Kinesis ✨ 🍆⚡️

This looks identical to the tripster just without the wonky downtube. It'll clear more than 40s for sure.

And shit paint

Red could look nice with your frame, can match headset, rotor lockrings... Or the new olive drab

And another for slight flare - Salsa cowbells are lovely for road. Zipp Service Course 70 XPLR also get love and have that ovalised top (but they don't make 38cm version so I never tried).

Already got the oil slick clamp and bottle cages on the way. Hopefully they don’t look shit. Fun to lean in to the 90s Hope MTB rainbow ano kinda vibe

Actually seen a few purple bikes with silver bits look real nice. @Hulsroy has a tiny banger on his insta right now

I fully fully agree with silver bits

oil slick is very fun too, i mean I got an oil slick chain on my purple bike, and seat clamps are cheap enough to change around when you fancy. Please post lots of pictures

I was trying not to be negative

Panaracer coloured tyres

Main question right now is 1x11 or 1x12 GRX. I really can’t see myself even needing 40x45 but who knows

So gearing options are:

A) 11s 42 x 11-40 giving a range of 29" to 104"

B) 12s 42 x 11-36 giving a range of 32" to 104"

C) 12s 42 x 10-45 giving a range of 25" to 114"

The 12s 10-45 would need a microspline hub which I'm investigating.

My road bike is 34/50 x 11-28 giving a range of 32" to 120" - apart from the Dolomites I've never felt the need for a lower gear, or higher.

As the Kinesis will be used mostly on the road (I expect), I'm leaning towards option B. Smaller jumps between gears, lighter cassette, I don't think I really need the extremes of gearing that 10-45 brings. Also saves money on a freehub.

Thoughts? Should I have super low gearing for gravel, Epping or a bit of loaded touring in spring?

Depends how much coffee kit you’re carrying around in your bike packing baggies?

I think you will want a bit lower gears, mainly because if you’re climbing on loose surface you’ll want to stay seated, and would presumably be wanting to cycle through some soft ground vs the lovely tarmac of road.

Are you set on 42t up front?

In my experience 11-36 is plenty enough if you are going to use it a lot on the road. anything above and the jumps between gears are too much.
for mostly gravel/mixed rides i would gear down the chainring to 40t or less to retain smaller gear jumps at the rear. as implied by stelfox i guess

I switched temporarily to 11-40 or 42 for steep north or south downs rides for instance, king alfred's fpr instance, or touring.

that said, if i was building a 4 seasons road/gravel bike, i would put 2x11.

that said, if i was building a 4 seasons road/gravel bike, i would put 2x11

Wot he said for general do-it-all gearing. Have used this for my gravel/winter bike over the past 5 years, which has handled everything from the Gran Guanche bikepacking route to chaingangs and long-distance road rides. Only caveat would be if you were planning to do fully-loaded off-road touring (i.e. carrying camping/cooking gear etc) when you'd definitely want the greater range

The fun bits of Epping are all off the gravel paths - there’s probably a hundred miles of dirt singletrack to explore. (Additionally the gravel paths are shared use so riding fast on them is a dick move).

I would fit the bike with tyres that have some good bite in mud, and low gearing that doesn’t require constant fettling.

I could easily put a 40t on the front, could even go down to 38t.

Was planning on taking the SRAM Rival chainset from my Ribble as I have a PM left crank on there. It won't be as pretty as a full GRX setup but it's fairly inoffensive and I don't really want to buy a new PM.

I think extra points for mixing (apart from Campagnolo)

as implied by stelfox

yeah! avoid big jumps and accept spinning out on a big comfy descent

Grand, so consensus is go low on gearing. Might get a 40t ring for now.

Only time I’ve ever wanted more gear inches on the Ribble is sprinting for the Chigwell sign and @cjr always beats me anyway.

My contribution to this (much awaited point in time):

Shimano GRX 600 / 400 / 800 - Agreed on the 2x giving you better versatility for road/offroad use, 30-46 with a 11-32 cassette would require no fettling for the riding you are describing, including, small cassette, no large jumps, shorter chain (and less slap). You can mix/match components to save money on the groupset, the only thing that makes a difference is the clutched RD and the '800 shifters are nice, everything else can be GRX600 or 105 (not the sub-compact crank).

VEL 28mm Alloy Disc Wheelset - Assuming you will have one wheelset but wanting to ride multiple surfaces, in winter, will mean swapping tyres, which is why you should start with tubed setup (latex tubes allow lower pressures anyway). You can always move to tubeless after you confirm how much offroad you want to do. That said, being running tubeless on the commuter for months now and I am sold on it.

Pro PLT Ergo flat top bars - No need for flared bars imho, unless you plan on some gnarly bikepacking or mountains expeditions. Just go 2cm wider than your normal road bars and you'll be good. I like Zipp SL 70 Ergo, not much flat top, but enough.

Gravel King Slick or similar - If you are dead set on using a single tyre for all of the described riding, Vittoria Terreno dry or zero roll nicely and have some shoulder bite.

Mudguards - just fitted Kinesis Fend Off Wide, which are nice and cost less than half of PDW, and would be on brand with the bike.

Let me know when we're riding!

That tape is awful, I had it for a bit, just the worst. Slippery as fuck.

Wow, I wasn’t able to meet you for a couple of days and you already bought a frame!

I’ll tell you my thoughts in the pub.

Yeah not actually doing that. Got a few rolls of my tape of choice in stock already. Also need to try and keep this at least a tiny bit low key so it doesn’t get nicked in five mins

slick tyres in Epping? not sure....have you looked out the window recently?

Gravel King Slick or similar

Are you looking for company in the broken collarbone thread :D

OK Gravel King SK or Vittoria Terreno or pirelli cinturato H as per @giofox and @cjr reccos

Might have accidentally bought a Shimano PM

Mandatory on a commuter