Has anyone ridden / bought the new Cervelo?
Apples / Oranges how about the brand new Evil gravel bike?
Anyone want to trade their gravel bike for my VYNL road bike? I hear road is coming back. 
I just got the new Aspero in the GRX build. It is awesome! My road bike is a 2018 R3 Ultegra Di2 disc. The Aspero is awesome, it climbs super fast and handles really well and despite what The Gravel Cyclist says I don’t think it’s harsh at all actually it’s quite comfortable and in NorCal we don’t have many gravel roads, more like MTB trails. I’m really happy with it. I don’t think I’d ever give up a dedicated road bike but if you were forced to only have one bike I think this might be it.
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Nice, that one is high on my list. By the time I’m ready for it they’ll be something newer lol! Glad you’re enjoying it, what does the paint look like in person?
I got the burgundy. They were out of the olive in the GRX build plus I think I’m the long term it will look better. My shop has the olive in stock and it looks awesome and sparkles nicely in the sun. I have a Specialized Epic in gold/red sparkle and it’s nice to see more companies doing offbeat paint.
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Does anyone have experience with the Pro vs standard Endurance geometry on the Domane? Thinking 38s will be plenty for most events with the option to use 28s for road riding. 2020 model is looking like a nice all around bike.
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I bought a Diverge in 2015 as my n=1 bike. This was prior to future shock, it only had the zertz inserts in the forks for dampening. I toured with it, endurance rides, group rides, you name it. It’s a great bike, pretty darn heavy though. My 49cm was 23lbs.
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Hi,
sorry to resurrect this thread, but it’s kinda useful
So I mainly ride crits, draft legal Duathlon/ triathlon - last year I was without my main race bike (Venge 2019 - 56cm) and it faced me with a predicament of not having a back up bike. I have a 2015 Giant TCX (ML) as my CX bike but it’s currently set up for quite pure CX racing.
I am an occasional CX racer so I was thinking of trying to get the CX frame with most ‘roadie’ geometry and have a bike that could do both following a change of tyres and gearing alterations. Crux looks quite roadish as does the SuperX. Appreciate this is a compromise!
Thoughts on any other frames I should consider? Also should I go down a size in the CX bike and go for a slightly longer stem as they typically ship with shorter stems and longer top tubes?
Thanks
Tom
For what it’s worth, I have a Focus Mares, their CX bike. I’ve raced crits, gravel, and cross on the bike. I don’t feel like the bike has ever held me back at all in either of the 3 disciplines.
This year, I’m contemplating getting a set of aero carbon handlebars to be a bit more slippery for road races.
I am currently on a Specialized tarmac and want a gravel bike for the winter training and also for gravel racing. I was looking at the Diverge pro model, lauf true grit, cannondale topstone carbon with the sram axs and ribble CGR SL. I want a do it all bike really that can ride road and gravel and race the gravel scene that is comfortable for distance. Are the bikes listed good or should I be considering other brands and bike?
I’d look at the 3T Exploro. I have a 2018 Pro (not the new Max frame) and for me it’s awesome on short, long days (so far, longest in this saddle is 11hrs), technical, road, trail. Great power transfer, comfort, top tube bolts for secure storage, 650b or 700s, and wide or narrow tires (I run 47mm… which is fun when riding behind a roadie… but if they really start to drop the hammer I run out of gears with my 1x setup ;). No drop post option due to seat tube shape, though. Most likely, you’ll want the wider tire option for winter. Pic is from a 90mi, 11k’ of climbing, ride last May with 8:40 rolling time (well, that also included walking/dragging the bike up 2mi of stone/wood/root steps at 17-23% that led me to realize why no one rides that side of the lake…)
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Any issues with seatpost slippage or the saddle clamp?
I have the AL version of the Topstone (Tiagra) and the only thing stopping me getting a second wheelset to use as my winter road bike is that I have AL Defy, that has a power meter. My topstone has a FSA crankset, so it’s becoming more involved to get that sorted.
I really liked the Steel and Ti versions of the CGR, albeit looking online. I couldn’t get Irish Bike to Work to work with Ribble, and I guess with Brexit both are off the n+1 agenda at this stage. A club mate has the SL, but a previous model. He did have an issue with it, and had to have the frame replaced under warranty due to a fault. But they’d changed the design even for his replacement (which was probably 2 years ago at this stage).
None whatsoever. And not for lack of trying, so to speak. I put in about 4000mi on that saddle last year and about 3000mi in 2019. Now, there were times on very steep, rocky descents I really (really) wished I had a drop post, I’ll admit that. The desire was pronounced because, as you can see, my seat is pretty high. But, nope.
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Excellent, and interesting; the Stradas have been plagued with that problem. I can’t quite tell from the pic but is it a round post in yours? That might explain it.
no, the post is not round. I’ve read stories about the Strada but I’ve not experienced any such problem with my Exploro.
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If you are planning on long days on gravel, and prioritizing comfort, I’d highly recommend the Diverge.
- The future shock works really, really well
- It can fit 47mm, maybe 50mm, tires on 700c wheels.
- The seatpost has a good amount of flex to it
It’s a great bike. If you’re looking to also ride road on it, I’d consider one of the 2x options instead of 1x.
And of course a pic
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I want a 2x system for sure and im looking solely at either GRX Di2 or AXS and im leaning more towards AXS but have yet to find a gravel bike I like that has 2x AXS!! Any thoughts for that? Also thoughts on the trek checkpoint? I like the iso speed decoupler any thoughts on the gravel race worthiness as well as the ability to go distance on gravel?
I considered the Checkpoint. But it doesn’t have the future shock.
I have a Domane with the iso speed decoupler. And rode that a bunch on gravel before I got my Diverge. The seatpost flex on the Diverge is about the same as what the iso speed enables.
Tire clearance on the checkpoint is good at 45mm.
If I had to decide again, I’d still get the Diverge due to the future shock.
Anecdote: last summer I was riding with a friend who has a checkpoint. We hit some very bumpy washboarded section. He exclaimed he was getting shaken all over. I looked over and it sure seemed his hands and arms were bouncing around a lot. I looked down at the future shock, and saw it working away, smoothing out the bumps (you can see when it compresses because the rubber sleeve bulges out).
I’ve not jumped on the electronic shifting bandwagon (yet), so I haven’t spent a lot of time searching out specific electronic group sets. I can say the mechanical GRX on the Domane works great.
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What year and model on your Domane?
If I were you, I’d buy a Rodeolabs Traildonkey. It may not be the best bike for what you need, but I just want one and get to spend your money.
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