I’ve had this thing about a month now. I’ve only had it on 50s so far, I’m excited to test it on 2.2s eventually but Texas gravel doesn’t get super gnarly for the most part. 50s + FS 3.0 provide a much more comfortable ride, but the bike is still somewhat playful and fun. It does feel far more composed on fast descents, which was always my one complaint about the Crux.
Cheers
I think we’ll see a lot more bikes trend this direction, similar to how almost no XC bikes have HT angles above 67 deg nowadays.
There’s really no good reason to have the steep angles/low trail on gravel that’s more akin to CX geo (where you’re navigating tight courses at 1 mph). Races are won and lost on steep climbs and descents, both which benefit from longer/slacker frame geometry.
I’m on 45mm tires on a Grizl and liken descending on it to riding a moto. Compared to my road bike, it tracks really well when cornering, especially on rough pavement, and I have much more confidence in the traction. I almost feel like putting my leathers on and dragging my inside knee puck.
Completely agree, but it’s hard to take the roadie out of many gravel racers. I hear people complain that the handling on some gravel bikes isn’t quick or racy enough, but I struggle to find situations where a quick handling bike helps in a gravel race. I was guilty of the roadie mentality when I bought a pretty aggressive bike as my first gravel bike (even went down a frame size to get that road bike drop), but quickly discovered what a poor decision it was for me. Particularly on descents and technical stuff. If someone just enjoys riding a twitchier bike, I totally get that, but slack and stable is much faster for me.
For an 80kg guy like myself, mostly the descents LOL
I def get descending, but how does it help climbing? On mtb, I find slacker def does not help my climbing. On road bikes vs gravel bikes, I don’t notice a beneficial difference when climbing.
The higher trail settles the front end down quite a bit. It means you don’t have to be as vigilant on the bars while trying to churn out watts at low speed up a hill because it’s less prone to wandering.
There’s definitely a balance, if you slacken out the HTA too much, you’ll get extra induced wheel flop when turning and it can end up tippy.
If you’re curious, you can hop on BikeInsights.com, I think it’s one of the few geo calculators out there that calculate wheel flop.
IDK. I find a slacker front end on both mtbs and gravel bikes tend to wander significantly more at low speeds. Many describe this as being floppy. It’s easier to put and keep the tires exactly where I want with steeper HTA and less trail. Slacker on gravel does help prevent digging in and tucking on soft surfaces.
