I believe a buddy used a 42T cog for DK this year with a Force RD and did not have to do anything special to get it to work. Maybe a little b-screw tension adjustment.
But you can also get the Wolf Tooth RD adapter to get the Rival to work on larger cogs.
CyclingNews article on the choice between Gravel or CX bikes.
roadbike I currently ride a Canyon Ultimate CF SLX with the following dimensions. The gravel bike will be used for longer endurance base rides in the winter, some gravel racing and longer bike packing tours. From what I can tell the geometry of the size M Aggressive Gravel will do the job, what do you think?
2. Groupset: Would you opt for the standard Ultegra or possibly pay +800 USD to get the Di2?`Also considering changing to the Sram Force 1x, as I run Sram on my roadbike and love the feeling of it. Any opinions on that?
3. Wheels: The bike comes with quite a standard set of wheels, which I might upgrade. Would you get a second higher quality set of 700cc wheels or rather go with a 650b set. Also, do you have any recommendations?
4. How do you feel about upgrading the stem and seatpost to the carbon versions offered? For the Ritchey RITCHEY WCS CARBON 27.2MM they would charge +125 USD. Is this worth the upgrade? Otherwise, can you recommend a titanium seatpost manufacturer with reasonable prices?
Lastly, does anyone have experience with t-labs?
Look forward to your responses,
elvis
The Shimano clutch RD is different than SRAM’s, which threw me off initially. The SRAM has a nice feature of letting you push the RD cage forward and depress a little button to lock it, which takes all the tension off the chain and makes wheel removal easy. The Shimano doesn’t have that feature. What it does is let you de-activate the clutch mechanism that makes it harder to push the cage forward. Basically, with the clutch off, you have a normal non-clutched RD. With the clutch on, the cage has asymmetric tension, so it’s hard for a bouncing chain to cause the cage to move. But either way, you’ll have tension on the chain and need to deal with that when removing and replacing the wheel. Hope this makes sense!
Hey man, I’m about to pull the trigger on the new revolt but I’m curious why do you say you’d jump to the evergreen, specifically.
My road bike is a Seven Axiom. I enjoyed the whole process of getting the Seven and the Ti ride is fantastic. The price of the Evergreen is well over double that of a Revolt Advanced 0 though. The reason I said I would jump to the Evergreen is that since getting the Revolt I have ridden nearly all gravel. The Revolt is a great bike and the spec, especially on the top end model, is really hard to beat.
But Ti…
@cartsman November Bicycles sells a shim for center lock and 6 bold disc hubs to fine tune the alignment of rotors from different hubs.
I have a Allez Sprint Disc. Don’t know the clearance for 32mm. I run a Conti 28mm Hardshell
and there is sill plenty of room left. Road training, racing, hitting some gravel segment here and there, no problem at all.
Resurrecting this thread…
The steel/ Ti options I really wanted are out of budget, and I really can’t justify for the Topstone Carbon (as I just don’t love it…)
I’m back looking at Aluminium ones, as I the Kona AL is just too many compromises or needs too much putting into it (chainset, wheelset etc).
Currently weighing up the Topstone (AL) Tiagra or 105. €400 (stg£340/ usd$445) in price difference, and I’m struggling to justify the extra for pretty much just the groupset and 10 v 11 speed from what I can see. Both hydraulic, different rims (maybe a slightly older model but still tubeless ready), crankset the same, gear ratio’s the same (minus one cog on the block). I actually prefer the silver of tiagra rather than the black 105! Anything else to justify the difference bar my own snobbery?
Anyway, have the weekend to sleep on it, so what says TR community? Tiagra or 105 . Main role will be gravel, but will probably be my longer audax bike too.
I should say, medium term the plan is still a Ti dual gravel and road bike, but maybe a year or two down the line. Can’t stretch to the Croix De Fer Ti I really want!
I nearly pulled the trigger on the Canyon AL 6.0, which is also 10 speed (GRX), but the Local shop is matching the price, giving a fit and years servicing, and I would actually just prefer to support them and a bricks and mortar store, as they always see me right!
Current gravel bike is a Kona Rove AL, which is heavy, unforgiving, compact crank set, non-tubeless rims. Not to be too harsh on it, it’s grand for solo spins but I’m struggling on the climbs when out with a group (with people I can hang with or drop on the road), and physically beaten up trying to hang on to them. I did weigh up a sub compact crankset and tubeless wheelset, but then I’m getting a good way towards the tiagra model, and I think even the Tiagra will be massive step up being honest even with those changes!
