Gravel bike/adventure bike recommendations
satuok
Posts: 2
Hi all, first time poster here.
I used to do a lot of cycling, a mixture of off road mountain bike stuff and road cycling (exclusively for commuting). Since having my road bike stolen from the station almost 10 years ago, I’ve not cycled since, apart from last week when I hired a bike in the Lake District and realised how much I’d missed being on a bike!
I’m now looking at utilising the cycle to work scheme (gives me a max. £1000 budget, although I can top it up) to get a new bike. I’m mostly looking at commuting by road, as well as recreational rides on tracks, paths, woods etc. We spend a fair bit of time in the Lake District and Peak District. I tend to throw myself in at the deep end with things and have a distant eye on doing Land’s End to John O’Groats as well at some point. Bike technology appears to have changed a lot in 10 years and a new genre of bikes marketed as gavel bikes/adventure bikes seem to fit the bill.
I’m tied to buying from Evans Cycles, and having had a good look through their website, their own Pinnacle Arkose series would seem to fulfill my requirements. My questions are a) would that sort of thing suit my requirements, and b) is it worth paying the extra to move up the Arkose ranks (prices below).
£875 - https://www.evanscycles.com/pinnacle-ar ... e-EV306244
£900 - https://www.evanscycles.com/pinnacle-ar ... e-EV275629
£1000 - https://www.evanscycles.com/pinnacle-ar ... e-EV306245
£1250 - https://www.evanscycles.com/pinnacle-ar ... e-EV306246
£1350 - https://www.evanscycles.com/pinnacle-ar ... e-EV306247
They all seem to offer good value for money, but as I say, the technology has moved on and a lot of it is new to me. Last time I had a bike V brakes were the latest thing; many of the above options come with hydraulic disc brakes!
Any input gratefully received; apologies for the length of the post!
Thanks.
Satuok
I used to do a lot of cycling, a mixture of off road mountain bike stuff and road cycling (exclusively for commuting). Since having my road bike stolen from the station almost 10 years ago, I’ve not cycled since, apart from last week when I hired a bike in the Lake District and realised how much I’d missed being on a bike!
I’m now looking at utilising the cycle to work scheme (gives me a max. £1000 budget, although I can top it up) to get a new bike. I’m mostly looking at commuting by road, as well as recreational rides on tracks, paths, woods etc. We spend a fair bit of time in the Lake District and Peak District. I tend to throw myself in at the deep end with things and have a distant eye on doing Land’s End to John O’Groats as well at some point. Bike technology appears to have changed a lot in 10 years and a new genre of bikes marketed as gavel bikes/adventure bikes seem to fit the bill.
I’m tied to buying from Evans Cycles, and having had a good look through their website, their own Pinnacle Arkose series would seem to fulfill my requirements. My questions are a) would that sort of thing suit my requirements, and b) is it worth paying the extra to move up the Arkose ranks (prices below).
£875 - https://www.evanscycles.com/pinnacle-ar ... e-EV306244
£900 - https://www.evanscycles.com/pinnacle-ar ... e-EV275629
£1000 - https://www.evanscycles.com/pinnacle-ar ... e-EV306245
£1250 - https://www.evanscycles.com/pinnacle-ar ... e-EV306246
£1350 - https://www.evanscycles.com/pinnacle-ar ... e-EV306247
They all seem to offer good value for money, but as I say, the technology has moved on and a lot of it is new to me. Last time I had a bike V brakes were the latest thing; many of the above options come with hydraulic disc brakes!
Any input gratefully received; apologies for the length of the post!
Thanks.
Satuok
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Comments
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I have been mountain biking for over 25 years now and started road biking about 5 years ago to keep fit in the colder wetter months. I am 2m tall and weight 100KG, due to this I found rim braked road bikes on 25mm tyres a little jarring and also the brakes poor compared to Hydraulic disc brakes.
I upgraded to a Gravel bike with hydraulic brakes (Diverge). The reason was I wanted hydraulic disc brakes, to be able to take it off road and also run wider tyres if I wanted. In the winter it is great on road with 25mm tread / 28mm case Roubaix pro tyres which iron out all the bumps in the road.
In the summer I fit 33mm Tracer pro tyres so I can do a 50 mile mainly off road ride down towpaths, byways, forestry trails, abandoned railway and round a reservoir on the gravel track. Compared to a road bike it is more stable and handles off road fine until it gets rough and then I just have to slow down or in places walk.
When choosing a bike think carefully about the gearing you need on or off road. Mine has 11-32 cassette and a 34/50 chainset which works fine for me.0
