Cycling UK Forum

Hi

Can anyone recommend a road/gravel bike with a double chain ring, (about) 32c tyres, preferably carbon? It’s for days out on the road and the occasional country path. A cool bold colour would be icing on the cake!

Cheers

Daljit

What's your budget?

If value for money is important to you, have a look at the Boardman ADV 8.9, which comes in bright orangey red.

To me, it looks like very good value.

Not carbon, of course, but I really do wonder how much difference that would make in practice, based on the fact that I use a now 7 years old Boardman CX Team, aluminium with carbon forks, and my neighbour a proper carbon gravel bike”, and having tried one another’s bikes we decided that the most significant difference was than mine cost £800 in a sale, and his cost c£2000.

The thing to get really right, IMO, is tyres, and having gone down to 32mm for 50/50 surfaced/unsurfaced riding and found that too narrow, I have gone back up to 37mm or 40mm. Degree of knobliness, puncture-proofness etc all come into it too, and no one tyre is ideal for everything …… I hate those “flat in the middle, knobs at the sides” tyres, so have ended-up using quite heavy touring tyres, which admittedly get beaten by deep sand, very slimey mud, and wet grass on steep slopes, but better that than soft compound and oodles of punctures, or riding on knobbles over firm surfaces, which is awful.

Hi

For a carbon frame I’m expecting to pay over £1500 but would like to keep it below £2000 if possible. Last year I bought myself a end of range Sonder Colibri bike for £1700 (and then cycle to work savings), which is a total dream. This bike would be a surprise for the good wife!

Re tyres - I agree, need careful thought. We already have touring bikes (35 - 38c) so I’m keen to get something light and fast, but not so thin that every crack on the road goes right through you! So I was thinking 28-32? Most of our cycling (80-90%) would be on roads - just the occasional towpath, muddy track taken to avoid busy roads.

Cheers

If your % time off tarmac is going to be that low, then 32mm will probably be fine.

My forecast, though, is that you will find the off-tarmac bits such fun that the % will creep up over time, until you only use roads to get to the next good bit!

Planet X.

Do their gravel bikes have two rings at the front?

I actually contacted Planet X and they don’t have any that match what I’m looking for.

I think a double ring on the front would be more of a road bike with light gravel ability.

The reason its gone to 1x for gravel bikes is they use a front narrow/wide teeth profile chainring to hold the chain more securely which you can't use with a 2x system as the chain locks into the chainring more. They make up for this with a super wide cassette on the rear and you often get a rear derailleur with a clutch. This clutch can be disabled for road use and enabled for gravel use and provides greater chain tension when you need it to secure the chain. Also the 1x arrangement means you only have one gear change to think about basically up or down and if you are negotiating rough ground that changes rapidly that is all you want.

I think if a road bike is more important to you then you can just get a road bike and install thicker tyres. Maybe a more endurance focused road bike with a tyre upgrade.

As ever with choosing a bike its down to working out exactly what will be best for you. You see a huge amount of cyclists on the road on heavy mountain bikes with front suspension and even rear suspension sometimes and you wonder how often they take those bikes off-road to fully justify the expense and maintenance of those more complicated parts and all the extra effort of getting those bikes up the hills.

If you are going to be 95% on the road with only the occasional light gravel riding then I think your spec choice is good but it won't be a good gravel bike it should get the job done though if you are careful.

The two rings vs one debate is now pretty old, and will probably never be resolved conclusively, but my three pence-worth is as follows:

Off road and riding at fairly high intensity 1 x 11 is very good fun, somewhat similar to cyclocross in many ways, and, again like cyclocross, it can get pretty tiring because you end-up riding in “not the perfect gear”, pushing yourself, for a significant proportion of the time.

On the road with a 1 x 11, actually the same applies, it’s just that what constitute suitable ratios change - you need more top, and less bottom.

With a 10-42 on the back, and speaking as an old bloke, I reckon you want 38 or 40 on the front for off-road, and 44 or 46 for on-road.

So, 1 x 11 alright for maybe two hours-snack stop-two hours on a given day. Once you get beyond that, and want to do three or four two hour slots in a day, and/or keep it up for several days on the trot, you really need closer gear selection in order to control tiredness, and especially so if you are riding a mixture of road and off-road.

I’ve ridden what amounted to almost exactly the same nearly all off road week-long tour on my 1 x 11 repurposed CX bike, and on a tourer with 3 x 10, and the closer ratios definitely reduced tiredness, although the tourer is a lead slug, and really boring to ride. The best bike around for this sort of stuff is possibly the Croix de Fer, fitted with two rings at the front, selected to match personal style/age/fitness, but the OP clearly wants something less off-road, and lighter than that.

Advice in one sentence: go for two rings at the front unless you are confining yourself to relatively short rides.

There's a boardman ADV 9.0 that is carbon and around £1,800. It should have plenty of clearance so you could try 32c tyres and if you find they're unsuitable, you could go up accordingly.
It's a sort of olive drab colour, so not really ticking the bold/bright colour box unfortunately.
I would've suggested the ADV 8.9 as mentioned above if it wasn't for your mention of carbon. I was seriously tempted by one of those before getting my Charge Plug 5 (steel, room for up to around 38c, etc.).

I'm very happy with my Orro. https://www.orrobikes.com/shop/gravel-bikes/terra-c/58

Hi

I’ve turned my search towards more road bikes than gravel in light of comments, and found a few that come with 28c tyres, and a couple with 30c.

Re double chain ring v single: I had a carbon belt commuting bike a few years back and it was great for short rides (which my commute was) but you did feel something was missing during longer runs. That was on a 11 speed Alfino hub.

Re Boardman bikes. I’ve got an ridiculous aversion simply because I was/am a huge fan of Graeme Obree (signed cycling top on wall), and Chris was his nemesis! I’m sure the bikes are great value but I could never sit on one!

Re Orro: I spotted the Orro Venturi/Gold EVO, which look lovely and can accommodate I believe slightly larger tyres than the 28c they come with.

Cheers

You might find this interesting: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03z8gc4

Maybe nudge towards the CX side of things? Double chain rings are still there. The bikes have greater clearance than a road bike. All 4 of mine will take 35mm knobblies at the back which is more than enough for off road use. A CX bike might be a touch nippier than some of the gravel bikes which tend to be a bit lorry like in their handling. Thing is, every manufacturer has their own twist on things so what suits me may be awful for you. I, for example , wouldn''t touch a single front ring. Well apart from flat time trials where a 53/19 bottom gear is fine or traditional round the park CX racing where you barely change gear. Why? Huge gappy gears and an over complex and low hanging rear mech to replace the simplest moving part on a bike, the front mech. You may differ.