[Closed] New Bike Day (Gravel'ish Stigmata)

that looks lovely (and expensive)

Enjoy !!

They look fantastic 👍

Very nice. I looked carefully at the Stigmata but went for a Diverge eventually (more mounts etc). It's pretty easy to put together a better frame-only build for a lot less than Santa Cruz's full builds.I had plans to race mine at Grinduro CA until fires and plagues put an end to that!

Now that's some stem length... How long is it?

120mm, but it does look longer on the photos. Fairly standard for a road/gravel stem on a large frame (it's a 58cm and I am 6ft 2in). Santa Cruz spec a 110mm on their builds at this size, but I am fairly long in the arms and torso.

Certainly looks long next to the 35mm on my hardtail.

It actually works out about 2cm shorter in the reach than my road bikes, but I figure that with 2cm wider bars that will be just perfect off road.

Brilliant bikes!  That's a top notch build. Mine does gravel and road duties.. just a change of wheels.  Would love an AXS build.. how did you get on buying that kit.. did you buy it all individually? Don't think they sell the Eagle RD chain and cassette together?

Thanks. Mostly from the German online retailers (R2, bike24) and Mantel. All available individually and significantly cheaper than the UK.

SRAM started selling everything individually a while back now. They were groupsets and upgrade sets only at first.

First ride in anger today. Fairly muddy out, but the thinner tyres really cut through the gloop and there was very little mud flicked up.

It's my first 'gravel' bike, and I wasn't immediately blown away by the experience. I tried my usual hardtail loop and felt a little under geared and rattled around.

On the tarmac and well surfaced tracks it rode really nicely. On the rougher stuff, the lack of comfort afforded by larger volume tyres and front suspension was quite noticeable.

Still need to dial in the position. It is already 2cm shorter than my road position, but with wider flared bars it felt a bit too stretched out. Maybe a 10mm shorter stem and moving my saddle further forward might help.

No great surprises really. I think for a certain type of riding it will be brilliant, but the answer to the question 'can a gravel bike replace your mountain bike?' is a firm no for me based on the first ride.

This might be a grower, but I am used to love at first ride so a little disappointing start to the relationship.

Looks nice, but I reckon you need a link or two out of the chain. And isn't the Stigmata a full on cyclo-cross bike? Suppose it may have morphed into something more relaxed over the years, but not sure you've bought a gravel bike.

I appreciate the honest review and hope you can get it to what you want to be.

I recently started a thread about how gnar a gravel bike needs to be so I'm a few months behind you and watching with interest.

Imo, and I said it on Onzadog's gnar gravel thread, my mountain bike and gravel/tour-lite/road bike give me totally different riding routes and experiences. And so much the better.

Totally agree. The marketing hype over sells the gravel bike’s capability. Still an absolute hoot for the right conditions, but there is still a place for a mountain bike in my garage.

Fair comment on the chain. I shortened it before the first ride.

The Stigmata is now more of a gravel bike than a cyclocross racer as it started out. Less mounts than some, so better suited to my type of riding (short sharp blasts) rather than multi day fully laden epics.

I am looking forward to getting to know the bike in the coming weeks and I’ll report back.

Gravel for me is just that - gravel. I've got loads of gravel/hardpack trails around me, but none are more than 5-8km in length and there's plenty of road to get you on them, between them and back from them.

Riding a 50km ride with a mix of 60/40 gravel/road would be dull as ditchwater on a MTB and a chore to boot, but on a gravel bike, it's properly fun. The bike moves around a lot at 25-30kph on gravel which feels great. The gravel bike also and has a lot of grip on the road which means you can take funny lines into corners. Even getting to 30KPH on the flat on a MTB takes a decent amount of power and maintaining it takes even more, then on the gravel, the MTB is so sure footed as to make it just boring.

Horses for courses.

I saw a guy at Cwmcarn on a Tripster ATR - he looked properly miserable trying to negotiate slippery roots, rocky drops and wet rocky climbs. His mate on a Giant hardtail was having great fun.

Having also tried my gravel bike on pretty tame red routes (Ashton court, Leigh Woods), yes, it can do it, but again, it's not FUN, so what's the point?

Bikes should, first and foremost, be fun! After that comes looking good and finally comfort and practicality! 😉

It's a cyclocross bike made for smooth terrain (grass, mud, dirt, sand etc,.) and not for riding over rocky or rough terrain. And yes it will be uncomfortable and shake you around on rough terrain.

Keep to road and gravel and it will be perfect, stray onto the occasional rougher terrain and just put up with it until back to road or gravel. That is how I have ridden for last 20 years!

