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I feel like I've read some negative things about the 3T 1 x bikes
@PhilDAS can probably advise you there
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I have a Rondo HVRT and it works for my rides which are similar to what you describe. I was fortunate enough to get the frame second hand last year and the prices have gone up significantly since. That Argon looks a good price. Ribble CGR?
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Total Gravel noob here.
I advise you buy a complete bike, because it sounds like that's what you need.
There are a zillion bikes to choose from because what you describe is very much "now".
My only push is to stick with steel because all the bikes are going be stiff and not exactly light, but steel is nice to look at, subtle and often still has all the modern features you might want and will be the same great functional bike years from now that it is today...
For example: Niner RLT 9 Steel, Rondo RUUT ST, Chumba, All City Cosmic Stallion, to name a few. These are great bikes for what you describe and can take all the crap you can throw at them and you can dress up in spandex or wear sandals.
to each their own though!
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3T: This was mine after 135 miles. Was nice whilst it lasted. But not worth the constant worry in my opinion.
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@keepit
Total Gravel noob here.
After going on a 'road' ride with the father in law which quickly turned into me trying to navigate mud, rocks and tree roots on a 25c GP5000s, I'm now seeing the value of having a frame that allows for bigger tyres. I'm usually very behind on new stuff/tech/trends (clinging for dear life to 10sp on all bikes but struggling to find chains locally these days..), but there are a few 'new' and 'trendy' things that I have been considering recently:
I think that 80% of my riding will still be on roads, and the remaining 20% would be on fairly tame gravel tracks/mud singletrack (things I currently use my MTB for). I quite like the idea of being able to do all of this on one bike, just swapping out the wheelset. It's also easy to sell domestically as could save space.
Any recommendations on a frameset that would be decent for fast road riding, but also allow up to maybe 30mm or 40mm (assume this is big enough for non-demanding gravel stuff)? I saw the Rondo HVRT in this thread that looks like it might be suitable - being able to use regular 700c or larger 650b tyres seems a smart way of doing things - is that the norm? Seems rather expensive however...3T Exploro seems like it could work, but the cable routing looks a bit odd, and I feel like I've read some negative things about the 3T 1 x bikes. LBS have a Argon 18 Dark Matter frameset on offer for £850 at the moment - seems well rated but perhaps not as good for the road as the others? Should I consider anything else? Any advice/sarcastic comments will be greatly received.