I observe in my hub post (either already out or coming soon, depending which I get done first) that innovation is the enemy of standardization. Which is good, if it produces positive change, but bad, if the change is small relative to the costs imposed (costs including limits on interoperability and search costs associated with once again learning what of the options works best for you).
So quick release bikes, with 100/130 spacing F/R (road) and 100/135 F/R (mountain) was the standard for years, and it worked. The biggest issue was what kind of cam mechanism you wanted on your QR, and once you realized Shimano was the only real answer, that question went away. (On this: https://blog.huffmanbicycleclub.org/2013/05/kcnc-skewers.html.)
It didn't stop there, of course. Next up, the size and spacing on the thru axles. While there are some other standards floating around, and fatbikes and mountain bikes in particular have their own thing going on, among the bikes I ride the question quickly became: with 100/142 F/R (road, cross, gravel alike), 12mm rear (road, cross, gravel alike), would the front be 15mm or 12mm? This was the VHS/Betamax of the biking world, circa 2017-2018.
My first thru axle bike, the epically perfect Focus Izalco Max Disc (2016), came with 15mm*100 /12mm*142.
Two years later, the Focus Paralane (2018), soon to be for sale, came with 12*100/12*142.
Most recently, the 3T Exploro came with 12/12.
And none of this would matter, except that 3T included this wheelset as a free incentive when I bought the bike. Also 12/12.
Not quite done. For Christmas, P. bought me the Hunt Gravel 700c wheels with dynamo, originally spec'd for the Paralane, but with 35mm Schwalbe G-One tires, perfect for the 3T. Those, too, are 12/12.
So three new wheelsets, with the idea being two will be swapped on the 3T depending on usage planned. These are:
650b Fulcrum 700db wheels originally spec'd on the 3T in the build I purchased;
700c 3T carbon clinchers, 40mm deep;
Hunt 700c gravel wheels with dynamo.
But none of the new wheels are interoperable with the Focus. What to do?
The fix
Some cool small-fab fixes coming out to arbitrage the gap between 2016 technology and 2020 standardization. First is the Joe Jackson Bike Parts 15mm-12mm conversion kit for front forks.
Joe Jackson mails from Delaware, so I suppose he's another mid-Atlantic cyclist. I love that he has invented this elegant - and simple - fix for the 15mm thru-axle in a world of 12mm wheels.
That's it? What are we paying for with large scale component makers, anyway?
I'm a big big fan of Joe Jackson and his home fab, though I had never heard of him before 10 days ago. The idea of seeing a problem, heating up the mold, and solving it is something I dream about having the skills and the entrepreneurialism to do.
Here it is going on:
Fixing bolt to hold the star-shape nut.
Inserting the reducing sleeve in the opposite side.
All I really needed was the front axle to conform, but then I had a threaded front axle (hex-wrench operated) and the RAT thru-axle rear. Robert Axle Project to the rescue, turning my 12mm rear RAT thru axle into a basic threaded option matching the front.
Package from the mail, next to the Fat Tire bottle, on my desk. Working from home after all.
Two parts, with the third being an additional threaded end that I will throw away a decade from now after realizing I will never need it.
Mine is the "Lightning Bolt-on Axle."
These replace the Focus RAT. R.A.T. - Rapid Axle Technology - was Focus' innovation for its thru axles. People loved it, right up until they realized that short of roadside wheel changes effected by your crew, the time spent fixing a flat was not devoted to the effort of getting the axle out.
Lots of adulation online for the efficiency of this wheel change in the Kevin Costner classic American Flyers (1985).
The end
Now the Focus has two threaded axles in 12mm each, allowing me to run the new 3T wheelset and any other modern standard set that comes my way. Rode it 15 miles yesterday down Rock Creek Pkwy, through G-Town, to MacArthur, Reservoir, MacArthur, back toward home on Loughboro, Nebraska and neighborhood roads from there. New wheels ride smoothly and the new axles held.
Meet the 3T Exploro in Sram Force/Eagle eTap Build - with special edition paint
See, if I hadn't bought this, I never would have found this trail, a mere 7 miles from home.
