I’m in the inevitable n+1 position, and wondering what recommendations people would have for a gravel bike around the £3k mark?
I’m after something with In frame storage, not sure if 1x is better or not than 2x given I may use it a bit more road biased over a UK Winter?
Also want easy mudguards on/off as I think I’d use it on road during winter, other wants are SRAM AXS electronic shifting and some basic “suspension”.
Ive got the Pinarello Grivel top of the list, mainly as I’ve never owned a Pinarello and I think it looks great! Other options are the Diverge 4 Comp Carbon, Vielo V+1 and Giant Revolt Advanced Pro 0
Good point, no racing. I’ll be retiring next spring so it’s a bike to do a bit of everything, gravel, off road and a bit of road to get to a gravel section.
Thinking my mtb for trail centres and rougher local stuff, road bike for longer days and strictly tarmac days and gravel bike for damp roads, less gnarly trail centre stuff and a bit of everything days.
Are these bikes within your budget? I thought the 3T starts at something like €9k, far outside your budget. (It looks like a great bike, though.)
With 1x13 I don’t think you need to ponder that question anymore. The first 11 gears are identical their 10–36 cassette, which very much rides like a Shimano 11–32 cassette. (I have ridden the latter two extensively over years.) The last two gears are bailout gears.
A lot of this comes down to personal preference and how you’ll ride.
I’ve got a bike setup in the UK for road/commute with full mudguards with 2 wheelsets that transforms for loaded touring/bikepacking and chunky gravel - which is really just mud for much of the year.
1x does a fine job for all of these asks but it’s very rare that I try and e.g. ride sustained power intervals on it. Have done some punchy club rides and it does fall short downhill. 40t x 10-51. It works for 99% of how I ride the bike. Note that I also happily ride around fixed gear
Mudguards: Have PDW metal guards (they do a nice looking plastic version too) and these are the easiest full guards I’ve dealt with for ‘quick’ swaps. Changing the bike from gravel mode back to road with a wheelset swap, guards back on and caliper alignment (for some reason only the rear needs adjusting) can be done in 15 minutes - where 5 minutes is the disc/caliper fiddling
As for basic suspension, maybe look at redshift stems and redshift or cane creek for seatposts OR get something that runs CX/MTB tyres and see how it feels first. Nearly went for these but the bike now runs 2.1 inch 27.5 mezcals.
Should mention the bike really but it doesn’t tick all your boxes but maybe a wild card.
Fairlight Faran 2.5 (partner has the also great Secan). This sits between my carbon weight weenie road bike and XC hardtail. It is somewhat utilitarian but the longer I own, the more I love it.
With chunky mezcals, it is supremely confident off-road and the current iteration (v3.0) allows for 180mm rotors to really push into mtb terrain. Front loaded, it is so confident and was fantastic descending some alpine roads recently.
I’m a big fan of my Propain Terrel. Helps that their UK base was round the corner from me, but it hasn’t let me down yet. I added the front suspension and 1x but it is pretty customisable.
I got the Vielo in the spring, Its a lovely bike. Run it with 50mm tyres and its ideal for scottish gravel. My use case is slightly different to yours, as I’m not fussed with mudguards, luggage, 2 by or suspension. I have used it for a few big days, gravel races and a cx race.
No in frame storage and only mounts are for a top tube bag & 3rd bottle cage, but there are ways around that.
Zipp SL-70 XPLR, subtle flare for wider on the drops and like my road bike on the tops. The marketing material says something about not needing to rotate the shifters inward, again more setup like my road bike.
