1 bike to do it all... Tripster AT

i've decided that 1 bike will fulfill all my needs, so the CX bike and road bike have made way for a gravel bike and 2 sets of wheels... (which also means 2 sets of discs, cassettes and chains!).

i'll use a 700c with a 38mm gravelking slick for road duties, and a 650b set of wheels and some, as yet undecided, 2" tyres, for when i want to be a bit more, erm, rad?

so far:

my cx bike previously was a 42t chainring with an 11-36 cassette, which was fine, but i could spin out quite quickly on the road so wanted a harder (taller?) gear whilst staying with a 1x setup. So I planned on going 48t and a 10-42 cassette... Kinesis advised me that 46t was as big as i could go, so i went with a 46t chainring:

plenty of clearance, but it's on now, so it'll do!

and 700c wheels fitted with my old 700x33 cx tyres on , for now....

The green looks handsome IRL. I wasn't sure when I saw the stock photos on the Kinesis site.

This is my do-it-all, in "summer gravel" mode. Has a separate set of wheels with road tyres on for winter mile bashing. Mudguards stay on year round except on particularly muddy off-road days. Really love the bike and the way it rides - everything from multi-day multi surface bikepacking, to CX races, to the everyday commute. I went with 2x in the end as I do a fair bit on the road over winter and my legs appreciate the extra granularity in gear ratios. Particularly like the down-tube bottle mount to keep tools/tubes in

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Nice... what guards did you use? I like the obvious benefits of guards, but I dont think I'd want then on year round.... would yours be a faff getting them on and off?

46t is a tall chainring for off-road climbs.
Try to get the same hubs in both wheelsets, it will save you a lot of faffing aligning discs every time you swap wheels

I've done the maths and 46 should be ok, I could get up everything with the 42/36 combo, and 46/42 is easier... what could possibly go wrong!?! And yeah, I've made the mistake of having different hubs in the past and this time I'll be sticking to hope pro 4 hubs in booth sets 👍🏻

Technical climbs. The ones you should do in a MTB

They are the SKS chromoplastics in 45mm. As far as mudguards go they are relatively faff-less to get on and off but I wouldn't want to do it every day. Also look a bit 'gappy' with lower profile road tyres. But keep my arse and feet dry year round, which significantly outweighs any other disadvantages

freehub and cassette arrived...

got the shifters (with new hoses) on

which meant i could get the calipers moved over from my old bike:
front went on easily, blead up a treat

rear one however, the bleed port screw is well and truly stuck in there, this is what happened to my allen key when i tired to remove it:

means i won't be able to ride it this weekend, hopefully Hope will be able to fix ti, if not it looks like i'll need a new caliper... either way, more £££ :(

@Brain-Stew thanks

Have you tried heating it? May free it up...

i have alan..had it just a bit too hot to hold... will try the allen ky in the vice and use the caliper as leverage as a last ditch attempt... I think, again with heat

Try boiling water so you don’t fry the o rings inside

brake caliper went on the back burner and i got on with the rest of it.... i was a bit concerned that the chain line would be off when using a SRAM red crank. As a 1x setup as i was only able to use either the inner or outer chain ring position. Having sent an email to Wolftooth they assured me that the outer position would give me the correct chain line of 49mm, and it would seem they were right:

right then, all built up (sans bar tape)

happy with that.

and try as i might i could not get the bleed screw out, so i bought a new caliper (thanks for the suggestion @Simba) , at least i could fit a flat mount and not adapt my old post mount, that's something i'm taking away from this i suppose!

and the road tyres arrived too (700x38mm gravelking slicks);

a poorly child means i haven't actually managed a ride on it yet, but i'm off work next week and hopefully he'll be back at school.....

Am currently building up a neon orange for exactly the same reason. 700c Dyno road set and a 650b off road. Interested to know how the 2inch fit. Was thinking it might take a little more. Maybe 2.25 or even 2.4...

I've gone grx di2, and I can tell you routing has been a PITA

i can't even think how you'd route that tbf!? pics?

and it'll be a while until i get the 650b wheels/tyres, i have a lot of selling of stuff to do 1st...