I picked this up straight from 3T, ordering more or less the same day as the most recent post about gravel bike shopping. Actually, I think I waited for the credit card cycle to turn over, but that's about it.
From-the-shop build. I love that it came with wheel reflectors.
3T charges $5890 for this fully built with:
Sram Force AXS eTap 1x gearing, with 44-tooth chainring and
Sram Eagle XXI mountain RD, and
11-50 12-spd. cassette,
Fulcrum 700DB 650b wheelset,
WTB Venture 650b x 2" (51mm) tires, mounted tubeless,
Carbon 3T finishing kit (stem, bars, post),
a Fizik Antares saddle that I removed immediately for the WTB Rocket with titanium rails you see mounted in the first photo.
Nice of them to offer this special edition color scheme, which I like better than the brown/white shown on the website. If you want the Team layup in this coloration, contact Dan Losier at 3T directly.
(If I sound casual about the price, I'm not. This is almost exactly twice what I have paid at the tippy-top end before. I will gush about the bike below, but I am a million miles from saying *any bike* is worth what I can get a serviceable used Honda for on Craigslist.)
3T also offered an incentive
After getting this home I found on the 3T website an incentive for the purchase - a free additional 3T wheelset with *any* new bike, plus a $500 donation to a hospital in Bergamo, Italy. Thought I was too early for the incentive, but I asked Dan (who sold me the bike) to make the donation in any event.
Dan went one better, and promised to send these my way. (Pretty sure the offer is now concluded, but do check for yourself.) These are 700c, so will make a good road riding alternative to the more aggressive 650b with WTB Venture that came pre-built.
How will I use this? What about my life will be different?
I've been gravel bike shopping sort of continuously since maybe 2015. In addition to the recent post linked above, there are several posts on gravel bike drooling here at HBC blog - including how I ended up with the Salsa Colossal and then the Focus Paralane. There's even one post about how I sold a perfectly credible gravel bike that I kind of miss (the Ritchey Breakaway Cross).
The problem is that this market has changed so much so fast, any early idea of what one "needed" was quickly replaced by a series of wants.
The Exploro really checks a lot of boxes
I found an old e-mail from Sam, dating to January 2017.
I think we can fairly say this purchase was Sam's fault.
My response was "they keep doing this to me. Every time I think I have found it they change what it is."
OK, three years later, and I still think this is it. That's as close to constancy as it gets in my riding.
If you have found us here at HBC you know about gravel riding, and if you don't, Duck-Duck-Go it.
The industry has made huge investments in the kind of riding that used to be a regrettable necessity when the roads on one side of the mountain pass, and the roads on the other, were linked by some beat up old fire road/logging road/single-track. I guess somebody decided getting between those roads was actually the fun part. Personally, I blame the guys at Bicycle Quarterly.
I don't call myself a gravel cyclist, but I grew up in Alaska, and I ride with Sam in Oregon, and I live part of the time in Indiana, which is near Kentucky - all three are meccas, and I left out Colorado and Utah, where Sam and I meet nearly yearly, and that trip I took to Kyrgyzstan, when I regretted not having a bike, and the road-cum-mudslide route from Chengdu to Lhasa that I want to ride. There's the trip to Iceland I've been wanting to make and the roads north of Montreal run well into the Arctic Circle and will not accommodate a unicycle.
In short, the list of reasons for a gravel bike is long.
Review
Two rides so far. (Why so few? Maybe a post later about how quarantining, even though it allows for solo exercise, seems to squelch any adventuresome nature.)
The first ride was short and sweet, from home into Rock Creek Park, around some trails, and back. Maybe 12 miles. Enough ups to get the heart in the throat but not so much to constitute a real workout. Observations: the Sram AXS eTap is *awesome.* Trivially easy to transition from a lifetime of Shimano shifting into the "right is harder left is easier" mindset. Completely smooth shifting even with the big jumps on the 10-50 cassette. Shifts under strain. Can jump several cogs at a time though I didn't actually count how many.
