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caverunner17 on
Been toying with getting a gravel bike for a while now. My secondary road bike only took up to 35’s and I never felt comfortable on anything more than smooth gravel. There’s plenty of forest service roads in the mountains here in CO that I want to explore.
Found this Redwood for $400 locally that was almost brand new. Photo from the ride on my way home from picking it up.
Positives after the first ride:
* Advent X groupset is a lot more solid than expected. I’ve only really ridden Tiagra and 105 (and Deore / Deore XT), so I didn’t know what to expect. Smooth crisp shifts
* Surprised that the calipers are dual piston. I was thinking they were single and took my TRP Spyre’s off my other bike to swap, but then noticed. The question is : Upgrade to one of the AliExpress cable actuated hydraulic or just change out the housing for compressionless?
* Cassette range is nice. Bike Calc says a 38×11 can still hit almost 25MPH at 90 cadence, which is more than enough for flats, and the 48 big cog will be great for climbing
Cons:
* Tires will be replaced. Thinking 650×47? Is that wide enough for forest service roads here in CO? Or go to 50mm?
* Not sure I’m a fan of the flared handlebars. I almost never ride in the drops – usually on the hoods and the flare seems to put the brifters in a weird spot that doesn’t seem comfortable
3 Comments
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Been toying with getting a gravel bike for a while now. My secondary road bike only took up to 35’s and I never felt comfortable on anything more than smooth gravel. There’s plenty of forest service roads in the mountains here in CO that I want to explore.
Found this Redwood for $400 locally that was almost brand new. Photo from the ride on my way home from picking it up.
Positives after the first ride:
* Advent X groupset is a lot more solid than expected. I’ve only really ridden Tiagra and 105 (and Deore / Deore XT), so I didn’t know what to expect. Smooth crisp shifts
* Surprised that the calipers are dual piston. I was thinking they were single and took my TRP Spyre’s off my other bike to swap, but then noticed. The question is : Upgrade to one of the AliExpress cable actuated hydraulic or just change out the housing for compressionless?
* Cassette range is nice. Bike Calc says a 38×11 can still hit almost 25MPH at 90 cadence, which is more than enough for flats, and the 48 big cog will be great for climbing
Cons:
* Tires will be replaced. Thinking 650×47? Is that wide enough for forest service roads here in CO? Or go to 50mm?
* Not sure I’m a fan of the flared handlebars. I almost never ride in the drops – usually on the hoods and the flare seems to put the brifters in a weird spot that doesn’t seem comfortable
If you can go 50mm, that’s what I’d suggest.