Entry level gravel bike

pturnbull10
pturnbull10 Posts: 2
in Road general
Hi,
i'm looking at buying a gravel bike to ride local farm tracks, trails, fire road and roads. I have a road bike for summer use and a hard tail mountain bike which i'll probably sell, but i'm looking for something I can use both as a winter road bike, commute to work and do occasional fire roads etc. looking to spend around £1000-£1300. currently looking at the cannondale topstone tiagra (£1250), merida silex 600 (sram apex 11 speed, £1250), canyon grail AL 7 (105, £1299) and trek checkpoint AL3 (sora, £1000) and specialized diverge . TIA

Comments

  • singleton
    singleton Posts: 2,523
    edited May 2020
    As above.
    Vitus bikes seem good value and I hear good things about them although haven't had one myself.
    I've got a Cube Cross race pro CX bike which I use for winter training and some light off-road and it's been great. 105 groupset with hydraulic discs, road gearing and in your budget.
    The Nuroad race would be the equivalent "gravel" bike with grx grupset and an off road 46/30 crankset.
  • requiem
    requiem Posts: 57
    Pinnacle Arkose should most definitely be added to your list. I had considered all of those you've mentioned and the lore I looked into the various specs, clearances, mounting point etc, the more and more the Arkose made sense. 👍
  • amrushton
    amrushton Posts: 1,312
    oxoman said:

    Forgot to mention, most gravel bikes are lower geared so don't expect to go as fast as say a normal road bike.

    A tighter cassette e.g. 12-27 would solve that but maybe a solution looking for a problem
  • Cargobike
    Cargobike Posts: 748
    Push your budget up to £1500 and get an Orbea Terra H40-D.
    Cracking bike IMO.
  • chris_phillips
    chris_phillips Posts: 90
    edited June 2020
    Hi. I have the Grail 1x and am loving it, thought i had made a bad judgement by going 1x but have really got my head round it and i am pretty impressed tbh, yes there are big voids between the sprockets but gotten use to it. You get a fair bit of kit for your money, wasn't an issue with me, but a lot of customers do complain about the customer service and of course the constant out of stock on the website, other than that no complaints.
    Trek emonda sl6 pro 2019
    wilier izoard 2011
    canyon grail 7.0 al 2019
    Cannondale caad 12 2018
    Dolan professio2018
  • N0bodyOfTheGoat
    N0bodyOfTheGoat Posts: 6,057
    https://www.merlincycles.com/wilier-jareen-race-tiagra-gravel-bike-179193.html is a great priced entry bike with actual stock right now.
    ================
    2020 Voodoo Marasa
    2017 Cube Attain GTC Pro Disc 2016
    2016 Voodoo Wazoo
  • davep1
    davep1 Posts: 837
    Kinesis G2 maybe? In a similar position to you, have a proper hard tail mtb and a proper aero road bike, would like an in-betweener to do the hard road miles in the winter and some softer off roading. I'll keep the mtb though, I live in the South Downs and I think you need the fatter knobbly tyres and front forks.
    The one version of the Arkose I looked at could only take 28mm tyres with mudguards, I'd want to go to 32 or bigger.

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