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This may be a repeat as I just typed this out and pressed submit and now can’t find it…
Sorry about this as I’m sure it’s been done to death, but I’m pretty stuck on what gravel bike to buy….
Firstly I’m generally a roadie who also rides mountain bikes. My winter mountain bike is an Orange Crush, 150mm fork, 650B wheels. My nearest trails are 7 miles away and the Crush is overkill in my view (Delemere). I hate riding the Crush on the road, it’s just not fun, so tend to drive to the trail.
My winter road bike has had a pretty tough life and I’d like to replace it. It’s looking a bit tired.
So rather than buy two bikes I’d like a gravel bike that takes 700cc 45mm tyres but is also capable of long (100 mile) fairly fast road group rides in the winter.
The most important factor is that the bike is fun on the 14 mile there and back to Delemere and capable once there. The road bit I could possibly put to a bonus nice to have.
My winter road rides are very often in Snowdonia, hilly and steep.
I’ll keep the Crush for other riding I do over winter.
Budget is about £2500. I already have nice road wheels, these can take a 35mm road tyre comfortably. Which is my thinking from a road perspective. I will be swapping the wheels over from time to time to a different bike, so needs to be compatible with Shimano (not sure I could get a SRAM Force or EKAR group set and swap in a wheel with a Shimano freehub?)
I’ve always been a bit of a weight weenie, but happy for the bike to weigh 10kgs, no more than that.
So far I’ve been looking at the following options:-
1. Planet X Tempest EKAR. Never had a Ti bike. Like the look of them and weight seems to be acceptable. Not sure about the group set and wheel compatibility though. Rubbish tyres so another £100 needed for proper off-road tyres. Chainset is 42/42, don’t know if that’s suitable enough for off-road climbs. As this is close to top of budget I don’t want to be changing chainrings or cassette.
2. On One Freeranger with Force. Rubbish tyres and wheels. But good weight and looks like geometry would be ok for running in a road setup. Chainset is a 42t and a 42t cassette. Might need a 40t at the front. So under budget but more money needed to make it the bike I’d want. Rival AXS Explr is the same price and does have a 40t and a 44t cassette, so would only swap out wheels and tyres….and then seatpost and bars.
3. CANNONDALE TOPSTONE CARBON 3 GRAVEL BIKE 2023 in 700cc guise. Is Shimano GRX 600, no issues with compatibility (I think!), but it is a low tier group set compared to the above bikes. I think I’d prefer the gearing available on the two by set up, 46/30 and and 11/34 cassette….unless I’m completely wrong and 42/42 would give me the same gear range? I’m thinking about the climbing I do. It’s tough on the Domane with 50/34 and an 11/30 cassette. This is top of my budget as it’s on sale from £3200 to £2550. This spec is pretty much ready to ride (WTB Riddlers might get replaced when it’s really muddy).
I’m being lured by the Freeranger, currently about £1700, I think hunt wheels and decent tyres will cost me £450. So still £400 cheaper than the others (with the 20% discount)
Looks wise I’d prefer the Tempest, but it has its downsides.
The Topstone looks to be just about perfect, but it’s fugly.
The Freeranger is cheap.
Links
https://www.sigmasports.com/item/Cannondale/Topstone-Carbon-3-Gravel-Bike-2023/X5HS?s=1
https://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/CBPXTEMCAMEKAR/planet-x-tempest-campagnolo-ekar-titanium-gravel-bike
https://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/CBOOFRFOR1700/on-one-free-ranger-sram-force-1-carbon-gravel-bike
And a bit of a curveball.
Don’t know if I’d need the fork and whether this would be completely rubbish for winter road riding. But I like the dropper option. Also a bit worrying that there is no pics of the actual bike.
Hoping to pull the trigger tonight when I’m drunk…..
Apologies for a repeat post and such a long one, but wanted to provide as much detail as possible.
i am in the market for a gravel/endurance type bike.
got a mtb for mud. got a ti fargo for touring. i want something for longer rides in comfort with a mix of types of surface.
got my eye on one of these.
https://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/ribble-cgr-725/?childSku=BBCGR725020
I don't know those specific bikes but I would say that I think GRX is an absolutely superb groupset. I've got Rival on another bike and GRX is so much better, especially the brakes (which are also much easier to maintain). The GRX is on my Diverge, which is probably the best bike I've ever owned (if best means 'most like to ride'). The Topstone gets very favourable reviews so that's where my money would go.
