Gravel Bike Advice

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ashley348

Active Member
Hi again everyone. I'm looking to buy a gravel bike and need some advice. I nearly got burnt on a bike last year, but after 6 months of complete nonsense from the dealer managed to get a refund and move on.

I'm 5'9.5 with longer legs than body, I do around 70-100 miles a week and probably want the option to fit a rack. I've been looking at Cannondale, Specialized, Planet X, and a few others, but I'm up for any recommendations so brand isn't important to me. I'd be willing to spend up to £1500 or so. I also want disc brakes, hydraulic only.

I'd be interested in peoples opinions on groupsets too, SRAM vs Shimano etc. Thanks!!!
 

chriswoody

Legendary Member
Location
Northern Germany
You need to firstly decide on how much off-road and what type of off-road riding you want to do. Gravel bikes exist on a spectrum, from road bikes that have mild off road pretensions to drop bar 29er mountain bikes.

Many so called Gravel bikes have minimal clearance for tires, which is fine if you only want to ride on canal tow paths, but if you have pretensions towards more muddy single track, or you live somewhere with sandy soil then you'll need clearance for fatter tires. You can get around this by buying 650b wheels, but it's extra expense on top.

I live somewhere very sandy and ride more off-road than on, so I needed a bike that had clearance for large tires, I also wanted to tour off road so needed plenty of mounts for water bottles and cargo cages. Steel was a strong preference, heavier than other materials, but much more forgiving for the type of riding I had planned. I bought a Kona Sutra LTD with clearance for 50mm tires on 700c wheels, steel frame and SRAM rival 1 groupset. The newer Sutra LTD will even go to 60mm tires.

Personally I love SRAM 1x, it shifts cleanly and crisply and has proven ultra reliable. The cassette is very expensive to replace but, lasts thousands of kilometres. At 10-42 the stock 11speed cassette is not quite wide enough range for laden off-road touring, but I've got along with it ok this last year. However, the 36/42 granny gear is just not low enough for steep hills and laden off-road touring. I'll be dropping the chainring to 32 teeth before this spring to give me more help on the hills.

Shimano's new GRX gravel group is also well regarded and comes in 1x or 2x flavours, but I've no experience of it myself.
 

figbat

Slippery scientist
As above - work out what you want it to do and that should help you focus on specific features you want. I tend to use mine on routes where I can mix road and tracks together where the tracks are not too technical. I have 700c wheels and 42mm tyres fitted which means clearance is a little close but I always have the option to downsize the tyres and/or go to 650b wheels. Mine is 1x10 using a Shimano mix of road and MTB components - if I'm honest the cassette is not really wide enough; I geared it to make sure I could climb decent hills but it spins out quickly on road descents. I'm reluctant to go to 2x as I love the simplicity of a single derailleur so am looking at the possibility of a wider range cassette with a bigger chainring. However if I were to load it with racks and such it would be good at load-lugging.

Another brand you might want to consider is Genesis.
 
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ashley348

Active Member
Right, cheers. I'd be looking for dropped handlebars, I have two other bikes that can cope with off road, etc. The reason I'm looking at a gravel bike is the state of the roads here in Winchester. I don't think a road bike would last very long!!
 
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DRM

Guru
Location
West Yorks
https://www.gravelcyclist.com/category/bicycle-tech/
Have a look through the above, you really need to think about what exact use it’s going to be put to, but I would say go with the best tyre clearance you can get, this may mean being a 1x system, for £1500 other than Planet X, I don’t think you’ll get hydraulic brakes, but the best will be TRP Spyres mechanical callipers, but these aren’t that bad, but frame wise you need to think if you want a road oriented design, or a more off road type frame, I have a Marin Gestalt 2 which is more on the road side of things and is a great bike, also the GT Grade is a well thought of bike, which is more off road in design
 
I bought a Spesh Diverge Gravel last year, alloy frame E5 Comp with a 1x GRX groupset.

Really nice Winter/off road bike, I picked mine up for £1500 2 mths old.

38mm tyres as standard but I've also bought some 650b wheels with 42mm tyres for more muddy times.

I'm liking it more than my Carbon Defy to be honest.
 
Location
South East
I have a Genesis CDA 30, a 2021 release, but I rode it home in September.
It has Shimano GRX 20 speed, which is quite low geared, I’m often on the big ring out on the road. I haven’t done too much off road yet, time and weather being the reasons, it it will be good enough for me on the downs, in low at the front.
The WTB Riddlers seem fine on unmade roads, and I fond it comfortable even with the stock saddle. Cable disc brakes seem very good
I have a rack and mudguards on it at the moment, and got the whole lot for under 1k.
2876D87A-D888-4BA6-8FAA-4250A278C954.jpeg

It’s a great bike, Hargroves are local to you, I used the Chichester branch.
I would buy from them again and I would buy this model, without a seconds thought.
Short vid HERE
Gentle off road surface ride, about 2 minutes HERE
 
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Right, cheers. I'd be looking for dropped handlebars, I have two other bikes that can cope with off road, etc. The reason I'm looking at a gravel bike is the state of the roads here in Winchester. I don't think a road bike would last very long!!

Ok so I've not been to Winchester but I'm pretty sure it's only as bad as the rest of the country.

I've gone from 23mm to 25mm on my summ bike but that's about as wide as it gets.

You don't need a gravel bike - you just need one with wide tyre clearance. So that's discs then.
 
Ok so I've not been to Winchester but I'm pretty sure it's only as bad as the rest of the country.

I've gone from 23mm to 25mm on my summ bike but that's about as wide as it gets.

You don't need a gravel bike - you just need one with wide tyre clearance. So that's discs then.
Lets face it, 'Gravel bikes' are really just road bikes with a 'relaxed' geometry, disc brakes and wider tyre clearance.

Just depends how wide the tyres you want to fit.
 
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