I've got the Olive green one built with 2x11 Ultegra Di2 and i've knocked out about 4,000km on it now. Fantastic for most things - road, paths and moderate rocky stuff. It's not a gnar hardtail and its not a road bike - it does most of the inbetween quite well.

I had a similar experience to solarider with a planet x tempest on 40mm nanos- its felt great for rough country roads and smooth gravel/fire roads but on anything rocky/rooty became a bit attritional. So i sold it and am putting jones bars on my old singular swift and will run something like a vittoria mezcal tyre to try that- my 'gravel' rides aren't about speed so a little slower but more comfortable will be fine with me

Second decent ride today, and it is starting to make more sense on the right trails. Fast, rough, muddy, but not too technical and not too steep. Not sure why that should be a surprise!

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I pushed the saddle forward and lowered the seat height a smidge more to my mountain bike seat height which helped with leg extension over the bumpy bits and made the reach more appropriate to more technical stuff.

Not the most versatile bike in my garage, but then again I guess my road bikes aren't either and my mountain bikes are pretty dull on the road. So maybe what I am saying is that it is actually the most versatile, but a jack of all trades and a master of none.

On balance it is a horse for a course, and a fairly fun one one the right course, but an old nag on the wrong one!

I built up a relatively racey Kinesis CX frame as a gravel bike (but then stuck a suspension seatpost on it and raised the bars until they were almost level with saddle!).

First impressions were similar to yours I think, I didn't really enjoy it on the rougher tracks and trails, but then it started to make more sense if you pushed harder, I joked initially that the bike would just sulk if I didn't go full gas everywhere.

I've since sort of gotten used to it and without actually changing anything enjoyed 4 long days gravel 'touring' on the same bike including some short sections of pretty rough and rocky singletrack (although wrists and hands were getting pretty tired by the end).

I think once you get used to the position and adapt to it you'll start to enjoy it.

This might be a grower, but I am used to love at first ride so a little disappointing start to the relationship.

I'm not sure I've EVER loved a bike on first ride, even my 'best' road bike felt weird initially, because it was so much lighter and stiffer than the bikes I was used to!

Bit of an update. What's the phrase? Don't judge a book by its cover?

After a few weeks of riding in some pretty awful conditions, I totally get this bike. Best fun bike in the garage. Fast enough to feel effortless on the road. Robust enough to hold its own on the trails. Yes a road bike will beat it on the road. Yes a mountain bike will beat it on rougher terrain. But I now really 'get it'.

I changed the chainring to a Wolftooth which seems to compliment the Eagle chain better than the Flat Top specific Red chainring. Much quieter. I also changed the seat post as I just could not stop the other one creaking (having stripped and rebuilt virtually everything else on the bike searching for the bleedin' creak!).

In the end after persevering, I bloody love this bike. Highly recommended, and the whole gravel 'thing' is also relevant in the UK despite there being very little gravel.

Wet, windy, muddy. Is there a better season than Autumn?.....

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Fast enough to feel effortless on the road. Robust enough to hold its own on the trails. Yes a road bike will beat it on the road. Yes a mountain bike will beat it on rougher terrain. But I now really ‘get it’.

That is why it is a good compromise. My riding for last 20 years has been a variety of loops that are made up of roughly 40% road, 55% gravel and 5% singletrack. The best suited bike for that would be something like yours but. Next best would be a a road bike with tougher tyres and worst would be an MTB.

That’s a Stunning looking bike. Really tempted but can’t justify it as I already have a perfectly good Cannondale caadx for gravelling about on!

What replacement post did you put on there?

Gravel bikes best for 80s 90s style “atb” riding Such as forest tracks, old railway lines, bridleways, byeways and country lanes rather than tackling Roots, drops and gaps etc...

Mine works for me here in the NF and dorset - plenty of gravel logging roads, back lanes, farm tracks, byeways etc to get out and explore the countryside. Usually end up on longer rides than when out on the (rigid) mtb.

I spent a few yrs on a steel “gravel” bike before I dropped a load of cash on a carbon gravel bike and did a few long test rides before deciding which one.

In the pictures it’s an Enve. I swapped it over from another bike just to track down the creaking. I like the touch points to match however and since the bar and stem are Zipp, it now has a Zipp Speed SL. Very similar to the Enve design at half the price.

Just back from another muddy sloppy ride this morning. This bike is definitely a grower and every ride it makes more sense and my hardtail makes less sense....

I ended up selling my hardtail after it was love at first ride with my Diverge. I had a Grade previously but that was more road-oriented (steeper geo with 35c tyres), which was fine but the Diverge is much more comfortable off-road. It's just very liberating: my typical ride is 100km on lanes linked by off-road sections, which I could do on a road bike but wouldn't be half as fast or fun. I still have a FS for when I want to do more trails. But it was hard to justify a hardtail too.