Best Adventure Gravel Build 2024

[rkoswald]

@Chain_of_Fools

I recently swapped out the suspension fork for the rigid

Curious why you changed to a rigid fork? I have a medium Seigla with the Grit fork. I don’t have that many rides on it but seems to behave as designed. I haven’t had any speed wobbles but two things that caught me off guard. Tough to say if it was the fork or something else such as an off-camber road or wide tires with low pressure.

• during one hard front braking the fork pulled left (toward the disc rotor). Not sure if it was due to the fork, road slant, or something else.
• Took a super sharp corner transitioning from paved road to sidewalk at low speed and the tire “caught” and I really had to fight to keep from going down. Tires were underinflated (was a short ride from my house to play pickleball with the family).

[Chain_of_Fools]

@rkoswald

@Chain_of_Fools

I recently swapped out the suspension fork for the rigid

Curious why you changed to a rigid fork?

For my use cases (mix of rough gravel, smooth gravel and a bit of pavement, plus occasional commuting) I found the suspension fork + big rubber to be overkill. I think suspension might make sense running skinny tires, but I find that 50mm+ tires provide compliance comparable to a suspension fork, but at both ends of the bike, with less weight and with more steering precision and consistency on pavement. The rigid bike with 2.2" tires feels plenty compliant and capable to me; 2.2" tires PLUS the suspension fork is overkill for anything short of technical single track in my opinion.

Also, I happened to buy my Seigla just before Lauf dropped their prices. Amazingly they offered me a $500 gift cert. to everyone who bought at the high price within 60 days of the drop, so I figured why not try to the rigid fork? Definitely liking it tho.

[jamesdanielosborne]

maybe the best bike for almost everything. my ibis dv9 with 2.1 thunderburts. swap to real tires for mtb rides. that and a road bike is all you really need, around here at least.

[oldandfast]

It’s a shame Specialized discontinued the hardtail. I’m actively searching for a light frame:

Cervelo
Orbea
Mondrake

Old

[Andrewbn42]

Don’t they still sell the hardtail? Gotta say, hardtails are fun gravel bikes

[oldandfast]

Yes but not the ultralight sworks frame set

[Andrewbn42]

Ahh, makes sense. The comp is still a 900g frame, which is pretty light

[HW24]

Hi Ike,

I’ve been searching for some reviews on the Boken MIRU frameset but am coming up short. Your “However - it just wasn’t fast and fun” quote is probably half of what I’ve got so far. I realise this is a 6 month old comment and you may not even see this to reply, but I thought I’d try anyway.

Was the ‘not fast and fun’ summary based on the build you had/have? Or is it something particular to this frameset? Fast and fun aren’t neccessarily my top priorities, though of course I’d hope with a good set of road wheels/tyres it might be spritely! I’m looking for a do-it-all/allroad titanium bike that will encourage me on more adventures and on paper this seems to have a lot going for it and I love the look of it more than anything else.

Any feedback you might have, if you ever read this, would be well appreciated!

Thanks,
Hamzah

[ike2112]

@HW24 Hamzah,

When I was deciding on a bike I struggled a bit too with the lack of reviews of the Boken Miru.

Originally I had been planning for some time to treat myself to a titanium bike for my 40th, with Moots in mind. You’re talking 2016 or so when it first crossed my mind and a Moots gravel bike was about £3500k for the frameset… now the same one is more like £6500k; the Routt RSL is £11.5k for a full build and that was just far too expensive.

What 700 have done is basically copy the same sort of process Moots use, double-butted, cold formed titanium, and with the same brushed finish. It struck me that they seemed kind of similar to Reilly in geometry and interestingly the hangar for them is identical (for Miru and Reilly Gradient).
Knowing there was limited info on the Boken, I instead I went through other Titanium options and removed them from consideration instead. Reilly, Laverack, Enigma, Ribble, J. Guillem… it wasn’t that there was anything terribly wrong with these, some were just very expensive, I think for me the Boken has an aesthetic appeal with the thicker tubes and brushed finish compared to some, whilst still having what could be a racy-ish geometry.