Big freaking cassette. Remember when cool meant large chainring small cog?
The bike is light and it hops like a champ. That said, the forward position is *committing.* You can roll in fast to hop a rock, or a log, but you can't plan to do it from the backseat like you can on a mountain bike. So it was hugely fun on a generally smooth trail with an occasional obstacle. Not sure how I will fare with more mixed terrain!
Ride number two was longer and generally tamer, out and back on the ordinary from-home ride along Beach Drive for maybe 30 miles in total. Except that wherever the side of the road looked fun, or the lawn beyond it, or the wood just past the lawn, I took those turns and found some really nice terrain.
If a bicycle sits in the forest with noone around . . .
Four notable observations from this ride:
I'm able to hold with, or pass, the normal roadie. That's not unexpected, and let's be clear that "holding with or passing" is as much reflective of her/his decision not to work harder as it is of my ability to put out watts, but it is worth noting that the bike rolls competitively even with the semi-knobbies mounted.
The bike handles like a road bike. It carves. It is not quite what the Focus Izalco is on a winding descent, but it is close. Quick turns in the crit.-style are sharp and fun.
The riding position, which is as close as I could set it to the sit on my Focus Izalco Max, lets me get in the drops and hold a brisk pace over uneven ground, such as the unkempt lawns along Rock Creek Parkway in DC. (Until unkempt became unexpectedly and invisibly pot-holed, at which point I dove and rolled.)
50 teeth in the back lets me spin up hills I have only ever climbed while standing. Not quickly, mind you, which is another mindset entirely.
Ride Number 3: this was the best yet, and I think I am getting the feel of handling this bike in variable terrain. Same basic outline as 2, with a little more large roads at the start (loving that with COVID-tining I can ride the major arteries without taking my life in my hands) - and a lot more dirt at the out-and-back end of Beach Drive. I relocated my old trail through the woods but took it a few more miles north, winding through quiet forest just dozens of yards from the road and not knowing it. I found some hill with steep ups and technical descents. I found a construction zone that used to be the Capital Crescent trail, with the gates blown open in the heavy wind, and rode a few miles of tracked dirt and gravel. And I finished with the same in-the-drops roadside rough that makes this bike stand out relative to any alternative. If the first 40 miles or so was fun, this most recent 30 may have clinched it.
Construction zone. I swear the "do not enter" sign was not visible.
Probably this bike needs to be carried over logs!
Fun riding on the rocky shores of this creek too, though the creek looked pretty dirty.
Summary: if you want a full-on road bike that is super fun off the road, this pretty much does it. In fact, I am comfortable saying this rides 8.5/10ths as well as my epically perfect Focus Izalco Max and rides off-road (firm ground, at least) as well as does the fat bike.
This is the perfect one-bike quiver. Am I in sell-off phase for good now?
No.
But why not? Several reasons why I will not be offloading the rest of the collection and riding 3T full time.
I simply do not believe the "wide is as fast as average" claims. It needs to be tested, I suppose, but for now the Focus Izalco Max Disc with 28mm tires is presumed to be the fastest pure road bike in the collection. If I find out otherwise I'll lie about it and stand by my original claim. (Or else I will argue I knew it all along.)
I like the variety and some days I want to ride x-wise and otherdays y-wise.
Location. Not carrying bikes back and forth, so if I'm going to ride at both ends of my commute I need one in Indy and one in DC. And I haven't mentioned Sam's place, though not like Sam doesn't have one I can ride.
Visitors. I keep Dad's Specialized Sequoia around for Sam to ride. Once it happened, though we didn't finish that ride, which was my fault.
I sweat on trainers. Like, a lot. And I'm not dumping all that sweat on a near-$6000 rig. So the trainer bike(s) will stay.
Travel. I suppose for a serious event one travels with the nice bike, but in general I think traveling makes more sense with something you can repair, replace, or lose. Frankly, a nice metal framed bike with S-105 components might be just the thing. The Titanium Colossal may end up in this role.
Nostalgia. Each old bike means something. The Gunnar has reasonably outlived its usefulness in a stable of fully kitted rigs, but the Gunnar will probably be the last bike I own.
