Titanium Gravel Help

Looking to buy a titanium gravel bike but I simply cannot decide on which to get and as a roadie I'm not sure if I'm missing any considerations.

Budget: £2k-£3k (will then use GCI cycle scheme)
Uses: North/South downs, winter roads, Swedish gravel (example), would also like to foray into some bikepacking
About me: 29m, 6ft2, road bikes (so happy with a less upright position)

Leading Contenders

1. Sonder Camino
   
   • Ultegra £2899
     
   • GRX600 £2649
     
2. Ribble Gravel Ti
   
   • GRX800 £3100
     
   • GRX600 £2800
     
3. Planet X Tempest
   
   • SRAM Force 1x - £2000
     
   • SRAM Force 1x + (35mm or 55mm) carbon wheel upgrade - £2500
     
4. Dolan GXT
   
   • Ultegra £2925
     
     
     

Ant thoughts, tips, considerations are greatly appreciated.

1 Attachment

The planetx looks a massive bargain compared to everything else on your list!

Agreed, I was going to suggest buying a 2nd hand pickenflick or similar.. serious value.. A large pick was listed on ebay this morning for £900 full Sram Force, Mavic wheels etc..
I have a pickenflick and it's my 2nd, very versatile and great value

We've just got back from a bikepacking trip and a friend had recently bought the Tempest. Really nice bike, he upgraded to forks with mounts. Doesn't have the down tube mount though

Nice, where did you go?

Thanks for the feedback. In my dummy build I did add the £50 addon for the bikebacking forks.

In my head the lack of bento box (top tube) and downtube mounts isn't a big issue as you can just velcro, am I naive?

Enigma’s framesets start around the £2k mark, for the foreign manufactured ones. My 2p… titanium is a pain to get fixed if/when it cracks and buying from someone that’s able to repair their own (eg Enigma) isn’t such a bad idea.

Should say- there’s nothing to suggest titanium will give you less life then eg a high end carbon frame, just don’t expect a guarantee of steel-like bike for life certainty.

Over budget but J.Guillem offer a 100 year warranty

I have ridden a Planet X tempest for over 5 years - gone everywhere - road and off road. Love it. Great value. I did have an issue with the frame though. As @Engineering101 says - ti isn’t necessarily for life. But I found this excellent chap in Yorkshire who mended my frame and was very reasonable. So even if you don’t go with the expensive and local Enigma option, reasonable repairs are still possible. https://www.instagram.com/p/CNuwq8mhn1c/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== (And yes; that insta post is a stress fracture in my frame being mended)

https://www.gloriacycling.com/bikes/gloria

Can recommend Gloria, and you can even possibly try one out first.
Have been riding mine daily commuting + random gravel + Kings Cup and it's been great for just over a year. Good geo, quite light. You might be able to try one out first too if you're London-based.

We did a 4 day on / off road tour from Roscoff in France, highly recommended.

Yeah I guess the third mount is a bonus, depends what kind of mileage you're doing and weather but I find it nice to have a back up if needed . . .

Funnily enough found their website yesterday when my tyre blew out in the local area. They look nice but slightly out of budget. Now thinking maybe I should go steel instead.

I would suggest to hold up until one of those shops release their Ti bikes with sram apex axs. Should be within your budget i think.

Patience isn't a strong suit aha, but will certainly keep an eye out.

I have 12sp di2 on my main bike so would be good to go 12 to make it easier to swap wheels, whether I would in reality do so I'm not sure

Just to snake my way into this thread, appreciate you're using GCI, but I'll be putting up an XL PX Tempest with Force 1 and a few upgrades update for sale in the next day or so, if that's any interest?

Whilst I won't say it's not of interest I think the fact that GCI is basically half price and free financing I think it's unlikely there'll be a price we're both happy with but will certainly have a look :)

Yeah can't argue with that - just whoring myself out everywhere as I've gone too deep into the credit card with new projects and need to recoup some of it asap!