So I'm looking for a new bike for my partner, she's 5ft 5.5" tall. She's got a decathlon flat bar bike for riding around town, but is wanting to upgrade to something a bit faster/nicer.
The intended use for the bike will be a mix of (mostly) road rides, light gravel/dirt fireroa and very occasional canal duties etc. She's got a triathlon planned for the summer and it'll be used for this, but she's doesn't want/need a full on race bike as that'll only be once or twice a year. It needs to be decently quick/fun on the road but have 32mm+ tyres to be manageable on canal paths/wide forest paths (won't be doing singletrack etc as she also has an mtb).
To give an idea of what I've seen so far that seems to fit the bill, the Orro Terra G, Giant Contend AR and Trek Domane all look good options. I've got a ribble cgr 725 and that's very much setup towards gravel (650b wheels with 43mm tyres, 1x drivetrain, flared bars) which is too far over to the gravel side, something with 2x drivetrain and cable or hydraulic discs would be good.
Budget is somewhere in the region of £1000-1600. Let me know if anything else comes to mind. Thanks!
Specialized Diverge? Base model comes with 2x set up. and its comfy on the road
Going against most of what you require, obviously, but I noticed the Ragley Trig is discounted at CRC atm. I thought mine was good value at RRP so it's worth a look. Really good quality bike, very nicely finished.
Specialized Diverge would be the obvious one, although not sure it fits in budget.
Orbea Terra.
Canyon Endurance
Sonder Calibri
A small pinnacle arkose (pick a version). Fit narrower tyres, bars, new seat as required.
This in small, possibly spending the rest of the budget on a nicer second wheelset and a pair of slicks.
I've got the older version, it's great. Goes well on slicks too.
Im going again to bang the drum of the Sonder Camino.
For your budget you can get an Apex 1 Hydraulic.
I have a 2021 model and two wheel sets, 42 gravel tyres for hackign our and a bit of road works and a seperate set with gatorskins for out and out road work.
https://alpkit.com/products/sonder-camino-al-v3-apex1-hydraulic
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Cycle Exchange Gravel Bikes
I've a Domane SLR, Spesh Roubaix, & a Spesh Diverge, & the Diverge is my favourite by far - super comfy.
Could you stretch the budget, finance to something like this;
Diverge Carbon Sport
Cannondale Topstone is the faster roadie end of the spectrum. Evans certainty had some at a fair discount. The Boardman suggested above always gets great reviews though. That's what I've got.
We are looking at a Liv Devote for Mrs Anagallis, the one about £1500 has hydro brakes, we want to avoid cable.
Not sure if Liv do a Contend AR, it would be called an Avail
I'm trying to resist one of those Boardmans for longer rides this year hopefully around Old Winchester Hill area, while getting really tempted with one of those Carrera hydraulic folders for a new "fun" bike, that can be so easily taken on public transport or thrown in a car boot in addition to short local spins... It might even fit on the turbo, which has a 9-speed cassette already installed for my hybrid.
When I looked last night, the orange (which looks much better in my opinion) mediums were finally out of stock again after spotting them last week, but the black/white one has various sizes available.
Surely the answer is a Canyon Endurace? Comes with 32mm tyres, has space for up to 35mm, and is literally billed as the 'do anything bike'- they even offer it in an all-road gravel bike spec
£1,500 gets you the Shimano 105 flavour with disc brakes
