Gravel / Gravé / Gnarmac / Groad / ATB

They’ve got some really interesting plans and the bikes look great. A nice addition to the collection of boutique-y UK steel frames for sure

Looking for something to bumble around off road with around bristol and Dorset. I have zero technical skills and won’t be doing anything approaching challenging to anyone with a modicum of talent. Am I better off with an Xc bike or something more gravelish?

Thank you for the suggestions! Standert or Stayer seems to have frames with quite nimble geometry, will look into them.

Depends on how much ground you want to cover, how much of that will be road, how much packing ability you need and/or how steep and technical the climbs are.

If you're OK to walk stuff when you can't navigate it but want a versatile bike to get around a lot, I'd say gravel.

If you want to ride up and down stuff and have more confidence in technical sections despite relative lack of skill, flat bars, suspension fork, a dropper and ultra low gearing certainly helps with that. Then I'd opt for XC.

If you had a Space Chicken & Sram Force build from Planet X, consider that a similarly priced steel bike can be about 20% heavier. Even if the geo matches, not guaranteed you'll feel it as "quick and numble".

If you go up a price bracket, and get a nice one with ~same spec, then you're looking at up to 1kg difference in frame. My Space Chicken frame in size 50 is 1133g, Standert is 1980g, the Ritte Satyr around 2200g.

Cheers. Plenty of nice road riding around here and I can get around a bit on cx tyres. Just wondering if by the time you’ve got 45mm tyres on a road bike, an Xc bike might be more fun for exploring?

Thread title is rubbish now

Yeah, what’s this “not quite CX bikes”? My gravel bike is a CX bike!

This thread doesn't deserve a a good title

In the end it really depends on what you find enjoyable.

Personally, I treat my gravel bike as my get-to-anywhere bike that's good for 100k plus rides but opens a lot of other options and route choices in comparison to a road bike. Usually I run 40mm ish tyres on 700. I have a second wheelset for it with so 650b tyres which allows me to take it on even chunkier bits, but since I bought the MTB that rarely happens.

My XC bike is great for techy climbing, natural trails, steep stuff and so on. But after 2 hrs the lack of hand positions get uncomfortable for me and the tyres I use are draggy anywhere that isn't single track, so it just ain't great for longer rides.

Also worth considering is the increased maintenance that comes with suspension and droppers.

Your ideal rig might be somewhere in the middle. Have you looked into flat bar rigid bikes at all? Like this list: https://bikepacking.com/index/rigid-steel-off-road-touring-bikes/

CX bikes on gravel duty yesterday

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Is that Hankley common ?

Yep! Great place to head at this time of year and the heathlands extend for miles.

Fair point. The SC was a custom built frameset with a GRX group and quite nice Mavic wheels, so probably quite light. I’m riding on a CFR696 based build these days, which feels sluggish compared to the SC, even though it can’t weigh that much more.

In that case this might help to narrow down what you're looking for geo-wise:
Space Chicken vs. CFR696 geo comparison

When I first built up the space chicken, I had 3cm spacers under stem, and a 44cm handlebar on it. I hated how it handled. Slammed the stem, and put on a 40cm (at hoods) bar with a flight flare. It's like a completely different bike, loving it with the current setup.

Glad I could offer no help in making your choice, the pleasure is mine :) Looking forward to see what you land on, and how it works out!

No, that’s Xin'trea.

Wondered if anyone had any experience of a Cannondale Topstone gravel bike using their ‘Kingpin’ rear suspension system. Not a lot of user reviews on line that I could find with opinions on it.
Long story short, am getting a C2W voucher this month for up to 3.5K, was looking at a Ribble gravel Ti , but after seeing the red flags on their (lack of) accounts submission to Companies House this week I am shying away from placing an order with them and after further research got interested in a Cannondale carbon Topstone in same price bracket, but have not seen anything like this Kingpin suspension before. In theory it looks appropriate especially for a gravel bike that is likely to be used mostly off-road rather than as a do-it-all bike.
Thanks for any input.

--michaeljacksonpopcorn.gif--

Do you have a chance to ride the bike before you buy it? That'll give you the best impression on whether you think it is the right thing for you. The system 'works', but whether that feels good for you is a different matter.

Good advice, thanks - I have never owned a bike with any sort of suspension so I guess it would make sense to try and get an extended test ride on this before committing…. Will contact some West London stockists to see what I can sort out.

That Kingpin system is all marketing crap imo, rear suspension and a rigid fork doesn't make sense. If you want more comfort on your gravel bike, get one with bigger tyres or a comfy seatpost (or buy a mountainbike).

It is not suspension. It is a way to allow the rear end of the bike to flex a bit more than usual without putting huge stresses on a carbon T-joint. This might be useful if you have a really rigid seatpost (i.e. dropper) or are underbiking. Bear in mind that the front of the bike already flexes very differently to the rear. A straight fork with a stem and handlebar =/= a closed triangle with a seatpost on top.

Thanks - I am not an early adopter type for new technologies, and don’t want something that is either a PITA, expensive to repair or maintain, or just ineffective / negative in improving ride quality, so maybe I’ll hang on for a bit and see how things pan out at Ribble with their current threat of dissolution, as I do still fancy their Ti gravel over other off the peg bikes that could be acquired through C2W at this price point. Got other bikes to ride in the meantime, it’s just an n+1 situation

Cannondale calls it "suspension", it has 30mm travel so that's a fair bit more than the front will flex.

Considering the weight distribution on the bike, I don't think 30mm is a fair bit more than the front will flex but as you said, your opinion, my opinion blah blah. Best way to find if it suits you is to ride it.