Interesting. We don’t have a Tiagra model in the US. It jumps from Sora to 105.
If I were in your position, I’d ask what the weight difference is. The new Tiagra gets very good reviews, but the chainset is heavy. I would probably justify buying 105 in my head just to futureproof it with the 11 speed. But, if i were being honest with myself, I would probably replace the bike before that became an issue.
My wife has a Topstone Carbon with the kingpin “suspension” and it’s a very comfortable bike.
What Pbase said. Tiagra is a great groupset BUT long term 11 speed will be easier, and with more options, to upgrade piecemeal if you ever wanted to.
Now if we are talking substantial difference in money upfront I could be swayed the other way and be very happy.
Not even a question in my mind. Greater long term compatibility if you go 105.
Also, check out Marin bikes…they have some excellent bikes in that price range.
According to the Cannondale site, the 105 comes in at 9.9kg, Tiagra at 10kg. Both have the same FSA Crankset.
I’m pretty sure I’ll go Tiagra, as I don’t see it as a forever bike, but anyway, I wouldn’t be changing things up for the foreseeable. The price difference will go a long way towards the winter boots I also desperately need!
Just awaiting confirmation from Cannondale it’s the latest Tiagra levers, as I believe that was a big step up (same as the old 105 hydraulic ones to the latest iteration). That’ll probably be the deciding factor. But thanks, even putting it down helped!
My wife has a Salsa Warbird with the 10 speed Tiagra. The shifting performance is good but we will be looking to upgrade to either the 105 or 11 speed GRX. That has more to do with getting commonality between her bike and my bikes (share wheels, easier swaps onto a wheel off trainer, etc). The 11 speed seems a little less limited for upgrades in the future.
At the moment, that’s not really an issue for me - I have a permanent trainer bike on my hammer, and very limited options, or need, for wheel swaps thanks to the pathetic tyre clearance on my 2016 Defy Disc!
I am taking delivery of a Felt Breed any day now. It is an outstanding value for what you get. It comes with 650b wheels, which may not be ideal if you are doing a ton of road, but two wheel sets would fix that. the geo is fairly racy - mostly longer reach, relatively shorter stack.
After getting beat up on a 3 hour fireroad/singletrack ride on by gen 1 ALU Diverge, which can only fit a 33 on the back, I am looking forward to the extra cush of the 650bs!
On the topic of “how easy is it to swap wheels…”
Occasionally, the rotors don’t line up quite right and you have to “fiddle” a bit to adjust the caliper mounts. I’ve got one that lines up perfect (my girlfriend’s bike) and one that’s “fiddly.” (my bike).
As for bikes that can take 700c as well as 650b. Most of your 700c gravel bikes can take a 650b without any real issue as long as there is clearance for at least a 40mm 700c tire. This is important because without having at least that much clearance, you may end up limited to a 650b so small that you get closer to the ground than you really want to be. (pedal strikes). A second thing to consider is that one quite a few bikes, the chain line is actually the limiting factor on tire clearance. This means that you can fit wider tires on a 1x setup than you can on a 2x setup.
My Cannondale Superx SE is spec’d to fit up to 45mm tires, but with a 2x setup (same frame) the bike is spec’d to take up to 40mm.
That’s a great point re the chain line, never thought about that. Have to say that 1x on a “go anywhere” bike hasn’t held much appeal for me - if I’m riding a bunch of different terrain and gradients I want more gears at my disposal, not fewer. And honestly with Di2 front shifting is so good and so low maintenance that I don’t see any drawback to having it. I have 1x on my TT bike, but that’s because I know I’m not going to ride up (or down) anything steep on it, and I wanted a very clean build to minimise drag. If it allows for wider tires though, that’s a benefit I hadn’t really considered.
I’ve seen this mentioned a couple times concerning clearance for at least a 700c x 40mm tire to be able to swap to a 650b wheelset with an adequate volume tire. Still unclear on this. So would a 2020 Specialized Roubaix with a claimed clearance of 700c x 33mm not be able to swap out with a 650b x 47mm?
700C x 28mm = 678mm = 650B x 47mm
700C x 32mm = 686mm = 650B x 50mm
pulled from below article
Given the surname matches my DL, I wish they made a 60/61. But I’d get the CX geo cause I think CX on gravel makes things fun and lively. Stable on a CX course wouldn’t be fun, though.