New Bike Gear Out And Due Out...

[ScotRoutes]

I've been advocating good quality, short travel, bikepacking forks for a few years. Nice to see the industry catching up.

[Bearbonesnorm]

I've been advocating good quality, short travel, bikepacking forks for a few years. Nice to see the industry catching up.

Are they simply not just another step towards reinventing the mountain bike via the Gravel bike?

[Lazarus]

Cannot see any weight reference for them but i bet its pretty weighty for the travel - ie you could probably just fit some SIDs for the same weight and price
Also a redshift stem gves you up to 20 mm at less weight and cost
Lauf
Finally if you need suspension on your drop bar bike you are either on the wrong bike or the wrong route
YMMV

[ScotRoutes]

I've been advocating good quality, short travel, bikepacking forks for a few years. Nice to see the industry catching up.

Are they simply not just another step towards reinventing the mountain bike via the Gravel bike?

I wrote "bikepacking" and you read "Gravel bike". Have they been getting at you?

[fatbikephil]

Come back Marzzocchi XCR all is forgiven....

I suspect a lot of people running a 130 stem which is set 4" below the seat height on their grovel bike will buy those thinking it will solve their wrist problems...

[Bearbonesnorm]

I wrote "bikepacking" and you read "Gravel bike". Have they been getting at you?

Will the axle to crown length not be too short for anything other than a gravel bike though?

[BigdummySteve]

Finally if you need suspension on your drop bar bike you are either on the wrong bike or the wrong route
YMMV

I’ll take the bait it depends….if you have drops because they look bang on gravelw@nker trendy and if those drops are narrow and set low then then a short travel suspension fork is not going to add much beyond what a redshift stem might. Now if you go to the other extreme you have a mountain bike which just happens to have the correct geometry to run off-road sized drops set at roughly the same height as a flat bar, in that scenario your 100mm travel fork makes the same sense as in any other hard tail, you just have more places to put your hands to stop them going numb.
I initially swapped to drops due to hands which I appear to have permanently damaged on my jogle, on a flat bar often they would go completely numb after 20 miles.

The rest of the range looks brilliant, the 10-44, twelve speed cassette and matching mech would be perfectly matched with skinnier wheels, Eagle is great but the gaps can be a bit big when your on the road or fast gravel tracks and finally an AXS dropper which can fit 27.2mm frames. Personally I think the group is a great idea, would be even better if you could put a double chainring up front. I’d also like to know if you could run that cassette on an Eagle mech.

[ScotRoutes]

I wrote "bikepacking" and you read "Gravel bike". Have they been getting at you?

Will the axle to crown length not be too short for anything other than a gravel bike though?

Would that be because other bikes are designed around longer travel forks?

Yeah, a short-travel hardtail is what I'm getting at. No need for 100+ mm of suspension for many routes and journeys. If the right forks were available, a custom frame might be a thing (unless one of the big guys came on board; Surly etc).

[fatbikephil]

But... if you are going to take the hit on weight and expense of suspension, aren't you better getting enough travel to make a real difference? Based on memories of an SC heckler, 4" at each end allowed you to tackle most things and still not be riding a pogo stick; even with real springs.

[BigdummySteve]

I’d agree, 100mm forks (Fox Factory teralogic) are prefect in the Fargo, I assume that these short travel forks can fit a non-suspension corrected frame.

[Lazarus]

My views on Monster cross are well known* but i was not actually meaning to troll/discuss them I just meant a normal cross bike.
I assume a monster cross would either be rigid or have proper MTB forks like your bike given there is no weight penalty for more travel.
Secondly if you want a bit of give on a rigid cross bike wont you just get the stem as its £700 cheaper and has no weight penalty?
* I have tried to STFU about this as it was clearly annoying folk and it was not my intention here [ sorry]

[Bearbonesnorm]

Yeah, a short-travel hardtail is what I'm getting at. No need for 100+ mm of suspension for many routes and journeys.

Aye which kind of brings me back to the point about reinventing the mountain bike by stealth

I just can't help but think that 94.7% of people who want suspension, wide tyres, even wider bars, mountain bike gearing and a dropper on their gravel bike would be served much better by some sort of mountain bike. To argue otherwise smacks of vanity and self-denial

[BigdummySteve]

Not annoying at all, I can imagine if you if you fitted all this stuff to a gravel bike it would be rather nice as a second bike for rambling about on. A lot of the time I’m over biked when out on veloviewer missions, something a bit lighter and faster yet still capable of a little rough stuff would be lovely. Admittedly this does also sound like a lot of other considerably bikes as well.

[Boab]

Cannot see any weight reference for them but i bet its pretty weighty for the travel

From Cycling Tips...

Actual weight for a 30 mm-travel Rudy Ultimate XPLR is 1,215 g with a 185 mm-long steerer — about 150 g lighter than the first-generation Fox AX, and more than 200 g lighter than MRP’s second-generation Baxter

[Lazarus]

thanks

[Boab]

As a further weight comparison, a Lauf Grit SL is 850 g; measured with 210mm steerer and Lauf axle.

[Boab]

Adidas "The Gravel Cycling Shoe"... I like the cuff, that's about it.

[ScotRoutes]

WANT!!!

Also available in boring black
https://www.adidas.co.uk/the-gravel-cyc ... Z5446.html

[Alpinum]

Adidas "The Bikepacking Shoe"... I like the cuff, that's about it.

Corrected it for you.

I'm really enjoying this XPLR stuff.
The travel of the fork is pretty much there where the travel of the first couple of mtb suspension forks were. A couple of years later we thought 80 mm (tuned Judy DH, travelled from 72 to 80 mm) was huge. Soon the Bomber was huge with 100 mm. A couple of years later we thought the 150 mm of the first Boxxer was gargantuous. Another couple of years later we were going gung ho on 200 mm travel forks. So much for the part (DH racing) of the sport that feeds into suspension development of mountainbikes.

See what Scott did? The new racebred XC full susser has 120 mm front and rear.
My short travel trail bike 130/120 mm.
All those oh-so different bike categories have grown travel wise.

Will the gr@vel bike, sorry, bikepacking bike go through a similar development? Will it be normal in 10 years to find suspension gr@vel bikes in shops with 50 - 80 mm travel? I can well imagine.

Not because it's needed, but because it can be done. The hungry baby needs feeding after all.

[Bearbonesnorm]

Not sure they'll be up to much walking and at £160

[Cheeky Monkey]

The early 80s climbing scene has called and they want their colour pallete back from Adidas.

Gopping

[ScotRoutes]

That sole would be fine for the overwhelming majority of my gravel rides. But then I'm not pretending that my gravel bike is a mountain bike

MTB XC shoes don't have much better tread than that either.

Can't see a problem with the colour.

[UnderTheRadars]

*swoons*


quite interested in those shoes, in black of course, if they did a waterproof version I’d be very interested

[techno]

The inverse surly corner bar. a flat bar for your drop bar bike:
https://www.curvecycling.com.au/collect ... mlaw-bar-1

The MTBification of gravel bikes continues.

[ledburner]

The inverse surly corner bar. a flat bar for your drop bar bike:
https://www.curvecycling.com.au/collect ... mlaw-bar-1

The MTBification of gravel bikes continues.

I might just run my pair goofy
and be.. left field & Rad and run it flipped over..


I just need to wait for the gravel flat bar brifters to come to market.. . ...

So they bought a container of Mtb bars with the graphic upside down.