Yusran

I went this route, no regrets. A lighter bike will definitely feel better, but I prefer knowing and feeling that I'm sitting on something that won't fold underneath me. From my own experience: 1. Wide tyres are a win. Minimum width 2.5" and preffered is 2.8" - 3.0" (if you can find any) 2. Get the best and beefiest forks you can afford. I watch my forks flex on a tar road and that squiggly feeling gets old quickly. 3. Make sure you're comfortable. Get the right saddle, make sure you can maintain your riding position all day long without too much pressure on your hands and shoulders dying. Bars with more rise and sweep back are great! The standard 'modern' bar is wide and aggressive- also gets old quickly. 4. Make sure you have enough gears. Nothing worse than not being able to get up a hill. If you're going 1x - consider a 28T chainring or smaller. 2x works great. Don't worry about top speed- gravity will do that for you. 5. A dropper post is a must. 6. Dual suspension is a win. I agree with the E-Bike route if you're starting out now. A little bit of assistance will make things abit easier and that in effect will allow you to be more consistent and lower the chances of you dropping the hobby/activity. I wish I could start over... but I've spent the past few years blowing all of my savings and free cash on the bikes I have now- but if I knew then what I know now, I would have taken a different approach to cycling as a whole. But hey, that's the journey of life. Nowadays, I ride so that I can spend time outside and spend time doing activities with my wife. I don't train to a schedule anymore, and the training effect of riding whenever I ride is just a nice side-effect. Onto bikes... That Trek Fuel EX 7 Gen6 looks great. The Stumpjumper looks great too. I'd trade my Rapide out for either of them in a heartbeat if I was riding more often, and wasn't planning on touring with the bike etc. But, my Rapide will be getting some racks and bags fitted to it for more adventures - and I'm too broke to spend much on hobbies anymore. Adulting sucks. Goodluck with the new venture! Hope you find the bike that suits you best. Cheers.

Built it up like this as soon as I got mine. All turned out exactly as envisioned and I enjoy it more than any MTB I have owned previously, mainly because it keeps the rubber side down so well for me. 2.6x29” Asegai on the front 2.8x27.5 DHF on the rear (wanted something in 3.0 but couldn’t find stock locally at the time and wanted to just ride)

Hahaha yeah I totally should! That would fix many financial woes I do love riding my bikes though, super glad I can ride both the braap machine and the pedal machine on the same weekend’s away now.

Clips onto my top box rack and rests ontop of the pannier racks, so once you strap the bike down in front it’s super stable. Going to remake it at some point to hold the bike at the BB or pedal so I can take the back wheel off too.

It’s a little DIY job that I made at 10pm the night I was supposed to leave, so I only have really poor pictures of it in the dark. I’ll take some on the weekend when it’s on the bike again!

Not really relative to the discussion at hand however, I don’t think I’ll be riding another bike for MANY years to come. Steel on the road, steel in the mountains. Steel all the way. It just works.

I’ve been running Shimano Ultegra 6800 brifters paired to Avid BB7 Road cable disc calipers for about 6 years now. They have been great in every aspect from riding road, gravel, fully-loaded touring and even dabbling around on some MTB trails. They definitely don’t have the same precise feel and control i.e. modulation of a fully hydraulic setup, or a cable-to-hydraulic setup but I have never felt “under braked” at any point. Cable disc brakes will tire your hands out on long, fast and technical descents though so depending on where you live and what your regular routes are;- a cable-to-hydraulic brake caliper may be the way to go. When I ride a mate’s bike with a fully hydraulic setup I always think “wow, this is incredible and I need to upgrade my brakes and shifters immediately.” But when I get back onto my own bike, that itch goes away relatively quickly. I enjoy having the versatility of being able to swop around componentry without having to worry about needing to change the entire setup. Not that I have in the past 6 years, but I like having the option. Perhaps I will go with a Hope V-Twin setup or some Yokozuna Ultimo’s one day, but not anytime soon;- if it’s not broken, don’t fix it. So to the OP, go for it. There are MANY solutions to this obstacle you’re facing that weren’t available some years ago and you shouldn’t have any issues achieving what you want. Happy riding!

