[Closed] £1500ish Gravel Bike?

Can't see past Orbea myself, the various Terra models all look great for the money.

Think they err towards the racier side of the genre right enough, not sure if that's your bag.

https://www.orbea.com/gb-en/bicycles/road/terra/cat/terra-h40

There were some 2021 nukeproof diggers in stock at CRC last week.

Diggers all out of stock now unfortunately 🙁

The Orbea is defo on the list though, thanks 13th.

In a full, ‘recommend what you’ve got’ style, have a look at the Merlin Malt series. I got a Malt 1GX last year for £999 and immediately upgraded the wheels with a set for Ryanbuildswheels for £330. I love it. Nice & relaxed, good to ride on the road and can take some decent sized rubber too. Spec is good too with Zipp handlebars, stem and seatpost. I think the newer models come with GRX not the Apex that mine has (which has been faultless so far).

Trek checkpoints are good also why not look at CX bikes not that much difference CX bikes are lighter have Boone with gravel tyres mind the Treks are very hard to get hold of at present.

Forgot about Merlin, will check out if I can shop there....

Not looked at the Trek's in detail but assume they'll fall foul of the big brand tax?

Kinesis G2 might be worth a look.

Sonder Camino, in the recommend what you have approach. Had mine a couple of months and love it.

I had one of the original Arkrose, and now have a 2019 D3. Couldn't find anything better value at the time for the spec.

I’m looking at replacing my ageing Arkose with something around £1600.
I was looking at a Giant Revolt 0 and then they put it up £200, so that’s fallen by the way.

Sonder Camino is out of stock at the moment.

Ribble’s CGR Al, I don’t like the colours they use (metallic blue seems a bit old fashioned to me and I’m not keen on orange bikes).
I have thought long and hard about the On One Freeranger (in red and black). Two things put me off with that - no GRX and most importantly, the sizing. I feel I should be on a large but Planet X say I should be on a medium

Decisions decisions.

Son has a Malt GRX. It’s nice. But rear mudguard only - they forgot the hole at the fork crown.

I have a PX Tempest. It’s very nice. You might stretch to that.

A friend has a PX Space Chicken. Also very nice (but I’d have the FreeRanger for the extra tyre clearance- 48mm at 700c and 52mm at 650b)

@tenfoot I don’t know your height but at 6’ (well 5’11” on bad days and 184cm on good ones) and a 32” jeans inside leg, I’m large every time at PX/OO. Their bikes (I’ve had about 6 now) are consistently sized.

Thanks for that, @igm. I’m the same height and inseam as you. The large more closely matches the measurements for the arkose frame I have too.

Don’t Ribble do some good priced gravel bikes? Remember looking at them before I ended up going for a Kona but they seemed good value. No personal experience of them but thought I’d suggest just in case.

I'm picking this up today having purchased it on Cyclescheme. It's a Genesis Fugio 10. It's my first foray into gravel bikes and while I'll admit I don't know a lot about specification levels yet it does seem decent enough and I'm sure I'll have some fun on it once the snow clears. It was £1599 when I ordered it last month but just noticed today that Genesis prices have jumped by £100. There's still a large in stock as well if that's of any help.

I received my Sonder Camino Rival 1 a couple of weeks ago

On my hack out last Sunday on the regular Rossendale ride it was fast, agile and incredibly capable

The rival 1 groupset is supremely slick and shifts well, the brakes as strong and consistent, though on the ice on the tops I didn’t go near them.

For £1,200.00 I think it’s a bargain

Sizing wise I’m 5’ 8” and my medium is a great fit

Dolan GXA-do your homework-its the best value gravel bike in the UK. No 'part' groupsets or hidden downgrades. The grey is better in the flesh. They have stock.

Cheers all.

Forgot Sonder so will have a look. I'll check out Genesis too and have had my eye on a CDF although spec is poor. Not against SRAM having had Rival on the Marin but would prefer Shimano.

Can't get Planet X (On One) on my C2W, not sure about Dolan.

Sonder not available until May at the earliest 🙁

Whyte Friston is a nice bike

Dolan do C2Work. Shimano all day.

