Gravel Bikes that will take a 2.2 tyre?

[DieselnDust]

1 hour ago, droo said:

90s full rigid MTB with a drop bar. Cos the geo is right for a rigid fork, and top tube lengths were basically the same as road bikes back then.

Disc mounts may be an issue though.

Early 2000’s won’t be a problem with disc mounts. Wiggle waggling an old F700…

[Sid the Sloth]

I am still waiting for the day someone just takes a full sus mtb and slaps a drop bar with axs shifters on. That is just about the length okes will go to to make their "gravel" bike more "capable". Interestingly Matt Beers won Race to the Sea last year on full suspension with some gravel adjustments (tyres much narrower than 2.2 I believe), while racing against gravel bikes. 

Edited June 15, 2022 by Sid the Sloth
spelling

[Me rida my bicycle]

13 minutes ago, Sid the Sloth said:

I am still waiting for the day someone just takes a full sus mtb and slaps a drop bar with axs shifters on. That is just about the length okes will go to to make their "gravel" bike more "capable". Interestingly Matt Beers won Race to the Sea last year on full suspension with some gravel adjustments (tyres much narrower than 2.2 I believe), while racing against gravel bikes. 

He wasn't on gravel tyres, he must have been on a motorbike with a 165km dirt race in a time that would be good for a Argus 😂 the rest of us suffered in the wind of him blasting pass 🙃

[ACE Cycles]

11 hours ago, MudLark said:

Hi guys,

I am for various reasons trying to identify a list of locally available gravel bikes that will take a 2.2 (or 2.25) tyre on a 29er rim. So far I have a Trek Checkpoint and some of the Curve bikes. Is there anything else?

Cheers,

ML

Build us a monster cross bike 😁🙏

Join the club, send pics 

[NotSoBigBen]

7 hours ago, Sid the Sloth said:

I am still waiting for the day someone just takes a full sus mtb and slaps a drop bar with axs shifters on. That is just about the length okes will go to to make their "gravel" bike more "capable". Interestingly Matt Beers won Race to the Sea last year on full suspension with some gravel adjustments (tyres much narrower than 2.2 I believe), while racing against gravel bikes. 

There was that time ... Anyway rode it twice and it was crap (it was single speed though) and I built it just because I could (pictures on request 😜 )

Also built a hardtail monsterX with a 100mm fork once, took it on a week's holiday, thought what the hell am I doing might as well have just brought a proper MTB

Now I just take the right weapon on the day, in most cases 😎

[TyronLab]

10 hours ago, Sid the Sloth said:

I am still waiting for the day someone just takes a full sus mtb and slaps a drop bar with axs shifters on. That is just about the length okes will go to to make their "gravel" bike more "capable". Interestingly Matt Beers won Race to the Sea last year on full suspension with some gravel adjustments (tyres much narrower than 2.2 I believe), while racing against gravel bikes. 

I find that one of the strangest parts of most wheeled sports. The pro's use something, therefore it must be better for normies too. They have completely different abilities and focus points than mr average on the trails. 

The majority of people I've ridden with have questioned dropper posts as unnecessary, questioned gravel bikes while being visually uncomfortable from their flat bars and slammed stems after 1h30 of riding gravel roads, and see hardtails as cheaping out and rigids as stupid. A family member of mine can't understand the reason I'd like to ride a rigid SS as it's never the most efficient / fastest option.

I think way too many people are focused on copying what Nino or Sagan are doing, what their buddies consider the "best", to try and boost their "racing" for 400th place rather than riding something that's fun or actually suits their riding.

[MudLark]

18 hours ago, ACE Cycles said:

Build us a monster cross bike 😁🙏

Join the club, send pics 

I have though done that already. Procaliber based. But its not ideal. I find it very slow. I might try to fettle it a bit more but I suspect that geometry plays a key role and that there's only so much you can do to get it a bit faster. I have an old (circa 2016) Spez Diverge that I bought recently and I just love. It is suuuuch a sweet bike. It rides like a dream and at 8.1kg is pretty light for that class of bike. But you can't fit more than 35mm (maybe with luck 38mm) on to it. Basically I'm looking for something pretty similar that will take at least a Race King 2.2. I need something that will cover ground at a quick clip (like the Diverge) but that can also handle some sand etc. I suspect I might take a good look at a Checkpoint although at 9.7kg its a shade on the heavy side. 

