Gravel / Gravé / Gnarmac / Groad / ATB

not a whole christmas tree, just a few samples and a misteltoe, yes.

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Un-scenic update to my Rove posted in the previous page. Rode into work for a shakeout on the new shifters/drivetrain. Some minor tweaking and cleaning up to do, but I prefer the feel and shifting of the Shimano to the Rival that was on there.

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Something to look forward to from f*cking SRAM…

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Drop bar with suspension? Seen it. Next...

#needanotherGRX

I'm going to stop riding off-road until this is released. I mean, how would I even manage it without this wizardry?

I would be more worried about toe overlap (and maybe Lauf suing?).

Edit: and the bdhu cült

Light coat of boiled linseed oil would disguise that pretty well I would have thought.

With the 1x GRX cranksets - they only come with 40T or 42T it seems. Are there decent smaller aftermarket rings for these? If I stick 1x (boo) on the grrl's bike it'll save some coin (yay) though I'm not really convinced yet. Just trying to see what's what and put a list of options together. Not many places have 165mm cranks in any version it seems.

TA Specialities and Wolftooth both do a 38t, with the former costing half of the latter.

Note the 110bcd of the GRX is specific

. Not many places have 165mm cranks in any version

I recently picked a 165mm 1x from Spa Cycles for partners bike which comes in 38t (and many other and NW too). Really impressed with it, good quality.

It is square taper though, and not 'Gravel' specific so you'll lose trendy points.

It is square taper though, and not 'Gravel' specific so you'll lose trendy points.

I dunno... there's a section of gravel (probably talk about "party pace" on youtube videos) which is quite enthusiastic about square taper

I run square taper on 3 out of 5 bikes and have not changed a bottom bracket in nearly 2 years.

2 bikes I commute on so they both get used pretty much all the time. (which one depends on if I'm going to be late or if its going to be locked up outside)

square taper rocks.

the lack of availability for silly praxis rings, and the fact that im now running those cranks on my CDF (so the M30 bearings are tiny), has me seriously considering putting square taper on there. The Spa Cycles doubles seem ok, I just don't know if my ego can take it

If it helps, really impressed with the quality of the spa chainset and chainring when it arrived. Just plain black, no logos etc, looks quite smart in my eyes.

I am bored of shaking myself to bits/ worrying about flats/ worrying about dinged rims while riding around on 35mm tires, so I'm thinking of swapping out my frameset (spesh Diverge 2016) for something a bit more capable offroad and carrying stuff. However, due to space constraints it still needs to be able to run well on the road with a change of wheels. Obvious options are the Bombtrack Hook EXT C (I'm wedded to carbon) or maybe even a Salsa Cutthroat (perhaps a bit too MTB-geom to do the double?).

Lots of factors to think about, including compatibility of current components with the new frameset, but I'll cross that bridge later. Anyone got any bright ideas/ strong opinions on frames that could suit? Here's a pic to illustrate my issues, somewhere on the TNR.

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The newer diverges take bigger tyres if you liked the old one, might have to put up with a bouncy steerer though.

And checkpoints are better.

TBH the geo on the one I have now has never felt particularly stable, always a bit twitchy. Might be something to do with my incredibly narrow bars and very high stem.

How tall are you?

6'2"/ 187cm, but most of that is leg. That, coupled with poor hip flexibility, means I end up riding 56cm frames with a long seatpost and stacking the front end high to save my lower back.

but most of that is leg

Yeah, they go all the way up 😘

Can’t give much help about frames, but just wondering where was that picture taken? Looks amazing.

On the strada dell'Assietta, just before Sestriere (the town in the background) on the second day of the torino-nice rally. Would recommend, ideally without coinciding with a motorbike rally as we did. Also with larger tires!

I crashed twice on the descent from the Assietta (once due to motorcycles coming up really fast, once because I lost focus and ended up sliding into a rut) and totally lost my bottle on the loose farm track descents between Sestriere and Cesana Torinese. Lovely riding but mixed memories due to the end.

i had a 2020 hook ext c, and it definitely does what you want in terms of road manners and off road capability. I went back to steel in the end, but not through any issue with the bombtrack