Picked up a Scott Addict Gravel 20 for £2700, and considering the spec (Rival etap, good tyres) it seems like a great deal. I’m loving it so far - quick on the road and confidence inspiring on the trails. Really pleased with my purchase.
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The purple with the unusual, funky frame lines really work for me, nice bike! Plus, you can get a native power meter for cheap! (This is the TR forum after all!! 
)
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Thanks dude! It looks crazy in the sunlight. Scott really know how to paint a bike.
Yep I have the Rival left sided PM and it’s superb (and great value). The whole groupset is a winner for me.
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I have a giant revolt, about 2 yrs old now but cannot fault it, very light and responsive I paid £3,250. Still have a road bike as well. Great gear ratios for climbing, like sitting in an arm chair comfort.
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I think I was looking at spec of GRX, hydraulics discs, internal routing and tubeless and availability that got me a Fuji Jari 1.1. IIRC that was about £2.5k at the time. You might be able to get it cheaper now the market is settling down. I briefly thought about carbon for £200 more but decided I’d feel more comfortable about after a spill, so I settled for carbon forks.
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A few people have mentioned aluminum, but if I am going to save money on frame material, I am going steel. I find them smoother on gravel and I like the looks of them more than aluminum.
If I were in the market for a gravel bike, I’d be looking at steel frames in the $2500-$4000 range. I test rode an all-city cosmic stallion a couple months ago and absolutely fell in love with it (it is like they used my measurements to build the frame). It is right at my upper range of $4000 and it has electronic shifting. I haven’t looked in a while so I don’t know if that is a fair price for electronic shifting on a steel frame.
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That’s nice looking, love the color!
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Has anyone here had any actual problems with a carbon frame that would legitimately not have happened on aluminum/steel?
Sometimes the unique tube shapes make it difficult to get good adhesion from protective frame tape so you can strap bikepacking bags on without worrying about damaging paint. So I’ve had little bits of the tape start to come off underneath the bag straps before. And on carbon the concern is that if you abrade all the way through the paint it can start to eat into the carbon pretty easily. So it just requires a bit more vigilance in checking things when you stop.
I’ve not actually done damage, but after doing one short bikepacking race I ended up selling two other bikes in my stable (winter road bike and touring bike) to build a titanium gravel bike for rougher situations. I still much prefer the carbon one for anything where I’m not carrying significant luggage, but it’s nice to have the Ti to take some abuse (and to keep the carbon one dry when roads are wet and salted).
There’s also some concern about rock strikes damaging carbon downtubes etc. but I don’t think I know of a single story where that’s actually happened. I have a really heavy duty MTB impact protective tape on the lower half of my down tube and can tell it’s taken some hits but couldn’t say whether they’d have injured any more than the paint. I’ve got a thinner version of the same tape on the upper part of the down tube nearer the fork, and it doesn’t look like it’s ever taken an impact of any kind.
Chainstays and BB shell have some paint chips but nothing concerning.
Cranks have clearly taken a lot of hits so if you’re looking at carbon there then I’d definitely cover them in protective tape. (Mine are alloy and have had no such special treatment)
Otherwise I can’t think of any real disadvantages to a carbon gravel bike frame. I had similar concerns to you before making my first purchase but I’m really happy with my decision. Others will feel differently of course.
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if anybody needs a 58cm Aspero5 lmk ;). For sale.
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Also if people are in the market for a steel or alu gravel bike, look at Ribble’s year-end sale right now. Insane value, like Rival 1x 650b Alu for $1500 USD.
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I do know two people who had fatigue cracks in Ti frames. And a mate recently snapped an alloy cross frame when just riding along. Not heard of anyone breaking a carbon frame like that.
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Material discussion in isolation is pretty worthless. Until you factor in the actual design and include issues like manufacturing problems, potential rider misuse, you can’t make firm claims to any one material being wholly perfect or problematic.
There are some general considerations that relate to each, but we have to be careful in not pushing what are often solitary instances of failures to broader conclusions. I have broken frames made from steel, aluminum and carbon. I’ve only ridden Ti once and never owned it, but I’ve seen failures for them too. Without greater data, we are just using anecdotes and need to keep that in mind (mine included).
No material is perfect and using them to their best potential is what matters at the end of the day. That includes design as well as use/care, so any review of a failure should push further than what atoms exist in the structure.
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In a sense yes, but in a sense, no. Failures due to manufacturing defects are different since manufacturing defects are different. With carbon parts, you could have delamination due to voids and such, and evidently, there are no voids on a metal frame. But there are welds … which do not exist on carbon frames.
A lot of people are unduly afraid of carbon for no good reason. I would like to point all of these people to this delightful Danny MacAskill video where he was asked to destroy a carbon rim by his sponsor. He had to go to extremes to make that happen.
With Ti and botique carbon frames it all comes down to the welds. A friend of mine from uni interned at Nicolai, a German botique brand for burly aluminum mountain bikes with very aggressive geometry. The most important people were the welders. And despite their skills, he said, they’d have to almost always correct the frames to make sure they are “symmetric”. Welding Ti is even more difficult. (At uni, I also heard the same thing about the person who welded all the baffles and things for ultra-high vacuum experiments. They are made of very thin material, and if you heat them up too much, they might no longer be stable enough to survive ultrahigh vacuum. If you needed his services, you wanted to stay on his nice side.)
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You might want to consider a Fezzari Shafer, a Utah based company, @angryasian with CyclingTips gave it a great review and my experience with it is in line with his review. One of the nice things about the Shafer ordering process is that it uses the same Carbon Fiber frame and you can select the level of build components to meet your needs/budget, you can even customize the build if you want.
I can say it did a great job for me riding Stetina’s Paydirt and the Truckee Tahoe Gravel events last year. It was comfortable and handled everything the courses threw at it. Note that I said “ride” not “race” if you plan on “racing” gravel events you will need to determine if the Shafter will work for you.
My build, Shafer Elite - AXS Rival XPLR, upgraded FSA Carbon Seatpost, FSA K-Wing Carbon Gravel Bars and Zipp 303s wheelset.
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I was looking at getting the Ribble CGR SL or Gravel. Prices did go up a bit for USD and over $300 to ship. Not sure on ride quality but does appear to have some aero properties but nothing like the exploro or kanzo fast. Hell of a deal though and I kind of want one!
Seconded.
I’ve been on the latest generation Shafer for two seasons and it’s been awesome. Raced it at Co2uT 190 (16th), Rexy (100 miler, 2x - 5th and 3rd), True Grit Gravel, Bighorn Gravel, Grodeo, and SBT Gravel.
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Honestly the Shafer should be getting more looks from people. I love their La Sal Peak - it rips and pedals so damn well. I would 100% get the Shafer but I’m looking for something for my 4-5 crits/road races and 5-6 gravel races and everyday. Though I still might go after one since the price is so good
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Im selling a 58cm ridley kanzo fast for a fair price if anyone is looking.
TR does not allow personal sales posting on the forum.
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