Gravel / Gravé / Gnarmac / Groad / ATB

If you say so. The world-record-attempt bike things have wheel covers presumably to take the rotating parts out of the wind as in this unfortunate example:

Wheel covers are very different from forks with tight clearance. Covers redirect air over non-moving surfaces decreasing the speed difference between the air and the object it hits and decreasing drag. Tight clearances squeeze the air through a more narrow duct, increasing the air speed, increasing the speed difference between the air and the object it hits and increasing drag.

To a point. I don't think there's any evidence that MTB/gravel tyres have lower rolling resistance than a 28/32mm.

Yes there is.

Fair enough then. It's no more aero. It just weighs less and has different geometry

The forks on a Rondo Ruut are a way better solution to this:

I agree; in fact that whole bike looks great. It's a lot more expensive though! I wish they sold the steel frameset or just the fork separately, I imagine they'd sell thousands of them.

Were you guys on a ride last Sunday?

Think it was Saturday, not Sunday

Ah, yeah. You guys looked like you were filming a Genesis/bikepacking-bag advert as you rolled through Richmond (..I think it was).

Haha sick. Was a fun ride despite the temperature and rain. Didn't spot you I don't think. Were you riding?

Were you riding the Kleinendale?

Not on this particular ride no, the arkose coz rain and offroad

Me and @hp93 were testing out our newly acquired flaps

filming a Genesis/bikepacking-bag advert

this is a great way to describe the trio

They describe it as cyclocross / adventure with the longer (cyclocross) fork in it, for which a B.B. drop of 62mm is pretty sensible.

But it's higher than a SuperX, which is designed to race over obstacles on 33c. It's definitely not required for riding mild off-road on 40c.

The superX is not your average cyclocross frameset by any measure.

What I mean is it would be fast enough for the sort of riding I do, and more traditionally roadie than something like a Straggler. You can build it up to like 8kg (but that's way too expensive for me) which is lighter than my crappy aluminium road bike.

I would really make sure that it is fast/light enough for you, I'm not exactly a speed merchant and it was meant to be a bike for touring/gravel/cross etc. but I just found it frustratingly slow and didn't really get on with the geometry.

Mine was 12kg, that was with Ultegra, Thomson finishing kit, carbon Romin. Not the lightest wheels (Hope Pro 4 on Pacenti SL25's) but I couldn't work out where the weight was coming from! (I think the short answer is probably the frame, but the quoted figure didn't sound THAT heavy.)

I have an Orro Terra C now which is above the budget you're looking to spend but it really is a do everything bike. I use it as a winter bike with guards/for gravelcross but it can also take a rack so will see touring duties. The difference is I could also take it on my local club run and keep up and it's just a lot more satisfying to ride, it's not quite as fast as my all out road bike but the only real limitation is the rider ;)

No, unfortunately wasn't riding, was sheltering in the train station.

@Jules and very impressive flaps they were, too.

For a cross bike yeah, though modern cx bikes tend to be lower too, but it's high for a adventure/gravel bike. But that's not a problem.

Whilst that is a very nice bike, I need something that can also stand in as a once-a-year tourer. I'd be terrified of riding a carbon frame with 20kg of crap loaded on it!

And like you say it's definitely fitness holding me back more than anything else. 12kg would probably be fine; my current "full-blown road bike" is (I think) just under 10kg. I'm intending to get a fancy road bike in a few years so this one will just have to stand in until then.

Why would riding carbon with luggage terrify you? It’s as tough as old boots.

Well I assume there's a good reason that there's no carbon touring bikes out there

The conservative nature of touring cyclists?

Probably a significant factor. Ease of repair too, general lack of "brazings" on carbon bikes, oversized tubes being sub-optimal for luggage, and carbon doesn't take well to a bunch of weight hanging off a single point does it (i.e. rack fitment points)?

Either way carbon is out of my budget for this bike

Well I assume there's a good reason that there's no carbon touring bikes out there

Tifosi Cavazzo
Diamondbank Haanjo Carbon

Both carbon touring bikes. Carbon is fine with point-loading, as long as it's designed for the job. Look at the front suspension mounts on F1 cars, mounted directly onto the carbon tub. It's a niche market, granted, I suspect because the main advantages of carbon are stiffness and weight, both of which are rather irrelevant when you've got 20kg of luggage strapped to the bike, at which point the cost factor becomes more important.