I do love the bike, its very much an adventure bike. It can go anywhere, do anything.
I have a SRAM AXS mullet setup on it so its wireless shifting, with Force shifters, 44T chainring and 52-10 on the back with SRAM Eagle derailleur.
I then have 2 wheelsets; Zipp 303s with 40mm hard-surface gravel tyres, and 650b Scribe with 2.4" Vittoria Mezcals for winter/mud.

Tons of carry/storage options, so I’ve used it for bike packing a few times (front fork mounts very useful). Its been a really rugged bike for me so far, and has been over 2 munros, through the Lairig an Liough - basically its ridden what are really hiking trails and mountain bike routes as much as gravel.
Definitely it feels sluggish with the 650b - I guess that’s to be expected. Thats a fun setup when it comes to darting around with MTB wheels on a gravel bike, and I’ve taken it to country parks and ridden around some trails on it.
So you can ride it on trails with lots of roots etc without too much issue. But its also not going to break your PBs on any smoother surfaces if you ride it with that sort of wheelset setup.
Conversely with the Zipp 303s 700c, its a really comfortable ride, feels like you could go anywhere and do anything on it. Could stick 32mm road tyres on it and it would be a superb endurance road bike.

I just however felt I wasn’t quite hitting the speeds I could at times.
The geometry is business rather than playful - its meant for long days in the saddle.

With buying the Stigmata I wanted a bike that was a little lighter (its not the lightest of carbon gravel bikes but its good enough), and that I could dart around the woods with in areas near where I live.
It is noticeably quicker than the titanium in a point-and-shoot sort of way when I rode gravel events this year. And probably from the shorter stem I feel its just a touch more agile around the woodland trails - I am used to riding an old-school cyclocross bike with short wheel base (and toe overlap) which was a really fun and agile bike you could throw around. The Stigmata is almost that - personally I think they made the top tube a tiny bit too long - probably for speed/racing but for my 54cm I could do with another 10-15mm off the reach but the stem is already pretty short.

I find myself still riding the Boken an awful lot, and it would be fine to ride it for everything if it was my only bike, I wouldn’t have any complaints (though I am on my 3rd hangar - I’ve got a CNC machined one now).
I was just lucky enough to suddenly be in position to buy another bike through my company and opt for a carbon alternative for days I want to race around as fast as I can.

At the price point, I just didn’t think I could find better than the Boken. Doing a build with Laverack would be awesome, but would cost about 3 grand more. Jeandre at 7 hundred handled mine over phone and email and it was great, even down to proposing a bar tape that suited the sort of riding I’d do.

[HW24]

Ike that’s amazing feedback thank you! I’m sure many others will benefit from this too if like you and I they’re trawling the net looking for info on the Boku!

Your setup is pretty much what I’d be looking to aim towards, though perhaps with a 2x at the front. Interestingly, one of my other considerations has been the Orro Terra Ti which I’ve found a really good deal on atm. They’re offering that with a Rival etap 1x 10-52t and a 40t chainring. I was worried about the suitability of that on the roads and if I’d end up spinning at the top end. I thought if I went down that route perhaps a 44t on the front might make the difference, but then I’ve never ridden 1x. It sounds appealing as front derailleurs have been the bane of my cycling life.

How’re you finding that setup on the roads between jaunts? Does it give you enough at the speedier end and are the gaps between gears anything to contend with?

I reached out to 700 over the weekend so looking forward to hearing back from them. The Boku is currently just ahead on the shortlist with the Orro (also hard to find reviews on) and Rielly. The combo of the matt Moots-type finish (the anodised decals are also really well matched), the front fork with mounts and rake adjustments, and the promise of double-butted cold worked ti put this at the fore.

[ike2112]

Right now I have 52-10 cassette, SRAM Mullet setup on both my bikes.
40T on the Stigmata, 44T on the Miru.
I have a 48T chainring too.

