Ive heard nothing but positive things about the Seigla. That was very high on my list. I was deciding between a gravel bike I could also ride CX on vs a CX bike I could do some gravel on. Ultimately, not a whole heck of a lot of gravel around here so went the CX route with a Boone.
I think from a cost perspective, the seigla is really a bangin good deal. Most of the “top tier” bikes are gonna be well over 5g before electronic shifting is even an option. In mechanical form, its even better price. Havnt looked much into Fezzari but Ive also heard great things there
Canyon is usually really economical as well, but their stock has been a disaster with no end in sight.
I would go Seigla Rigid and install a Redshift shock stem, you still have the option to fit 57mm/2.2" tyres. Stay with the Black colour and try for the Race Wireless (Force) version if budget allows, otherwise Rival is suitable. The 12speed AXS groupset is perfect and the Quarg (dual with Force) PM is the cherry on top.
I came from a 11 speed mechanical Large frame sans PM to a white Rigid Race Wireless medium frame. I am still in dreamland with it. Added a 90mm (10mm longer) Redshift Shock Stem, and have adapted a GX version in the back for those adventures with a ton of climbing, with the addition of 2 chainrings either side of the 40. I like options, race in hilly and flat events.
I enjoy the fact of not having moiunts on the forks. If I was doing that style of backpacking, I would likely have a steel bike set up differently. Previous set up allowed me to do up to 1000 mile challenge over 5 days with out feeling inadepquate due to set up.
Go for the Lauf Seigla. When you get the pink ticket from the Minister of Finance.
Gravel bikes is a very broad segment, which includes bikes like the 3T Exploro with a very racy geometry, the Open UP with essentially an endurance road bike geometry. On the other extreme end you have hardtails with drop bars.
What you prefer ultimately depends on your style of riding and what you want to optimize for. Given that you don’t race and don’t plan on riding single trail regularly, a gravel bike with endurance road bike geometry would be a good fit, something like the Open UP. I don’t know the two specific bikes you have mentioned, so I can’t help you here.
@SirDAN thanks, and glad to hear that you really like your Seigla. I had briefly looked at the Shock Stop stem but will consider it more. Curious, why do you recommend black over white / blue (pink is for the wife if I could ever get her on a bike)?
Kept same seat post. I have tried the Redshift suspension seat post, didn’t like it.
Did install Vittoria air liners (across all my wheelsets (4) and MTB (2)) to get additional protection and slightly less air pressure. I tend to ride a bike hard, prefer to go for 120tpi tyres too.
I am waiting on my Fizik Vento Adaptive saddle though. Still after 4 years havent found the correct saddle for my arse, but seat post was fine. Preferred that it has no lay back compared to previous gravel bike.
Go for the Seigla Rigid Race Wireless, you won’t be sorry you did.
It feels like a road bike, light and nimble, especially when out of the saddle.
I was on the cusp of Medium to Large being 182cm in height, reach and stack I mentioned above. The bike doesn’t feel small for me, just racy. I wanted a Destroyer not an oil tanker, and I feel I have that nimbleness.
I think you’re on to something, the whole idea of the “gravel industry” is just a backwards way of ending up back on a CX bike w/a few extra fender mounts here and there.
Might be true in the prior years, but the last few years have seen some notable separation between CX & gravel with real geo differences beyond tires and racks. Slacker head tube angle, longer front center & wheelbase, lower BB with taller Stack to name a few.
I get the “big bike is trying to rip us off”, but reality is reality. Maybe these differences won’t matter to everyone, but many modern gravel bikes are quite different from CX race bike geo that is quite standardized.
No different than the MTB world, we are gaining a wider range and depth of bikes in the “drop bar off-road” segment (that includes CX, gravel, touring, etc.). Rather than rip on it, I welcome the increase in options and ability to find something that more closely suits my preferences vs having to make do with something shoehorned into a different use case.
I agree with all of that, with the exception of the ‘shoehorn’ comment.
Imo the differences in geometry between nearly all drop bar bikes are quite subtle; I don’t think any shoehorning is necessary…a bike purchased to do everything will quite handily do just that. That’s not to say they’re all the same…they arent. And sure 1 might be marginally better for one application than another. But for me…and I am guessing quite a few others, the differences just arent enough to truly care about having a second or third bike IF you have the ability to run whatever tires you’d want for the application.
There’s nothing wrong with options, as long as people choose not to race crits, gravel, or cross because they think they dont have the right bike.
Perhaps I am picky, but I can tell a night and day difference between something with CX / Gravel Race geo and something more “slack”. The Trek Boone I own pretty much match the first Trek Checkpoint and many other more “racy” geo gravel bikes. My Salsa Warbird that I chose to get as my next gravel bike was massively different in feel and specifically cornering. The “stability” aspect that many champion ended up being something I hate about the WB.
Point being that even if you don’t see a few degrees here or a few mm’s there as different, it really is for at least some riders. I clearly know that one bike style suits me better than the other, despite them both be drop bar dirt bikes. It’s more than cosmetics and a tire space limitation.
But that’s probably more OT than I should be heading, so I will save any more comments for a proper geo discussion topic.
Yea fair enough. And I’m perfectly willing to admit I’m relatively not very sensitive to these things. When I was riding both my Trek Emonda and Focus Mares CX bike, I’d have to look down at my bike to see which one I was on lol. Literally couldn’t tell the difference.
That is the one drawback about the Warbird. Although I quickly forget about it when im descending down logging roads with baseball sized rocks littered everywhere.
But man, those paved tight corners are pretty tough on that bike lol. Especially if i’ve been riding my Aeroad for a while.
I hit the deck twice (1x pavement, 1x gravel) from front end washouts. Operator error which I admit, but it’s because this bike (especially with the stock length stem and super short reach bars) requires an extra low-forward position on any cornering with pace, tightness and/or loose surface.
Completely different experience to my Boone CX bike, which rides like the roadie geo it possesses. I am fine rallying that steeper geo on the scariest of terrain even with the 33mm tires. But I am a byproduct of riding the hell out of MTB, BMX & Trials since 1993… on bikes that most would be afraid to touch on anything more than regular rides today.
In a short stint of unseasonably warm temperatures here, I have taken my CX bike out for a couple of rides now and I am still a little unsettled by how twitchy it is, more so than my endurance geometry road bike. It feels like a crit racer.
Lower BB height does increase “stability” and is notable. But it’s usually one of a few other geo changes that accompany the differences between modern CX & Gravel bikes. Head Tube Angle & Front Center along with Chainstay Length and overall Wheelbase usually get tweaks. Much of this all follows the “Long, Low, Slack” treatment borrowed from MTB.
@mcneese.chad@Bones resurrecting this thread for a more in-depth discussion on gravel bike geometry. Reference the Titanium Builds thread.
For others that want to join, it seems like the three of us prefer more road bike geometry for gravel riding, but I have very limited experience on dirt, only taking my endurance road bike off-road a handful of times. While I’m trying to convince the wife on N+1, I’ve been looking at the Lauf Seigla, Canyon Grizl, Giant Revolt, and Fezzari Shafer extensively. These all have fairly different geometries, none of which are close to my Fezzari Empire. Other gravel bikes are very close but tend to be way outside my price range (eg Alchemy Lycos).
