Gravel / Gravé / Gnarmac / Groad / ATB

My experience doesn't tally with his last point though (Force 22). If I wind the reach towards the bar, the bite point also moves towards the bar. Conversely if I put the reach to maximum, the bite is immediate.

Nice work. How are you doing your "DIY respray"? It doesn't look like a rattlecan job eh.

Looks like one of your chainrings fell off though.

Oh, I should've waited a bit. You do a bit of graf when you were younger? :)

MTB wins for me, easily. Please tell me this guy isn't just Joe Average rider?

Anyone used Terravail Cannonball? Found them in 650x47 (and in black which is better)

Also have the neat option of matching the front Cinturato M 650x50 with a Cinturato H 650x50 in the back but then I still have the super tight fork clearance going on so anything wet is going to get scuffy.

Still have a Mezcal 2.1 that would fit on the back and would be a helluva lot grippier than the Venture.

Yeah I have the cannonballs in47mm on 650b pretty decent all round gravel tyre on road actual gravel and shit from a butt. Can only compare with WTB byways in 48mm which were slower on road and terrifying if anything was mildly damp

I’m still young 🥲
Haven’t painted anything but bikes though. Oh and the plastic strips on my car bumper when I was 17

Yeah, these will be used mostly rough off-road so I'm not worried about slick centrelines and similar for road use. They've got aggressive knobbage but it's quite low, maybe lower than the blocks on a GravelKing SK. How were they to setup tubeless?

I took all the plastic bits off my car when I was younger. Weight weenie (not really, I had to make up for the 200kg of stereo system somehow). Anyway looks neat. I'm wondering where my threshold is for paint scratches before I get a bike resprayed. Probably far too high and I'm more likely to replace it.

The 2021 Genesis Croix De Fer 50 are currently delivering in.... January 2022, at the earliest.

Simple Bike Store:

SIZE S WILL BE AVAILABLE ONLY IN JANUARY 2022!
SIZES M, L, XL WILL BE AVAILABLE ONLY IN MAY 2022!

If you've not pre-ordered it already, I think it's going to be nigh on impossible to get a new bike this year.

I'm wondering where my threshold is for paint scratches before I get a bike resprayed.

At a certain point it's easier to make it into a feature/pattern and convince yourself the bike came like that

I'm still of the "chicks dig scars" mindset, so most of mine probably remind me of some (hopefully funny now) incident. I did think about having the Shiv redone but it seems silly given that it only comes out once a year these days.

Great tubeless can go silly low pressure
I think better than gravel kings (only used gk in 700c 3somethingmm) in grotty stuff.

A bigger MTB tyre would probs be best option if you are aiming at the majority being off-road. I like the cannonball as a compromise across all the terrains.

I did Badlands on GK SK 700x50 which I probably ran too high psi being a noob but I had zero issues with them during the race. The initial setup was a bitch though. I think I did two tape jobs and two shops had a go too before they sealed. Very flexible tyre so they're more sensitive to tape wraps apparently. But I don't have those wheels on the gravel bike any more so its 650B 4 lyf.

I got some in that size with the extra tough casing. They seated very easily and no punctures yet, but they felt a bit dead to ride.

Let some air out? I don't think I have enough dirt experience or push my bike hard enough to notice subtle differences. I know when I don't have grip on steep loose and I'm just sliding down a hill (if I was less chicken I'd just roll it but, you know, corners) I know when I've not got enough air in, when the tyre folds on steep corners but that's about it.

Maxxis Crossmark in 1.95 are another option

GK SK 700x50

Any chance you still have this tyre and be looking to get rid of it? I'd like to try fit it to understand the clearances

I do, they're going on the grrl's Sequoia though when I eventually get around to TLing it.

Im trying to put together a gravel build on a budget for a good friend of mine.
So far the only things I have are a Trek Crockett frame and a GRX 600 1x chainset.
I'm planning on going with GRX hydraulic and I was wondering if an SLX 11 speed rear mech would work with the GRX levers and chainset?
If that wont work, what are my other options for a budget 1x11 setup?

I'm planning on going with GRX hydraulic and I was wondering if an SLX 11 speed rear mech would work with the GRX levers and chainset?

With Wolftooth TanPan it will

Also who has stock?

If you don't own the SLX rear mech already just buy the GRX one, if you need to get it to work with bigger cassettes you can always add a Roadlink, much neater than a TanPan solution

Stock is an entirely different question, this is all just a theoretical build at the minute.
Good to know it will work with the tanpan if it comes to it, I'll keep that as an option if I can get a used SLX or similar.

Don't have anything at the minute, just saw that the SLX was £50 new as opposed to the 11 speed GRX being a lot more and I vaguely remembered hearing that GRX was compatible with MTB bits.

Only the cassettes I think. GRX has same cable pulls as 11-speed road groups

Entries have opened for the National Gravel Championships if anyone wants to put their money where their mouth is about the best UK gravel set-up

https://kingscupgravel.com/