I switched the Stigmata to the 40 because the Traka in Girona had some big climbs, one of them was 17km long and had sections above 20%, which is hard enough on the road but on gravel is a bit insane.
But what I found as I switched over to it 2wks before the event, was that it encouraged spinning so much more. It made for a smoother pedal stroke, and in the end that event was in May and I’ve not bothered changing it back yet.
I really wish this smaller ring and higher cadence was a thing years ago, I’m in my early 40s and my knees are already wrecked, this could have helped a few yr ago.

Anyway I have found with SRAM and their 12 speed, the 10 smallest sprocket, really opens up the gearing situation. A 44T x 10 sprocket is giving you a faster high end gear than 48T x 11.
4.40 is the ration for 44/10 obviously, but even with a Shimano GRX 810 double crankset (which is 31 and 48 rings) you would have a fastest gear ratio of 48/11 which is 4.36. The SRAM is a faster gear.

For the steep stuff, 44/52 is 0.85 ratio. With a Shimano 31T small ring and a 11-34 Shimano cassette you’re looking at only 0.91 ratio.
A 36 cassette, which Shimano doesn’t officially put in the GRX bracket (they tell you that 11-34 is the largest you can use) would put it at 0.86. Now… I’ve read you can also flex the B-tension screw and put a 11-40 cassette on there and it’ll work with the GRX810 - Shimano tell you it can’t, but people have shown it can. Tha would give you the incredible spinning ratio of 0.775, and beats SRAM…
But if you thought you’d need that much climbing gearing - I’d be switching the 44T ring on the SRAM for the 40T, and that gives you 0.769.

So what all that is saying is… in 12 gears I get a much wider spread - both faster at one end and more climbing-friendly at the other, than a standard Shimano 2x GRX810 setup (and that’s a wider ratio than the cheaper 600 range).
Only if you mess with the default setup of the Shimano can you get close, and that’s essentially 22 gears barely giving you more range than SRAM’s 12.

Where you more find the issue, is that its a bit “gappy”.

Now… I don’t think anyone other than racer types are going to notice or care. The way the 12x SRAM setup rides, particularly with such a big dish cassette, is that the last 2 gears are bailout rings. You’re only using them on the really steep stuff. There’s the 52 of course but the next sprocket is a 42 or 44 (can’t recall which) and you just aren’t using that other than in case of emergencies really anyway.

But the other thing I found riding the big cassette was that on the road, when I used the 48T… Wow - just felt like I was battering it. I was barely ever in the 48 x 10, heck I could barely push it and not efficiently. You could pedal it on descents, but I’m over 100kg so I fly down descents plenty quick enough already.
I found riding the 12 sprocket with the 48T felt far more efficient… which is = a ratio of 4.
And so 48T/12 sprocket is the same as 40T/10 sprocket. So I was putting the 48T on for almost no benefit really - sure it looked cool, like I was pedalling this big ring on a gravel bike. But in reality I was just benefitting by the difference of the smallest sprocket jump.

I am not going to spend money to change my road bike setup, which is still 2x. And my old cyclocross bike is too. But I just don’t see me ever buying a bike with a front derailleur ever again. There’s just not a need for it any more, and since I ride gravel stuff out in the Highlands, middle of nowhere type areas, the less parts there are to break, the better.

[HW24]

Thanks Ike that’s more amazing feedback. As well as the Boken I couldn’t find much on 10-52 1x setup either, so I’m sure your insights will help a lot more than just me. It’s easy to think about the math of gearing but reading about the practicality from experience helps a lot. I will certainly be giving 1x more consideration.

Amazing bike pics as well, looks really good with the tan walls and bar tape. I’m sold!

[igorpilot]

Here’s an example of 48 and 10-52 gear usage on a route with a mix of gravel, hard cat4 road climb and some fast road flat and descent sections. A bit of everything.

[oldandfast]

Looking at this frame for an adventure build:

https://r2-bike.com/BIKE-AHEAD-COMPOSITES-frame-THE-FRAME-UD-Carbon