Cotic Escapade or Kenesis Tripster AT

captain_oakley

I am looking to spend some of my retirement money on a frame from one of the above, any recommendations.

The bike is for Gravel and general off road but not Cross. Many thanks.

robertpb

Links would help.
If you are going to use it as a gravel bike what size tyres are you going to use, I've 40mm on mine but some frames won't take them.

captain_oakley

Both frames will accept 40mm tyres.

lostboysaint

Steel or Alu should be what it comes down to and also whether you're going to be Mike Hall-type epic rides (which is where the Tripster design came from) or a little more real world. Personally I'd see if I could ride both to see which fitted better but I'd be leaning towards the slightly more forgiving nature of the steel framed Escapede - although the weight can be an issue with their builds, just get the spec right to keep it down a bit.

w00dster

I have an Escapade, top bike. Mine is used for bikepacking duties, 50 (ish) miles off-road for multi day tours. Generally natural trials and I'm never in a huge rush.
Its not a quick bike, quite an upright feeling ride. It feels nice and stable though, obviously the 40mm WTB Nano's help in that respect. For fairly sedate gravel its awesome, in the UK though some of our gravel rides can get fairly rough for a few miles, while the Escapade is fine, there's been a lot of rides where I've wanted front sus or much bigger volume tyres, especially where I've been more focused on speed. After 4 or 5 hours off-road riding, the body (arms and shoulders) do take a bit of a battering.

When touring at my own pace, the Escapade really comes into its own. I ride around North Wales quite a lot and pick and its great being on the Escapade to go exploring where a normal road bike would struggle.

Lots of people do really epic rides on this type of frame, I just think you need to decide what riding style you have - ie, fast and adventurous, or whether you are happy with chilling and exploring more at a steady pace.

I know its blasphemy in these parts, but I find that Cross and Gravel Bikes can be a compromise. I'll quite often use my rigid hardtail for when I know the trail is going to be that bit more technical. 4 or 5 hours getting beaten up on the trail can seriously make you question whether you are riding the right bike.

Sonder (Alpkit) do a try before you buy option. You can rent a bike for about £40 a day to see if its for you. They have a Camino Al which is similar to the Escapade, also a Sonder Frontier (which is similar to my rigid mountain bike), on top of that they also do some decent mountain bikes as well. If you were to decide to go with Alpkit instead of the other options, they take the price of the rental from the purchase price.

I'd just make sure you know what its like to ride these bikes off-road before the purchase.