How do you like this saddle? Was at the shop yesterday and saw it with Elaston. Almost pulled the trigger but $275 is a lot.
Good luck! The neighborhood of 42-52c tires is very thin! Your choices are 42c Gravel King SKs (really bad on mud/cornering); expensive Rene Herse 44c and 48c; Challenge’s 42c Gravel tire; WTB/Maxxis/Trevail tires that don’t roll well, and 50c Schwalbe G-one Bites
I just put 700c x 50mm (aka 29 x 2.0 MTB) tires on my 58 Checkpoint SL as I have a set of 38c mini knob Terra Speeds. They fit fine (except for some toe overlap worries), but rubbed on acceleration in the rear with the rear axle all the way forward. A good argument for 650b is standover height as the bike is a bit of a horse to get going on.
I had the power arc mid-tier and tried the $275 fancy ones. Don’t bother. The fancy padding didn’t make any difference. Get the shape right and the exact padding doesn’t matter much. Spec’s carbon shell saddles are brutally stiff compared to the normal shells.
I really enjoy the Power Arc. But that’s always very personal. I originally bought the Power (normal version) and wanted to love it. It was super comfortable under my sitbone but gave me horrible chafings where my hamstrings connect to the bone - so I exchanged it. There is a little plastic lip on the normal power that caused that for me. The power arc pulls the padding over the edge on the side and solved that problem for me. But I’m not sure if I prefer a more flat saddle like the normal Power compared to the Arc.
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As far as I can judge my frame is 9/10 quality wise. The seat clamp screw hole is a little bit off angle. But I lack a) the knowledge and b) the tools to really measure the frame quality. I would have to send it to Hambini to see how the tolerance of the BB is - I doubt he would find it worse than a Canyon because he didn’t really like that in his test 
. And after having read the Madone problem post here in the forum I feel all manufacturers could / should increase their QA - at least with Rose I didn’t pay a fortune for the frame.
There is a lot of bitching towards Rose in the past month from unsatisfied customers. Maybe to some extent Rose’s fault, but people also have unreasonable expectations during Covid. Yes, my bike also took a week or two longer than originally announced and I think there were some mix ups in delivery. But it’s a small company and the demand during Covid skyrocketed. Additionally I think some people don’t understand what it means buying a bike online. A lot of complains were: It comes without pedals, it comes without torque wrench, the breaks rub etc, the accessories are just thrown in a bag with the bike… The bikes come at a super competitive price point. You get what you pay and no fancy wrapping or free accessories and I would only recommend people to buy a bike online who know how to work on a bike (and have the tools for it). Fine with me.
My old road bike was a Canyon. And so far I prefer the Rose service by far (mediocre service experience with Canyon when I had problems with my headset after a few years). I was able to configure the bike via telephone exactly to my choice (incl. Crank length, different chain ring different wheels and tires, different handlebar and stem etc.). That saved me quite some money. They swapped the stem for free after I received the bike (needed a different length). I also asked if I could buy a replacement derailleur hanger with the order - they said don’t sweat it, we write a note for the mechanics to throw one in the box for free. All in all a very positive experience for me.
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Hey guys, I’m stopping in here to ask for advice on potential bike options.
I am looking at the following options:
Giant Revolt Advanced 2 for $2500
Diverge Comp E5 for $2100 or Base Carbon (if I can find one in stock) for $2500
Ribble CGR SL (105 groupset) for $2200
I’m looking at using the stock wheels for gravel tires and getting a set of Hunt 34 Aero Wide wheels and putting some GP5000’s on them for road.
I’m thinking the Ribble would probably be the best value here, I would just need to wait about 3 months to get it (fine by me). And again, this bike will probably be used 90%+ on road, but I’d like to be able to enter gravel races if I choose.
Personally, I think the Revolts are great dual purpose bikes. Definitely more versatile IMO than something like the Diverge.
If I were in the market for a new gravel bike right now, I’d take a hard look at the Revolts.
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Hi All.
I am hoping you can help me with a slight dilemma i have. I am looking to purchase a new bike to go alongside my tt bike for triathlon. The reason is that i do not want to always go on the tt bike in the winter and when conditions are not the greatest on the road.
I will be doing up to 5 hours on the road training for the ironman. However, i also want some versatility to be able to go on bridle pathways/light forest and gravel pathways. Nothing too major or technical as i will be with the mrs.
I know that i want two wheel sets. 1 for road and 1 for the gravel/wetter more comfy days.
Do i go with a gravel bike with extra road tyres or a road bike with gravel tyres. Bearing in mind the clearances etc. I do not want to drop a mortgage on the bike. I won’t be doing any crits or races in the future. If you have any examples and your opinion that would be great.
Keep training
Andrew
A lot endurance type road bikes these days will have enough clearance to do gravel.
There are also recent models released (cervelo caledonia for instance) who were made exactly for that purpose.
I’m afraid, if you want more advice that you will need to give us at least a ballpark in terms of budget 
“Not dropping a mortgage” these days is pretty wide a band 
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I run two wheelsets on a Cervelo Aspero. Stock gravel alloy wheels with 40 mm gravel tires for heavy gravel and beginner single track and Enve Foundation 45s with 28 mm tires for road and mixed surface. In almost all cases other than long gravel events (some in spring with mud, etc.) an endurance road bike with clearance for 32-33 mm tires would be more than enough. I opted for my set up as I didn’t see enough benefit to run two wheelsets to move between 25-28 mm and 32-33 mm. Based on your needs, you may be able to get away with one wheelset with 30-32 mm and just play with tire pressure.
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thank you so much for your insight. What would you recommend for the groups. Is there much difference or need between Shimano GRX and 105
I am looking at a budget of around 2.5k top
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what’s the reason for changing to grx for the road bike, I thought it was more for gravel/dirt ?
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why would you do that ? Whats the reason for it ? Why is the grx better than the 105 ?
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I’ve fitted GRX to a road bike, in preference to a regular road groupset: the main reason was for the modest gear reduction from the smaller chain rings (48/31** vs 50/34). Every ride of mine is 10-20%++ hills, and since I prefer to spin than grind, lower gears are always a nice have and I thought a reasonable trade off for losing the 50.
I also ride in another part of the country where it’s not so brutally hilly, and if speccing a bike for there might flip a coin as to whether to go for a compact road groupset or GRX.
** RX810-2
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Wondering if anyone here has a 3T Exploro.
I had been looking at the Giant Revolt Advanced 2, and was set on it, but then discovered that the 3T Exploro Pro with Shimano 105 is about the same price. It comes with a 48/32 crank and 11-34 cassette, which I think would work fine for both gravel and the relatively flat roads in my area. I think I would buy a second wheelset for road, probably the Hunt 34 Aero wide set ($600) with some GP5000’s.
I really just like the look and aero aspect of the 3T more than the Revolt, but just wondering if I am missing anything.
My buddy has one…I love gn and concept of it, but there are a fair number of proprietary parts on it that can be a hassle, apparently. Took him quite awhile to finally get it up and running and he was ready to chuck it but end.
I love the Revolts…a great dual-purpose design, IMO. I think the Cervelo Aspero is another great option. I am considering a new gravel bike before The Rift next year (assuming it happens:crossed_fingers:t2:
). My current bike is a CX bike and I want a lower BB and longer reach. But I don’t need a full bike and will be perfectly fine pulling my Ultegra stuff over from my CX bike. Unfortunately, the Revolt is not available as a frame set, so it may be the Aslero by default (plus the BB drop is lower than the Revolt). If only it didn’t have a PF BB. 