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Knowledge is power, sometimes literally, a few more watts from knowing how to adjust your fit!

Also, worth noting if you haven’t realised it already… the Rufus Stone geometry charts appear to be listing the seat tube length C2C and NOT C2T

So the 57cm will be more like 58-59cm if measured to the top of the tube.

I say this because my medium is listed as 54cm, but that’s def the C2C measurement as it’s ~56cm CTT

So maybe I should retract my previous ‘size up’ advice as the 57cm RS might actually be bang on your size? But if you can fit on the bigger one then I’d still say size up.

See what the fitter comes back with and check out the numbers, reach/TT length/stack more important than seat tube anyway IMO

As long as you have (some) stand over I’d always size up for this kind of bike.

My logic being:

The extra wheelbase is beneficial offroad
The extra reach can be accommodated with a shorter stem, on this kind of bike that’ll likely be a benefit too
The extra headtube/stack will also, for this kind of bike be beneficial
The extra ‘bigness’ in the main triangle gives more room for a big bag too if that’s relevant?

If it was a tarmac bound race/fast bike I might say size down if you’re on the borderline, but the RS ain’t that kind of bike.

For ref I’m 172cm and ride mostly 52cm bikes for my fast riding, 54-56cm for more cruising/Audax riding. I’m borderline S/M on both my Peregrine and Rufus Stone and went M on both, no regrets but I’m an inverse T-Rex with short legs and longer torso and reach.

I’m sure the fitter will get you the info you need to decide properly for you.

I'm gonna be honest, as much as I love a 5-vis crank, I don't think it suits that build. You've got a whole different aesthetic (which I also like!) going on with the Spa and I think it's just too much of a juxtaposition.

Just my opinion though, others are available :-)

Now... a pair of black Middleburn RS7/8s on the other hand...or even a silver pair with a black spider and ring, that would look nice to my eyes!

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.
  

@launchpadboi it's your lucky day!

was shocked to find out SunXCD had gone out of operation

Yeah it's a shame, fortunately there's still plenty of TA cranks available on the second hand market if you're OK using the pro vis 5 rings.

humble dibs on yours if you ever consider selling...

I actually may have a spare one, give me a few days to excavate the relevant boxes from the loft and I'll let you know

I like their track chainrings too, gives a very clean look :-)

Oh good find! I wasn't aware they'd made any, might be worth an email to TA to see if they are still in production as easier to get direct from them if they are.

NW for TA 5-pin is not a thing that exists as far as I'm aware...BUT I do have a 110BCD spider that fits the TA/SunXCD cranks which I have used for 1x setups with normal rings.

There's plenty of nice cranksets for 110bcd rings though, the reason I use, and love, the TA setups is the freedom and ease of using unusual chainring pairings. And I'm got a big old stack of TA rings accumulated over the years.

Haven't managed to find the time to rebuild Peregrine yet as it's ended up taking over the winter 700c road/lanes bike role

So threw some new rubber on the old AWOL for this weekends 'gravel' ride, really need to decide what to do with this AWOL, it's been a road tourer, a commuter, and offroad tourer and now makeshift gravel bike, I keep meaning to 1x it but the current triple drive train is already well past the point it needs refreshing to so I'm just going to abuse it through the winter, grind it all to dust and replace the whirly bits in spring

Also decided I prefer the GB saddle on the Rune so had a little swap around

Following!
I've built my Rufus up a bit more mixed-surface-rando for the moment going into winter as I'm more likely to be using it on crappy lanes (I have other bikes for winter mud-plugging), but looking forward to the spring when I can whip the guards off and put the knobblies on spend more time offroad on it and get back onto Dartmoor and Exmoor for some more exploring.

Good luck with the build, I'm sure it'll turn out nicely :-)

Following!

I'm planning to take a trip down the road to order something from Pi at some point in the next few years, once I've saved up a bit! He's based <15miles away from me which is dangerous to my bank balance...

