Hello everyone,
I am new to cycling I have started about a year now and completely felt in love with it. I currently have a cheap Decathlon bike that I bought for about 220 euros, I did more than 1000km with it and now I’m starting to feel that I need a better bike especially for long rides.
I want to buy a good gravel bike for maximum 1200 euros and I would love to get some advice from here guys.
Thank you
by reaklyuo
5 Comments
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At 1000 km you really just broke the bike in. Also you’re weekly KMs aren’t crazy
I guess what I’m asking what do you think you’ll get from a newer, mid level bike that you aren’t getting on your Triban? What sort of KMs are you looking at doing going forward (ie, define long rides?
There’s a whole range of mid level bikes to explore
I loosely look for these things in roughly this order:
1. Fit: obviously any new bike must fit you well.
2. Drivetrain: Sram or Shimano preferred, but also you want a mid-range or higher and you want appropriate gearing. Lots to consider on this point, but in general I think Sram is cheaper(?).
3. Hydraulic brakes: I really don’t prefer mechanical brakes anymore, but you might have a hard time finding a bike in your price range with a good groupset and hydro brakes. One particular thing to mention about why I prefer hydro: braking from the hoods position means you aren’t utilizing much of the braking lever. Hydro brakes let you brake harder from that position, IMO.
4. Thru axles: I really like the peace of mind of thru axles over dropouts.
5. Frame material: I think Aluminum is kind of the sweet spot for value, but your budget might be kind of low for aluminum AND good components.
But at the end of the day, I think you should try to increase your budget by about 500 euros and you’ll have a lot more options available. [For example, here is a Ti frame with Shimano GRX810 for $1,650.](https://www.planetx.co.uk/products/planet-x-tempest-shimano-grx-rx810-titanium-gravel-bike)
It’s obvious from your question that you haven’t actually formed an opinion yet since you didn’t write any requirements other than the bike should be “better”.
Ride the bike that you have until you learn what you like and what you dislike, what you struggle with, and what kind of bike you need. If you don’t know the options, borrow a friend’s bike and take a note what feels different.
Otherwise you’ll do what people tell you regardless of your own needs, and eg. end up buying a bikepacking bike only to learn a year later that you’re not interested in doing that, but wanna race instead, or ride singletracks in wilderness, etc.
The bike that you have is probably good enough as long as all the parts work and you can service it. I rode my cheapass hybrid bike for over 6000 km before I invested in an actual gravel bike and I still feel I didn’t have full knowledge of my needs at that point.
Are you considering second hand market? There are a lot of options in this price and value to money better. Post covid buyers that no longer need a bike.