Not a new Bike, just a few new parts. This is likely the set up I will be using for Haute Route. The new fat (28 front, 30 rear) tires make the ride buttery smooth and the Selle Italia saddle is super comfortable while also light for a padded saddle (129g).
It is crazy that the new seat post is less than 2/3rds of the weight of the already light Alpinist Seatpost (same length).
Does any of that improve the ride noticeable? Of course not (besides the wider tires)!!!
But that‘s part of the hobby, too.
I never had the Alpinist CLX to begin with. I am a firm believer in aerodynamics (and a hypocrite who still bought an Aethos), and I had the Bontrager Wheels on order before the Aethos. I used the Roval Rapide CLX on this bike before.
Bontrager Aeolus RSL 37 vs Roval Alpinst CLX is: a little more depth, U shaped, width, and tubeless compatibility vs 75g of weight saving.
The Seatpost is a Schmolke The Lightest One (TLO) 0 offset in 27.2 diameter, 350mm lengths (10mm less than Alpinist) for riders up to 85kg (I could have saved 5 frames for riders up to 75kg, but this gives me more piece of mind).
Small update here, found a pair of DT Swiss GRC1400 on sale so had to buy them, almost brand new and paid 60% of new price for them, lovely!
And then the whole hookless tire compatibility mess started, so after a lot of fuss and confusion I ended up with a pair of Pirelli Cinturato Gravel H.
Can also add that I shaved off 500g of the bike with the new wheels and tires
Got the same last week too. Super happy with it, will also be me do-it-all bike. I’m just glad that the Canyon Grail was backordered so long that I could still cancel that order and get this beauty instead. Got no picture handy though right now.
Been XC-ing up my Cube since I don’t ride enough to justify a proper XC/trail bike so trying to get her closer to what I want to see if that makes me ride more to warrant a modern whip. Just added a 65mm stem over the stock 45mm, lowered the bars and added SPDs. Brakes are bloody terrible with only a couple mm before pads hit rotors.
I’m still terrible on wet roots/rocks and pretty much walk any drop/steep chute but I guess I can but improve.
Saturday was new bike day - slightly delayed birthday present to myself.
Cervelo Aspero with 2 sets of wheels so it is easy to switch between gravel mode and road mode.
Added a 2021 Checkpoint SL6 to my harem recently. Bitten by the gravel bug and the allure of more options that don’t involve distracted drivers trying to murder me.
I’ve got a Cervelo S5 for when I want outright speed, so the intention is that this will be for long endurance road rides (I’m doing a 9 day 980 mile Land’s End to John O’Groats ride in September that I will use it for) and for having fun on rougher stuff.
The 650b 48mm Rene Herse tyres are surprisingly quick, even on the road. I was originally thinking of getting a set of 700c 40mm tyres for easier gravel, but I don’t think I will be losing enough in terms of speed with these 650Bs to make 700C gravel tyres worthwhile.
With the 700C 30mm schwalbe pro one tyres it feels pretty fast on the road
The chainset (a power2max NGeco power meter on rotor ALDHU cranks) is 48/31.
The road wheels are Zipp 303 firecrests, with an 11-30 cassette. For gravel I’ve got Parcours carbon 650 Alta wheels, which have an 11-34 cassette on.
So far (very early days) it seems to work really well. The gears for the road set up are lower than what I’m used to (I’ve got 52/36 11-32 on my S5 and on my other road bike), but unless I’m on a really fast descent or trying to sprint it doesn’t really make a difference. I think the extra gears at the low end will really help on very long very hilly days.
Gravel-wise - if I can’t get up a climb with a 31-34 bottom gear, it’s probably going to be an issue of riding skill rather than gearing.
, especially since that looks to be a bigger frame size (58cm?)