Pretty much! You can get fancy with more shaping around the inside of the chain stay to protect the chain set more bit its diminishing returns, you’re basically just trying to get the water to drip/spray further down so it’s past the chainset when it leaves the guard/flap

Likewise, cropped from pics on my phone, if you need better can do tomorrow

I know, been keeping me dry and my drivetrain working longer for over a decade since I saw the light (previous MTBer who didn’t care about getting mucky now turned Mudguard police)

One at the back to keep your friends dry
One at the front to keep your feet and front of chain set dry
One in the middle (front of rear guard just behind BB) to keep your feet and chain set even dryer

You make me sound like some kind of pig-in-shit monster :-)

V-brake bellows could also work but the issue you’ll have is you need ‘something’ to make a decent seal at the cable stop, like a ferrule with an extension, or the water will still get in. Still better than nowt though and enough grease at the cable stop might do it !

The best solution for me has been full inner liner up to the cable clamp like this (different bike), and then seal the end of the liner onto the cable with grease just below the clamp, it leaves minimal surface to collect water on and that way even if water trickles down the outside of the liner into the ferrule it doesn’t affect the actual friction surface as that’s sealed all the way from mech to shifter

Yup, I do, and I have not had any issues since I built it ~2 years ago and I've ridden it through two filthy winters, but I was sure to liberally fill the last ferrule with waterproof (proper marine stuff) grease before fitting as it was obvious that something there water was going to drain down into that loop under the BB.

Probably helps that I run full guards & flaps though so I'm not getting as much crap sprayed at the cable compared to you. Even if you're not going to run guards t might be worthwhile making a mini shield to protect that cable stop area, you could just use a bit of plastic bottle or some other flexible plastic and bolt on the chainstay bridge, even on the inside, and then ziptie/stick it to the seat tube. It wouldn't be perfect but anything to reduce the spray going at that cable exit would help.

Other options are to run one of those ferrules with a built in extension and then slip another rubber seal over the end, or run an unlined outer and run a full length of liner all the way up to the front derailleur clamp.

I love love love a Bontrager Roadlite!

That setup still needs bdhu imo

Ta, I appreciate I should rotate them down and move the hoods up, but it's the brake reach issue I'm struggling with :-s

I might just have to admit defeat and go back to my old bars!

Can I poke the collective for a bit of advice?

Historically I've used maes type bars for the last couple of decades and been very happy with them, I tried compact bars out a while back and didn't get on with them, but I don't think I gave them a fair shot.
Recently I've started experimenting with compact bars on some of my bikes again for 'reasons', but I'm struggling a tiny bit with positioning, the issue is I have big palms but short sausage fingers and I'm finding the reach to brake levers a little greater with compacts that I'm used to, and it's exacerbated if I raise the hoods too much. I'm also quite fond of a flat transition from ramps to hoods, but I'm feeling like I want the hooks to be rotated a bit more down/back. Any of this making sense?

A pic as an example on one bike I'm struggling with a little, I feel like I want the bar to be rotated down on this bike to put the drops in a more comfy place, but then I need to move the hoods up and the reach to brake levers increases more than I'm happy with, and I start to lose my flat ramps.

Do you think I just need to fiddle a bit more and give it some more miles/time to adapt or am I on a hiding to nothing and should head back to my go-to maes/parallel bars?

with a long 1" threaded steerer

How long?

It's also a good example of how discussion and discourse can open eyes and allow people to reflect on their own opinions and grow from it too, it's how the world moves forward.

They are Herse Switchback Hill EL's the logo is on the other side. they are literally brand new out of the pack so the sidewalls haven't weathered yet so they look a bit light.

Put about 100 miles on the Rune since built now, really liking it, it's basically very very similar to how my Peregrine rides with this kind of build spec, which is what I wanted. Slightly less trail and flop on the front end so feels a little nicer on the road, and now leaves me free to go more offroady with the Peregrine, the more I think about i the more I'm inclined to put some swept back bars on it and try that out.

Geo is on their website, and on Bikeinsights. Nothing outrageous, very sensible numbers for intended use by normal shaped people.

Still cursed by 74degree seat angles in Medium and small but I can just about make that work with a big layback post