I thought I’d give a bit of feedback as to how things have been going with the Aspero doubling as both a roadie and a gravel bike.
So far, it’s been great. It has actually seen far more use as a road bike than in gravel mode, including doing a 9 day 980 mile Land’s End to John O’Groats ride here in the in UK. With road wheels and tyres (Zipp 303 firecrests with 28mm Schwalbe pro-one tyres) it certainly didn’t hold me back, and I probably crept into the quickest 5% of riders (of the about 900 doing the event). It generally felt like a really good choice - feeling no different to a fast endurance bike. The smaller chainrings (48/31) meant that I did end up spinning out on some of the descents, but given the nature of the event that really just provided a good opportunity for a little bit of recovery. Combined with an 11-32 cassette though the smaller chainrings made the massive amount of climbing much more comfortable (especially the +20% stuff).
It’s fun in gravel mode - difference mainly being using 650B wheels with 48mm Rene Here Juniper Ridge tyres and an 11-34 cassette. The bike frame is super stiff and is never going to give the most cushioned ride, so the huge tyres are doing a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to making the bike comfortable off of paved roads. They are overkill for most uses, but roll surprisingly quickly on tarmac sections and given my lack of skill off-road I would rather over-tyre than under-tyre, if that makes sense.
A second set of wheels is a solid investment. I do a lot of road riding on my aspero, and wouldn’t want gravel tyres on it for that, so most of the time the bike sits ready and waiting with road tyres on it. When I want to ride gravel, I just spend the 1 minutes it takes to swap the wheels to my second set that has proper gravel tryres on. I’ve not had any issues with rotors rubbing, so I’ve not needed to adjust the brake callipers (which can make switching between wheels less attractive).
Rene Herse knobbies are awesome…they look fantastic on your bike!!
Some beautiful bikes on this thread. FWIW my mate has a beautiful groadie and with a change of wheels he doesn’t seem any slower on our road club runs around 18.5-20mph, but its not that hilly in East Northamptonshire. He sure can fly off road on the groadie 
If your goal is truly to have a “quiver killer” bike, this is the best option. If you get either an identical set of wheels or shim one set so they are identical to the other, changing wheels should be pretty painless. Do it the night before as part of your pre-ride prep.
This is also a big reason why people give up on “quiver killers” after awhile…hassle factor of changing guises outweighs the convenience of “grab & go”.
#FirstWorldProblems
The new Fezzari Shafer hasn’t been mentioned on the forum yet as far as I know, but I’m pretty pumped about it. The 69* head angle takes it away from groadie territory a little bit, but I’m expecting it to excel on the road still (aside from crits and other races where quick handling inside the peloton really matters).
Value is very good, $4200 for Force AXS build. I think it has eclipsed the Aspero on my wish list, and it’s nearly $2k cheaper than the GRX Di2 Aspero build that I’d go for.
Ha!
Am I your friend? I’m currently doing this and did it all summer. Had my gravel wheels and chain/chain ring setup, then my aero/racing wheels for road with a chain/chaingring. Though, I gave up on swapping chainring/chain going back and forth once cx started… Just rolling 42t 11-36 with two wheelsets until racing/hard group rides come back around.
I would love, love the Aspero or new Domane as my one bike to do it all. Though, I’m pretty much over gravel racing and cx due to low numbers and increasing pricing. Might just build up another road bike.
I just got a Trek Checkpoint ALR5 I’m using as a groadie. Road wheels are DT Swiss GR1600 with 700x35s for winter road bike use and another set of wheels with gravel king 700x43 for gravel. Rotors aligned for no fuss swaps.
I’m like 90% road / 10% gravel so setup is more akin to road bike with lower/longer stem, etc.
I’ll sit on my road bike and my current gravel bike (on the mtb end of spectrum) and if I don’t use them in next few months I’ll sell as the universal bike test will have worked out.
Completely anecdotal, but I just want for my first outdoor ride in 2.5 months (injury) on my Al Topstone, fat knobbly tyres, Sora gruppo, huge f*#king grin. That thing is so much fun if you don’t focus on the speedo too hard.
Hi @ABG it seems that you prefer your aspero to your Kanzo?
I’m in a bit of a bind because the Kanzo I ordered back in Feb is now delayed until Jan 22 and I have the option of cancelling my order and going with something else - not sure what to do.
