Gravel Burn Bike Check: Kevin Benkenstein's Santa Cruz Stigmata

[Martin Albrecht]

On 10/20/2025 at 10:27 AM, MongooseMan said:

And road shifters

And 45mm tyres

And an integrated cockpit
And only 40mm of travel

And a 48T chainring.

 

I know it's the kneejerk response, but...

So, a 90s hardtail MTB with drop bars? 

[W@nted]

13 hours ago, Martin Albrecht said:

So, a 90s hardtail MTB with drop bars? 

Haha, yes please share the 90s hardtail mtb, with the same stiff carbon frame, disk brakes, geometry, sub 9kg build, 29er wheels?😁 Don’t forget the gear ratios and 1x setup. 
 

Spoilt for choice, we are. I would rather say😁

Edited October 22, 2025 by W@nted

[Martin Albrecht]

16 hours ago, W@nted said:

Haha, yes please share the 90s hardtail mtb, with the same stiff carbon frame, disk brakes, geometry, sub 9kg build, 29er wheels?😁 Don’t forget the gear ratios and 1x setup. 
 

Spoilt for choice, we are. I would rather say😁

Sorry, was just poking a bit of fun. But, for the record, I will give you the carbon frame and 29er wheels, but for the rest, this isn’t actually that far off a 90s, or even 2000s MTB with drop bars:

In 2007, my MTB was a Giant of some kind, can’t recall the model now, it had a RockShox fork with I think 80mm of travel, hydrolic disk brakes, 1.9 inch (48mm) tires, geometry not too far off a modern gravel bikes, a 44 tooth chainring (with a bonus 32 and 22 thrown in for fun), and I think an 11/36 rear cassette - which one could argue gave even more range than is available on a modern gravel bike🤣 There might actually even have been a carbon version of this frame available also… I can’t remember, and if there was, it was way out of my price range back then. 

[W@nted]

8 minutes ago, Martin Albrecht said:

Sorry, was just poking a bit of fun. But, for the record, I will give you the carbon frame and 29er wheels, but for the rest, this isn’t actually that far off a 90s, or even 2000s MTB with drop bars:

In 2007, my MTB was a Giant of some kind, can’t recall the model now, it had a RockShox fork with I think 80mm of travel, hydrolic disk brakes, 1.9 inch (48mm) tires, geometry not too far off a modern gravel bikes, a 44 tooth chainring (with a bonus 32 and 22 thrown in for fun), and I think an 11/36 rear cassette - which one could argue gave even more range than is available on a modern gravel bike🤣 There might actually even have been a carbon version of this frame available also… I can’t remember, and if there was, it was way out of my price range back then. 

No problem. I had a nice Merida hard tail 26er in the early 2010's. I would choose my current Giant Revolt over that Merida any day of the week   

[splat]

On 10/21/2025 at 4:44 PM, Benky said:

It came down to a few reasons. I want to ride the fork and prefer the suspension corrected frame when doing so, specifically as I have quite a low stack for my bike size. Riding the GXR4 with a Fox fork would leave me 30mm higher, so I prefer it rigid with big tyres for my own fit needs.

Similarly, while the Curve is a more comfortable bike, I do hope to be racing and feel that for these shorter days (by my standards to be fair) a slightly stiffer bottom bracket area is beneficial, even though both bikes fit similar tyre sizes. Effectively over 100-150km I feel faster on a Stig, whereas for a multi-day non-stop ride I think the titanium ride quality and its benefits overcome the slightly less efficient frame stiffness and I feel faster on that.

It is a horses for courses approach, one that I am happy to discuss so if there are any other questions let me know.

This worked well for you.
Congratulations on your race.

[betaboy]

Nicely done…🫵🏻🇿🇦✔️