My “road” bike

Ok, its an “all-types-of-road bike” really – for all the riding I do on different types of roads around here plus some trail. So many new names for this type of bike that it’s kinda silly. Reinventing what’s already been done, again. Talk to Bruce Gordon, this style of bike’s been around for decades. Tom Ritchey and others rode road bikes on dirt before there were mountain bikes. Hell, look at the first Tour riders! So I’m not a huge fan of the newly coined “Gravel Grinder “and “Monstercross” monikers. I prefer Rivendell’s “All-rounder” for the bike they used to make, and that I lusted over, since that’s pretty much what this type of bike does – everything. I made it to fit 41’s but it can also fit 45’s.

It has a compact road crankset (36/46), 68mm bottom bracket shell, s-bend chainstays with dimples for tire clearance, and 425mm chainstay length. The angles are pretty standard for a more touring-oriented frame (or older cyclocross race bikes) at 72/73 (head tube/seat tube) and the fork is pretty regular for a cross fork – 395 axle to crown with 48mm offset. I made the head tube long (170) to put my bars nearly level with the seat to help my aging back. I’m testing out some different forks on this so that’s why the mismatched disc/mini-moto setup, though it makes for good stopping AND good modulation for dismounts with this arrangement. I have a relatively small BB drop of 60mm which translates to a somewhat high BB on it at 11.4″ (290mm) using 40mm tires. I think the trend of lower BB’s in cross is…not good. It says something about the race courses if you can get away with 70 plus mm of BB drop. But hey, I’m a mountain biker, what do you expect me to say?

Other stuff I forgot to add: It’s around a 54cm seat tube, 58.5 top tube, 90 stem, Retroshift 9-spd, tubeless Clement X’Plors on Stan’s 340 wheels with a mix of Stan’s and Slime (needed the Slime to get the Clements to stay aired), FSA Energy Cross MegaExo cranks, Salsa Cowbell 2 bars, Shimano CX-70 front der, Dura Ace rear der, Time Atac pedals, weight with no carbon parts is 21+ (the horror). With a non-disc fork it would be at least 1/2lb lighter. That fork is a tank!