Gravel / Gravé / Gnarmac / Groad / ATB

Did you ever check you mavic end cap situation?

Isn’t the midnight special’s thing that it’s road geometry with big plush tyres that you can also take off road, rather than having slack mtb geo?

Dunno, but the geo is spot on for me and the handling is perfect for a mix of off and on road. And I have a 100mm stem on it.

After suffering a bad case of buyers remorse with a cross-check I'd advise being careful around Surly. It was heavy,dead and unnecessarily stiff resulting in terrible ride quality, they make ridiculously over-engineered bikes that only excel at being rugged. There are far more responsive, fun and lively metal bikes available for a similar price, in short Surly are shite.

Yeah, pretty sure my wheels can’t be converted.

They're totally fit for purpose I'd say...having just bought my old one back.

If you want a montercrosser/touring bike then Surly is great - if you are looking for something spritely then look elsewhere. And they never market them otherwise.

Maybe I was just naive and didn't realise they only produced touring bikes. I could live with it being heavy, but didn't expect such a stiff uncomfortable ride quality. They built no compliance into the frame, I owned a Giant tcx at the same time that was far more comfortable over long mixed terrain rides. Bought it because I liked the way it looked and the illusion of a rugged all terrain bike, but it's marketing nonsense unless you're planning on fully loaded tours.

I ride a Surly Pacer and Cross Check, most comfortable bikes I've owned. Pacer is great for all day rides and Cross Check is great for nipping off road and light touring. Maybe you had too much pressure in yer tyres.

for me a tig welded, fairly simple steel frame in 4130 “should “be around 3 to £400.

10 years ago, probably.

I've got two gravel bikes both 55tt same as my roadbikes. The thought of riding a 2 or 3 cm longer tt and stubby stem just feels weird.

Take some time to get used to, but ultimately it works well, it will still steer you in the right direction.

Imaging how old school MTBers felt when they went from 150mm to a mere 90mm.

Was riding the same gravel king sk tires at the same pressure on the cross check and giant tcx. Should also say that I have a massive bias towards skinny tubed steel bikes, so really wanted to like it. Frankly I am still frustrated at myself for being seduced by the marketing nonsense and over-paying for a 4130 cromoly frame. My problem is that they produce and market no nonsense style bikes, without reflecting this in their pricing. This is especially true with their completes, that have inferior tubing and components then their competitors at a greater price.

I discovered these too late, it ticks all my boxes but they're out of stock.

Despite a contrary reply from blb on the Fyxation website it says the Sparta is not suitable for low riders/panniers only for a rando rack/platform and rando type bag.

I’m back to square 1.

Hmm thanks for this, good to know as I was going to ask Fyxnation the same question. Was this destined for the Fugio?

I'd say before brexit, CDF for example was £299 frameset or something.

Steel is real bruv

Now to do more reading on whether fitting lowrider rack to carbon fork for touring is a good idea.

It's not :)

Indeed, fugio and pelago rasket.

Was going to run the fugio with my straggler fork for van-san but although it exists on the surly midnight special (I think it’s that one, they all look the same), I can’t find a 44mm > 1 1/8 external cup lower headset.

Thought the Fyxation looked perfect but no, would maybe be ok with a pizza rack but each leg has a 3kg weight limit, not sure if that means 1kg per boss?

Might just take the cdf with straggler fork and save the fugio for when I get back.

Steal is real heavy fam

I have a pizza rack attached to the fork eyelets in my sequoia which has a carbon fork. I now am wondering what the weight limit on those eyelets is

Have been front loading and riding with a steel fork for 3 years now and it's been a revelation. Can't really fault it, although if I had one wish wouldn't mind the bike being lighter when it's not carrying anything.

Will probably investigate a carbon touring fork in another 3 years to see if one exists... Thanks for the reality check!

What marketing nonsense would that be?

https://surlybikes.com/bikes/cross_check

Also have one. Love it.

How about a pelago commuter rack in large coupled with a normal carbon fork? Most of the weight will be ( I guess) on the fork crown and the qr-skewer. #notanengineer

That would be the no bullshit, no nonsense, straight to the point we aren't fucking around we just ride bikes marketing nonsense. They're going for the anti marketing dollar, very smart.