These are the 3 bikes in my budget and available on my company scheme (UK you can get bikes tax free from your employer).
Appreciate thoughts on which you would go for?
https://www.cinelli-milano.com/products/hobootleg-easy-travel-bike
https://www.marinbikes.com/gb/bikes/2025-nicasio-2-2
https://bassobikes.com/en/bikes/gravel-bikes/tera-gravel (older SRAM Apex build)
by Lorddobbs
3 Comments
Have a look at the Sonder Camino, potentially newer/better groupers available within that price bracket too and you can spec the bike with a lot of different options (tyres, wheels, stem etc). Great bikes and excellent customer service and they’re British. Good luck
https://alpkit.com/collections/sonder-camino?sort_by=manual&filter.p.m.alpkit.frame_material=Aluminium+6061
If you don’t need a rear rack for touring, then I’d say go for the Basso. I love Cinelli! They make some pretty sexy gravel/adventure bikes, but with the MicroShift components and the QR axles, the Hobootleg Easy Travel is not where it’s at. If you need a rear rack, or if you prefer steel over aluminium (I know I certainly do) the Marin is also a great choice, but after driving 1x for the last two years, I really don’t want to go back to 2x, and the old Apex 1×11 is actually a really good group!
I would go with the Hobootleg Microshift( bar end shifters) but I am old school, and I have a similar bike that is perfect for adv/touring and gravel riding, you get Tubus racks with that price too, so you may not like front racks but if you are ever going to do a very long tour, you will be happy to have them.