What do the gravel nay-sayers say now?

[NotSoBigBen]

7 hours ago, Eldron said:

That is the law of not breaking....the MTB will do the duties of all bikes. Some well , some average and some downright shitty.

I starting to think we've got this thread all wrong. Nirvana is one bike for each discipline not one bike for all disciplines.

Or at the very least 5 bikes for all disciplines. That is absolute minimum on my opinion.

1 x Track, 1 x TT, 1 x Gravelroad and 1 x Duallie and 1 x Beaten up commuter (that last one is probably a Euro thing though - 4 for the saffers).

And an SSer, a fixed for road, and and and ????

 

Right so I have those covered and then some ... besides that beat up commuter thing, nowhere to 'commute' to anyway ????

Gonna refer to this as 'Eldron's law' from now on and inform my wife of this development!

[CAAD4]

8 hours ago, Eldron said:

New bikes also open the door for new hybrid frankenbikes.... I found an old Niner Air9 RDO frame in the shop the other day and plan on turning it into The Gravelator.

Rigid flat bar mtb with on/off tyres designed to eat up tar as well as the many many many (did I mention many?) gravel paths here in Denmark.

 

Damn, now that is one sweet  thing of beauty.

[W Smith]

18 hours ago, Sid the Sloth said:

Yesterday we did 3/7 passes and came home on N2 tar from Knysna.

Gravel 1: 0 Dual Sus

Today we did Simola, Gouna to pimple, Diepwalle, and back to Knysna. Gravel bike had a slow puncture and was very bumpy over descents with corrugations and potholes and slow through loose stone. I had to call it a day as we ran out of bombs and my tubeless wasn't sealing then punctured a tube.

Gravel 1: 1 Dual sus

Gravel 0 : Dual sus 2 .   I fixed it for you. (I have both and I do appreciate the shortcomings of a gravel bike when you ride over bumpy descents with corrugations and potholes) 

[MORNE]

i have both of these on mine. they'll change your opinion about what bumpy roads are on a gravel bike. All Ill say is the reviews dont lie. Even if you isolate just the stem....is a total game changer on a rigid forked bike. The amount of chatter/buzz they take out of it the road is amazing.  The seatpost puts your butt in a constant state of 'float' is the best way I can describe it. Riding both almost feels like riding 3-4" rubber at low psi...minus the drawbacks obviously.  My goal with them were to get my bike as comfortable as possible and they surely delivered. And again...100% maintenance free.

Edited September 25, 2021 by MORNE

[DIPSLICK]

3 hours ago, MORNE said:

i have both of these on mine. they'll change your opinion about what bumpy roads are on a gravel bike. All Ill say is the reviews dont lie. Even if you isolate just the stem....is a total game changer on a rigid forked bike. The amount of chatter/buzz they take out of it the road is amazing.  The seatpost puts your butt in a constant state of 'float' is the best way I can describe it. Riding both almost feels like riding 3-4" rubber at low psi...minus the drawbacks obviously.  My goal with them were to get my bike as comfortable as possible and they surely delivered. And again...100% maintenance free.

Sexy Verby

[Sid the Sloth]

6 hours ago, MORNE said:

i have both of these on mine. they'll change your opinion about what bumpy roads are on a gravel bike. All Ill say is the reviews dont lie. Even if you isolate just the stem....is a total game changer on a rigid forked bike. The amount of chatter/buzz they take out of it the road is amazing.  The seatpost puts your butt in a constant state of 'float' is the best way I can describe it. Riding both almost feels like riding 3-4" rubber at low psi...minus the drawbacks obviously.  My goal with them were to get my bike as comfortable as possible and they surely delivered. And again...100% maintenance free.

Way too heavy ????

[Mamil]

7 hours ago, MORNE said:

i have both of these on mine. they'll change your opinion about what bumpy roads are on a gravel bike. All Ill say is the reviews dont lie. Even if you isolate just the stem....is a total game changer on a rigid forked bike. The amount of chatter/buzz they take out of it the road is amazing.  The seatpost puts your butt in a constant state of 'float' is the best way I can describe it. Riding both almost feels like riding 3-4" rubber at low psi...minus the drawbacks obviously.  My goal with them were to get my bike as comfortable as possible and they surely delivered. And again...100% maintenance free.

