Gravel bikes - what do you have and where did you buy it?

[TyronLab]

11 hours ago, Help.Me. said:

I think I have read this whole thread about three times , there are some beautiful bikes on parade here and I was also thinking of going the Gravel Grinder route, I do 95% of my cycling on the normal district roads on my Giant FS 29 er. Last Saturday  doing my normal route and chatting with my friend the conversation lead to this topic again. Then whilst chatting we hit a corrugated patch which nearly threw me of my bike......The thought of getting a Gravel Bike took a sudden and huge nose dive again !! Now back to my choices. I do have an old Road bike which I am to scared to use because I think the wheels will just disintegrate underneath  me , due to metal fatigue or just old age( the wheels not me) I do the occasional road race but less so because of my old Road Bike, I am playing with the idea of getting a Gravel Grinder which can do duty as my road bike when the need is there and also do some Gravel Grinding on weekends. Now for some advice , by the way I was looking at the Rook Bikes and the 11 speed is due end off April and it fits into my "budget" I am on the heavy side 95 - 100 kg and wants to enjoy my cycling, if I feel my body aching after my weekend cycles on my Mountain Bike how much worse will it be on a bike with no suspension at all , am I just wasting my time about dreaming of a Gravel Grinder? Please talk to me clever people!!

I think NSBB summed it up perfectly. Riding a gravel bike is a mindset thing. Every bike is built to fill some limited portion of the riding spectrum between a TT bike and a DH mtb. .

As someone who went from a 29+ heavy hitter trail bike, to a Rook Scout 11 Speed, to an XC race weapon, to a racey carbon gravel bike, and now to a steel rigid MTB (all within the space of a year) I can confidently say that every bike has some specific area it shines in and the more you stray from that sweet spot the "worse" it gets.

Even in the gravel bike category two bikes can feel like polar opposites.

The Rook is a great mountainbiker's gravel bike, if that makes sense. The geometry is pretty upright and comfy. The steel frame is very compliant. Has a 1x drivetrain. And with a (relatively cheap) handlebar upgrade (I can highly recommend the Rapide 460mm gravel bar) it has a real sense of plantedness and control off road. I felt pretty comfortable sending it on trails it wasn't designed for.

The Titan Switch I had on the other hand felt like a roadie gravel bike. It was responsive, agile, stiff and felt like a racehorse. It goaded you into wanting to smash out some rapid miles on the road or smooth gravel, but never felt as sure footed when the going got a little rougher.

If you find the idea of being out of your comfort zone appealing, whether that is physically, mentally, or even geographically, get a gravel bike. 

 

...

 

 

Man now I miss my Rook all over again..

[V18]

Bought a silverback siablo GR a month or two ago. No complaints. Unbelievable spec for price. 

[Help.Me.]

Thanks for all the "replies/ideas/answers" i knew i had to come and speak to the tribe to get a better feel and understanding....keep the rubber on the gravel.....enjoy the weekend on your bikes!! Let my digging continues !! 

[WaynejG]

7 hours ago, TyronLab said:

I think NSBB summed it up perfectly. Riding a gravel bike is a mindset thing. Every bike is built to fill some limited portion of the riding spectrum between a TT bike and a DH mtb. .

As someone who went from a 29+ heavy hitter trail bike, to a Rook Scout 11 Speed, to an XC race weapon, to a racey carbon gravel bike, and now to a steel rigid MTB (all within the space of a year) I can confidently say that every bike has some specific area it shines in and the more you stray from that sweet spot the "worse" it gets.

Even in the gravel bike category two bikes can feel like polar opposites.

The Rook is a great mountainbiker's gravel bike, if that makes sense. The geometry is pretty upright and comfy. The steel frame is very compliant. Has a 1x drivetrain. And with a (relatively cheap) handlebar upgrade (I can highly recommend the Rapide 460mm gravel bar) it has a real sense of plantedness and control off road. I felt pretty comfortable sending it on trails it wasn't designed for.

The Titan Switch I had on the other hand felt like a roadie gravel bike. It was responsive, agile, stiff and felt like a racehorse. It goaded you into wanting to smash out some rapid miles on the road or smooth gravel, but never felt as sure footed when the going got a little rougher.

If you find the idea of being out of your comfort zone appealing, whether that is physically, mentally, or even geographically, get a gravel bike. 

 

...

 

 

Man now I miss my Rook all over again..

I do find myself spending a bit of time on the Rook website looking at the Scout.

[MongooseMan]

1 hour ago, WaynejG said:

I do find myself spending a bit of time on the Rook website looking at the Scout.

It's a very nice bike (had one for about 6 months).

1 thing to be aware of: 650B wheels limits your options somewhat for swapping out tyres.

Apart from that, I've been very happy.

[TyronLab]

1 hour ago, WaynejG said:

I do find myself spending a bit of time on the Rook website looking at the Scout.

Hell, I owned one, and I still find myself on that site at least once a week. I somehow think that if I keep staring at it they might put it on some special that forces me to buy another one...

54 minutes ago, MongooseMan said:

It's a very nice bike (had one for about 6 months).

1 thing to be aware of: 650B wheels limits your options somewhat for swapping out tyres.

