Plenty of good values out there. Get a Specialized FS Chisel Comp Shimano. Upgrade the wheels from a value brand like BTLOS or similar. Can then upgrade to carbon bar and lighter drivetrain components as they wear out. Won’t hold you back at all.
There’s a wonderfully buff and fast trail around here that a gravel bike is sufficient for. Twisty and flat, sandy in spots, straightaways where you can let it rip. It is a hoot.
Then there are other trails that are more limestone rock garden than dirt. A little squish is nice to have.
Given this discussion, should we expect everyone to have ordered the new Trek full suspension gravel bike? Same arguments I assume, fatigue, comfort, pedal through the chatter……
I’m not convinced the HT is better or not. I looked for info, want he’d all the videos on YouTube and there is nothing conclusive, just opinions and bike company marketing. I’m just struggling with the decision.
As for the Specialized Chisel, I built up the HT for my wife with hand me down stuff of mine and it’s 21lb w pedals, bottle cages, computer mount. That’s a sweet bike.
What trails will you ride the bike on? If it’s your current trails, it sounds like you’re happy with your hardtail, so ride that!
Probably the best advice I’ve heard for choosing a bike is “get the bike that works for 80% of your riding”.
The other 20% of the time ends up being:
10% over-biked
10% under-biked
So a different question to ask might be - do you plan to ride different trails than you do now?
Wise words indeed
Highly recommend getting rotor shims. Best 20 minutes I’ve ever spent getting all my rotors to align…swap between wheels takes 0 adjustment now.
R+D credits are for encouraging businesses to spend money on developing new
and better products, not to create a cheaper price for the consumer.
Well, finished swapping all the parts over from my Oiz onto the new frame, along with a couple of upgrades. Trickstuff Piccola HD 4 Piston Brakes, Adapter for a 180mm rotor in the rear, my old dropper did’t fit so went wireless, needed a different FA shock, and am still messing with fit and have a new stem on the way. But, this bike rips. My second ride on it yesterday and I was PR’ing several sections of my local trails - including our chunkiest and fastest downhill segment.
During setup, I also ended up with the shock having much less pressure in it than the Oiz to get 25-30% Sag, and the bike handles much better so far, makes me wonder if I just never set it correctly and never circled back to it last winter, but regardless, so far very happy.
Anyone have any experience with SRAM’s new Motive brakes? I have Level Silver brakes and Centerline rotors on my Blur and they have not been flawless, with very little pad clearance and frequent rotor rubbing. I’m curious if Motives have a bit more clearance at the caliper.
I’ve also considered the minor weight penalty for HS2 rotors since the extra thickness would minimize warping, but the trails I typically ride certainly don’t warrant those.
Can’t comment on Motives, but I’ve had great luck with HS2 rotors. Can’t say I’ve had a single issue with warping yet which I can’t say about the Centerlines.
I made the switch to full-suspension this year, and it was by far the biggest revelation I’ve ever had on a bike.
I’ve ridden fully rigid MTBs and hardtails for a long time, and the jump from hardtail to FS felt just as substantial as the jump from rigid to hardtail. Why keep one half of the bike rigid? What else with wheels in this world is rigid aside from a grocery cart?
There is just so much more grip, I have so many more options when riding trails, and I’m so much more comfortable. I also have a lockout on my bike, so in those few situations where a rigid bike is actually faster, I’m covered there as well.
As for scientific data, I have none, but my Strava PRs back up my feelings on the bike. 
Same experience here after years of riding singlespeeds and hardtails. They still hold a special place in my heart, but when it comes to speed there’s no comparison.
I doubt it, for me it would make no sense, I often go for 30-50 mile rides where I spend less than 2 or 3 miles on pavement, and it wouldn’t even make sense for me. It obviously depends on location, but a lot of what people around here use gravel bikes for are very smooth roads.
You also made a point earlier about not riding XC WC tracks, Ive ridden a few of the chunks of the MSA WC track, including la beatriz (ha, on a hardtail actually), and while challenging, they arent that different than what we ride regularly around here. So in short, we dont know what you ride, use your best judgement.
I think what it really comes down to, since it sounds like the stuff you ride is probably great on a hard tail, do you want to expand the things you regularly want to ride? It could be a good opportunity to ride a bunch of new stuff that you wouldn’t really expect to on an XC bike if you get a modern FS bike.
Lastly, in the completely anecdotal data category, I had an FKT on not very well known 40 mile, 6,000’ route, made up of 50/50 smooth dirt roads, and very CHUNKY class IV jeep roads. It was taken by someone this weekend by 7 minutes on a XC FS bike, it was from a significantly stronger rider than me, and he left some time on the table for sure, but the point im trying to make is that knowledge of the trails, and skillset at that specific thing can make things tighter than they should be. That said, could I have gone 7 minutes faster on an FS bike? Im guesing only 5, ha (over ~3ish hrs).
Just my opinion… but if you are spending 9k on that bike might as well go up to 12k and get a Epic World Cup and save 5 pounds. 
Not sure if you are serious, but the weight difference between an sworks epic 8 and World Cup is less than 2 lbs. And you give up a lot to save those 2 lbs. There is a reason specialized is selling tons of epic 8’s and can’t move the world cups.
Yes but @Jolyzara was talking about the Trek Checkout, which I think does weigh 5 pounds more than an Epic WC.
Whoops, and generally agree with going w a World Cup or super caliber over the checkout if you can make the fit work w drop bars.
I was comparing the epic world cup to the Trek Checkout. That said, you can put in a rigid post and the Epic 8 would be even closer to the World Cup weight… though comes with a $15k price tag.
Epic 8 would be my choice but I think the world cup is closer to the Checkpoint for comparison purposes. I saw one guy who put drop bars on it for a chunky gravel races. Talking about his bike he said he hold firm to the “smooth is fast” mantra. 
Bike looks great! Can’t wait to get mine out on the trail soon.
do you have a link to that front fender? I may install a shotgun seat on my bike for my daughter and that will reduce the chance her foot could make it between the tire and fork. Does it rattle at all? I had one on my ibis ripley and it’s rattle a bit annoyingly when off road.
That is the stock RockShox fender that came with the fork. No complaints with it so far, but I’ve used Mucky Nutz flex fenders with good luck before.