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Re: Gravel Bikes.. [Big Turkey] [ In reply to ]
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As others have said, a lot of this depends on your riding intent. Personally I wouldn't buy anything without disk and tubeless, but that's just me.

If you ride in Midwest or flatter areas with soft road, a 1x makes a lot of sense, and you can get away with narrower tires. I split time between Nor Cal and Northern Scottsdale. In former I've raced on mountain bike worthy terrain and can't imagine doing without a double and big volume tires. In latter it's more lumpy but loads of fast, turns singletrack. I have 35 CX tires on from but will swap to 40s for comfort and grip. I'll run them sub-30 psi. 45 psi will be squishy on pavement but a little too firm if you get into really loose or turns stuff.
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Re: Gravel Bikes.. [windschatten] [ In reply to ]
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windschatten wrote:
I have a Ritchey Break-away Cross in steel, and it handles like a pig for CX and is a noodle on Gravel (56cm frame with the Ritchey WCS Pro fork).
The downtube clamp tends to loosen after off-road riding (yes. I tried all known remedies from thread-lock to pine sap).
So I am not sure if it would be a good choice for extensive Gravel riding/racing.

But it sure is a great choice for destination bike touring.

markg wrote:
If your future travel plans include flying to a destination, you might consider a Ritchey Breakaway Cross. I have had 2 cross country trips now on Southwest, and it's flown free both times. No disk brakes, but mini-v's work fine for my use (though granted I don't ride much gravel right now).

Seems like you would be better off just getting a hen house for travel and a regular bicycle.

Dimond Bikes Superfan
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Re: Gravel Bikes.. [ericlambi] [ In reply to ]
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Not true if you travel frequently.
Great benefit as you need only ONE case, that often is flying as regular luggage (panniers=one piece of luggage and/or carry-on).

Apart from saving money on bike fees (outside of the gouging US and Europe), it is way less hassle to have 1-2 pieces of luggage compared to 3-4.
Plus the bike builds up (with some practice) in 20 mins. (the rack(s) create(s) a little extra hassle)

I am not dissing the concept, I just do not think the Break-away is the best choice for racing or for very specific tasks, such as dedicated gravel riding.

For Gravel, I am currently on a Tange steel unbranded frame/fork from Taiwan that checks all the boxes for a gravel bike and rides like a dream (for under $600.-).

Perfect for the job and it doesn't dent ;-)





(my Break-away
ericlambi wrote:
windschatten wrote:
I have a Ritchey Break-away Cross in steel, and it handles like a pig for CX and is a noodle on Gravel (56cm frame with the Ritchey WCS Pro fork).
The downtube clamp tends to loosen after off-road riding (yes. I tried all known remedies from thread-lock to pine sap).
So I am not sure if it would be a good choice for extensive Gravel riding/racing.

But it sure is a great choice for destination bike touring.

markg wrote:
If your future travel plans include flying to a destination, you might consider a Ritchey Breakaway Cross. I have had 2 cross country trips now on Southwest, and it's flown free both times. No disk brakes, but mini-v's work fine for my use (though granted I don't ride much gravel right now).


Seems like you would be better off just getting a hen house for travel and a regular bicycle.
Last edited by: windschatten: Nov 27, 15 22:34
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Re: Gravel Bikes.. [windschatten] [ In reply to ]
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windschatten wrote:
Not true if you travel frequently.
Great benefit as you need only ONE case, that often is flying as regular luggage (panniers=one piece of luggage and/or carry-on).

Apart from saving money on bike fees (outside of the gouging US and Europe), it is way less hassle to have 1-2 pieces of luggage compared to 3-4.
Plus the bike builds up (with some practice) in 20 mins. (the rack(s) create(s) a little extra hassle)

I am not dissing the concept, I just do not think the Break-away is the best choice for racing or for very specific tasks, such as dedicated gravel riding.

For Gravel, I am currently on a Tange steel unbranded frame/fork from Taiwan that checks all the boxes for a gravel bike and rides like a dream (for under $600.-).

Perfect for the job and it doesn't dent ;-)

I wouldn't say it doesn't dent. You just have not tried hard enough.





(my Break-away
ericlambi wrote:
windschatten wrote:
I have a Ritchey Break-away Cross in steel, and it handles like a pig for CX and is a noodle on Gravel (56cm frame with the Ritchey WCS Pro fork).
The downtube clamp tends to loosen after off-road riding (yes. I tried all known remedies from thread-lock to pine sap).
So I am not sure if it would be a good choice for extensive Gravel riding/racing.