I have a 52/36-11/34 equipped Tempest that commutes 20 miles each way a couple of days a week on 700-32c and slips on some 650-46c for playing around gravel roads locally or Dalby red/blue/green mixes at the weekend.
Two years old, mudguards and rack, front guard comes off with the 47mm tyre, the back one is rack & frame braze-on mounted so doesn’t foul the tyre anyway.
Very versatile bike, and doesn’t get the frame ground away by mud in the winter. Yeah titanium.
I’m on a carbon Topstone. Love it. Capable and compliant off the tarmac and pretty rapid on it. Mines the SRAM 1*11 no real issues on gearing. You don’t need the lows like you do on the MTB
Mines the quicksand / black cherry edition. I quite like it’s look but they are a bit marmitey
Lyon have some ex-demo and end of line bikes that might fit your criteria, Salsa Warroad & Warbird, Bombtrack Hook Carbon, etc.
My Warroad from them arrived next day.
https://www.lyonequipment.com/bikes
Might be worth looking at Sonder as they let you chop and change the components to suit what you want.
https://alpkit.com/collections/sonder-camino
'Fairlight Secan' would blow all those others above away at a similar price point, and should be more option-able to achieve requirements. Supple ride quality being more worthwhile than weight alone for this sort of thing...
Oh no, I wish I hadn't seen that link to Lyon Cycles above......!
I ride a Dolan which is exactly the same frame as the Freeranger. I live in Macc but I’ve been riding over to and around Delamere via my boys footy games which are usually somewhere around Northwich. It’s been brillant on mixed terrain rides of upto 80 miles. Taking in the Weaver way, Whitegate Way and the tracks around the forest. It set up with 650b and 48mm gravelkings. I’ve also got a set of road wheels for it, for riding in the mountains in the summer but I’ve only used this set up once and it was good.
My wife has the Freeranger set up as a flat barred road bike with carbon wheels and rival Xplr, she used in this summer in the Pyrenees and absolutely loved it. 44t front with 10-44 cassette is a great set up for a road bike in the big mountains.
A thumbs up on the comfort of the Topstone. A riding pal has a couple, one alloy, one carbon, and I have a carbon lefty 3. Most capable and comfortable gravel bike I have ridden, and I have a history of a couple of Croix de Fer’s and up till this January, a Genesis Fugio 30.
I've the Freeranger, running with 700x50c Gravelkings (and better wheels), but pretty mud free here (mainly used for estate & fireroads plus back lanes) - no issue with climbing on 42-11-42, it'll get up pretty much anything I need.
Force 1 on mine, standard Shimano-type freehub and I'd already knew the wheels it came with were heavy & a bugger to tubeless as I'd had them on an older gravel bike, so budgeted for new wheels.
Chicken cycles - tifosi cavazzo carbon with full Ekar groupset 1999.99
The frame is open mould; don't know if that's a concern for you - it wouldn't be for me.
If I was you, I'd definitely go 2 x GRX.
Good quality aluminum frame with a carbon fork, c/w tyre clearance upto 50mm tyres
Hydraulic disc are a must, mechanical are awful off-road IME.
Tyres are the thing that will really decide how your bike will ride. Most new gravel bikes come will low tread summer type tyres. Not ideal for this time of year. Change these for something with some more tread especially on the edges. Either sell or save the stock tyre for the summer.
So there's plenty of different bikes about that cover the above so really comes down to fit and feel. Best to try out one you fancy before taking the plunge.
Hi Frank,
The Tifosi is showing as being £3200 for EKAR?
Possibly a really daft question, but the Bombtrack looks amazing value ( https://www.lyonequipment.com/bikes/pgr/bombtrack-hook-ext-c-glossy-green-my22__2875 )
Can I just put in my normal road wheels? I presume I can? So 650B for off-road wide tyre fun, and 700cc with nice wide slick rubber when I want to do road rides?
Would love the Fairlight, but not available until March 23. Looking for something this year. Preferably an in stock bike.
The Fairlight is £3k for the config I’d be looking at. I’d stretch the budget for one, just lead time is the killer for me.
w00dster, ebay - gravelbikes; it's ex-display in medium.
I'm sure you can find it but I'll post a link later.