That said, the bike I default to does change with time and collection. The Focus Izalco Max has been my hands down choice for approaching four years now. My strong guess is the Exploro will hold price of place for a long while.
I won't say Max has shamed me into writing a post, but his recent discussion of gravel bikes reminded me that the Huffman Bicycle Club does indeed have a readership that demands to be entertained. They've come to the wrong place for that, but if they're looking for a rambling post with no point, then here they are.
Of course the topic du jour (that's french) is the Corona Virus, or as Alaska's most senile octogenarian (and also 1/3 of its congressional delegation) calls it, the "beer virus". The recommendation on much of the Best Coast is to shelter in place. Thankfully I'm a rural dweller. The only advantage of living in the boonies, I mean aside from the peace and quiet, the wildlife migrating through your yard, the affordable housing prices, and the lack of traffic, is that I can bike from my driveway as far as I want with only a stop sign or two. Which, in Oregon, we're now allowed to run.
Since they haven't yet required my county to stay home, I'm at least doing my part by social distancing.
I've been practicing social distancing for years
This ride is a nice 25-mile out-and-back from my house. It's also one of the only Strava segments I track, because it's a straight shot with a mild 1% grade, no traffic and usually very little wind. It's a good way to see where I'm at for the year.
My PR is 19:50 at 316W and 22.2MPH. Today's ride? 25:32 at 189W and 17.3MPH. Good to know. There's a joke in here somewhere: Why am I not worried about catching the Corona Virus? Because I'm too slow. I didn't say the joke was funny. It's also not funny that my euro XXL shorts feel more like euro XL. That might explain some of the speed issue.
Max and I have had several discussions about the economic impact of the Corona Virus. Obviously it's a time to be grateful that we have jobs that allow us to work remotely, and neither of us are in imminent danger of going without a paycheck. Well, I might be so I'm grateful my brother is a generous sort.
We both have a long proud history of purchases of bikes and bike accessories through recessions. Over the years we've gone from "Narrow is aero", with 23mm Vittoria Corsas, to "Win tunnel lied, buy wide", which convinced me to convert all my bikes to Grand Bois 700x28s, to "Nice and fat is where it's at.", for which Max and I both purchased Focus Paralanes, mine presently shod with Compass (now Rene Herse) 700x38s. The latter wasn't in an economic recession, but certainly a moral one.
Judging from Max' post, he may already have another economic stimulus package in mind. I've done more than my fair share in the last month. The details aren't important; let's just say that I once again have a use for the Seasucker Talon I originally got for my Subaru BRZ.
The Seasucker Bike Rack, carrying a fetching Lynskey Ti Hardtail
There's some question about how best to help others. Some complain that consumer purchases are inappropriate at a time when so many are struggling. I've always been troubled by this position. In an exchange of money for goods and services, both parties receive value. When giving money without any good or service in exchange, only one party receives value. The economy suffers.
Imagine being a craftsman at a time like this. A skilled craftsman; perhaps a frame builder. Given the choice of spending a few $K for a frame or giving away a few $K, what message does it send to the frame builder to opt for the latter? That you value receiving nothing higher than receiving one of his frames. The food you put in one person's mouth in exchange for nothing comes out of the mouth of the craftsman.
For that reason I'm partial to splurging on consumer purchases rather than giving to charity. Now I'm not in the market for a custom frame, but the reasoning above holds true for other purchases as well. For the last many years my dealer of choice has been Merlin. I think Max turned me onto them when they were selling groupsets for half the price of Competitive Cyclist. My first big purchase was my Yeti SB66c
Still the best mountain bike ever made
There have been a couple more bikes since, but I think at this point I'm all biked out. Well, I wouldn't be except fortunately for my wallet this Pivot Mach 6 isn't available in XL.
Probably the second best mountain bike ever made
That said, Max reminded me that SRAM recently released Force eTap. I've got red eTap on my Litespeed, and I'm a fan. The TiCycles has Di2, of which I'm not a fan. Other bikes still have, shudder, mechanical groupsets.
