My gravel ride is a Specialized Diverge. It’s got a little plastic flex thingy in the seat stem, but that’s it. I have people telling me front shock/suspension doesn’t help much because it doesn’t often activate on flat gravel trail. Money’s in the rear suspension, and wide, supple tires, so they say. Wondering what other experienced riders think.
I found that decent tyres made the biggest difference in how a bike rides and feels on gravel/fire roads etc. On my tripster I often ran Compass pass Barlow tyres, specifically the ultralight in tubeless at a pressure of 35 psi. Absolutely wonderful in suppleness over washboard surfaces and able to deform over small objects, quite expensive but so worth it. If I was venturing way out into the Galloway hills for a long 100mile+ ride on ”off piste” stuff then I’d tend to favour the standard casing as it’s no fun dealing with torn sidewalls in the middle of nowhere.
The tyre casing/tpi count and rubber compound along with running at low pressure for decreased rolling resistance can transform a bike into an absolute joy to ride, thankfully the dogma that persevered for years in the industry with “high pressure/stiff sidewalls/chunky tread” tyre designs has been shown to be misguided in theory and use. Rene Herse of compass tyres has my backing.
If you have the time then perhaps have a browse through of the mega thread I started on stw (bike mag/forum website) regarding my Tripster and how it evolved from its initial drop bar gravel bike status to how it ended up into a carbon jones bar, shimano xtr drivetrain, middleburn cranks, Chris king rear hub son-t dynamo front with internal routing for headset usb charge port + wide rims etc….. etc. I basically rode it as it came standard for a while then decided to go all out and keep the frame but build it back up into the perfect bike for my needs at the time, I got a bit carried away
Tripster thread on stw forum here,
How it originally looked on the first day, fresh from the box and built up
Totally bare frame rebuild to my choice of parts and every possible component titanium and motorsport quality titanium bolts fitted to everything. Mudguards because it rains a lot in Scotland and I was never a fair weather cyclist.
With compass pass Barlow extralight tyres
Gratuitous shot of the lovely middleburn crankset and xtr drivetrain, I’ve ran middleburn cranks on every mtb/road bike since the mid 90’s.
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