But it sure is a great choice for destination bike touring.

markg wrote:
If your future travel plans include flying to a destination, you might consider a Ritchey Breakaway Cross. I have had 2 cross country trips now on Southwest, and it's flown free both times. No disk brakes, but mini-v's work fine for my use (though granted I don't ride much gravel right now).


Seems like you would be better off just getting a hen house for travel and a regular bicycle.
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Re: Gravel Bikes.. [Carl Spackler] [ In reply to ]
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Any thoughts on something like the Diamondback Haanjo Trail? Not something I'd normally consider, but just found out I have access to a pretty good deal on them that might tip the balance.
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Re: Gravel Bikes.. [JesseN] [ In reply to ]
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As someone who is still shopping, it looks really nicely equipped for 2300. Hydraulic brakes, ultegra deraileurs, carbon
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Re: Gravel Bikes.. [JesseN] [ In reply to ]
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Pretty nice spec on the Hanjo. Suitable geometry probably depends on how you intend to ride: good for crushing roads, perhaps a little slow if you for twisty trails.

Not sure if those wheels are tubeless, which I prefer, but wouldn't say is a deal breaker. Internal cable routing is also nice for a gravel bike but again, a deal's a deal.
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Re: Gravel Bikes.. [Big Turkey] [ In reply to ]
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i love my long haul trucker, it has a low BB, plenty of clearance and mounts for fenders and such. Maybe run a Tektro mini v brake, 32 spoke box section wheels, some nice cushy tires and downtube shifters and good to go.
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Re: Gravel Bikes.. [Carl Spackler] [ In reply to ]
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No thru axles either. I'm checking with HED on the wheelset - it's some kind of unlisted OEM something. The Renegade would be my top pick, but it's quite a lot more expensive.
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Re: Gravel Bikes.. [JesseN] [ In reply to ]
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Good call on thru axles. Can you get a deal on Pivot? The new Vault is a great bike, IMO, with all these features and a great ride.
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Re: Gravel Bikes.. [JesseN] [ In reply to ]
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http://www.performancebike.com/...52_1185360_-1_catNav

Might also be worth a look, especially with the double points thing (an extra 20% back, albeit in store credit)
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Re: Gravel Bikes.. [Barchettaman] [ In reply to ]
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Barchettaman wrote:
markg wrote:
If your future travel plans include flying to a destination, you might consider a Ritchey Breakaway Cross. I have had 2 cross country trips now on Southwest, and it's flown free both times. No disk brakes, but mini-v's work fine for my use (though granted I don't ride much gravel right now).


+1 on Mini-V brakes, they work beautifully on my commuter and CX rigs, are easy to set up and cheap. Remember the industry wants us to upgrade to discs more than we actually 'need' to, that way they can sell us a whole new bike....


I enjoyed reading this thread and would love to get a new winter/gravel/cx/adventure 'do it all bike' but not in the budget right now and instead I'm looking for some economical ways to re-purpose my old aluminum trek road bike. I threw some 28c tires on it and want to increase the stopping power in poor weather. Not sure what else I could do to it on the cheap to breath some new life into it.

Wish I could go to something like mini-V but would have to swap out the fork for compatibility I'd imagine.
Last edited by: tgarson: Dec 1, 15 10:01
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Re: Gravel Bikes.. [tgarson] [ In reply to ]
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Kool Stop salmon pads on the existing calipers, for a start.

Getting some posh compressionless housing will transform the performance of even the most basic dual-pivot caliper. I like the Jagwire stuff as it´s cheap and I´m stingy.

Clean the braking surfaces of your rims before every ride.

That should be a good start!

-------------------------------
´Get the most aero and light bike you can get. With the aero advantage you can be saving minutes and with the weight advantage you can be saving seconds. In a race against the clock both matter.´

BMANX
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Re: Gravel Bikes.. [JesseN] [ In reply to ]
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JesseN wrote:
Any thoughts on something like the Diamondback Haanjo Trail? Not something I'd normally consider, but just found out I have access to a pretty good deal on them that might tip the balance.


I realize it's an old thread, but I have a Haanjo Trail and have been quite happy. The parts spec was unbeatable for the money. Here in the Northern Midwest we do have hills and impressive unpaved routes. We get to play on the same roads utilized for the Rapha Prestige Midwest. Having something I didn't mind locking up outside at work, getting wet, or beating up on has been nice. I also did about a dozen cx races this year on it.

