Gravel / Gravé / Gnarmac / Groad / ATB

Design for short stem, much better than long.

Fit a 50mm, 40mm, even 35mm it doesn’t matter.

Sonder Frontier - I’m looking at the same at the moment.

Looks terrible though.

Bombtrack Beyond?

Edit - up to 2.1, I think

MTB time

Salsa Fargo will take much fatter tyres, but no tapered headtube

yeah I'm starting to realise that what he wants isn't really available.

Anything that can take bigger than 2.1 tyres and has a tapered head tube is really just a mountain bike.

Show them this. It should put them off the whole idea ;-)

You cant just go around posting that willy nilly. It's obscene.
There should be a report post button.

Mason in search of. There was an OPEN too, surely there's something else.
Drops and silly MTB tires kind of negates each others advantages anyways

Mason in search of

Yeah I looked at that. Its pricey and ugly as fuck but it does meet the tyre and head tube requirements.

Yeah, my pal wants to have his cake and eat it. He's gonna have to compromise somewhere.

There was that Jaroon Plus. Still weird though

I think I'd rather have narrow tyres ( within reason ) and a riser bar, than fat tyres with drops off road

I don’t get why 2.25, like 2.0 is much more common, maybe even 2.1 without mudguard.

Pinnacle Arkose can take 650b with 2.1 with low stack knobbies.

not sure why 2.25, may have been a typo. I think he generally means mtb tyres.

I used to have an arkose runing 650b 2.1 mtb tyres. Arkose was my first suggestion to him.

I think something like that Jaroon is what he wants. He wants to run those kind of forks too.
But then to me that Jaroon is just a mtb with drop bars no?
How do all these 'gravel' bikes like that Jaroon actually differ from a mountain bike hardtail? Is the geometry massively different from a xc hardtail?

A little US centric and maybe a year out of date, but:

https://bikepacking.com/index/650b-gravel-bikes/#menu

There's a link to a 29" version of the page in there too

Edit: also: https://bikeinsights.com/search?bar_type=drop&base_build[tire_width_max][min]=55&base_build[tire_width_max][unit]=mm

Is he after 650b x 2.25 or 700c/29 x 2.25?

Fairlight Secan has room for 2.25?

I've squeezed 2" tyres in my bike and it's frankly a bit ridiculous. It's good off-road but it still only goes a way towards compensating for my lack of skill. It is comfortable though. I'll be wearing them out then going to 47c or maybe 42, I think.

To add to @frankenbike 's list here's a another list that includes UK brands -
https://bikepacking.com/index/drop-bar-mountain-bikes-29er/

Where is your friend planning on riding this bike?

TBF the 650b Bootzipper is design to take road wheels.

47mm is spot on for everything, moreso tubeless.

I'd be inclined to say there is no magic bullet, but yeah I think something like the wtb resolute in 47c (this exact thing doesn't exist - suggestions welcome) would be just about ideal for me.

We had this yet?