Rufus Stone - Project Gravel Bike

Geometry wise it is not 100% what I would choose if I was having a frame built, but it's close enough to work for me and it rides extremely well for it's intended use.

My main concern was whether or not I'd manage to run a Brooks (or other leather saddles) with the seat angle being as steep as it is and my preference for a bit more setback than most. I've run into this issue on other frames with 73.5-74deg seat angle before and it's always been very borderline.

Fortunately I've managed to make it work with the RS using an old SR P3 seatpost and running the bars a little higher and close than I normally do on more road biased builds and altogether it's put me in an acceptable place as it's made me a little more upright, which ultimately is no bad thing for a bike like this and my bars have been creeping up on bikes I take offroad for a while now anyway and I think the RS really suits a slightly more upright and 'high bars' config, it's definitely more of an ATB inspired gravel bike than a road inspired gravel bike if you know what I mean?

I'm currently running a 80mm stem, but using bars with a longer 110mm reach, this works for me (I have short legs and a long torso) and gives me a good range of positions and mucho comfort, there is no way I could make this work with shorter reach compact bars though without going to a 100mm stem. I am only running 42cm wide bars as well, if you run significantly wider bars then it'll add 'effective' reach anyway so a shorter stem than you expect may feel spot on.

Ultimately I think if I were to get a bike like this custom built, which I may do some day, I would want the TT to be 10-20mm longer, and the seat angle to be a degree slacker, but that's more a reflection on my proportions than anything being 'wrong' with the RS.

I was fortunate to have spent a fair bit of time on my Singular Peregrine* with a similar build to this before I ordered the RS, and the Peregrine is very close fit wise, it's actually a smidge shorter in the TT so I was sure I'd be able to make the RS work.

If any of that is helpful then great, but remember fit and feel are totally personal preferences and what works for one person may not work for another. And bear in mind I'm 5'7 and riding a Medium, if you're getting an XL then you're quite a bit taller than me and that will affect weight distribution as well as basic things like reach and seat height. If you've got other/previous bikes that you like to use as reference then get the tape measure out and get comparing, otherwise I'd say build, ride, tweak, repeat! I've been mostly a lurker on LFGSS for years so not really familiar with everyone's history and whatnot so I'll just assume you already know what you're doing!

Your intended build spec looks great by the way, I love my Klampers but I've also got some Growtac Equal here in a box to try at some point soon out of curiosity. Now if only someone would make a nice classic looking silver clutched wide range rear derailleur...

• Which is ultimately going to end up a lot more offroad focused, possibly even with flat/swept bars so RS is replacing it in it's previous guise which was very much 'mixed-surface/gravel-light' and was my go-to bike for Dartmoor/Exmoor lanes riding coupled with a bit of 'I wonder where that track goes' offroad adventures and the occasional bit if ill-advised XC when I couldn't be arsed to pedal the MTB out on the road to get to it.