Guidance towards new bike

Hi All,

I have been looking to upgrade my current bike for quite a while.
My yearly schedule consists of 1-2 gravel races(~100 km) and 1-2 rolling terrain races(80-120km) where I race my 2013 Scott Foil XL. I am 186cm 90 kg with an FTP of 324, I have had the Foil fitted so i know the size is there or there about.
I have been looking to upgrade the road bike and could really use some help/insight with my bike choice.

The current top 3 picks are:
Argon 18 Gallium Pro Disc - Size XL - 2019 version
Scott Addict RC Disc - Size XL - 2019 version
Velobuild VB-R-066 Disc - Size L - 2020 version

I have a full shimano ultegra disc groupset and a set of 45mm carbon wheel set “on stock”

Hope you can help

I’m a bit confused by your picks: none of them are gravel bikes nor do they take wide tires. E. g. the Argon officially tops out at 30 mm wide tires. This does not seem like a good choice for the intended purpose.

If you want to do gravel races and road races on the same bike, I’d want clearance for at least 38–40 mm tires. There are some gravel bikes like the 3T Exploro or the Cervelo Aspero that are aero and have an aggressive body position, but also come with plenty of tire clearance and are more robust. I’d then get a second wheelset so that you have one wheelset with road tires and road gearing, and another with gravel tires and gravel gearing.

For gravel rides, I’m also not sure that an Ultegra groupset is necessarily the best choice. Depending on where you ride, the gearing might be too tall.

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Sorry, that is my fault. the gravel races was more for additional context.
I am only focus on a new road bike. I am not completely convinced that you can have one bike which performs well for both gravel races and road races.

Regarding gearing, i live in a really flat country and have not had any issues using 36-52 | 11-28 on all my bikes both gravel and road.

Yet you have been using your road bike for the gravel races, correct? If you want one bike to do it all, you are bound to make some compromises one way or the other. The bikes you have selected are just standard road bikes with an aggressive geometry.

With the more aggressive quiver killer bikes I have mentioned, the only real downside is that they are a tad heavier. Since you wrote that you live in a flat country, weight is not really a factor IMHO.

Alright. Still, e. g. Shimano’s GRX levers might be a better fit since they give you more purchase on the brake levers when you are on the hoods, for example.

Ditto for the wheelset, carbon wheelset ≠ carbon wheelset. If you want to use the same wheelset for road tires and wider gravel tires, you should get one that has a big inner rim width (25 mm). That would also allow you to ride at lower pressures.

It could be interresting to investigate 3T and Cervelo aspero. However, I beleive they are above my budget currently.

Actually i have done both. i have had two gravel races with dry very packed “gravel” which i raced on my road bike. they were very fasted paced.
If only considering road do you have any thoughts on the three picked?

None of them are good choices in my opinion, at least if you want to race on gravel: the Argon has clearance for 30 mm tires, the Scott 28 mm (the bare minimum for a road bike these days), and while I haven’t heard of the last one (a quick Google search didn’t say anything about tire clearance), it is one size smaller than the others. So it might be too small for you.

It seems to me you have searched for bikes in the classifieds and came across these three. Correct?

I’d turn it around: figure out what kind of bike you want and then go and look. Many road bikes have up to 35 mm clearance, so they are much more suitable to gravel events than the three bikes you presented here.