Edited June 16, 2022 by MudLark
Typo correction

[ACE Cycles]

5 minutes ago, MudLark said:

I have though done that already. Procaliber based. But its not ideal. I find it very slow. I might try to fettle it a bit more but I suspect that geometry plays a key role and that there's only so much you can do to get it a bit faster. I have an old (circa 2016) Spez Diverge that I bought recently and I just love. It is suuuuch a sweet bike. It rides like a dream and at 8.1kg is pretty light for that class of bike. But you can't fit more than 35mm (maybe with luck 38mm) on to it. Basically I'm looking for something pretty similar that will take at least a Race King 2.2. I need something that will cover ground at a quick clip (like the Diverge) but than can also handle some sand etc. I suspect I might take a good look at a Checkpoint although at 9.7kg its a shade on the heavy side. 

I hear you, I used a Specialized Stumpjumper HT frame, in hindsight I should probably have gone for something more aggressive and probably 1 frame size smaller than my usual. A nice epic HT frame would be ideal

[MudLark]

6 minutes ago, ACE Cycles said:

I hear you, I used a Specialized Stumpjumper HT frame, in hindsight I should probably have gone for something more aggressive and probably 1 frame size smaller than my usual. A nice epic HT frame would be ideal

I suspect that any MTB conversion is not going to be a bike that covers ground fairly quickly. But it may be that I am wrong. I'm going try to fiddle the Procaliber a bit more because outside of the fact that its a bit slow, it's actually a really sweet 'do anything' bike. It handles surprisingly well (35mm stem and flared bars) and is really very comfortable. But as I say, it doesn't cover ground quickly. 

[ACE Cycles]

11 minutes ago, MudLark said:

I suspect that any MTB conversion is not going to be a bike that covers ground fairly quickly. But it may be that I am wrong. I'm going try to fiddle the Procaliber a bit more because outside of the fact that its a bit slow, it's actually a really sweet 'do anything' bike. It handles surprisingly well (35mm stem and flared bars) and is really very comfortable. But as I say, it doesn't cover ground quickly. 

Yeah, I guess in the end of the day it's a rigid hardtail and won't be gravel bike quick and I can't think that any bike running 2.2s will be as quick as a gravel bike. 

I'm not planning on racing mine anyway, but I do love riding it. Literally took it out this morning for a lekker 80km gravel ride

[TyronLab]

3 hours ago, MudLark said:

I have though done that already. Procaliber based. But its not ideal. I find it very slow. I might try to fettle it a bit more but I suspect that geometry plays a key role and that there's only so much you can do to get it a bit faster. I have an old (circa 2016) Spez Diverge that I bought recently and I just love. It is suuuuch a sweet bike. It rides like a dream and at 8.1kg is pretty light for that class of bike. But you can't fit more than 35mm (maybe with luck 38mm) on to it. Basically I'm looking for something pretty similar that will take at least a Race King 2.2. I need something that will cover ground at a quick clip (like the Diverge) but that can also handle some sand etc. I suspect I might take a good look at a Checkpoint although at 9.7kg its a shade on the heavy side. 

In that event, you might find that a relatively common 45mm tyre gets you most of the way there. You'd be surprised in the difference between a 40 / 43 / 48 and what you can manage on a 43/45. I have at least some authority on this topic. 

There's a moer of a difference between 35 and 45,.

[MudLark]

13 hours ago, TyronLab said:

In that event, you might find that a relatively common 45mm tyre gets you most of the way there. You'd be surprised in the difference between a 40 / 43 / 48 and what you can manage on a 43/45. I have at least some authority on this topic. 

There's a moer of a difference between 35 and 45,.

Thank you. FWIW – and this is purely perception-based – I did have 43 mm GravelKings on the Pro Caliber at one stage but I do find that the bike seems to roll better with 2.2 RaceKings. But there is as you say a very big difference between 35 and 45. Unfortunately my current bike (Diverge) won't go beyond 38 at a push and I'm currently rolling on 35. And I'm happy with that bike with that setup for riding around Johannesburg's rather dodgy tar roads and occasionally tacking along a footpath or something like that. But for more ambitious riding I will need different rubber. Anyway, I will fiddle the ProCaliber a bit more while I start looking around at other options.