I’ve been riding this Manzanita Whippet for the last month and I’ve got some things to say about it.
Nick Jensen runs Manzanita out in Reno, Nevada and sent me this bike so I could get a bunch of 29 x 2.2 tires tested. How cool is that?!
A few details on the bike:
Weight was 21 pounds flat…for a complete bike with power meter pedals, bottle cages, gps mount, and setup with Maxxis Aspen 29 x 2.25s.
Build quality is very good, I especially liked the very neatly routed external housing and brake hoses and normal headset setup. Very user friendly.
Geometry wise, it rides like a bike. That is high praise. The low bottom bracket and do it all angles make for a comfortable yet fast bike. Riding around, you’d never notice the bike had bigger tires than normal until hitting gravel. Very easy to swap to this bike from my Santa Cruz Stigmata, if that says anything.
The tire clearance was my big interest here, and even with the Aspen STs at 59.5 millimeters, I had an easy 6 mm clearance at every point on the rear triangle.
I will finish up with a bit of a dirty secret:
Most gravel frames on the market are very similar in aerodynamic values, even ones with skinny, round steel tubes like this one. I would race this, no questions asked. My thoughts from testing are that for priority of aero gains off road you want a DIALED fit, deep ish carbon rims, and flat top bars like the Enve ones on this bike. A good two piece setup is often more aero than an okay one piece setup for the bars.
by gravykarrasch