I'll try to be quick since it's an oldish thread

2015 Haanjo Trail

Frame

It's big, but doesn't fit big. The reach of my 59 Haanjo is identical to the reach of my large Giant Defy. The Haanjo has 15mm taller stack which has turned out to be perfect. I saw a couple forums saying the frame ran small and I disagree. If you need reach, error towards a larger size. If you need less stack, error towards a smaller size. It's strong. It's really nice to look at. DB did an excellent job blending raw metal and some design. If it didn't say 'Diamondback' on it, it would be even more popular. The chainstay is about the same as all the current gravel and cx bikes. No issues shouldering. The frame is so large you could probably leave your bottle cages on for races. There's also a mount for a 3rd bottle cage underneath the frame. Great tire clearance except the arm of the front derailleur (in big ring and not adjusted absolutely perfectly) would buzz the side knobs of the 40mm tires. Gobs of tire clearance front and back. You could run 2.0's in dry conditions. There's a small frame bridge behind the bottom bracket that has collected mud in the worst conditions.The smaller frame sizes have a slacker head angle and same trail which could/should slow down steering a little. Probably a good gravel bike trait, not sure if it's a good cx bike trait. We see mt bikes going slacker. Some new cx frames like the Focus Mares are going slacker too. Smarter people than myself on the forums can go into better detail.

Wheels
The wheels were a pleasant surprise. They aren't super lightweight, but they have a ~21mm inner rim diameter and have stayed very true under 185-190lbs of rider. They went tubeless (with a compressor) with two wraps of Stan's 25mm tape, valves and the stock tires. I tried seating them tubeless with the stock tape and got nowhere. Building up the tape even a little more than two wraps might ease tubeless install pains. The tires aren't tubeless specific, but they have been great in every aspect of being tubeless from 30-45psi. Haven't gone above or below. No issues on xc trails, descending unpaved roads or the couple dry cx races they did. They have been exposed to some pretty silly conditions. HED says they are just an OEM version of their Ardennes and meant for riders up to 250lbs. I have some 28mm Turbos to try on there soon. I also used Stan's Crest rims laced to BHS hubs for cx racing.

Components
The brakes are pretty dang good after replacing the crap cable housing with something compressionless like Jaguar. I also put in metallic pads from TruckerCo after blowing through pads in a nasty Halloween race. The rear rotor was upgraded to a 160mm too. Just small tips on getting really good performance from the TRP HY/RDs.

Ultegra is awesome, so we'll leave it at that. No complaints with the cranks. Great shifting. It's interesting they have a threaded BSA bottom bracket, but spec the bike with a BB386EVO crank. Excellent call. The bottom bracket has been great and has seen it's fair share of muck. I threw on a Rotor 3d30 crank (with a P2M from another bike) and went 1x for racing. A RaceFace NW 40t front and 11-32 is a pretty great range. Do yourself a favor and move the rear derailleur's cage tension to the higher tension setting if you are going to play offroad. I definitely prefer the 2x for almost all other riding though.

Saddles and handlebars are personal but they have been keepers for me. The seat measures ~145 and has a fairly flat profile. I was as surprised as could be how well it worked for a couple 5 hour rides. I never used the seatpost since I had a carbon fiber one sitting unused. I would like to go to a zero offset post to counteract that 72 degree seat angle, but have just been running the saddle forward a bit. I swapped the stem for something slightly longer and swear I noticed less flex in the new stem.

I didn't get along well with the headset, but it's still on there.

Finish
Hard to find any complaints. Diamondback was on my radar after buying a 2015 Sortie for a steal. That bike had a few build/finish/quality issues. This bike doesn't. Other than the white shifter hoods needing constant cleaning, I can't fault anything else. I kept the bar tape and it re-wrapped just fine after changing brake cables.

Ride Quality
It's an aluminum frame without a bunch of compliance built in to it. Run those tires in the 30-45psi range and the ride quality will feel great. Run the tires hard (losing most of the benefits of the bigger tires) and it will feel rougher than most other bikes.


