like a great project.
Fwiw my inputs are
650B or 700c: depends on your height.

Braking: cable discs are fine, but hydro does not require frequent bleeding. You can easily detach the brake caliber so no need to have a connector.

Gearing: 46/36 x 11-28 is my favorite. If you run Shimano, front shifting is great. I’m sure someone else will tell you to go 1x

BB: bsa

I was worried about the upkeep of hydro brakes initially. I have SRAM HydroR’s and have set them up once and they have been amazing. Interestingly i upgraded from TRP Spyres and noticed a massive difference in stopping power between the two.

I’ve currently got a Talbot built breakaway style frame in for paint. Is nice. Would recommend.

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I've built a fair few of the ritcheylogic.com break away frames, either as talbots or sub contracted for other people, and have grown to really like it. If you can find a deal on a group I'd really try going hydro and wireless, sram force would be ideal. 1x/2x is personal preference, although obviously with a cable set up the mech may need fiddling with on reassembly.

Futura gravel fork is great, I use loads of them so can strongly reccomend.

I'd go T47 BB as you can run whatever crank axle standard you want, and it makes your frame builders life easier when welding, although there aren't as many bbs out there for it, but still a good spread.

Tube wise you are slightly limited by the fact you need the right ID to build with the connectors, but in any case you should bear in mind this is going to be in and out of a box a lot, and being treated unkindly by ground crew, so I would consider either something with reasonable wall thickness in the 853 range, or do what Neil did and go the 953 route. I wouldn't use spirit for example, as its too easy to dent.

@Dammit has spent more time thinking about these as a build as well, so assume he will have some sage advice.

Just ask Amey what he’d do and then do the opposite.

boom!

I have a bulletproof geekhouse S&S coupled machine for sale, with carry case n all.
just sayin’
But yeah like the look of the Ritchey system. S&S just feels lovely tho

I'd do this. I am currently thinking about building a bike around a bag.

Awesome. I have been lusting over the Ritchey Ascent for awhile.

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Wise words aplenty.

So consensus is hydro and just use the brake mount as the coupler for packing.

Might drop you an email @coldharbour, hadn't considered going Talbot as I assumed the budget wouldn't allow for it but if you don't ask etc.

Have you put up a listing yet?

+1 for breakaway. Been riding road version for a year. and seeking now more gravelly options. Been on a few trips and its been faultless. Etap ftw

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/297202/?offset=25#comment13537938

please dont buy it, im saving up for it :)

FWIW I went with eTap and rim brakes, them thumbed my nose at the Gods by choosing tubeless carbon clinchers.

Shimano hydros are rather easy to bleed

I went for rear brake under/behind BB which makes the whole thing very simple- the only visible cabling is at the front, rear brake cable vanishes into downtube, front brake is one short run from lever to caliper.

To split the frame simply unclamp the rear brake cable and pull the cable out- dip the cable end in superglue or solder so you don’t need an end cap.

If you're not living life on the edge you're taking up too much space...

Do you have a build thread for this monstrosity?

2k for the frame, dependent on spec etc isnt unimaginable, drop me a line and we can see if its a goer.

Sent an email through the contact form on the website there now!

Its a shame that Ritchey don't do a breakaway cross disc, the Carbon outback looks tasty! (and huge $$$)

Ok so the planning stage for this is proceeding nicely and there have been some discussions with a certain framebuilder of forum repute but I have a few more things to hash out that I'd like to figure out before I pull the trigger on it... I'd like to have everything decided before I start so there are no nasty surprises at the other end of the build.

Geometry:

Obviously this will be largely down to the discussions with the builder but I'm thinking that I'd like the geometry to be more road oriented than getting too gravel specific? Kind of more like a road frame with massive tyres if that would make sense or is that a stupid idea? I want to be able to tackle a good day of road riding unencumbered and for the times there will be a bit of offroad I'm happy to slow down the pace...

Wheels:

Given the expected usage of 75% varying standard roads and 25% gravel/ fire roads/ dirt track do I go for a 700c or 650b wheelset?
The fork will most likely be a Columbus Futura Gravel fork which has clearance for 700c x 40mm which should mean it can also take a 650b x 2.25" tyre if I'm not mistaken? Obviously in an ideal world a set of each would be lovely but to start with it will be one or the other so which should I go for?
If I go for 700c do I need to use 29er mtb rims to accommodate a 40mm tyre? Any recommendations for rims and disc hubs?

Groupset:

I'm decided on hydro brakes but uncertain on what groupset to go for. I'm tempted to try and go for the new Ultegra RX in a 1x build if it isn't going to be silly money. In terms of simplicity of disassembly/ assembly and packing would I be absolutely crazy not to go for Di2? Sram 1x seems like it's going to be a bit over budget from any group sets I can find online...

Finishing kit:

I'm leaning towards silver Thomson seatpost and stem with a set of Ritchey Classic handlebars... Any reason not to from a usage point of view aside from aesthetics?

Also please don't hesitate to highlight and glaringly stupid omissions I've made or obvious pitfalls I'm about to encounter!

Why not silver ritchey stem / seatpost?

Possibly will go for full Ritchey stem/ seatpost/ bars combo... it will probably be a bit cheaper than the Thomson bits but the Thomson stem and seatpost are a bit prettier I think, there's definitely wiggle room there though.

What colour paint tho?