One Bike to Rule Them All

[Danger Dassie]

One build I wouldn't mind doing ito both aesthetics and function. 
Trek Checkpoint with an 80mm Rock Shox RS1 up front, either with a remote lockout or the Brain model. SRAM AXS, CSiXX wheelset with DT Swiss hubs/Spokes, 42c Pirelli tyres, Bontrager carbon stem, bars, seatpost and cages, chameleon coloured seat from Selle San Marco and chameleon bartape from Supercaz. 

[eala]

On 7/2/2021 at 2:54 PM, Mountain Bru said:

A few years ago I tried to replace my mountain bike with a gravel bike (one of those steel frame Farr jobbies)... The hope was that it would be an awesome "do it all bike" that's fun to ride on gravel roads, decent to ride on the road, and capable of doing some light single track. 

But I hated it. I stay in Pretoria, so there aren't miles and miles of perfectly smooth gravel roads on my door step. So what I ended up with was a bike that I liked, but that made me wish I was on something else every time I rode it. On the road, I wished I was on my road bike, on gravel roads, I wished I was on a mountain bike, and on anything remotely technical, I wished I was sipping coffee on the couch. Not sure if it was just my setup, or the geometry, or the steel frame, or that I needed to pump the tyres quite hard to prevent dinging the rims, but it was unforgiving on anything bumpy or rocky. It felt like I was always too heavy on the front wheel, and always missed not having any suspension in the front. 

So now I'm wondering.... does the perfect "do it all bike" exist?

I'm also wondering if it's not a better approach to replace my hardcore road racing machine with a carbon endurance bike like a Spez Diverge or Roubaix, and then have a gravel wheelset with wide tyres, and a road wheelset. That way I'll have a decent road bike that can do some gravel, rather than a bike thats kind of average at everything but leaves you always wishing you were on something else. 

 

I have a few bikes that are rotated regularly .I also live in Pretoria and was looking hard at getting a gravel bike ,but as soon as had to pay i realized that i also will encounter what you encountered .In my mind i know that a proper hardtail with enough front suspension is the way to go .In the past i rode my first road races on a  HT MTB with hard tires and a 40 sprocket in front and a 2 x 10 setup .It worked really well .I have done gravel events with the same bike and only swapped the off-road tires for narrowed slicker ones .For proper MTB ing stage races the big tires come out .I recently went all out and bought myself a high end HT frame and will continue the same way 

[eala]

Suspension ,Two bottle cages ,multiple hand placements ,narrow tyres 

Edited July 6, 2021 by eala

[Zebra]

On 7/3/2021 at 4:03 PM, Mountain Bru said:

These things? Can you send a pic?

I'm sure they work wonderfully, but I'm not sure I could ever defile my epic with bar ends. 

 

[Dirt Tracker]

I was super sceptical about the usefulness of Gravel bikes when they first rocked up. Couldn't see how they weren't anything other than a compromise on all angles. Coming out of the big lockdown I just found myself just couldn't be arsed to ride my 170/145 super bike. I'd chased up the travel sizes across a number of dual sus' to get the ultimate weapon (because more is better, right?) and when I got there I found that it made our trails boring. I'm sure that in BC or the Northshore on tougher terrain and with a more rad rider you would find the limits and push beyond them but riding most of the blacks around here I found myself wishing for a short travel 29'r or a steel hard tail to make it fun. Most of the Tokai trails and TM are on my doorstep, I've got commitments so my trips up to the 'hoek are pretty rare. So I snapped and sold the beast. What is the point of sitting with a R120+ machine that hasn't turned a crank in anger for a good 6 months. On a whim I bought a Niner MCR based monster gravel bike from a fellow hubber as I needed something to ride with the kids and was struggling finding a Steel hardtail / a short travel 29'r / Kingdom and Cotic had huge backlogs. 

Honestly, I don't want to sound like 'that guy' but it's super fun, I've not bought a new dirt bike of any sort and it cost me under R20k. I ride it pretty much everywhere I took my big rig (upper cobra & the DH's excluded) and it's handled it great. For me, at the moment it's the one bike that has ruled the others. I ride some road, come back on the trails, take it on some farm roads if we're away. It's stopped the 'itch' of pouring over classifieds, looking for the next thing and I've been loving the goofy, stupidity of it. It's saved a fair bit of money not having to service bearings, front and rear shocks etc. It's adaptable, goes on most things and isn't a luss to ride to the trails, hammer and ride back plus it's still has hope hubs and that is the soundtrack of fun! 

