Very nice, you made that fork look very good!
What size of frame do you typically ride? What is your height? Would love to hear about your experience with the fit/stem length.
Thanks!
My height is 170cm, I usually ride a size S bike. This bike has an 80mm/-7degree stem and zero offset seatpost.
Handelbar specs: 380mm/65(!)mm reach/80mm drop (https://a.aliexpress.com/_EIJW9U5)
I feel comfortable, but I want to replace the 80mm stem with 70mm to move the saddle back (now it is pushed forward as much as possible)
Iām also thinking about replacing the fork with this one: (https://a.aliexpress.com/_EJzmLBT)
for a lower landing without loss of tire clearance
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The drop bar mountain bike craze has reached peaked sillinessā¦ā¦spotted last night on the streets of Chicago. This is a 25 year old, entry level Schwinn. They sold hundreds of thousands of this model (with a proper flat bar).
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Little update on my Epic HTā¦
I took a few 8 to 10 minutes KOMās on a gravel ride lately on my Crux, and Iām eager to give them a go on this, which Iām almost positive will be faster simply as the bigger tires will handle the rough stuff a bit smoother and more efficiently.
As much as I love my Enve SES Aero handlebars, which Iāve got on four bikes, I wanted to play around with something with a bit more flare, and a bit less reach. The Carbon Salsa Cowbell 38cm ticked the boxes, and the external routing is a bit easier to navigate with extreme angles of the hoses, also managed to knock the weight down a bit. 17.78lbs as shown, which is sillyā¦
Really disliked the feel in hand of SRAM levers, and didnāt love the braking either. So, I put together what is taking Shimano a couple years to doā¦ Essentially a 12 speed di2 GRX(albeit without a clutch, but hasnāt been an issue with how good 1x chainrings are these days.) It was fully functional as listed below but I did just toss on an eccentric upper pulley wheel, which allowed me to turn the B limit screw back in a tiny bit. Havenāt ridden it, but Iām imagining itāll make for a bit quicker/smoother shifting in the small cogs now, while still clearing the big cog out back.
R8170 Di2 12 speed levers and hoses
M8000 XT 2 Piston Calipers
R7150 Di2 105 12 speed rear derailleur
M9100 XTR 12 Speed 10-45 Cassette
M9100 XTR 12 Speed Chain
Sram Force Quarq Dub Wide Crankset w/ Stone 36t Chainring
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Nice set up! And regarding your stem, looks like -17 but what length have you settled on? And what GPS mount is that?
Iāve got a 60 and 70mm UNO stem on the way. Currently playing with an 80mm I had in the drawer.
Just waiting on a heat shrink tubing from Ali to run my cables.
75mm x -25d Zipp Stem, with a FramesAndGear out front mount.
Okā¦ itās rideable!
Set everything up, worked through a few incompatibilities but more on that later.
Front lightweight brake rotor gouged my fork posts due to too wide of rivetsā¦ replacing the set to another cheap Ali set.
Cable has a bit of resistance probably due to the routing through the bars, lots of bends. Not the end of the world but weāll see, iāll probably go external on the right side of the bars only when I rebuild. Left end will stay internal.
Will be rebuilding after a coat of paint. Transparent dark teal gloss over carbon, with some rainbow flake here and there.
Overall, impressed with the geo of this set up! I worried the 60mm would be slightly too longā¦ huh? Iām now at an 80mm! @Upcountry, iām sorry for doubting you! This is miles longer than my gravel bikeās fit, but feels very appropriate and comfortable. Strange.
I decided to run the front brake hose external, granting me the flexibility to swap to my 100mm SID fork if need be. Not sure iāll even like that, but want to try it out.
Weight is coming in at 17.6 lbs at the moment! Def happy with that. Ask away if youāve got questions.
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Hi,
What bars are they? Iām looking to change to some AliX flared bars instead of the normal straight ones. Iām doing a flat 200km MTB/Gravel event in June, which is about 25% singletrack. With the current 40cm bars I donāt feel I always have enough control when itās reall singletrack.
