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Looking for some advice on which gravel bike for under £2000. Preferably 1x.
Im looking at Merlin G2x, Ribble Gravel Al or Canyon Grail Al.
Any other recommendations?
Thanks
Kona Libre or Rove DL both 1x and well under £2k.
Planet X, take yer pick from carbon and Ti, most well under 2k.
Just been reading a review of the Forme Monsal 2 which is listed at £1679.
Looks to be tidy.
I don’t think the Merlin has much clearance. Not sure about the other options.
Wouldn’t touch PX with a barge pole.
Hard to look past a Sonder Camino, would get a nice spec for £2k with change for some bikepacking bags.
I'm happy with my On One Free Ranger. £1800 with upgraded wheels, 1x11, 42x10-42 SRAM Rival.
Delivered within 4 weeks.
We both bought Free Rangers - mine was £1500 with SRAM Force 1x. Delivery was 2 days after ordering...
Sonder Camino Alu
Cube Nuroad
Cotic Escapade
I love my Free Ranger.
I know 3 people with free rangers. All love em, and no issues whatsoever. Would be my choice at that price point
I had a space chicken for a good while, also loved it and the price I paid it was an utter bargain.
Free ranger owner here. Love mine, no issues in thousands of miles my go to bike, cannot praise it enough.
Also loads of people say they love the creme egg paint Job, it does look great in the flesh
Thanks everyone.
I'm very tempted to blow the budget and go Camino Ti with grx 1x.
The Planet X freeranger is amazing value but it looks awful in my eyes. Would be interested to hear more owners opinions on them.
Trek Checkpoint is a great bike if you can get one.
In the great Singletrack tradition of recommending what you have.
Whyte Friston V4 2022 £1850 ish.
SRAM Apex, 11 speed, dropper post, tubeless ready, slackish geometry. Very comfy. Rides like a mountain bike which is why I like it.
I have a Ragley Trig, which is ace if you can find stock.
I've got a Vitus CRS2, they do an Apex 1x one for the same money. To be fair it's bloody brilliant, rattled off a 142k 50/50 off on road rode today and it's certainly more than comfortable enough.
In the age old tradition of recommending what you ride I’ll volunteer….Nukeproof Digger, fantastic bike, really capable , closer to an MTB than it should be!
OP are you looking specifically for:
A
Race-orientated low-stack/roadie gravel?
or
B
Comfortable mid-stack/all-rounder gravel?
or
C
High-stack 29er/monstercross/adventure gravel?
Planet X Tempest, bloody brilliant for the price. Multiple threads on here about 'em.
Planet X tempest owner here
Six months in so far and no issues, paid £1800 for the Sram Force version
Gets used off road on MTB trails and is also my winter/wet weather work bike
Titanium with Force groupset for £1500 beats everything else into a cocked hat.
Maybe £1800, after looking again, but preorder a ti London road and it’s £1300 with Rival hydro.
I had this groupset on a ti charge plug, it was bomb proof. At this price you can get a complete set of wheels and discs with tyres to run a road set up, with a wheel switch.
Some great recommendations, thank you everyone.
I should have said originally that I'm looking for a bike that can do 50% road and 50% light off road.
Just got a 2021 Orbea H30 1x for £300 under your budget including a few extra bits, picking it up next week after a few tweaks. It was that or the free ranger but in the end the support and advice of a great local bike shop swung it for me. Still leaves a bit for upgrades. Bit more subtle in the green than the free ranger as well!
I should have said originally that I’m looking for a bike that can do 50% road and 50% light off road.
Pretty much any bike can do that - my starting point would be preferred geometry/fit, principally reach, stack wheelbase ?
Compare bikes here:
Having gone down the same path, 50% road 50 % light off road, I’d err on the side of wider tyres you can use.
I ended up buying a road bike that could take wise tyres, which was great at first, but as the light off road started to gain more of a priority then i found the geometry and the 35mm tyres a restriction. I still did SDW on it, but after 60 miles I’d have killed for 42mm or larger.
I’d defo be looking at Planet X tempest or the Free Ranger.
The Planet X freeranger is amazing value but it looks awful in my eyes. Would be interested to hear more owners opinions on them.
I'm not a massive fan of On-one colour schemes, but the Red/Black Free Ranger is pretty tame in the flesh.
I’m not a massive fan of On-one colour schemes, but the Red/Black Free Ranger is pretty tame in the flesh.
Definitely. & Stick some 50mm tyres on....
The Free Ranger is based on a Carbonda 696 frameset. The same is used by Dolan for their GXC gravel bike and others. It’s a highly regarded Chinese frameset. You can actually buy it direct from them if you want and painted to your spec. There is loads of info on line about them. I have the FreeRanger built up as a SRam 1x flat bar bike as I prefer a flat bar. Can’t fault it. It’s a light nice handling bike,can’t fault it. Lots of clearance with fittings for all you will need and 700 or 650 wheels.
Check out PlanetX eBay site https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/planetxbikesuk/m.html?_trkparms=folent%3Aplanetxbikesuk%7Cfolenttp%3A1&_trksid=p3542580.m47492.l71971
They sell slightly marked framesets off half price which is where I got mine.
Free Ranger here too, in 'inside' egg colours (brown & orange option on the ebay site) - looks nicer than either the other two options I reckon.
Mine's with Force 1x - my previous gravel bike was Apex 1x, Force is so much nicer.
Ride's really well and running mine with 700x50c tyres. Had it a year and 2000 miles, majority off-piste but I kept the original wheels and put slicks on them for whenever I want to ride road. The 50s's are on a set of 25mm internal wheels.
Will join in the recommend what you've got - I picked up a Titus Goldrush in one of the regular PX sales, well under budget with 1x SRAM Force. Spent a bit on PNW bars, stem and dropper post but still sub £2k.
Really nice to ride, good value - wheels feel a bit cheap but easy upgrade at some point.
Comparing it to a friends Tempest it has better thought out dropouts and longer front centre so doesn't suffer from the same overlap issues.
