Thinking of giving a gravel bike a crack

Oddjob said:
Umm I think I have the flare model.

I ride 44cm on road bars and 46cm on the gravel bike.

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Cool, I'll give the 44 flare a go, as I ride 42 road bars. 60-70% of is use is going to be bike paths or really fine hard gravel paths, I suspect. The 25deg flare should give me enough control on any looser gravel.
 
As wide as you dare with the bar.
I have the Thomson flare carbon 46 ( they would also do alloy) with great drops and nice shape up top. I’m fairly wide shouldered. Very finicky with torque - needs loads of assembly paste too. Also Had the wide Pro (shimano) flare with round tops which was a great budget bar. Panaracers are my go to tyre- slicks or SK. A lot of others seem quite dead/slow feeling. I used to put that down to tread pattern but layup seems just as important.
Bar tape I use 2.5 ali foam supercaz copy and usually double tape from shifters down. Replace often( at 10 bucks no problem).
 
Friend just bought a new Merida Silex on the weekend. He's always been a Lycra clad roadie so it's a moderate change of direction for him.
Anyway we went for a 15k ride this morning. I went on my trusty hardtail. He's trying to convert me to buying on so we swapped bikes on the local gravel ring route. After 15 minutes I was happy to get back on the mountain bike.
The gravel bike is faster and more agile but the vibration and knocks through the hoods gets annoying fast. The brakes, although good for a dropbar at still feel inferior to the basic Shimano hydraulics on my MTB. The hardtail felt like it can stop in a instant in an emergency. The gravel bike still felt slow. It's new so probably not beded in yet.
 
Coopz said:
Friend just bought a new Merida Silex on the weekend. He's always been a Lycra clad roadie so it's a moderate change of direction for him.
Anyway we went for a 15k ride this morning. I went on my trusty hardtail. He's trying to convert me to buying on so we swapped bikes on the local gravel ring route. After 15 minutes I was happy to get back on the mountain bike.
The gravel bike is faster and more agile but the vibration and knocks through the hoods gets annoying fast. The brakes, although good for a dropbar at still feel inferior to the basic Shimano hydraulics on my MTB. The hardtail felt like it can stop in a instant in an emergency. The gravel bike still felt slow. It's new so probably not beded in yet.
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Generally the gravel bikes coming out aren't bad.
The main things for me that it must have is low gears esp when bike packing and for me that means 2x my bike doing the Mawson is 36/22 x 11-34.and it must be tubeless.
The Mawson has gentle hills.
It must have holes for water bottles and racks.
I have ridden gravel bikes since the80s around Yack we converted our road bikes with Tioga " something Dog" about 1 3/8 ins. then used mtbike brake levers and shifters so have some experience. Bike was already 3x7.
Things like dropper posts are unnecessary imo
 
Coopz said:
Friend just bought a new Merida Silex on the weekend. He's always been a Lycra clad roadie so it's a moderate change of direction for him.
Anyway we went for a 15k ride this morning. I went on my trusty hardtail. He's trying to convert me to buying on so we swapped bikes on the local gravel ring route. After 15 minutes I was happy to get back on the mountain bike.
The gravel bike is faster and more agile but the vibration and knocks through the hoods gets annoying fast. The brakes, although good for a dropbar at still feel inferior to the basic Shimano hydraulics on my MTB. The hardtail felt like it can stop in a instant in an emergency. The gravel bike still felt slow. It's new so probably not beded in yet.
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Honestly, go with whatever you are comfortable with, be it flats, drops or alt bars - whatever floats your boat. I swore drops were not for me until I tried Ritchey Beacon bars. They are great, not perfect, but better than I expected.
If the drop bar levers get wrecked though, I'd probably go back to alt or MTB bars purely because those brake levers and shifters are waaaaay cheaper to replace.
 