Just do it #noregrets

Finally built my Tigre after agonizing over EVERYTHING about the build for many months… all I’ll say for now is that I am extremely happy… parts-swopped the drivetrain, fork, cockpit etc. from my previous bike and splashed out more than I intended to on the frame, wheels and tyres… but it fits like a glove, and is exactly what I need out of a bike. More details to follow.

I have a few spare that I'm not using. Drop me a message and we can make a plan to get one to you

Bucket list stuff indeed... I wish we could do these types of things more regularly!

That was me indeed! That wheelset is still going strong btw, it's been temporarily moved to my MTB for now though. Touring Japan was the best thing in the world. My first time flying overseas ever, and such a magical place to travel... The place is beautiful, the people are so helpful, humble and kind and it was so safe. I left my fully loaded bike outside a supermarket one day, not locked (lost my lock somewhere along the route that day) just resting against a pole in the bike parking, and came back 45mins later - everything was still there an untouched. And the drivers give you so much space, they literally give you the entire lane and move across a full lane to overtake. We camped all over the place, my tent was my house for 6 weeks! Very much looking forward to going back there one day, hopefully sooner than later.

I haven't posted in forever but, here's my one and only: Japan tour 2019: 2020 re-spray: 2917d6a9-fce9-4af0-8dd1-efd29cbc0d5c.MP4

This has happened to me with a pair of Avid XO Trail 4-piston brakes. One day, while out on a ride I had full stopping power on the rear brake and my finger was nowhere near the lever - was wondering why I suffered so much. Ended up taking the caliper off it's mount and taped it to the chainstay, finished the ride on front brake only. I got a piston and seal kit, and rebuilt the rear caliper completely. Full bleed of the brake system as part of that process, new brake pads too. Worked great for two weeks, then same issue happened all over again even with brand new pistons and seals. Confusion. Long story short, we released a tiny amount of fluid out of the brake lever end and the problem went away for good. No idea how or why, but it worked. Apparently if the system gets contaminated at all, usually with water, the brakes can bind. Could be from washing bikes, riding in the rain or just moisture in the air. The brake fluid/mineral oil is fine, but the moisture expands and boom, brakes on permanently. Goodluck OP! New brakes are expensive so I hope that you get yours working again.

I've been running a set of Rapide TR25's for about 4 and a half years now:- got them before gravel bikes were a thing, but fat tyre drop bar bikes were a thing that I have always wanted. So far I have done 12,000km on them. 1,600km of the 12k were in Japan, fully loaded with my bike, food and gear weighing around 45kgs and me weighing 106kgs. Most of the weight was loaded onto the rear wheel, and it didn't like that as it started moaning at me about 4 weeks into the Japan tour... but a service, true and tension sorted that out. I vouch for the rapide products, and I am pretty biased towards them because in all the kilometers I have done so far they have given me little to no trouble. I have also ridden them on Table Mountain, Kirstenbosch and Tokai will be next. I ran the wheelset tubed on the road with 32mm Spez Roubaix Pro tyres, I ran them tubeless off-road with Vittoria Adventure Trail tyres. I toured on 35mm Schwalbe marathon Supreme tyres with tubes, coz they exploded off the rim when set up tubeless at 3 bar and I had sealant all over my bedroom afterwards. Now I have left them with the 42mm Adventure Trail tyres and tubeless. I have a Prime RR28 wheelset set up tubeless with 38mm Panaracer Gravel King slicks for the road now. But the feedback I always give is, "it depends on you, the type of riding that you want to do and the type of riding you actually do." If you weigh a ton like I do, and abuse (i.e. use it well and demand a lot from) your equipment:- 32-spoke front and rear, big volume tyres, serviceable hubs. Versatile, durable and pretty lightweight before you start adding rotors, cassette and tyres. By the looks of it, that Rapide gravel wheelset is a 28-hole version of the wheelset that I have got. But so long as you don't go for a ultra lightweight 16/20 hole wheelset, you can't really go wrong when choosing wheels. Happy shopping!