Things I'd change: would like a dropper, jamming the saddle into my stomach on downs gets a bit tired. I'd like to get one of those short travel leftys and see what that's like up the front but that's about it. 

I'm not saying it's going to be my last buy but I think it's going to stay in the quiver no matter what else pops up. 

 

 

[Mountain Bru]

3 hours ago, Dirt Tracker said:

I was super sceptical about the usefulness of Gravel bikes when they first rocked up. Couldn't see how they weren't anything other than a compromise on all angles. Coming out of the big lockdown I just found myself just couldn't be arsed to ride my 170/145 super bike. I'd chased up the travel sizes across a number of dual sus' to get the ultimate weapon (because more is better, right?) and when I got there I found that it made our trails boring. I'm sure that in BC or the Northshore on tougher terrain and with a more rad rider you would find the limits and push beyond them but riding most of the blacks around here I found myself wishing for a short travel 29'r or a steel hard tail to make it fun. Most of the Tokai trails and TM are on my doorstep, I've got commitments so my trips up to the 'hoek are pretty rare. So I snapped and sold the beast. What is the point of sitting with a R120+ machine that hasn't turned a crank in anger for a good 6 months. On a whim I bought a Niner MCR based monster gravel bike from a fellow hubber as I needed something to ride with the kids and was struggling finding a Steel hardtail / a short travel 29'r / Kingdom and Cotic had huge backlogs. 

Honestly, I don't want to sound like 'that guy' but it's super fun, I've not bought a new dirt bike of any sort and it cost me under R20k. I ride it pretty much everywhere I took my big rig (upper cobra & the DH's excluded) and it's handled it great. For me, at the moment it's the one bike that has ruled the others. I ride some road, come back on the trails, take it on some farm roads if we're away. It's stopped the 'itch' of pouring over classifieds, looking for the next thing and I've been loving the goofy, stupidity of it. It's saved a fair bit of money not having to service bearings, front and rear shocks etc. It's adaptable, goes on most things and isn't a luss to ride to the trails, hammer and ride back plus it's still has hope hubs and that is the soundtrack of fun! 

Things I'd change: would like a dropper, jamming the saddle into my stomach on downs gets a bit tired. I'd like to get one of those short travel leftys and see what that's like up the front but that's about it. 

I'm not saying it's going to be my last buy but I think it's going to stay in the quiver no matter what else pops up. 

 

 

Perfection. If I owned that bike, I would mount it on the wall in my living room. Although I'd probably put pedals on it. 

What's the widest tyre you can fit in the frame?

[The Ghost]

https://www.bikeradar.com/features/pro-bike/unbound-2021-bikes/
 

any of these might do for you, Lael’s is interesting (although not for me)

[Mohs]

1994 Raleigh Bomber...it ruled for many years. MTB-developing, school commute, newspaper delivery  and Gravel-bike with the handlebar pointing up

Used to race down Paarl DH track with one of these...broke the steering tube twice...fell my self moertoe twice...

Maybe not exactly for the topic but it deserves some credit.

 

Edited July 6, 2021 by Mohs

[bozzopi1]

8 hours ago, Mountain Bru said:

Perfection. If I owned that bike, I would mount it on the wall in my living room. Although I'd probably put pedals on it. 

What's the widest tyre you can fit in the frame?

Maybe you should look at Sling Cycles Tagati.  Ti gravel bike, can fit 29 x 2.4 tires. Comes standard with Ekar 13s group. www.slingcycles.com 

Edited July 6, 2021 by bozzopi1

[bozzopi1]

9 hours ago, Mountain Bru said:

Perfection. If I owned that bike, I would mount it on the wall in my living room. Although I'd probably put pedals on it. 

What's the widest tyre you can fit in the frame?

Since you are from Gauteng, you can freely come any day during the week (weekends included) to Sling Aircraft  factory, and I will take you on one of our demo Tagati's, on 2 hour ride, on our local trail. I have demo bikes in all sizes. No obligations what so ever. I want to show you that gravel bike can be the only bike you will ever need. And you can also personally experience how wide tire, good spec gravel bike feels. Same applies to everyone else in this topic. Feel free to contact me on 0739510455

[ACE Cycles]

I love my gravel bike, but when I know that I'll be facing technical sections or long stretches of heavy corrugated roads then I take my dual sus. 

Currently I'm building up a monster cross bike, basically a carbon hardtail with a rigid fork, gravel handlebars and MTB wheels. Will let you know how she goes. 

[NotSoBigBen]

A much as some may consider a gravel bike the 'holy grail' of bikes it makes me think of an afrikaans idiom my dad often used ...