This probably wont help as I went through the same last month , heres what I found. I initially wanted to use c2w as well. My first 3 choices were the Orbea Terra , Trek checkpoint and Focus Atlas. The Orbea has zero stock till at least October I heard from 2 local shops , The trek had just went up in price and again fairly limited stock though could have got by may If I had had the voucher ready. Focus again local dealers had no delivery details.
The planet X bikes seem great value but no c2w and Sram drivetrain. The only bike I basically was offered was a Merida Silex which looked a bit lame tbh. Anyhoo a friend offered me a Cinelli zydeco with cable brakes for £1900. The following day I checked Alpine bikes and they had a green Checkpoint 4 which they could keep for a day. I decided c2w wasnt an option and just went with a deposit and 24 months interest free at the old RRP of £1699 also it was a 52 and am normally a 54 on road bikes. The sale couldnt have been easier and they even did the bike check whilst I waited about. The bikes feels and fits great the drivetrain feels like the old tiagra a bit clunky but good. The tyres are absolute shite though and I stuck some gravel kings on and set them up tubeless.
I think If I had to wait for a c2w voucher i'd probably make it for as much as I could afford and try and source a Cannondale Topstone 2 as they look nice in the flesh . Good luck .

If it comes back in stock, the Boardman ADV 9.0 was £1700, so £1530 with BC discount.

But a few Halfords bikes have had price increases very recently.

Dolan do C2Work. Shimano all day.

Carbon one looks nice but not sure about the aluminium....

Can't use Halfords but like the Boardman.

Thanks for widening my search all. Guess it'll come down to what's available.

The Genesis Fugio is a great bike. I’m biased because I have one. Is definitely recommend it

Personally I wouldn't restrict myself by having to use C2W. Given the lack of availability, getting the bike you want would be more important to me at the moment. The saving doesn't seem that much to shout about, but maybe that's just me.

£375 saving on a £1500 bike is good enough for me especially as I usually buy previous season bikes at a discount which are not available atm.

I might be more bothered about what I get if it were a MTB but for some reason when looking at gravel I just want something to ride rather than a specific bike and it's quite refreshing not agonising over brands or details. A decent frame, decent groupset and reasonable price are all I want as I haven't ridden enough different styles to worry about geometry.

The Genesis Fugio looks very nice but mechanical discs and Apex for the price just isn't good enough imo.

That’s pretty crap spec. I got the 30 with GRX in the sale.

Genesis are nice bikes but are pretty heavy compared to the Treks had Vapour few years back good bike nothing compared to the Checkpoint though.

I have a Fugio 30, in the orange colour scheme. That 10 looks lovely though.

That Dolan GXA looks nice. Might go for that.

they forgot the hole at the fork crown.

SKS Speedrocker.

GF has a Martin Nicosia II. Steel frame Tiagra with hydro brakes. Smooth ride, but heavy-is... 11-and-a-bit kg.

Cube Nuroad is probably worth a look, too.

I have just picked up a Dolan GXC ( carbon one ) but the GXA ( aluminium one ) looks great in the flesh. Absolutely brilliant service from start to finish with the guys at Dolan. Bike builder on their website is really good as you can up spec nearly everything if you wish.
Been out for a few rides and really impressed with it. Got some bikepacking planned for the summer and it looks to be the perfect machine.
I’m surprised they don’t advertise more but after talking to them it’s pretty much successful from reputation and word of mouth.
I looked round at the gravel market for ages before deciding on Dolan and really happy with my choice.
Go over to the website and check them out.

Can't believe nobody has yet suggested getting a hardtail MTB instead, things are slipping in here.

I have been pleased with my Cannondale Topstone 105, but then i have only ridden it on road and have no other gravel bike experience.

I'm going throught the same process just now, also looking at £1500 - £1750 range with C2W.

Had shortlisted:
Orbea - Nice bike and my local shop is stocks Orbea so nice to support but supply likely to be an issue
Boardman - Lovely bike but out of stock
Camino - Really like these but will depend on what is in stock later in month when I can get my hands on C2W voucher
Dolan - Loving the look of these from recommendation above, definite current front runner. Not the most inspiring colour but spec looks best value on the market so can see beyond the battleship grey.

But, I keep coming back to look at the Decathlon Riverside Touring 920. I know its heavy, I know its not in stock, I know I can't use C2W but I just love the look of it. I also seems better suited to touring options with loads of mounting points for racks and bags.

