Gravel / Gravé / Gnarmac / Groad / ATB

Desperate Dan want’s his pie plate cassette back

Criticising cassette sizes in the gravel thread, what is the world coming to

Save it for the MTB thread

It's great. Took a half day to get used to the relative twitchiness given I've been riding MTBs since the crash but after a week it's lovely. Needs a clean now though.

Yeah, I wanted fat rubber and everyone poo poo'd the Cinturato Velos so here we are.

#happyface

Function > form is even better if the form makes LFGSS users taste a little sick.

I do have a "normal" saddle here to test out but I'm waiting until I have a new seatpost.

Hi, it's the Pyrenees, just letting you know that Mummy Suffolk called and said it's well past your bedtime and you should stop playing on the interwebs.

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It's not even my usual 42T, it's a 40T, as the 42T struggled a bit on the Crux with GRX Di2 setup.

Is the Crux the lightest grvl frame biek you can get? Nice pics!

Very jealous.

Such a beautiful part of the world.

Mine's not. I saved £££ by not buying the S-Works version.

I’ve just put a 36 on my grvl bike, wondering if I should’ve gone bigger/ smaller. Not that I’ve ridden it since last winter

It depends where you ride and what you ride and how much you carry (hippyisfat).

I try not to use the 40T because it's the only alu sprocket. Of course I can turn a bigger gear but I don't want to have to. Killing my legs on day 1 of a week long tour is not clever. It's not like I'm going to set any KOMs anywhere anyway.

I did have a 36T on this with the road wheels but have no qualms sticking the biggest cassette I can find on these days.

Another option is to get your missus to carry all your luggage because you "don't want to put bags on a new bike just yet". Then you can run your big boy cassette while your partner carts all your shit up the next mountain. mwuahahahahahaaa

Very fun first outing for the GXC after Dolan finally pulled their finger out. Tubeless & chain waxing also living up to the hype thus far.

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Been looking forward to seeing this getting used - looks fantastic

The build took so long that I managed to have a cybernetic arm installed and a bike stolen (fuck GLS) in the middle of the whole thing. Here's the Crux with a Mason that hasn't been stolen by a courier company yet...

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Hello gravel friends of LFGSS.

I welcome opinions on this.

Trying to find a gravel bike that can be ridden on gnar grav during summer with one wheelset and thicc tyres, but can operate as an endurance/ultra audax thing on road during winter months. Needs mounts for stuff and guards. Already have the 'road' wheelset, for bike options looking at Canyon Grizl or Spesh Diverge E5 -

Does anyone have experience with either bike in this context? ChatGPT tells me that in terms of geometry, they are both suitable, but that the Diverge might slightly edge it in terms of 'road' performance.

Thanks!

Yes, I've raced TransAm on a Kinesis Tripster and then done Badlands on the same bike.

I also have the Crux above which has 700c road wheels and 650B gravel wheels doing the same thing. Handy since GLS stole, sorry "lost" my road bike.

To be honest, with the state of the roads, I'll probably just end up leaving the gravel wheels on for 90% of the time. We just did a 99% road tour and I ran the gravel wheels with no issues. I mean, maybe I'd be a bit faster with the road wheels but who cares? It was a tour.

I prefer the Crux for handling so personally I would err towards the more road geometry if I was choosing again. But you can't be the cost and "who cares" attitude you can take when riding the Tripster

I’m with you on the state of the roads. I’ve only used my road set up once on the Midnight Special.

Buy two bikes. Get an endurance/ultra audax thing now. Then buy the other in the summer. Don't compromise.

I had a 2018 Diverge E5 and it was my do-everything-bike; gravel, commuting, road (even 200bhp drop rides), tours/holidays - you name it.

Truly felt like the one (drop bar) bike to rule them all.

Even with multiple bikes, everything's still a compromise.

Trek Checkpoint or Domane.

Ribble’s CGR look apt for this too.

But the geometry of the Diverge E5 are surprisingly road-like, especially if you fit 650b with 38mm tyres give you a similar handling of a fast road bike

Diverge E5 are surprisingly road-like

Really? Last time I rode one (some years back now) it felt like an armchair with wheels.

Disagree! Unless you Really like a significantly faster bike an endurance/gnarmac/650B slick/treaded build will be just fine 90% of the time.
The remaining 10% can be spent being thankful for fat tires on UK roads.