Howdy
When I bought my current bike (Giant Escape 2 City Disc) it was the first time I'd owned a bike in about 5 years, and I had never ridden a drop bar setup so I convinced myself that a flat bar hybrid was the only option for me, in case I spent the money and didn't like the drops.
After a couple of years commuting regularly on the, I'm finding myself more and more wanting to take the long way home, or to make journeys that I would previously jump in the car or public transport for via bike. I'm also pretty keen on trying some trails in my local area. I've been thinking a gravel bike is probably the sensible next step, possibly with two sets of wheels/tyres.
One of the main issues I find is that my current hybrid (Giant Escape 2 City Disc) has an incredibly upright position, and I live in an area that is commonly extremely windy (also a fairly big guy, 185cm and 95kgs). On of my regular non-commute rides is to my gym, which is 10k each way, about 4k of which is down the side of a long road where the wind always seems to be a strong headwind and it's a pretty brutal effort at times. I can improve this with fitness to some extent, but it feels like I am functioning as a sail in headwind.
Setup wise the hybrid is generally OK, though I find sometimes that I get slightly sore wrists if I'm doing over about 25k in a day (often combined with a gym session putting further pressure on them). I've got flattened bar ends which allow for some variation in hand position, but not much. I've tweaked the stack and seat heights a few times but not landed on a final solution that solves all problems
The current bike has a pannier rack and mudguards, which I'd be quite keen to keep as I need to take stuff to work, and would prefer to avoid getting soaked and filthy every trip in the winter. The ideal would be to be able to remove these to go up into the hills on a weekend here and there
Basically looking for some advice on what is feasible. I've been looking at a couple of options initially but mostly looking for advice on known-quantities; are there standard recommendations for people in a similar situation to me?
Budget probably in the range of £1500 ideally (not including second set of wheels) but could potentially push to £2000 if it made a real difference. Assuming itll most likely be a 1x setup, disc brake. Assuming aluminium, steel, maybe titanium (not carbon anyway)
I'm aware of the below options which I think would probably fit my bill, but would welcome any other recommendations, or opinions on which of the below.
Giant Revolt 1 / 2 Revolt 1 (2024) | bike | Giant Bicycles UK (giant-bicycles.com)
Cannondale Topstone 2 / 3 Topstone 2 | Gravel Bikes | Cannondale
Cube NuRoad Pro CUBE PRODUCT ARCHIVE | Nuroad Pro black´n´sharpgreen 2020
Tifosi Rostra Tifosi Rostra XLE Disc Gravel Bike | Merlin Cycles
by Fudge_is_1337
1 Comment
I love Giant bikes, I’ve owned 4, you seem to get a better spec for your money, but the one you have shown and the Cube, don’t seem to have mudguard or rack mounts, and I can’t get the picture of the Cannondale picture big enough to see. This is something that you need to check if it’s important to you.