I won't commit yet, but I'm thinking my next economic stimulus might just be one or two Force eTap groupsets. Whether in 1x or 2x variety depends on whether I can get over 20MPH on my favorite segment before the purchase occurs.
Last post was 29 April 2019. If I get this in I can kill another hour of coronavirus down-time and beat the year mark.
Don't be Grevil.
And last new bike was the Focus Paralane, more than 18 months ago now. That may be a record for me. (Last new bike if you don't count the Litespeed, which I built with a gifted frameset (thanks, Sam) and Di2 group from the original Focus Cayo Evo.
The collection
With some of the collection sold off and other parts donated, although there is still an obnoxiously large number of bikes in my basement, I am down to the following near-daily riders:
Focus Izalco Max Disc. This has proved to be the perfect smooth-surface road bike and even handles packed gravel with aplomb. Best recent ride is 180 miles in from Cumberland on the towpath, though that was a while ago now.
Focus Paralane. This was supposed to be a gravel bike but has become the favored daily driver. It rides really nicely and handles 35mm tires, perfect for the urban commute.
Salsa Colossal Ti. This was my first crack at an all-road bike. With 30mm tire clearance, it is not up to par for modern expectations, but it does ride really nicely on varied surfaces and lets me run 75 pounds of pressure. I have wanted to sell, but there isn't the market for a lovely titanium frameset that I think there should be - Lynsky's constant sales surely aren't helping! - so I keep it as a backup. This may take up residence in Sam's garage if he'll permit it.
Specialized Fatboy. Can't believe we never blogged these, but one day while window-shopping in Durango CO I came across a "end of quick release" sale on fatbikes and bought three. Sam has one, P__ and I have the others. It's loads of fun for winter commuting. I still want to rebuild it with drop bars.
The Gitane. This is a Bianchi brand now, and just a cheap steel frameset with horizontal ends for the rear wheel. I have it built with a single speed, cantilever brakes, front basket, Brooks saddle, and those funky bars Velo-Orange sells. I don't love it but it does work for groceries and c. and it reliably gets nods of approvals riding around town. I think it looks kind of Euro, et je pense que c'est bien.
The Litespeed. This is the C1R built with a hodge-podge of Ultegra Di2 parts and a Force 1x crank, for 1x11 speed gearing. Well, I haven't actually ridden this yet, but I mean to soon.*
Before you criticize, note that I don't really drive a car. So na-na-na. Though I am the one who noted a while back that n+1 may actually NOT be the right number of bikes.
The search
Anyway, I'm looking for a new bike. A full on gravel bike. This is what both the Salsa and the Paralane were intended to be, but at 30mm and 35mm tires respectively, neither clearing 650b at much larger, neither of those fits the bill for truly loose dirt, mud, or single-track riding.
Full on gravel has a few sub-segments:
Nutty over-the top bike-packing with braze-ons for 5 or more cages (or other things). Like this one from Mason Bikes (UK). Somebody, maybe Mason, coined the name "Continent Crusher" for these bikes. Sounds cool. Maybe one day I will crush a continent. That will have to be n+2 for me, however.
That mudguard is structural, which helps for supporting a saggy load.
Steel or perhaps titanium heavy duty rigs. These are the kind of bikes Surly produces, which nobody would mistake for lightweight or fast but which can be thrown (literally) in the back of a pickup and look none the worse for it. The picture is the Surly Straggler. Marin's Nicasio and All City's Gorilla Monsoon fit here too. These are of the hard-tail-mountain-frameset-with-drop-bars-variety. What I love about these is that they can credibly claim to have been doing gravel long before anybody thought the thing was cool.
One of the cooler tag-lines in the market: "Crushing gravel since 1976."
Aggressive road-geometry gravel race bikes. These bikes advertise themselves for gravel racing, with an eye to 200-mile or less single pushes. 3T invented this sub-segment with the Exploro.
