anyone riding one of these?
i’m thinking about it as i reorganize my stable to be: 1 dedicated aero tri bike, 1 hardtail MTB, 1 road/cross/gravel bike. i’d likely do the ‘two wheelsets’ trick - something robust with a, say, 35-38mm tire for gravel, and something lighter and more aero with, say, a 28 for the road. definitely would want 2x, and ideally an aero front end.
for me, the racemax looks suitable for my version of gravel, which is generally fireroads or well-graded gravel with asphalt mixed in, off-season training, and a few days of long, not very technical gravel racing. it would also be a good choice for some of the tri racing around me where drop bars are better (draft-legal or really hilly/technical courses). as the kids get a little bit older i’m hoping to get back into some shorter touring/bikepacking, as well.
for long-course and more straightforward tri stuff, i want a real tri bike. currently riding an old soloist from my draft-legal days, but it’s very old and doesn’t fit me terribly well.
for the rare MTB race or xterra, i’ve got my hardtail. it’s also the rig i use to tow my kids in a trailer. it’s a solid bike with good spec and my MTB use doesn’t deserve better.
from what i’ve heard the problems with the exploro have been sorted out - the seatpost is rationalized and the derailleur hanger is too. it’s pricey, i suppose. i’d also probably have to buy new as the second-hand market for them looks small (i’m based in switzerland). otherwise it seems like it ticks a lot of boxes.
so, who’s got one?
I posted this exact topic but titled it “aero-ish cross bike” about a month ago.
I took advice and instead of assuming the Exploros were “gravel going cyclocross road bikes” and found a local one to test ride. Glad I did. The size one I rode was maybe a size small for me, but we raised the saddle. It’s a fantastic bike, but it is NOT a replacement for a cyclocross/road bike in my personal opinion.
The geometry might on paper appear like this shouldn’t be, but the rake/trail of the fork and the BB drop did wind up being a deal breaker for me when I test rode the one I tried. It felt like it would be fantastic for fast less technical gravel riding or lazier less technical road riding. It would have been horrible for cyclocross, personal opinion.
To me, if I were you, I’d got the traditional “multiple wheelset cyclocross bike” route.
I wound up with the 2020 Giant TCX Pro 0. Comes with 40-something mm deep aero wheels and the head tube area now almost looks like a Propel of maybe 7 years ago. I put an aero gravel/cross Enve handlebar on it and a set of carbon ITU bars for training.
Since your gravel is less technical, the Exploro would work fine. But if you fancy off season cross race fun…it’s an absolute deal breaker IMO. My gravel training is Umstead, each lap there’s some fast technical stuff. And I race cross. And my road rides tend to be in town so they are hilly and more technical with corners. So the Exploro was a pass.
So it boils down to:
-you plan to race cross OR do faster group rides: do not buy Exploro
-you plan won’t race cross or do faster group rides: do buy Exploro
Again, fantastic bike, but the handling was a lot lazier than I thought it would be. I don’t mind a hair of rear tire slide when training gravel. Heightens the cyclocross senses.
On the TCX I am running 35mm GK’s with the file tread center then the little shoulders. It’s a silly fast tire/bike setup for mixed road/gravel.