Apart from that, I've been very happy.

Good thing to keep in mind. 650B gravel bike tyres are hens teeth most of the time (I ended up riding a mullet setup with 48c/43c F/R due to availability). 

2 hours ago, Help.Me. said:

Thanks for all the "replies/ideas/answers" i knew i had to come and speak to the tribe to get a better feel and understanding....keep the rubber on the gravel.....enjoy the weekend on your bikes!! Let my digging continues !! 

If you ride a mix of road and offroad, and your offroad rides are mostly district road / gravel road / singletrack a gravel bike is a great option. Being slow and inefficient when riding on the road is a drag (excuse the pun), while being slow and underbiked on a trail is, to me, as much if not more fun. So for me, who commutes 20+km to trails and back on the road, the gravel bike makes the ride there and back just as fun as the trail ride itself.

[WaynejG]

Hopefully Rook will consider 29" wheels at some stage.

[WaynejG]

4 minutes ago, TyronLab said:

Hell, I owned one, and I still find myself on that site at least once a week. I somehow think that if I keep staring at it they might put it on some special that forces me to buy another one...

Good thing to keep in mind. 650B gravel bike tyres are hens teeth most of the time (I ended up riding a mullet setup with 48c/43c F/R due to availability). 

If you ride a mix of road and offroad, and your offroad rides are mostly district road / gravel road / singletrack a gravel bike is a great option. Being slow and inefficient when riding on the road is a drag (excuse the pun), while being slow and underbiked on a trail is, to me, as much if not more fun. So for me, who commutes 20+km to trails and back on the road, the gravel bike makes the ride there and back just as fun as the trail ride itself.

So you can happily ride single track?

[TyronLab]

48 minutes ago, WaynejG said:

So you can happily ride single track?

Yup. I rode all of our local trail centers on my gravel bikes. Rook was a little more adept due to the larger volume tyres and the less aggressive geometry. The only portion I was noticeably slower was on rough descents. Hell I even jumped it, but that was a little scary.

[Stretched@Birth]

21 hours ago, splat said:

It's a Charge Spoon, but will most likely be replaced by a Brooks C15 carved.

I will double wrap the tops.
But I am worried that the Deda tape will be too short on the 46cm wide flare bars + double wrap.

Where did you find the Charge?  I have a couple of them, White and Orange, Black and Red, Brown and Black.  Looking for a Black on Black.  The Brown and Black one my son bought for me for my birthday after my previous one disappeared with my bike that was stolen!

[MORNE]

3 hours ago, TyronLab said:

Hell, I owned one, and I still find myself on that site at least once a week. I somehow think that if I keep staring at it they might put it on some special that forces me to buy another one...

Good thing to keep in mind. 650B gravel bike tyres are hens teeth most of the time (I ended up riding a mullet setup with 48c/43c F/R due to availability). 

If you ride a mix of road and offroad, and your offroad rides are mostly district road / gravel road / singletrack a gravel bike is a great option. Being slow and inefficient when riding on the road is a drag (excuse the pun), while being slow and underbiked on a trail is, to me, as much if not more fun. So for me, who commutes 20+km to trails and back on the road, the gravel bike makes the ride there and back just as fun as the trail ride itself.

love my Soma Wolverine. It's my only bike now and i'm fine with that. Way faster than my mtb on the road, way more comfortable than the road bike I now exclusively use on IDT.  And not to shabby offroad either since it can take up to 2.2 rubber in 29". It can be geared or singlespeed too with sliding dropouts. So even more fun to be had. I ride it with some panaracer 50C and they are perfect. 

liked my gravel bike so much built my wife one too. Thats all she rides now as well.  i'd say if you dont frequent trailheads or dont do LOTS of singletrack riding, gravel bikes are the perfect do it all things. I like how i can still hop a pavement, exit stage left onto a dirt road, jump a pothole, get over stuff when i need to without worrying that im going to break the thing in half. 

[splat]

1 hour ago, Stretched@Birth said:

Where did you find the Charge?  I have a couple of them, White and Orange, Black and Red, Brown and Black.  Looking for a Black on Black.  The Brown and Black one my son bought for me for my birthday after my previous one disappeared with my bike that was stolen!

I found it here on BikeHub and bought it because it was brown to go with the tyres etc.

[Stretched@Birth]

1 hour ago, splat said:

I found it here on BikeHub and bought it because it was brown to go with the tyres etc.

My butt likes them, my current bike has a Giant saddle on it, not nearly as comfy as the Spoon, hence me looking for a black on black one!  

[Wayne pudding Mol]

11 minutes ago, Stretched@Birth said:

My butt likes them, my current bike has a Giant saddle on it, not nearly as comfy as the Spoon, hence me looking for a black on black one!  

If you find them I want a brown one - looks cool my bum must adapt 

[Chadvdw67]

5 hours ago, WaynejG said:

Hopefully Rook will consider 29" wheels at some stage.

99% sure you could fit a decent size 29"/700c set of wheels on the rook....

[shaper]

42 minutes ago, Wayne pudding Mol said:

If you find them I want a brown one - looks cool my bum must adapt 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1313&_nkw=charge+spoon&_sacat=0