New bike, and the dog is not happy. After riding this, I hung up my road bike. 27 psi in 45mm tires. Super smooth on pavement, and much greater immunity to road imperfections and debris…plus can always deviate off pavement when the opportunity presents itself. Most rides are now are 30%-50% dirt. Sure it’s a bit slower than the road bike on good pavement, but for most all my riding, that’s a worthwhile tradeoff.
12 Likes
2 Likes
@Saddlesaur IKR? Love, love, LOVE adding my CX bike to the stable. Much better than the road bike for inclement weather, conditions and road. Geometry a little easier. I have UCI-legal tires, so only 31mm, but still able to run them @ lower pressure when needed.
3 Likes
Yep. CX bikes always made sense. This takes it a step further with the wide tires, slacker geo and long chainstays, so very good on loose softer surfaces. It was surprising how well it cornered on pavement, tracking very well over irregularities with great traction.
1 Like
Nice. I bought a second set of wheels and mounted toad tires on them. However, I’m thinking of swapping out the gravel set and putting the road wheels away.
2 Likes
Just from the picture, the cross bike does look more comfortable due to the overall geometry.
It’s a nightmare riding road tyres on surfaces like this. Had a few scares personally, one of which was as recent as June when I was trying my legs up an unfamiliar climb. It was just scary at one spot where there were lots of gravel.
2 Likes
I just realised I never did post my new gravel bike on here.
Ti Wondercross Wanderer
Sram Mullet set up with road Force up front and with MTB XX1 at the rear. All eTap. Yes that rear cassette dinner plate is a 10-52t
Chris King everything.
Enve everything else.
Currently running 2.2" Rene Hursts on 29ers.
And the enve fork has been custom painted to match my Chris King hubs and with my daughter’s line art. She was 10 when she drew these for me.
12 Likes
A Grizl! Great choicez that is a fantastically capable bike!
3 Likes
2 Likes
My own build:
Started from a Scott Scale World Cup frame (without fork). The goal: make the lightest XC hardtail possible without compromises wrt usage, so it has a dropper, a power meter, tires with decent puncture protection and a normal 10-52T cassette.
Contains plenty of Ti-Carbon bits, Trickstuff brakes, lightweight carbon wheels with Berd spokes and DT Swiss 180 hubs, lighter tru-axles etc etc.
Weighed in as it is on the picture there at 8.45kg, or 18.6lbs
11 Likes
@DameLisa, @TheBelgian, @Saddlesaur, @DameCristy, all y’all with the continuous top tube line to the seat stay. 
These shapes make my eyes happy.
4 Likes
[quote=“DarrenWCKam, post:46, topic:19346, full:true”[/quote]
It’s a nightmare riding road tyres on surfaces like this…
[/quote]
Yep. I’ve ridden road bikes for many many years and excursions onto dirt and gravel were often fraught being very careful picking lines to avoid rocks and edges and staying upright on soft surfaces. I find descending particularly tense. What I’ve found is that the respective benefits of a gravel bike extend to the road too. Cracks, edges, holes, manhole covers, debris and dirt become much less concerning. Also, there are a few busy two lane highways I have occasion to ride that have no paved shoulder at all. On the road bike, I just grit my teeth holding the very edge of the road as cars, trucks and semis wiz by at 60mph a few feet away. On the gravel bike, I can comfortably ride in the soft dirt and gravel next to the road.
7 Likes
What’s the plural of y’all? All y’all.
13 years ago when I got my first BMC SLR01, its dropped seat stays were unusual and looked a bit odd. Now it’s become the norm on road bikes.
3 Likes
Until it reverts back to the way it’s s’posed to be. 
3 Likes
Yes. Precisely. My oldest brother, raised in NH like all of us 6 kids, uses “All Y’all” all the time. He married a North Carolinian (as I did) and has been in GA and NC since forever. I’ve been in VA for nearly as long, so I’m can “talk like the locals” too. 
2 Likes
You might could do that, but then you could just do that.
2 Likes
So this is the only pic I have with my 4 year old Trek Domane SLR6 with its New Bike Day setup: I bought another set of the Bontrager AEOLUS Pro 3V wheels so I could put tubeless gravel tires on. I ordered TUFO SPEEDERO 700x40 tubeless and they have been fabulous so far. The Trek specs say up to 38s on this bike, but the 40’s fit with plenty of spare room, I would say 4mm+ on either side. Inflated to 37-40psi.
And I am AMAZED at how little extra drag these add on pavement, compared to my Continental GP5000TL 700x32 at 47-51psi. It feels like maybe I give up 1/2mph maybe 1mph at most. They roll superbly well, but so far have had great traction off road, even riding for 150’ or more down streams of river rock with water up to my axles! (Believe me, I was braced for a spill, but rode it out!)
To deal with the steeper grades, I went with a larger cassette, an 11-40 instead of the 11-34 on my road wheels, which means adjusting the B-screw on the rear derailleur to bring it out nearly to max distance from the tab, allowing the GS derailleur to clear the large cog.
No changes to front derailleur needed, clears fine on the 50-34 compact.
I was only mildly surprised that this works, since Shimano generally only recommends their setups within a narrower range than what is really possible with the derailleurs.
Drivetrain is a little noisier at times, but not bad, and not resistant or sluggish to shift. I did dial in the barrel adjuster after a couple rides and got it a little quieter.
The disc rotors did fine but did require a tiny bit of adjustment of caliper mount, which I cannot blame entirely on the wheel change, since I figured out later was partly due to the fluid levels needing a slight modification as well because the pistons weren’t retracting as well as they should have been.
I rode this setup for almost 300 miles over 7 rides in two weeks, and it performed amazingly well, handled everything the very demanding routes dished out, and I never had a mishap, flat, or anything that the tires didn’t handle better than I thought possible.
I’d prefer getting a dedicated gravel bike if/when my resources feel good enough to invest in that, but I’m not at all dissatisfied with the Domane as is with this gravel setup. I would only be looking to save the little time and minor tweaks that come with switching out wheels and a cassette that is well beyond specs.
Meantime, gravel connections between paved roads has opened up some great routes to me that were not really doable before. I’m not going to be a gravel convert, so to speak, to the point that I don’t prefer roads for most of my rides, but that’s mainly because where I live, I have LOADS of lightly traveled, gorgeous country roads, with many mountain passes included. If I had to deal with moderate or heavy traffic on these, I would probably do more gravel (and MTB) as a way of getting away from the rat races.
7 Likes
I reckon I might could… 'cause why 'cause…
unless I was “down in my back.”
2 Likes
Guess i should post one of my TWO gravel bikes. Thus one was stolen and recovered. About 1K USD in repairs and replacement of stolen items later
!
Never mind, that is both of them. The second is a replacement for the first. 321929682_662486605656843_6044600272938631527_n|356x500
7 Likes
So good you got k. Nothing more heartbrealing than having a bike stolen!
2 Likes