Fustle Causeway, dropper post, fun geometry, easily double as a road bike. I reviewed one of the first and then bought one straight away. v2 is now out with glossier paint but the same fun, £2500 will get you a great spec. in stock last time I checked and versions with the silver GRX too.
https://ukgravelco.com/fustle-causeway-gr1-review/
2. On One Freeranger with Force. Rubbish tyres and wheels. But good weight and looks like geometry would be ok for running in a road setup. Chainset is a 42t and a 42t cassette. Might need a 40t at the front. So under budget but more money needed to make it the bike I’d want. Rival AXS Explr is the same price and does have a 40t and a 44t cassette, so would only swap out wheels and tyres….and then seatpost and bars.
I bought this, swapped the tyres (Schwalbe G-One all round) and saddle and added a Redshift stem. Wheels are a bit heavy, but can't say I actually notice it - rides really well. Very impressed by it.
Also, the wheels didn't arrive taped for tubeless - they fired latex out of every spoke hole when I tried to seal the tyres with a compressor! Now, properly taped and running tubeless.
I might stick some lighter wheels on it at some point, but not in any hurry.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52141742232_cfa9c4ae30_z.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52141742232_cfa9c4ae30_z.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2nrA4nJ ]On-one Free Ranger[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/ ]Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr
Footflaps,how are you getting on with the Redshift stem?
I am kinda tempted.
Get the pro version if going Redshift shock stem, much less fussy elastomer change
That bombtrack frame looks identical to my freeranger.all the details are the same.
Love my free ranger. Its brilliant, still stock but will get some better wheels on it. Don't even think the tyres are that bad. I have creme egg paint job. Looks great in flesh and gets the odd compliment. Only downside is force 1 brakes are super noisy in wet
Thanks all.
I am swayed back to the Freeranger. Sensible chat with the bro who has pushed me in that direction.
But I’m not properly drunk…..expect on two hours an update saying I’ve bought the Tempest….
Thanks rocketdog, I read your test on graveluk. 👍
OP,I just handed down my old PX carbon cross bike (xls) to my son.
With two sets of wheels it was an excellent doitall.
Having better rear wheel clearance and more fixing points,I imagine that the Freeranger will be even better.
As some additional context, I do ride a lot, off-road and road and looking for a bike that does really good off-road and road.
My girlfriend lives in rural Southern France (near Aix-En-Provance). I plan on semi moving there next year.
Ventoux is reasonably close with a good network of gravel roads to get there. So the bike I buy has to be a good climber, with appropriate gearing for weighted off-road touring.
As I’m getting more drunk the Tempest is getting better.
Cannondale, all day long. You're a loon if you don't...I even fancy one myself at the 20% off price!
Fatmax….it’s not ti though!!!!
Go on, have another and then...order something bespoke and handmade to your exact spec; pay non-refundable deposit and then go to sleep...
Hic!
Whatever you do, enjoy!
For anyone interested…..yep I’m drunk….damn Jack Daniels it’s all your fault! Actually it’s the brothers fault as he was sneakily getting me doubles!
Planet X Tempest with EKAR ordered. But worryingly the site doesn’t let me check my order. I just want to triple check the correct size has been ordered….
Missus is happy with my order (I think….hope…) as it gives me motivation to do some rides I’ve always wanted to do. Family are in Chamonix and near Marseille. I’ve already booked my flight into Geneva to ride to Chamonix and then pick up the Via Rhona at Lyon down to Marseille. Anyway that’s next year. Got 5 or 6 months of planning, testing and fettling to do!
For those who know France, the French family think I should ride from St Malo down to Marseille rather than Geneve. I’ve already rode from St Malo to Barcelona, so some fun planning to do. I have the time next year to do this, and the family did a circular route from Chamonix last month covering pretty much the entire French extremities. I don’t think I’d have the same time as them (they were on e-road bikes), so think I’d only have a max of 6 days (and 4 days R&R with missus and family)
Thanks all. Now really looking forward to sorting out the bike. Will post pictures when it arrives.
Excellent work OP,long live the late night drunken purchase 😃
Enjoy all the trip planning .
If you want titanium, then whatever you buy that is not titanium will not satisfy 😉 . Mine is a Charge Freezer Ti and it's lovely geometry, takes wide tyres, but no eyelets and running mini Vs and 1x10. I'd happily do group rides on it over distance and it's done red at Swinley, although some of the drops are a little interesting. Considering a Lauf fork and front disc as an upgrade, but it has a 400g carbon WCS fork at the moment, so very light.
