 You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
So i have been thinking of getting a gravel biek for a while. Locally East Yorkshire its flat and most bridleways are gravel ish so it fits well. Current bike is Dartmoor HT which does everything but bit slow on road sections etc. So ive looked at the bottom two model Saracen levarg which look good especially at the discounted prices, but which would you go for or have thoughts?  options.Â
The base model has hydro brakes and 1x Deore drivetrain, which seems great for the money... just a shame it has flat bars. As such I'd go for the one of the other two, probably the SL if funds allow.
Â
Just had a look on the Saracen website - they're certainly offering a hefty descount!
Of the three, I'd go for the SL. The FB looks like a weird MTB/gravel cross and if you're finding the current one a bit slow on the road you probably don't want a 1x setup. The regular one isn't wonderfully spec'd but that SL looks like good value with GRX, hydro brakes etc.
As per the thread about these last week the only thing that'd put me off is the 27.5" wheels, the lack of gravel tyres these days for that size and the fact that if you swapped to 700s the max tyre size is 35. Plus if the idea is to go fast then 650b isn't going to help with that compared to 700s
I suppose it depends which end of gravel biking you're looking for. If it's a road bike capable of rough stuff then it's hard to ignore the SL at the price.Â
If you're wanting more of a dropped bar off road machine then the wheel sizes may be a little limiting .... although still hard to ignore at the price.
Thank you all for the thoughts. Its more the road bike side as there isn't many bridleways out my way and you need to link sections of road to get between the tracks. I do like the 1x on my mtb but as you say a gravel bike will get a higher speed which a 1x doesnt really have the range. I do like the 1 x hydro base model but the flat bars look odd, just need to check the piggy bank to see if i can afford the SL model. All came after a 28 mile ride this summer on my HT which i reckon i could have done on a gravel bike and really enjoed bobbing around back lanes and onto easy bridleways.
To be honest the rest of the Saracen range is very good value with the sale prices, nearly thought about a new HT but no need really.Â