I have admired the aggressive road geometry wide tire sub-segment the most. That segment is increasingly competitive, with the original - the 3T Exploro; the OPEN line-up; some small local brands - e.g., Rodeo Labs; as well as offerings from an increasing number of the grand tour brands.
One thing this road geometry crowd offers is a fit that matches the Focus Izalco in my collection (stack - 584, reach - 405, currently 2cm of spacers). It is rare to find an off-road capable bike with a reach dimension greater than 400mm, but all of the below have it, and though stack is a little greater than a pure road machine one can slam the stem and get an aggressive sit.
3T Exploro
3T created this sub-segment with the Exploro.
This is the Team Force 1 eTap offering with a mountain RD and 11-50 cassette.
3T has some relationship with Gerard Vroomen, the guy who designed Cervelos back in the day and invented that teardrop bar shape that revolutionized aero-bikes. (Maybe he owns the company?) I have a soft spot for Vroomen creations - my most competitive riding was on a Cervelo P2 - and like the look of that 3T. In addition to the Exploro, 3T's Strada - an aero road bike made for comfortable tire sizes - is one of the cooler bikes on the market.
Despite its category leader status, the 3T Exploro prices in the range of not insane at the top end. The eTap 1x12 build, which includes a massive range cassette (11-50) and a Sram Eagle XX1 RD, lists at $5800. It also clears larger tires than most, up to 54mm.
Cervelo Aspero
Cervelo landed with this offering in 2019.
Love that olive paint scheme.
It follows in the 3T Exploro tradition of a go-fast bike that happens to handle rough roads. Reports are that it may be a touch harsh on the backside - but isn't that what 50mm tires are for? Like every major brand offering, Cervelo offers a number of build options, but unlike Burger King you get what they offer and not what you want. So if you want 650b wheels, you buy Sram eTap or Shimano GRX, but if you want GRX 2x11 or Sram Apex you get 700c wheels.
To Cervelo's credit the top end - Force AXS eTap - comes in at $6000. Not cheap in anybody's book, but for a top spec gravel bike it's in the range of fair, even if it outprices 3T. (I suppose you could run Red AXS eTap, if you were silly.)
This bike is hot. Cervelo dealers are out of two things:
The most attractive model (eTap), and
the better colors (Burgandy, Olive).
This one is possible at a cool $4200 plus sales tax. Not sure anybody not Italian should be selling off-green paint schemes, however.
GRX-1 build with 650b wheelset. Also carbon bars and dropper post.
Italian?
I've never thought of myself as a Pinarello guy any more than I see myself driving a Ferrari.
OTOH, if everybody else is riding a Cervelo, wouldn't this make me unique?
Tagline: "All roads are rideable - and also, quickly." Continent crusher my ass.
Sam and I have had a debate running for years whether it is economical to buy parts and build a bike (rather than buying fully built). The intuition is that builders get lower prices on groups and finishing kit than we do. The data has frequently seemed to suggest that maybe the intuition is right - it is generally easy to find a carbon frame, Ultegra build, for $2500, when the frame itself is $1500 and the parts another $1500 (including wheels, post, saddle, cockpit - and group).
But pricing this out here I find the following at Merlin.
Add in $500 for wheels and tires from Hunt, a saddle, and bar tape. $4000 for a top-spec build?
I haven't looked carefully, but $10 says for another thousand - so $5K
total - I could build the Grevil running with Sram AXS eTap.
Not going to lie - I'm tempted. If I get another post up within the
next year I can say what I ended up with. If anything at all, that is.
Approaching 20 years in the DC area and yet this may be the first time I've done this obvious extension of the normal Beach Drive route.
Beach Drive takes one north through Kensington, Maryland, beyond the beltway and into the suburbs. The easy and normal approach is to ride it to the end and head home, a nice 25-miler from NW DC.
On a longer day one might cut west across Bethesda, connecting with River Road en route to Poolesville. It's a good ride. Not, though, on a weekday morning, when traffic is not pleasant and cars are not respectful. (As well trained as DC drivers are on weekends, they are surly on weekdays. I guess some people are just pissed to be heading to work while I'm out for a ride.)