It would help if you could list a load or reasons why the Kanzo Fast isn’t that good 
Not everyone has the economic means to get another bike tailored to a specific purpose. Or your (N+1)th bike isn’t an option for other reasons such as space or that you don’t want the hassle to maintain yet another bike. E. g. I have a strict only two bikes policy from my wife, and we wouldn’t have space for a third one either. Even if I could get a third bike, it would mean splitting my total bike budget (which is too high anyway) amongst two bikes.
Good morning,
I ride the Aspero more on the road and I race the Kanzo Fast in all but 1 of my gravel races. Few reasons I ride the Aspero on the road more, is I usually only do large group rides that end up being a race and on the road I really need the 2x set up where I live being hilly I need the 1x1 the Aspero offers but also need the 50x11 for fast pace line stuff. I also ride road pedals on the Aspero and spd on the Kanzo, I have a knee issue and the 4mm stack difference doesn’t allow me swap pedals onto each bike. I did unbound on road shoes and afterwards moved to spds on the Kanzo.
I have raced the Kanzo fast in a 100 mile gravel race with minimal elevation gain and raced it at barry roubaix and Unbound and all the small races in between. For the super flat race I swapped in a 50T front chainring for everything else I ran at 44T and a 42x11. I also figured out that 44x11 at 140rpm is about all I can put out. I really have never been spun out in a gravel race with the 44T x 42x11.
Aspero seems nimbler but when im riding the Kanzo I feel like im maximizing my watts. I can not say the Kanzo is faster but given ridleys claim that its 4w slower then the noah its a pretty aero bike. Biggest draw back to the ridley is its not a 2x set up. It limits its ability to be efficient, sometimes you just take the gear you get, when in a training ride that might bother you. In a race it has never even been an after thought. I also like the 1x set up for racing as it lessens my mental capacity to determine what gear am I in, big ring or little ring. I just shift up or down based on needing easier gearing. That matters when your 10 hours into a race and your brain wants you to quit, one small mess up can throw you off for a while.
If I were to choose one bike to do it all, it would be the aspero. If I were to choose a gravel race bike I would choose the Ridley.
Thanks for the detailed reply but not enough negatives in there to make it an easy decision to cancel it - especially as I’m set on getting the Ekar groupset on whatever bike I go with which is 1x anyway 
I’m just impatient. The Kanzo, exploro racemax and the aspero were my original shortlist. I can’t find an aspero in stock anywhere but I have found somewhere that has a nice looking racemax.
The 3t is £300 more expensive though…and not my first choice… but I could have it now 
3T appears to be a great bike, I just heard of some quality issues with them. I have put 6k miles on the Aspero in 2 years and prob 1500 on the Kanzo in the past year. Aspero has only needed a bottom bracket and new bar tape, I dropped the Kanzo and bent the derailleur hanger. Other then those issues the GRX di2 has had no issue on both bikes. I also wax my chain so stuff stays pretty clean.
Kanzo comes with flaired bars also, for me its still something I am trying to adjust to. You can buy a noah bar set and swap those out.
I have a Strada. I’ve had zero problems so far. My bb is quiet, I haven’t had any brake rub. Take that for what you will, it is a sample size of f N = 1 after all.
I think the internet can make a sounding board for a few people who have issues to make the most noise and scare people. I bet 99.9% of people have great ownership with 3T.
Yeah but is he happy?
“Groad” bikes seem to be a growing trend with manufacturers at the moment. The new Wilier Rave SLR looks pretty awesome, but very expensive. Then there’s the Look 765 Optimum Plus, sharing the same frameset as the 765 Gravel. 3T and OPEN seemed to have paved the way for this current trend of wide clearance multi-use frames. It makes a lot of sense, especially if you are focused more on the endurance side of road biking. I’m not even looking for a gravel bike and yet some of these “groad” bikes appeal to me as a pure endurance road bike. I don’t see much compromise for the wider tyre clearance. Even some aero bikes have moved toward increased tyre clearance for pure aero performance.
Looking at the geometry table, they likely did this for the seat tube angle and standover height as well as those can get funky. 650 vs 700 makes a 20mm difference in diameter, so a 25x700c would fit like a 45x650b. It should be pretty easy to find a 700c road wheel tire to test toe overlap with.
If things don’t work out, Conti makes a GP5k TR in 30x584 now and Schwalbe and Conti had made them in 25c TL which are out there. There are plenty of 650b wheel options out there, including wide aero ones for these tires. WR35 Disc Carbon CX/Gravel Wheelset - Light Bicycle
I’m told the Santa Cruz Stigmata is good for this.