I think a dropper post would awesome on a gravel bike if you were using it for bike packing. I assume a bike loaded with camping gear is similar to a bike with a kid on board and anything that makes getting on easier is a god send.
 
slowmick said:
I think a dropper post would awesome on a gravel bike if you were using it for bike packing. I assume a bike loaded with camping gear is similar to a bike with a kid on board and anything that makes getting on easier is a god send.
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You sound like a guy who has carried a kid on the bike! Yes, agree with this 🙂
 
Coopz said:
Friend just bought a new Merida Silex on the weekend. He's always been a Lycra clad roadie so it's a moderate change of direction for him.
Anyway we went for a 15k ride this morning. I went on my trusty hardtail. He's trying to convert me to buying on so we swapped bikes on the local gravel ring route. After 15 minutes I was happy to get back on the mountain bike.
The gravel bike is faster and more agile but the vibration and knocks through the hoods gets annoying fast. The brakes, although good for a dropbar at still feel inferior to the basic Shimano hydraulics on my MTB. The hardtail felt like it can stop in a instant in an emergency. The gravel bike still felt slow. It's new so probably not beded in yet.
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This is a familiar complaint. A young lad riding a gravel bike had a chuckle with me at the Tour de Gorge saying he'll be finished well before me on the Twinzer. When he came back into the car park and finished with a woohoo plus a big skid...my bike was already back on the ute. And the bloke who finished first (an hour before me) and his riding buddies were already on their way back to Dubbo with their.... mountain bikes.
 
Well I’m back on a gravel bike for commuting, I had been using the ebike but is heavy as shit, which is painful for the train and I always have to watch out for some of the delightful passengers who may like more than I do. Picked up a steel Norco Search that needed a little love, like a bottom bracket, bar tape, tyres, etc, so while I was at it I swapped the bars to some Ritchey Corralitos, slipped in a dropper and converted it to tubeless, just need to get another Ryet 3d saddle and tweak the set up.
 
johnny said:
Genuinely?

What is it that you don't like?
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The fact the seatpost keeps slipping, even with carbon paste (the gritty stuff)! Apparently it's a known issue with the Norco steel frames.

I've ordered a Hope QR seat clamp as these are vice-like apparently!
 
Hambo said:
The fact the seatpost keeps slipping, even with carbon paste (the gritty stuff)! Apparently it's a known issue with the Norco steel frames.

I've ordered a Hope QR seat clamp as these are vice-like apparently!
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You can sometimes bodge your way around this by putting a strip of thin soft plastic (like from a zip-lock bag) in to take up some of the space. I did it on one of my Waltlys (and maybe a Ripmo?) that had a similar issue with an oversized seat tube. It would still slip occasionally, but only about 1/20th as often. I used a strip ~20mm wide by 80mm deep, but cut it longer so you can hold it roughly in place while sliding the dropper back in and then just tear off the excess (don't try to cut it or you'll potentially score the metal of the dropper post outer and risk creating a stress fracture in the long-term). You might need to fiddle with the dimensions, and if you're unlucky it might not work at all - but worth a shot. I initially thought of using paper but was worried it'd trap water and cause corrosion. It's one area where cheap droppers are better than quality ones IMO, the cheapies often has a sandblasted exterior which holds in place better than the blingier smooth machined finish.
 
beeb said:
You can sometimes bodge your way around this by putting a strip of thin soft plastic (like from a zip-lock bag) in to take up some of the space. I did it on one of my Waltlys (and maybe a Ripmo?) that had a similar issue with an oversized seat tube. It would still slip occasionally, but only about 1/20th as often. I used a strip ~20mm wide by 80mm deep, but cut it longer so you can hold it roughly in place while sliding the dropper back in and then just tear off the excess (don't try to cut it or you'll potentially score the metal of the dropper post outer and risk creating a stress fracture in the long-term). You might need to fiddle with the dimensions, and if you're unlucky it might not work at all - but worth a shot. I initially thought of using paper but was worried it'd trap water and cause corrosion. It's one area where cheap droppers are better than quality ones IMO, the cheapies often has a sandblasted exterior which holds in place better than the blingier smooth machined finish.
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I actually removed the dropper (same issue with the outer) but I'm keen to give this a go - I assumed I'd need metal like a coke can but a ziplock sounds easier! But still, Hope bling is always welcome :)
 
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