Hello, long time roadie, I want to get my first gravel bike, which will also be my winter bike (I have another road bike which I will use mainly in summer). Based in the UK, I'm looking for something in the range £1000/£1500 (€/$ 1200/1800). I'd probably prefer an aluminium frame for general sturdiness, and although at this price point is probably the only option, it is not a requirement. However I do have some requirements:
- Relatively relaxed geometry
- 1×11 or 1×12 drivetrain (simplicity), ideally high range cassette
- Hydraulic disc brakes
- Tyre clearance >= 45mm
- Semi-integrated cable routing
- Mudguard mounting points and ideally more mounting points
At the moment, I have identified:
- Cube Nuroad Pro
- Cube Nuroad EX
- Boardman ADV 9.2 Alloy (out of budget but bonus: electronic shifting)
- Grizl 6 1BY (slightly out of budget and aggressive geometry)
- On-One Free Ranger SRAM Apex XPLR Carbon (somewhat limited gear range, but bonus: carbon frame)
Any other suggestions of bikes I am missing?
At the moment, my preferred choice would be the Cube Nuroad Pro at £1200 with 1×11 Cues (but not available yet). Any opinion on the Planet X? It sounds like a steal at that price for carbon.
Thanks!
by mtcerio
1 Comment
How steep are the trails around you? Much of my gravel riding involves fire trails or uphill MTB trails and the 50t cassette is absolutely necessary on a 1x setup for me (I use a 40t, 10-50t SRAM mullet setup). On the Apex XPLR setups to get that range you’d need to change both cassette and rear derailleur. For electronic setup the cost of changing to the AXS MTB derailleur is quite expensive (but works so nicely).