Gravel bike suggestions please.

[Deep]

Hi
Like many I started cycling because of lockdown. I bought a Trek FX5 which is a hybrid but more road focused rather than off. It has flat handle bars.
I've enjoyed the bike a lot except I suffer from hand and elbow pain when I ride.
I've fiddled around and even had a bike fitting which has helped but not resolved the issue.

The bike fitter said he's never seen somebody have such an issue with his hands/elbows. He has suggested getting a bike with drop bars. Reasoning being that I'll have three places to be alternate my hand position between rather them being in the same position for hours on end. I typically ride for 3 hours at a time.

This seems to make sense and I'm prepared to give it a go. So I'm looking at a gravel bike.
My riding at the moment is a lot of tow paths but I have to use the roads for about 7km to get there. I don't like riding on busy roads but if there is a proper cycle path I'm happy.

My current bike came with 32mm tyres which I swapped for 35mm tubeless and it's very comfortable on tow paths and still plenty fast on road.
So what I need is a bike that

1) Has drop bars

2) Is road, tow path and very light trails focused. I won't be using it as a MTB so I don't need massive tyres which will then compromise it's road abilities.

With my current bike I've got used to a light carbon frame and hydraulic brakes and so would prefer the same.

Budget wise, approx £2k but could stretch to £3k if needed.

Thanks for reading and any suggestions appreciated.

[UpTheIron]

At that level, second hand 3T Exploro would be my choice.

[Deep]

UpTheIron said:

At that level, second hand 3T Exploro would be my choice.

Thank you. I'd much rather have a new bike.

[emicen]

Giant Revolt range have a couple of carbon options around £2k which are good value.

Personally, I just picked up a Boardman ADV8.9 at £1k. It’s aluminium not carbon, but it’s a cracking spec for the money, and I’m happy to leave chasing frame stiffness for my TCR road bike.

[R5_BOY]

The issue you’ll have is long wait times at present.. around 2k I’d be looking at ribble or canyon, both do some good gravel options

[jimmy156]

I love my canyon grail.

You could get a aluminium 7.0 with the top end mechanical grx drivetrain at the bottom of your budget



Or

The carbon framed sl 8.0 with the same groupset at the top of your budget. The carbon ones come with the clever “hover bar” which might be perfect for you!

[Anonymous-poster]

PlanetX Titanium bang on budget and great reviews.

[Chicken Chaser]

Ribble TCR in any variant.

[lufbramatt]

Do have a look at the Ribble offerings, I recently bought a CX SL cross bike (carbon frame), which I specced with 1x11 GRX810, carbon bars etc. and it's ended up being slightly lighter than my road bike, handles pretty much all of my local off-road trails fine and I've even set a couple of KOMs on local road climbs too so it's certainly no slouch on the tarmac.

You can choose every part of the build yourself including bar width, bar tape colour etc., which I liked, and there are no hidden cheap bits like bottom brackets, hubs etc. where costs are often cut on off the shelf bikes. Was impressed with the build quality too, grease on all fixings, tyre logos lined up with the valves, cables finished neatly etc. Mine arrived about 2 weeks before the estimated delivery date although they didn't tell me it was being delivered, luckily someone was in.

The CX SL is more race focused but the CGR (available in various materials) has more relaxed geometry and more tyre clearance.

I had been considering the Canyon Inflite but the Ribble was a slightly higher spec for less money and didn't come with the groupset I wanted.

[Deep]

Thanks, I will look at the Ribble. They seem to be quoting Feb for many bikes so that isn't too bad.

However I can't seem to see a TCR model that @Chicken Chaser mentions.

Also, the Ribble bikes seem to come with 40mm tyres. At present I run 35mm, the bike originally came with 32mm.
Will the 40mm mean that the bike is significantly slower and harder work on tarmac?

Thanks

[Deep]

jimmy156 said:

I love my canyon grail.

You could get a aluminium 7.0 with the top end mechanical grx drivetrain at the bottom of your budget



Or

The carbon framed sl 8.0 with the same groupset at the top of your budget. The carbon ones come with the clever “hover bar” which might be perfect for you!

Thanks, the hover bar looks interesting. Their website doesn't seem to give any indication as to waiting times, which is a tad worrying.

[lufbramatt]

Deep said:

Thanks, I will look at the Ribble. They seem to be quoting Feb for many bikes so that isn't too bad.

However I can't seem to see a TCR model that @Chicken Chaser mentions.

Also, the Ribble bikes seem to come with 40mm tyres. At present I run 35mm, the bike originally came with 32mm.
Will the 40mm mean that the bike is significantly slower and harder work on tarmac?

Thanks

think that was a typo, a TCR is a Giant road bike. think he meant CGR.

re. tyres, doubt it will make much difference if at all. But the bike builder tool on the Ribble website lets you spec anything from 25mm road tyres to 650x47 mud tyres.

[silversurfer1]

You wouldn’t be disappointed with a Mason Bokeh.

I’ve had one 18 months and it’s been a pleasure to ride and faultless

Ss

[Siao]

Anonymous-poster said:

PlanetX Titanium bang on budget and great reviews.

This!

[Deep]

silversurfer1 said:

You wouldn’t be disappointed with a Mason Bokeh.

I’ve had one 18 months and it’s been a pleasure to ride and faultless

Ss

Thank you. I'll took a quick look...they ain't cheap! I'll take an in depth look later.

[Deep]

Siao said:

This!

I've heard mixed reports on Planet X's customer service.

Thank you

[Siao]

Deep said:

Siao said:

This!

I've heard mixed reports on Planet X's customer service.

Thank you

I have mixed feeling about the customer service myself. I had a query and they replied rather late (didn't address my question fully either). But when I bought my bike they were excellent, they called me to tell me in person when the bike would be ready and when they were shipping it to me.

In the end of the day, it's not the customer service that I am interested in, it's the bike!

[Siao]

jimmy156 said:

I love my canyon grail.

You could get a aluminium 7.0 with the top end mechanical grx drivetrain at the bottom of your budget



Or

The carbon framed sl 8.0 with the same groupset at the top of your budget. The carbon ones come with the clever “hover bar” which might be perfect for you!

This is also a good shout. I was looking at the CF one, just went with the titanium as I already have two CF ones already

[blueovercream]

Some good suggestions there. Here's another which I think looks really nice - Sonder Camino. Again, availability might be an issue.

https://alpkit.com/products/sonder-camino-ti-grx1

[dogbucket]

I am very happy with my On-One Space Chicken with 700c and 35mm tyres.

Carbon frame and Sram Force CX1 for £1500 last year (Price may have gone up since then mind you).