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This bike was not love at first pedal ( https://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/new-bike-day-gravelish/). But 6 months down the line, it is my most used bike by far. I fitted some 650b wheels (Hope RS4 hubs, DT XM421 rims, WTB Venture 47mm) on Friday and got 2 decent rides in this weekend. Not as flash as the 700c carbon wheels and noticeably harder work on the road, but that's not the point of these wheels. I didn't want to blow too much cash on an experiment, but they ride really nicely. £500'ish does seem to be the wheel sweetspot in terms of price vs performance. Diminishing returns definitely kick in after that, but they do feel better than something at around the £300 mark.
The 700c wheels really fly, but they do shake your teeth a bit. These 650b wheels make it feel totally different and far more capable off road. I am not an enduro/jump/uplift type of rider, so this does me just fine.
I came back home, looked at the hardtail hanging there unused since the trails were dusty and really wondered when I might use it again. With 2 sets of wheels, this really will handle all of the off road I will ever want to tackle. I would still keep a road bike ironically since this is probably closer to a road bike than an MTB, but the finger is definitely hovering over a classified ad right now......
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Interesting, do you have data on the speed difference or was that feel?
Nothing scientific, more feel. They are heavier, they are slightly smaller diameter and obviously much wider, so everything stacks up to be slower, but I bet off road they are probably actually faster because they allow you to hit things faster and isolate you more, and in my experience one of the biggest things you can do to go faster off road is to increase comfort.
When time permits, I might do some back-to-back comparisons just for sh*ts and giggles.
Weird the overlap between gravel and Mtb these days, I had those rims on my flaremax.
Ha, yep things move quickly. They are a decent width, decent weight and probably considered narrow these days for an MTB, but perfect for a 47mm gravel tyre.
It's a bit like ragging an old mini or fiat panda around as opposed to a modern focus.
Nothing to say other than yum @ that bike 🤩
Is your HT on the classifieds yet?
Probably break it up. It’s a pretty pricey proposition as is.
Or maybe just keep it as a pub bike.... (joking BTW!).
I just sold my gravel after a couple of years ownership.
I came from MTB and added a gravel to the collection when a friend decided to buy one. Had some great fun on it and added plenty of mods which further blurred the line between a hardtail mtb and gravel bike
Added seriously wide wood chipper salsa bars, grx drivetrain , bigger tires, custom burly wheelset etc
Overall the gravel was c3/4kgs lighter and felt better for sprints but my routes can be a bit rough in places and there’s no getting away from the fact it is fully rigid regardless of what fork or tyres you run.
Plus I like the option of going for a ride and then maybe including a run through the woods. The gravel can do the woods but at a much slower speed which removes some of the fun factor there.
Anyway I’ve gone back to x2 bikes now with a new HT with geometry for longer rides and comfort yet can still do some runs in the forest with jumps etc when I fancy it
It feels so much more comfortable over a longer distance, potentially the best all rounder HT I’ve owned.
There are so many hardcore HTs around at the moment that are not suited to mileage imo. I would have kept the gravel over one of these.
I’ll stick to my FS for any hardcore riding duties!
There's a line from the Wash to the Bristol Channel and most stuff north of that is too harsh for a Gravel. Seriously I can't think of many places round here where they' be likely to work well, excepting that the lanes are so bad I might buy one just for what passes for roads.
Nail on head cloggy. They're a very viable alternative to road bikes, with a bit of off road muddy lanes chucked in, but there's not a cats chance in hell anyones ragging that down my local MTB trails.
Lovely bike though!
I mainly ride my cx bikes down in
Surrey hills, hardly used my ibis in three or four years, but it was doing all that which made me go and buy a short travel hardtail. So cx was the defibrillator in my mtb’ing.
Meh, gravel. Load of bollox. Did a lovely ride yesterday that included lots of road, Macc Forest, Cat n Fiddle, Buxton bridleway,Chinley Churn, canal tow paths and then some road.
Giant Anthem did it all beautifully. ( Apart from one OTB on Chapel Lane ice).
Not sure I'd lose the (albeit limited) off road ability of the Anthem for a tiny bit more road efficiency.
I've done the gravel thing and sitting alongside my 150/160mm, coil sprung FS bike it was great for local stuff.
Sold it recently though as I'm going to build a hardtail which will cover proper MTB winter riding, and with a wheel/tyre swap to some 1500g wheels with XC tyres, will also do the summer local stuff the gravel bike was doing.
Have had a hankering for a hardtail for a while now too.
Meh, gravel. Load of bollox. Did a lovely ride yesterday that included lots of road, Macc Forest, Cat n Fiddle, Buxton bridleway,Chinley Churn, canal tow paths and then some road.
Cool story bro 👌