If I could change anything, it would be to have the Shimano hydraulic brake/shifters (The TRP's work great now, but required a bit of playing around with and buying extra stuff) and to get rid of the white fork and shifter hoods on a bike meant to get dirty. That's exactly what they did with the 2016 version!
Last edited by: dangle: Dec 1, 15 13:55
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Re: Gravel Bikes.. [Big Turkey] [ In reply to ]
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last bike you'll need

http://up.opencycle.com/

36 kona qualifiers 2006-'23 - 3 Kona Podiums - 4 OA IM AG wins - 5 IM AG wins - 18 70.3 AG wins
I ka nana no a 'ike -- by observing, one learns | Kulia i ka nu'u -- strive for excellence
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Re: Gravel Bikes.. [dangle] [ In reply to ]
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Hardly an old thread dangle, and i'm following with interest, as I know so very little about the new tech of brakes or much else in this category, took me a bit to even understand what 1X meant. But this is a category for me, so i'm reading. Thx for the detail you've thrown in, and the formatting.

I'll continue to follow, I'd be far better served to sell last years Cdale Super Six Evo 56cm with about 800miles on it, (stealth classifieds? sram red, all nice color matching components specific to the bike, only thinking about it, lol/)

I've concluded I have no real need for a seriously road race capable machine, and I think nothing of riding our beloved dirt roads here in the Northeast on a C'dale Synapse, but I 'm ready to take it to another level. Synapse is versatile, but something like the Haanjo Trail sounds great for our terrain here. Plenty of connector trails to extend packed dirt roads 'round here for which a Gravel bike would make sense.

In appreciation of this thread OP, keep it coming. Thanks.

http://www.PatGriskusTri.com USAT Certified Race Director
2024 Races: USAT State of CT Age Group Championship/State of CT HS Champs/ CT Club Championship - Sat June 15th (Oly/Du/Sprint) Hopkins Vineyard Tri at Lake Waramaug Saturday July 13th http://www.HopkinsVineyardTri.com
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Re: Gravel Bikes.. [Twilkas] [ In reply to ]
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I don't think of these type of bikes as a specific 'category' because they are so dang versatile. This Haanjo Trail been one spot off the podium in several cx races, does the local mt bike trails, commutes, gets rained on, does long unpaved and hilly routes, and still moves pretty quickly when when wearing slicks. I wanted to write more about the ride quality, but that's so subjective. Having the tire pressure too high by 10psi would kill the ride. It's mountain bike fit and setup principles on a road looking bike. Anything will feel smooth with 40mm tires at the right pressure. The 59 probably handles different than the smaller sizes. The head angle on the 59 is steeper which make the trail smaller and it handles plenty quick for me. It's the same or shorter trail as many cx specific bikes right now. 430 chain stays and 70mm bb drop are great. I probably couldn't tell the difference if either of them shrank 5mm.

I guess there's a badge of honor in going 1x, but I don't think I would recommend it outside of cx racing unless you're on SRAM (or RoadLink & Shimano) and can run a 40-42 big ring in the back. I would have liked shifting lower than 36f/32r several times so far. A 50/34 on these types of bikes makes more sense to me than 36/46. Being able to have an 11-32 cassette with the GS rear derailleur is pretty awesome. Here's a quick pic of a 40t front and 11-32 rear. With the RD in the higher tension setting and the chain trimmed to 2/4 links (depending on how you count them) larger than the big/big combo I haven't been able to drop the chain (no lack of trying) in a cx race. I don't think I have found the 11 in a race yet even though we're hitting 25-27mph. Anything you can't pedal with a 40/32 is probably better of being ran.



Yeah, the OPEN Cycles U.P. is an awesome frame that appears very well thought out and made. For what I paid, I could have two complete Haanjo Trails before I could get one U.P. frame though.

G-Man and Hoshie made some really good points too. Be sure not to skip their posts.

Since I don't have a cat to show you, here's a full picture.


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Re: Gravel Bikes.. [dangle] [ In reply to ]
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those pics were great, but have disappeared. 'badge of honor re 1X' , got it. i'll reference this post if i take it to the higher level, thx for adding all that.

markyV, i spent waaay too much time on that UP bike, really cool, and i appreciated their write up. seems well thought out/engineered to do that with the
dropped chain stays, quite unique. That cost was frame set only, that's one pricey piece of equipment when entirely outfitted. Pretty cool though.

http://www.PatGriskusTri.com USAT Certified Race Director
2024 Races: USAT State of CT Age Group Championship/State of CT HS Champs/ CT Club Championship - Sat June 15th (Oly/Du/Sprint) Hopkins Vineyard Tri at Lake Waramaug Saturday July 13th http://www.HopkinsVineyardTri.com
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