'Met genoeg geweld kan jy jou vinger in jou eie hol afbreek', yes you can ride anything with it (with the caveat that you also have skills of course) but no that doesn't mean it'll be fun!

Personally if I had to keep just one bike, God forbid, it'd be a basic hardtail needing no more than 80mm of travel ...

But that's probably just me

[eala]

13 minutes ago, NotSoBigBen said:

A much as some may consider a gravel bike the 'holy grail' of bikes it makes me think of an afrikaans idiom my dad often used ...

'Met genoeg geweld kan jy jou vinger in jou eie hol afbreek', yes you can ride anything with it (with the caveat that you also have skills of course) but no that doesn't mean it'll be fun!

Personally if I had to keep just one bike, God forbid, it'd be a basic hardtail needing no more than 80mm of travel ...

But that's probably just me

Exactly .I tried rigid once ,and once only .I tried thin lightweight tires once only .Modern hardtail is the way to go 

[NotSoBigBen]

31 minutes ago, eala said:

Exactly .I tried rigid once ,and once only .I tried thin lightweight tires once only .Modern hardtail is the way to go 

Don't get me wrong though, a gravel bike with its rigid fork, road bars and skinnier tyres is an absolute pleasure to ride at speed on reasonable gravel roads, jeep tracks and even some singletrack... The right tool for the job can also increase your pleasure when riding ????

[dasilvarsa]

I "Once" Saw a Gravel Bike on the Trails.

[AllTerrain]

12 minutes ago, eala said:

Exactly .I tried rigid once ,and once only .I tried thin lightweight tires once only .Modern hardtail is the way to go 

I tend to agree with this thinking. I ride my 2012 Scott hardtail 29er 99% of the time. Sometimes I worry my others bikes will up amd leave me???? That will change now, because I have bought a cheap hybrid bike from cycle-lab to use for day to day commuting and similar. Also, I don’t understand what the benefit of drop bars are. But I guess having never been a roadie, I am probably just scared of change. I demoed a norco gravelbike last year at rosemary hill though, which is not exactly technical, but there was no way I could find where the drops were better than flat bars on a trail or on a dirt road, where you need to steer, navigate bumps and use the brakes at the same time. 
 

A light hardtail 29er, with a 80-100mil fork, and a 2x crank is superior to a gravel bike in any conditions where you wouldn’t be able to ride your proper road bike. But that’s just my opinion. 

in my eyes I see it like this:

Road bike = Sports car (or supercar, depending on what you ride). Fast and fun and very good looking, but only practical under perfect conditions. 
 

XC Hardtail = Bakkie based SUV (fortuner/Everest etc). Sensible and practical on all roads and conditions. Obviously no match for the sports car on the road, but still able to ride it with ease. Perfectly capable on any gravel road and jeep track, and it can take on some proper 4x4 trips with relative ease also.

XC/Marathon Dual sus = Proper SUV (Prado/Discovery/Pajero or VX200/RangeRover if you wanna pay a bit more) very comfortable, much more so than the hardtail on every road type, but not as efficient, costs a lot more to own/run, but also much much nicer place to be when the going gets tough.

Trail Bike = Defender/Cruiser76/wrangler massively compromised in terms of performance compared with its XC stablemates, can still do everything they can do, but it’s not ideal. But shines when things get really wild. 

Enduro Bike = overland prepped 4x4. It’s still able to handle everyday use if you really only have one vehicle, but it’s not great at anything except getting out into the back country and taking on the really tough trails. Does everything the trail bike does, but with a bit more ease, but it could also take on most of the downhill bikes routes too, with a skilled pilot. 

Downhill Bikes = purpose built/ highly modded 4x4. Useless for everything except what it is actually built for. Not a practical day to day bike at all.

 

Gravel Bike = Single Cab fleet Bakkie. It’s does tar and gravel just fine, but it’s not ideal an either. It can cruise on the road all day long, at the average speed with everyone else, but It’s no match for the sports car on the road, or the 4x4 with decent ground clearance and bigger tires off road. So it’s left behind in both these roles. And it definately can’t do anything the other more off road biased vehicles can do. If you fit a canopy/panniers, it’s not actually too terrible to use for a long road trip, but, the SUV/XC bike would be just as good at this role, and more comfortable too, and, if you take a wrong turn, or the road conditions suddunly gets much much worse, your still good to go if you in an SUV…

 

I guess I’m gonna run and hide from all the gravel grinders now????

 

(please note, this was just a bit of fun, while I wait for my next zoom call….I don’t care what you ride, as long as you ride. But, I do get annoyed when marketing types invent new niches just to drive new sales, when they could have just sold more of an existing product that works)