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Condor Bivio are rather close to road bikes
that's why I quite like the look of it.
I chose the Grail because the review sites seem to love it, BikeRadar put it top of their list of best gravel bikes
https://www.bikeradar.com/advice/buyers-guides/best-gravel-bikes/The Cannondale Topstone is another popular one and that has even slacker angles, 71.2 deg head tube in size large. I have no positive comments about the slack head tubes on the Crux and Super X, I mean it must work for some people but I find the handling weird when you get to 71 degrees like the Super X.
It seems like "gravel" bikes are getting further and further away from road bikes, I guess as manufacturers try and differentiate themselves by having more mounts, more space for bags, more complience, more clearance etc. There's definitely a market for bikes you can build up like this
I just don't think it's nevessary for people who do road rides with a bit of mud thrown in.
Sumo-
Interestingly I have that frameset, and chose it for being not too far removed from a road bike. That said, the 'road bike' was a 2015 croix de fer (pre long tt short stem geo change) but so far it's been exactly what I was looking for. Nimble enough on the road, winds up to speed well for my tarmac commute. Swap to 650x2.2 for the gvnarvel on the weekend, two-wheel drift past people on full-sussers while laughing my head off. In anti-gravel stylings I run 50/36 chainrings
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I have no positive comments about the slack head tubes on the Crux and Super X, I mean it must work for some people but I find the handling weird when you get to 71 degrees like the Super X.
It seems like "gravel" bikes are getting further and further away from road bikes
Yeah, I like a bit steeper angle for road riding too. So those two cross bikes wouldn't be my choice, though for actual cx races sure. Neither would one of the high stack drop bar mtbs. And cx race bikes might miss bottle and guard mounts.
jackbepablo
Samuli
Then again cross bikes like Super X and Crux have slacker headtube angles than that Grail. And gravel bikes like the Condor Bivio are rather close to road bikes, with the stack too, 593 mm on a 58. Specialized Roubaix is a few cm taller. These have about 70 mm of bb drop too. Diverge also looks a bit like a road bike, though not quite. A confusing time to be alive.