Thanks
I bet you could fit 2.2 inch tyres on a Revolt. It supports 2.1 inch from the factory (as long as the suspension fork can clear the 2.2, my rigid Revolt form would clear a 2.2 inch tyre)
The Enve SES Aero bars had similar routing to yours shown, and this was part of the reason I wanted to swap to something elseā¦ The extreme angle of the front brake hose was further exacerbated by the fact Iāve got a steep stem all the way slammed. Meaning that the hoses have to do a 270 degree bend in like five inches each.
Iām not entirely sure why the longer reach works so well, but as Iāve touched on, itās got to have something to do with the longer wheelbase/front-center, and getting more weight up front.
They are the 3T aerogaia clones. 78 reach, 110 drop. They are fairly straight at where the hoods attach, so thatās nice. Mine are 40cm at the tops too, they flare out to a really wide drops base, I think like 48cm.
Flared bars mess with shifter interface. So I like that these mitigate that
I actually just purchased a āroadā pair for my road bike, at 38cm with a very slight flare to be 40 in the drops.
All I know is that the winner of the āPro Seriesā of the tour I did won on a fat bike with drop bars.
People were furious to say the least. Ordering that he be disqualified, even though the rules donāt require flat/traditional bars. I think they won by no small margin either. Steering could have been an issue, possibly, but they sure rocked the straightaways. This was pre-pandemic, so Iām sure more people are doing it, and itās possible that itās now āillegalā for that event.
Hey late response (kids), but hereās a shot of my derailleur. I had my OG GX 12 speed from my first hardtail and totally kitted it out with the parts I stole from a broken X01 derailleur I snagged off ebay. Clips, screws, b-bolt, springs, etc. Ratio AXS cassette ratchet, and a SRAM exact actuation road ratio pull fin for the cable clamp.
The cage I bought separately from an 11 speed XX1 derailleur sanded off the colored branding. Pulleys too. I hand filed and dremelād the pulley to the dimensions of the AXS pulley, chamfers and all.
In the future, I will replace them with the Apex mechanical XPLR pulleys.
Shifters are force that I sanded blank carbon and refinished with a bit of rainbow flake under the clear coat. I replaced the worn out shifter paddle with the D2 Red carbon paddleā¦ it hurt at 50 USD for the paddle assembly, but I love how it looks and feels 
Another question for your M Epic experience:
How do you settle your saddle position in relation to the X and Y of your bb? I found that I overall am riding the bike more forward, but I always thought you need to ride to your optimal saddle-to-bb position for proper power transfer. I donāt want to injure tendons etc.
Iāve only ever been fit to my road bike. Iāve transfered that fit to everything else, except MTB actually, would love to hear your take.
htSQD member Alexis Skardaās drop bar MTB from Unbound 200 today.
IāM WRONG, itās just their new Stigmatas!
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What size is that chainring?
Whoopsā¦ iām totally wrong. More digging showed me thatās just their team paint V4 Stigmataās. Looks really close to the new Highball.
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Some thoughts thus far:
This bike is LONG. Reach of like 455mm. Iām usually on a size 56.
Maybe itās been a while since Iāve been riding gravel, but Iām struggling with the reach of the bike despite coming down from my first attempt of 80 to 70 and now 60 mm stem. Moving the saddle forward to compensate half an inch has helped, but I feel the compromise on my stroke and freshness of my quads on longer rides. Currently, the effective system reach is shorter than my road bikeā¦
Handling is great, I feel like Iām able to weight the front wheel properly, and the slack head angle helps me descend with confidence. Iām sitting at about a 70.5 HTA. Bars are 40cm with 58cm swept/flared drops.
Putting on the Raceking 2.2s increased the trail figure and improved the overall feel of the bike, more stable and less twitchy than when it had the 42 mm S Works Pathfinder tires.
Overall, I like it, But I am finding that it is a lot of bike for leaving from my backyard and riding canal paths, and unpaved desert trails. The chunky trails I did try were not drastically easier. Much easier to descend, equally difficult to climb. Havenāt weighed it, but itās def lighter than my Carbonda 696 gravel set up!
I think my next move will be to put on the suspension fork and see how that effects things. It is slowly moving away from a āfastā gravel bike, which is ultimately what I want to end up with. Hmm. Will be giving it plenty more rides before I make a decision on selling the frame set or making it my dedicated gravel bike.
Iāve already put the effort into the paint job 
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