Where did you get those? 

[MORNE]

1 hour ago, Mamil said:

Where did you get those? 

gravel and tour are the local distributors. 

https://gravelandtour.co.za/product-category/redshift/

Edited September 25, 2021 by MORNE

[MORNE]

1 hour ago, Sid the Sloth said:

Way too heavy ????

lol. worth their weight in gold imo. 

i don't care about weight. i ride steel bikes exclusively. my bikes weigh a relative ton...but they are comfy (and metal) AF.

[DIPSLICK]

13 minutes ago, MORNE said:

lol. worth their weight in gold imo. 

i don't care about weight. i ride steel bikes exclusively. my bikes weigh a relative ton...but they are comfy (and metal) AF.

My ritchey steel, is lighter than my cannondale lefty ????????

[Mamil]

43 minutes ago, MORNE said:

gravel and tour are the local distributors. 

https://gravelandtour.co.za/product-category/redshift/

Interesting. Do you find that it destabilises the saddle? I imagine pedalling a bumpy road and finding that my hips are not stable or different saddle height in different phases of the pedal stroke? 

[guidodg]

ultimate gravel bike… can do duties on tar, singletrack , anything…8kg

[Eldron]

4 hours ago, guidodg said:

ultimate gravel bike… can do duties on tar, singletrack , anything…8kg

Only people with a death wish ride rigid on gnar!

[Slowbee]

7 hours ago, MORNE said:

gravel and tour are the local distributors. 

https://gravelandtour.co.za/product-category/redshift/

This looks interesting and the reviews seem good. I would like to add a small bit of help for my butt.

As an aside, have you had any experience with a Thudbuster ?

[MORNE]

11 hours ago, Mamil said:

Interesting. Do you find that it destabilises the saddle? I imagine pedalling a bumpy road and finding that my hips are not stable or different saddle height in different phases of the pedal stroke?

 

There are a few youtube reviews that show how they work but to be honest you ‘forget it’s there’ in the sense that you dont notice it working once you get on with it. The preload is also fully adjustable. You can go from as soft or to stiff as you prefer for your weight. Cranking the preload all the way up and adding the additional spring means it will only basically move if you klap something that gives you those ‘i wish i avoided that’ shock up the gooch haha.

It’s not suspension though. And i think it wasn't designed to be.

They guide you how to install your saddle on your bike considering your previous saddle position etc. It has about 7mm offset uncompressed. They recommend it set up at 20% ish sag/float. You also mount it slightly higher by a few mm to compensate for the sag. The way it moves seems very natural and basically unnoticeable to me. Sure, i guess it wont be AS efficient as rigid bike - but only to the point where locked out suspension on a DS still has some give pedalling uphill…if it even is that much. I got them for all day comfort.

Same with the stem, you would think standing up and putting your weight on the bars would make it bob. It doesn't. You hardly ever notice it working until you hit a noticeably rough section and make a point of it to look at the thing. 

As a final point ill say that throughout everything else ive only done three 100km+ rides on the bike so far and my wrists and tjommie were noticeably more comfortable afterwards compared to fully rigid i was riding before. 

i also wish it were easier to test these products out before you committed though. This guy’s honest vids helped me decide though. 

 

 

[MORNE]

4 hours ago, Slowbee said:

This looks interesting and the reviews seem good. I would like to add a small bit of help for my butt.

As an aside, have you had any experience with a Thudbuster ?

Ive seen them but never ridden one. They also seem to get good reviews though. I looked at the canecreek eesilk post. They seem to work in the same way geometry wise, though the redshift uses coils and a piston whereas the CC uses elastomers like the redshift stem. They cost about the same so i decided to go with the combo instead. Redshift has a full lifetime warranty on their products too. And i liked the way the redshift looked more. It doesnt look bulky and out of place on the bike. 
https://redshiftsports.com/pages/warranty-returns

Edited September 26, 2021 by MORNE