I have owned 3 gravel bikes.
Aspero 2x
Ridley kanzo fast 1X
Factor ostro gravel 2x
I like the factor so far the most. Best Geo for me, best gearing of the 3 and aero bars.
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It’s interesting how some tires blow up, like yours and mine stay the same, RH 42mm Knobby.
Can you comment on this choice as opposers of Red?
Thanks
I pieced the bike together finding the best deals I could find. Someone was selling the front for $80 so I went with it.
Same with crank, shifters we’re $240 per side. Crank we’re on sale around Christmas. I did my best to keep cost low.
My other bike is an sl7 sworks with rival.
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Same with RH 44 EL slick. 44 on 25id
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My 28c gp5k end up at 30mm on 25id rims
FWIW @oldandfast this set of reviews just came out. They take a pretty deep dive into this list of gravel race bikes, and mostly the top-end builds (including the Kaius 01): Which is the best gravel race bike of 2023? – 9 gravel race bikes in review | GRAN FONDO Cycling Magazine
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Spoiler alert!
Their best gravel race bike of 2023: The Ridley Kanzo Fast
And their Best buy: The Specialized S-Works Crux
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In what world is a $13k bike a best buy? I had to click through and see if there was some kind of caveat but this is definitely the weirdest take on a Best Buy I’ve seen.
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Bahahaha. Yeah that did make me go hmmmmmmm…
I’m not a conspiracy theory guy, but these cycling media outlets are the least trustworthy sources of information you can find. I don’t know that specialized is blatantly writing checks under the table to get that kind of write up, but there is no way that’s an objective view of the world. You can love on the crux, but calling a $13k bike a “best buy” is just insulting to your readers.
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No conspiracy, here. You just have to understand the specific context:
Champagne burns in your eyes, lactic acid courses through your legs, and on the podium perches the king of the desert: the best gravel race bike of 2023. We found out what to look for to make your gravel race dreams come true. To do so, we hosted our own world championships with 9 of the hottest gravel race bikes as the contestants. Ready, set, go!
They are clearly looking at bikes they consider to the the “best”, cream of the crop type of stuff. With a field of bikes all over 6000 Euro (save one budget option at 4k E) they are testing high level bikes and some that are clearly halo models.
As far as “Best Buy” it’s not like they clearly aimed for some widely accessible models with the info above. Some may take that as “best value” or something that is not what I think they intended. I think they mislabeled it and could have called it Fan Favorite or something since the fun factor seems the focus of the body text.
Either way, I don’t see some grand scheme here. Just a roundup of some very expensive bikes and they picked a few as their preferences.
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Gran Fondo is super subjective in their testing and I’m pretty sure does fishy testing (the rolling resistance testing they did on tires probably never happened). Not trying to sh&t on them too much, but it’s just a few guys and gals riding bikes and then taking a few cool pics and writing up a nice article.
About as valuable as anyone who has ridden any of these bikes and reports their findings.
I love my Pinarello Grevil (2021). It’s fast, smooth & incredibly fun to go fast on. I use it on the road & in group rides. I’ve done champagne gravel & multiple BWRs in various locations. It’s a Pinarello & I love riding it. Not sure why everyone overlooks when considering a fast & tested gravel bike.
Kanzo fast is a nice bike
Would be my #1 top choice of all if it had a front mech hanger. That’s a dealbreaker for me.
Won’t apply to everyone and maybe we’ll all get to that point eventually, but because I’m all Shimano, own and regularly use several different wheelsets, and prioritise cross-compatibility between bikes, 2x is important. SRAM or Classified both solve that problem but neither is practical for me at the moment.
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That is one reason I sold my kanzo, i didnt want to swap cassettes to use wheel sets on other bikes. Over all though it was a great bike
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I generally think granfodo’s tests shouldn’t be given much credence, even compared to other cycling outlets. I’ve seen tests where they complained about the gearing when it was exactly the same on another bike that they claimed was perfect. I’ve also disagreed with their subjective opinions about tires, but that’s less definite.
I get the impression that most of their writers don’t have much feel for differences in bikes so they say that fit their pre-conceived notions and don’t say anything new.
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I am also sometimes surprised, when they claim that all the testers liked a bike best, when you can clearly see from the pictures, that the size they had was a size 52.
Considering most of their other bikes are in 56 or up, I’d really be surprised if the testers liked a bike, that was 2 sizes small 