I have the Vitus on your ebay link. I have been riding it around Devon lanes and a fair bit of off road to. So far it has been amazing.
The forks are great, they do take a bit of getting used to with the looks, but they really make a difference. Don't think of them like you would on a mountain bike. They are like a much better version of the Redshift stem which I had on my previous bike.
I really can't recommend it enough. The value is amazing when you look at the spec. Those forks alone are over £1k
I have just got back from a ride where i started on the trails then did 10 mile on the road. avoiding the strava debate, I was getting time to match roadies on the popular segments but have the flexibility to ride through the woods to get home.
Thought I’d update this thread with how things progressed a week after my drunken purchase.
As mentioned, I purchased the Planet X Tempest last Saturday. Received it yesterday at approx 2pm. Well packaged and good comms from Planet X.
Took me about an hour to inbox and build the bike up. Swapped the 38mm Panracer Comet for some G-One Ultrabite 40mm tyres. Everything else is stock, it’s the Campag EKAR version.
It’s heavy. I’ve not weighed it yet, but it’s noticeably heavier than my Domane when putting it on the bike hooks that are above my head.
I’m ok with that though, never expected it to be light straight out of the box.
Took it on its first ride this morning. Only a short one, I’m full of cold. If it wasn’t a new bike there was no way I’d have gotten out of bed!
The ride was a good mixture of roads, bridleways, soft muddy singletrack and badly broken farm roads. This is the type of ride I purchased the bike for. No real hills, a couple of short sharp spikes, but nothing major.
The tyres handled the off-road with ease. Not so good through the wet leaves on the bridleway, but that could also be me getting used to the setup.
In terms of for this ride, it’s a really good tool. It’s no more comfortable than my Domane with 33mm knobbly tyres, but it was very capable.
I liked the feel of the tyres / bike in mud. For those CX racers who are familiar with the squirmy feel of the bike moving about under you, and you use body weight to correct it, that was happening, but it all felt controlled.
In terms of the EKAR, I’m very much a Shimano man, and Di2 on my best bikes, with Ultegra and 105 on the others, all compact or semi compact chain rings. The 1x is ok, I noticed a few big jumps in the cassette that were annoying, subconsciously I’d leave it in the “wrong” gear and get out of the saddle rather than change down. You also have to really complete the gear change, every now and then I would do a change that I thought sufficient only to get the tick tick tick sound of the chain and cassette not fully engaged. The thumb and finger shifting is easy enough to get the hang off.
Is it capable for fast winter road rides? Not with the group I ride with. But then it’s got a fairly aggressive gravel tyre on. One of my next steps is to buy a lighter 35mm road tyre and set them up on a set of light carbon wheels.
My conclusion:-
I used to race, all forms of racing. Every group ride was with a bunch of competitive like minded individuals, pretty much eyeballs out smashfest. By 2019 I’d had enough and had pretty much stopped riding altogether. I’d just stopped enjoying it. The aim of this bike is to help me enjoy being out on the bike again. Not worrying about my Strava times. Riding it today, I don’t think I’ll be rejoining there old group ride, but I also don’t think I want to. I enjoyed the simplicity of todays ride too much.
Do I love it? No. I’m used to riding high end bikes with very good components. But I sure as heck had a great time out on it today.
I think I made the right decision bike wise, maybe not in terms of groupset.
Planet X wise, absolutely great. I paid £1910 for the bike. That’s such a good deal. I think it’s now at £2300, even that price is a good price.
Next steps:- saddle, seatpost, bars and stem will be replaced. Have ordered Zipp Service Course SL carbon components. Should help reduce the weight a little bit. The Fulcrum wheels on the bike will be setup tubeless with the G-Ones, running tubes today, probably at too high a pressure as well, 42 front and 45 back (I’m currently 78kgs).
My nice carbon wheels will also be set up tubeless once the Campag freehub arrives. Not decided on tyres, I like Challenge tyres so prob a pair of Strada Bianca 700x36mm.
Nice! My force axs arrives on Tuesday hopefully. I also pressed go, emboldened by this thread!
42 front and 45 back
Get the tubless set up done, I'm 10kg heavier than you but ride 10psi less than that. Should transform the offroad ride 👍