Being a wuss

[TheJimi]

Ok, that's not strictly true. I'm afraid of my wheels being wusses.

Here's the thing, I recently bought a gravel bike, in the form of a Pinnacle Arkose D3. This is my first road/dropbar style bike and I'm really enjoying it so far.

The problem is that coming from a hardtail MTB running a set of bombers, *everything* on the gravel bike feels brutal af.

I mean, even going over slightly lumpen tarmac where roots have made small ridges, feels like I'm about to buckle the wheels to kingdom come.

So, am I underestimating what the wheels can take?

[lampchair]

I have the same bike. Tyre pressures make a huge difference to how it rides.

I find that trying to pick your way up rocky (brick/half brick type) paths is way harder than just putting the power down and hoping.

ETA: also run tubeless! Also, mtb clipless helps too

Edited by lampchair on Thursday 16th July 20:44

[Brads67]

You are underestimating.

My Cyclocross used to get a proper drubbing offroad.

[TheJimi]

lampchair said:

I have the same bike. Tyre pressures make a huge difference to how it rides.

I find that trying to pick your way up rocky (brick/half brick type) paths is way harder than just putting the power down and hoping.

ETA: also run tubeless! Also, mtb clipless helps too

Edited by lampchair on Thursday 16th July 20:44

How do you find the Arkose?

I haven't switched to tubeless yet, but I probably will. Presumably you switched the Riddlers to tubless? As for pedals, I'm running Shimano PD EH500, but haven't yet made the leap to SPD.

[TwistingMyMelon]

Wheels will probaly be ok, after a year after gravel and cx every bearing in the bike is fked!!

Most oem fit wheels on bikes under £1500 arent great anyway

Maybe try altering pressures and riding style, without sounding patronizing suspension makes it so much easier, you the rider have to feel the void and make up the difference

[BugLebowski]

I would have said you were underestimating up until last week when I broke three spokes on my croix de fer on a particularly rough patch of 'gravel' road. Although this was on 35c tyres which are really at the very low end for gravel bikes, I think I'd be happier on 45c tyres but they don't fit.

[BrundanBianchi]

You’ll need to understand the black art of wheel truing / building, if you’re actually going to use a gravel bike, on gravel. Personally, I see ‘gravel bikes’ as suicide bikes, if you use them on anything rougher than a tow path. That’s what my MX bike is for. If I want to get proper mucky it’s a MTB. ‘Gravel bikes’ are absolutely pointless I.M.O. If you want to ride CX, buy a CX bike, if you want to get mucky, buy a MTB, if you want to be a roady, buy a road bike. Gravel bikes are trying to be jack of all trades, which means master of none.

[TwistingMyMelon]

BrundanBianchi said:

You’ll need to understand the black art of wheel truing / building, if you’re actually going to use a gravel bike, on gravel. Personally, I see ‘gravel bikes’ as suicide bikes, if you use them on anything rougher than a tow path. That’s what my MX bike is for. If I want to get proper mucky it’s a MTB. ‘Gravel bikes’ are absolutely pointless I.M.O. If you want to ride CX, buy a CX bike, if you want to get mucky, buy a MTB, if you want to be a roady, buy a road bike. Gravel bikes are trying to be jack of all trades, which means master of none.

Insightful, but he has bought the bike, so the horse has bolted

I like gravel bikes, even though I have a cx, I find myself wanting a gravel bike for longer rides and camping trips

[TheJimi]

For what it's worth, my use case is 90% road, and 10% light gravel. I'm not intending on taking this properly off-road.

Forget about the "gravel bike" name - my feelings would be the same if I was riding a road bike - in that the thing just feels fragile over anything other than smooth tarmac.

So really, I was just kinda looking for reassurance that it's just me being used to a bike with suspension as opposed to any inherent fragility of the wheels/bike.

From the comments so far, it seems it's a combination of the two things.

[gangzoom]

I've never ridden a suspension bike for more than 5 miles so have no reference at all about how different they feel to a road bike.

However unless your 100kg+ you should have no worries about the structural safety of road bikes.

If you watch how quickly the pros go down a mountain on these things (quicker than often the chase motorbikes) you see how much faith people have in these bikes, anything on UK roads really isn't a worry.



In a crash situation the wheels might fail, but if they do they are likely to be the least of your worries, and having recently come off my bike at just 15mph trust me, these bike is alot tougher than our skin/bones. This is me, the bike is fine with barely a scratch.

Edited by gangzoom on Saturday 18th July 04:14

[cml24]

What pressures are you using?