So for the first time I continued straight from the end of Beach, picking up Dewey to Viers Mill, then Turkey Branch Parkway, connecting to Independence and Parkland in Wheaton Maryland. This is a collection of residential through-streets and school zones that made for empty roads and quiet pedaling. Zooming in on the map shows lots of possibilities for extensions from here. 36 miles or so includes an extra loop around the lollipop head at the far end.
[In truth, I've been on these roads before. There was a gosh-awful 200K permanent from Bethesda that Sam and I did in 2006 on a super hot day. Sam may recall - he was on a cheap Bikes Direct fixie with spokes that kept working loose. Pretty sure that route had us on these same roads, for a while at least.]
I've been ogling the gravel grinder segment for some time, and have even dipped my toes in the water with the Salsa Colossal and the Ritchey Breakaway.
Gravel bikes? Both work well for the purpose but neither ever got my heart racing. Ritchey is now in the hands of another guy named Max out in Oregon somewhere and the Salsa is for sale. (Interested?)
The best of the best
After a bit of development and innovation and experimentation and market testing, one maker - Gerard Vroomen, of both 3T and Open (the same Vroomen who's name is all over the early Cervelos) - seems to have cracked this particular nut wide open. He is selling framesets for road-capable bikes that take full mountain-bike tires.
These are not cheap bikes but appear well worth what the respective companies are asking. I'm just not in the market in that way.
The best of the rest
After these category killers there is a long list of very road capable bikes that take tires up to 42 or even 45 mm. You can't be a major make without one. Salsa was early with its Warbird. There's the Specialized Diverge. Trek, BMC, Cannondale, and the list goes on.
I did a write-up on the options a couple of years ago here. The primary change since then is the major "grand tour" brands getting into the mix.
Salsa Warbird
GT Grade
Specialized Diverge
These are all true "gravel bikes," as distinct from the original in the segment - the cross bike, frequently turned into a gravel bike instead of a cross racing rig by using a standard crankset. Problem with the cross bike is that it rides like a crit bike - quick and a bit squirrelly. I never have loved the feel.
Focus
I was particularly interested in Focus. I ride the supremely perfect Focus Izalco Max Disc in a DA build. The current version has 6cm Williams disc wheels. It is a marvelous bike. The Izalco Max Disc is my second Focus - the lovely Cayo from 2013 was my first. (Unfortunately, after an encounter with a car, that bike is now in the trainer.)
Could I keep the magic of Focus while going to the gravel riding setup?
One good question - is it necessary? I've been riding this Focus Izalco Max with 28mm tires fairly aggressively on the towpath (see number 3 behind the link) in recent weeks. I've even ridden single-track when needed to make a detour. And its pretty fun. One thing, though - it vibrates something fierce. 50+ miles of that and I feel like I've been jack-hammering all day.
Some internet surfing . . .
And it turns out Focus has an offering in the real gravel bike space with the Paralane. Advertising clearance for 35mm tires and long-distance geometry, it is supposed to be a "road plus" offering, equally happy on smooth pavement, chip-seal, gravel roads, rutted dirt, and where needed true muck, sand, or single-track. Or so this video, from the Focus website, suggests:
I like that the guy who dialed him up is named "Max."
Other reviews are very strong, with the 9/10 or 4.5 stars kind of being the norm. The only complaint I read is that 35mm is a skinny tire in this segment. One write-up says 38mm is known by "company insiders" to fit. My assessment, after building mine with 35mm tires, is that the right 38mm might fit at low pressures, but it's probably not a daily use option.
Focus bikes also seem to underprice the competition a bit. The advertised price for the Ultegra build is $3500. That compares to $3800 for Trek's Checkpoint; $4000 for the Specialized Diverge; and $4300 for the Salsa Warbird, all with similar builds. (Cannondale's Slate and GT's Grade are priced comparably to the Focus at $3500, and I've just seen the Grade Ultegra on Jenson USA for $2200. So there are other deals out there to be found.)