Can’t believe nobody has yet suggested getting a hardtail MTB instead

They're probably all sold out! 😂

If you want something quickly, then Sram APEX or RIVAL appears to have much better availability currently. Anything GRX has a fair old wait time.

Ive got a Camino frame on order as I have a non GRX Shimano groupset ready to go, Ultegra RX mech etc - that'll do me fine. Otherwise I'd be looking at buying a full APEX equipped bike I think.

@tenfoot I don’t know your height but at 6’ (well 5’11” on bad days and 184cm on good ones) and a 32” jeans inside leg, I’m large every time at PX/OO. Their bikes (I’ve had about 6 now) are consistently sized.

I'm slightly taller at 6'2" but with a 35" inside leg - I've an XL Full Monty and it fits great.

IMO it's worth balancing the C2W saving and comparing it to the internet-direct offerings, looking at actual spec's. Especially when some of the internet guys are offering interest-free deals.

@danny1979 what was the wait time for delivery, if you don’t mind me asking? Thanks

Can’t believe nobody has yet suggested getting a hardtail MTB instead, things are slipping in here.

Certainly happened on other gravel threads I've started!

If the Dolan is in stock I'll have another look. Current plan is to go and speak to the local Orbea and Ragley dealer as well as Evans at the start of the month to see what the options are. I'm happy to wait for the bike as long as they will accept the vouchers within the month. Otherwise I'll have to wait until the July or September window but can't imagine much will have changed by then and I'm missing drop bars.

Rigid hardtail is slow compared to a gravel bike so much nicer riding canal towpaths on a gravel bike than MTB much quicker and easier.

I found out at the weekend that my local Giant dealer has a revolt 0 in stock.

I spent a bit of time thinking about it and today I thought I’d go and take a look at lunchtime, despite the fact I’m not over the moon with the £200 Brexit price hike.

I rang them and they already have 2 people lined up in front of me, before I can possibly buy it.

You snooze, you lose.

I think Tredz take cycle scheme and cycle 2 work, they stock Boardman bikes, although they only show them when they are in stock. I've got a CXR 8.9 which I also got a trade-in discount for when cycle republic were open. Brother in-law has recently got an ADV 8.9 which is really nicely specced for price.

It took about 6 weeks from order and the communication and service was 1st class. The bikes look completely different in the showroom than the website ( colours etc ) so I’d recommend booking a visit.
I did a lot of research and I’m really happy with my choice.
I have a carbon hard tail and a CX bike and it’s a different bike to both.
If I knew how to upload photos I’d add a few but the uploading process baffles me on here.
Hope that helps

Thanks for that. 6 weeks. Seems a long time, but that might be standard. I’ve never ordered a bike online.

Just to take this full circle, I had a couple of near misses at the back end of Feb with bikes being in stock then selling within a couple of days but then just as my C2W opened CRC had a dump of Ragley Trig's and I got the confirmation email this morning. Made up that I managed to get the bike I wanted at the current time 🙂

Anyway, for reference here are what I found of interest that's in stock:

https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/vitus-substance-srs-1-adventure-road-bike-2021/rp-prod195730?mx01=a&mx02=a

https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/ragley-trig-bike-2021/rp-prod197479?mx01=a&mx02=a

https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/vitus-substance-vrs-1-adventure-road-bike-2021/rp-prod195703?mx01=a&mx02=a

https://www.sunsetmtb.co.uk/shop/index.php?product_id=10883&category_id=347

https://www.evanscycles.com/brand/pinnacle/arkose-3-2021-gravel-bike-915761#colcode=91576102

https://www.dolan-bikes.com/gxa-2020/

https://www.evanscycles.com/brand/cannondale/topstone-2-2021-gravel-bike-916921#colcode=91692124

https://www.wheelbase.co.uk/product/brands/cannondale/topstone/cannondale-topstone-1-2021/

BTW, both Cannondale's were £2/300 less a week ago!

Oh, and thanks for all the suggestions.

I was in the right place at the right time, with a contact at my local LBS and managed to get a Giant Revolt 0. Very happy.

I had a 2016 Specialized DSW Diverge that I liked but looking at the new ones you have to spend £1900 to get one with a half-decent spec which is a shame as the frame and fork are great. I guess the £1100 one could be something to build on if you could put up the 8 speed claris.

Yeah, looked at the Diverge as well but the spec is terrible for the money.