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It makes me happy to ride every time and I can't see any upgrade that would make a meaningful difference on an adventure category gravel bike.

Are we at least getting the 32" hardtail is smoother than a 29" dual pitch first.

Starting to ride a bit after a 6 year break for the kids and needed some gear. In the time I skipped someone decided you need to be glad wrapped to pedal a bicycle so easier said than done. Really happy with the range, quality and price from Leatt in the end.

AL1 has 12 speed groupset with hydraulic disc brakes vs 10 speed with mechanical disc brakes. In the parking lot or around town the ride feel will be identical but if you're planning long days out with long descents there will be a difference.

Look at the Outer Cycles Rora 1. I couldn't find the bike that ticked all the boxes until I stumbled onto the Rora.

I have an outer gravel bike and it's beautifully built with none of the shortcuts you'll find with the bigger global bands. Having owned most of the major brands I've been the happiest with quality of Titan Racing and Outer Cycles.

Not sure what the range of your +- is but I have a Rora AL 1 and I'm super happy with it. https://outercycles.com/products/rora-al2?variant=47222677340408

Continental Dubnital is supposed to be the new Race King but I would also go Air Trak given the local pricing.

I thought I had exhausted every option and at the last moment after deciding on a Checkpoint I stumbled onto this bike. Saw it in the shop yesterday and immediately handed over the credit card. The value is ridiculous but I would happily have chosen this over the Trek even if it wasn't cheaper. Checks every box (50mm+ clearance, 500% 1x gearing, quality stock rims and tyres etc), fits great and looks the business.

Buying a new bike in the future will be really simple for me after buying a Cypher a few years back. I'll just buy whatever Titan I can justify at the time.

Thanks for this. Really insightful.

Definitely, those 2 year old 29er dual suspensions are not safe on the same roads and trails that were perfectly fine on 26 inch GT Zaskars with 71° head angles.

The blurb is actually restrained and to the point. Nothing like the stuff Specialized puts out which must take a piece of the authors dignity and soul with it.

Broker all the way.

The brain was a XC specific solution (and fair to say a proven one) that somehow found it's way onto the marathon scene. I imagine in a XC race it's helpfull not to deal with locking out or forgetting to unlock. For a marathon you can decide this is a long hill and have the smoother suspension going down.

This is 1000x better looking than the Diverge STR.

That is a very sensible decision made all the more sensible by not being boring. I had a rare limited edition Ford Sierra 3.0i RS as my uncle was a clay modeler working at the factory. Now none of the other students thought the car was special but every painter in town was in awe and wanted to buy it from me.

I sommer feel like taking a leave day at work today to go and test that bailing twine vacuum bag move. Sounds like a brilliant idea.

There was a guy in my first year who had a Ford Fairlane. Coolest car in res by a mile.

If somebody doesn't like that bike they can't be helped.

When so much power is currently coming from burning diesel, the daytime only isn't a drawback. Eskom can save the diesel for the evenings.

I don't really understand the appeal of the top of the range models. The ~R80k models also have carbon wheels, AXS, SID etc. It is really are getting into marginal gains territory that will make close to zero difference in the experience. And the bike industry will find a way to make both obsolete in 3 years.

A gravel bike is something I've looked at on and off as the thing to get me into cycle again after a few years off as my girls are moving into the toddler stage. I don't feel the road is safe anymore and technical MTB isn't really for me. A voice in the back of my head always said this isn't going to work for my area (Rural Karoo). Then I read the Rhino Run articles here and I realized what would work for me. Benkenstein was running 29 x 2.4s and Zeinab said: The main thing I would change would be to use wider tyres. I had never really ridden gravel before the event so I assumed 48mm tyres would be enough. If I could go back I would use the biggest tyre I could get my hands on. So if I ever get a gravel a bike I will skip the 'current' gravel tyres and go straight to something like the Curve Big Kev.

But as rightly pointed out you need to put the same tyres on both before you even know the difference. That is why Giant etc don't publish weights.

What I find interesting is how the Hub had me spending my time researching a tool with zero relevance to me. I have a 1 year old and a 3 year old keeping me busy, my chain will last longer than twitter.