Then I found the 2018 Paralane Ultegra for $2800 new from an eBay merchant, made an offer, and got it shipped to my door for $2600 total. While it's not hard to get deals on a bike, to be well below $3000 for a top end frameset with Ultegra build is pretty sweet, I think.
Here it is
The Focus Paralane
This one in XL (58cm).
General
The glossy black with white graphics frameset is a little gauche in my opinion. (Sam also bought one and has the 2017 black-on-black. Lucky!)
Double WB bosses (an oversight or just a bad choice - any bike made for going long should have the under-the-downtube bosses installed).
The Paralane comes with fenders and built-in-mounts, presumably a lesson from the success of Specialized's Diverge; they would fit with 32s mounted but not likely with larger.
The Paralane is advertised to clear 35mm tires and these Panaracer Gravelking SK, the gold standard in gravel tires, do fit well at 35mm. (Photos are not all unambiguous, but I can attest to 5mm of clearance in every direction.)
The frame was apparently made in Taiwan (if the sticker is accurate). It is a lovely carbon lay-up with beefy joints. That front end looks a lot like the front end on the Cayo. I have not studied this, but I have read about the Cayo in its disc brake version being a choice for early gravel races. This makes me wonder if the Paralane is just the offspring of the Cayo.
The graphics are not pretty. Focus may build perfect bikes, but listing a minimum wage position for a graphic artist would serve them well. (I was glad that the frame stickers were all easily removable.)
Wheels
The Paralane came with Mavic Aksium tubeless-compatible wheels. I hate Mavic on principle, but a few things to note here:
These Aksiums are understated, something Mavic has never accomplished in the past - all the more so because the yellow trim strip on the hub is just a sticker that I removed;
These avoid those gosh-awful hyper-bladed spokes that Mavic invented and nobody thought worth imitating;
These feel remarkably light for a builder-spec wheelset (although I was in too much of a hurry to weigh them);
Although Mavic was late to the wide-rim game, these have an internal width >19mm (labeled at 20, but its not quite that wide); and
Mavic has figured out how to make its rims easy to mount. Swapping tires was a breeze.
So I'm not at all unhappy with the wheels.
Tires
Bike came built with Continental 28mm tires. Those are now on the Salsa for resale with that bike. (Wanna buy it?)
As you can see in the pictures, I have Panaracer Gravelking SK tires in 35mm mounted. And they are *beautiful.*
I am pretty sure this Panaracer Gravelking is just a Compass Steilacoom with a different tread pattern. Or maybe that should be written the opposite way - Panaracer does make Compass tires, after all. I got mine for $40 per tire, an incredible price for what may be the most praised rough road tire sold.
Group
Full Ultegra R8020 group with hydraulic disc brakes, 160mm rotors.
Awesome.
But one thing: a gravel bike makes so much sense with a 1x. I love the Ultegra road groups, but it will be no more than 3 years before I rebuild this, sorry to say.
Finishing Kit
Focus used to use its proprietary branded stem and seatpost. This bike came with BBB stem and post, but they look nearly identical to the ones on the Izalco Max - which suggests to me BBB was always building for Focus, but is now being allowed to keep its brand on the products. That seatpost has the built in shock absorption feature just like on the Izalco Max - not as effective as the perfect Specialized CG-R, but more comfy than most, and a visually elegant design.
Handlebars are also BBB. That's a 25.4 mm seatpost, keeping with the common approach of skinny posts for riding comfort. (Cannondale does this too on its Synapse.)
I changed the saddle for this Brooks Cambium that I had on the Salsa. I think it looks good, although it adds maybe 100gms over the build-spec. Prologo. That saddle is going out with the Salsa. (Did I say it's for sale?)
My eggbeater Candy C pedals and rear lamp. Waiting for Elite WB cages in orange and I have Camelbak orange bottles - I think the black with orange accents look may work for a while. It will also match my Specialized helmet.
The Ride
Why are all the pictures taken inside, you ask - and in the middle of September, no less?
It's been a busy week at work and I'm waiting for the merchant to send me a replacement faceplate bolt. So the review will have to wait for the next post. I hope to be able to report some legit flogging the next time I write.
