On endurance/gravel/çross bikes

ddraver
ddraver Posts: 26,348
edited October 2015 in Road buying advice
So, the dear Dutch Government has charged me too much tax and are giving it back. As any cyclist will understand this has made my new bike trigger finger very itchy

I was looking at something in a winter/gravel/long distance/cobbled sportive bike and my eye was caught by the Planet-X XLS. However, it would appear that this is a relatively aggressive cross bike designed for racing.

The issue I'm finding is that the cheaper (hydraulic disk brakes minimum kit level) cross bikes are all euro style cross racers (PX XLS, Ridley X bow) and so perhaps not so ideal as an "all roader"

However, the "new wave" of US style, slacker head angle and longer chain stayed cross bikes (which are very similar to gravel grinders apart from having less tyre clearance) are mostly out of my budget (e.g. Salsa Warbird, Niner RLT, Trek Boone and the drop dead gorgeous but way out of my budget Santa Cruz Stigmata

That said, the XLS has a head angle of 72w which may be steeper than the "standard" gravel grinder geometry but is s till much slacker than my road "race" bike. The chainstays are also slightly shorter (425 vs 435mm). Is this a big change? It is still significantly more relaxed than my road bike which is significantly steeper and shorter. Am i putting way too much importance on the frame numbers?

(The Pickenflick doesnt really interest me so much for reasons that I can't really put my finger on. Their Dirty Disco would probably have been perfect)
We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
- @ddraver
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