Help the [middle] aged...

[mountainbaker]

..solve their life crisis


http://road.cc/content/tech-news/219528 ... e-unveiled

[Bearbonesnorm]

Furthermore, the road bike gear ratio preserves the joy of speed and pedaling efficiency even through intermediate cross-country paths and jumps

Really?

Furthermore, the road bike gear ratio removes the fun and efficiency especially when riding through intermediate cross-country paths and jumps.

Surely?

[mountainbaker]

Yeah, weird, the bike is so full of trends i'm surprised it doesn't have a 1.18 pinion gearbox AND a Rohloff!

[ZeroDarkBivi]

No dropper post or electric motor? Way off-trend...

Only a matter of time before somebody did this, but other than getting publicity for a little known brand, what's the point? The Canondale Slate is probably a better concept, if they had just given it a bit more tyre clearance.

Put it on the scales, laugh, walk away.

[ScotRoutes]

Short travel suspension forks though.....

[Bearbonesnorm]

The thing that I really struggle with is road gearing on an 'off-road' bike ... you see enough people gurning and straining on smooth tarmac, so what's going to happen if they venture off-road? Obviously, I am assuming this bike and to be honest, most other gravel / adventure bikes are ... oh hang on. I was going to write 'are designed to go off-road' but given the drivetrains, that should probably be, 'are made to look like they'll work off-road'

[fatbikephil]

Rear suspension? puhleeease!

Looks quite cool but I suspect the back end will move as much sideways as up and down....

[Gari]

Same thoughts as everyone else. I will concede I think it's a nice looker though.

[Ian]

I like it
Bet it'd be a quick as fook in the right hands.

Edit: Forget the road/ off road marketing blurb - it's a gravel bike for proper hardcore gravel - the chunky "gravel" that populates parts of Mid Wales.

[TheBrownDog]

I'm with Ian. I think it's a looker and an inevitable consequence of the endlessly blurring lines that we've tried to place between mountain biking and road cycling. I have no idea how the suspension on that puppy would perform, but if its as good as it looks, in the right hands, Im sure it would tear me and my 5-inch travel enduro horse-drawn sledge a brand new shiny butt hole.

[Bearbonesnorm]

Forget the road/ off road marketing blurb - it's a gravel bike for proper hardcore gravel - the chunky "gravel" that populates parts of Mid Wales.

I too actually quite like it and as you say, it'd be quite a weapon on man-size gravel ... but the gearing. Why build a chassis with increased off-road capability and then fit that to it? Me no understand.

[Ian]

Just get bigger legs
I ran 34/50 for a while, and once you were in the 50t ring, you didn't half get some speed up (as Zippy and Scattamah will testify when I rode the 2016 winter event with them).

[Dave Barter]

Orange is not right for us oldies.

[RIP]

Nah Dave, we oldies need all the Vitamin C we can get. Keeps those colds at bay after a subzero night in the woods.

Black is the new orange.

My Orange P7 is also orange so I'm doubly stuffed

[Bearbonesnorm]

Just get bigger legs

Ah, so the silly big ring's a penis waving attachment

With your fitness Ian, it probably does begin to mae a little more sense but I still can't get past the conflict between chassis and drivetrain - seems a mis-match.

[Pirahna]

What's wrong with the gearing? I see that as a glorified crosser and fitting a compact to CX bike is the norm these days although with a smaller outer. What would you people have done in the good old days before compacts were invented? You ran either a 38 or 39 inner depending if you had a Shimano or Campaq chainset. Rear blocks were a max 26.

[Bearbonesnorm]

What's wrong with the gearing?

We've decided that it depends who's legs you have

I'm fairly convinced that not many folk are ever really going to use a 50t front ring off-road and if you're not going to spend a considerable amount of time off-road, why bother with the complexity / cost of suspension?

[psling]

With your fitness Ian, it probably does begin to mae a little more sense but I still can't get past the conflict between chassis and drivetrain - seems a mis-match.

Bikes have been a mis-match for a while now. Soft tails have been offered for a couple of decades, 29ers with drop bars a la Singular, gravel bikes joining cross bikes as off-road capable road bikes; all these have been offered as complete bikes. Then you got the frankenbikes, home modifications. Suspension seat posts (remember the Thudbuster), all sorts of handlebar variations, mix & match wheel sizes, even weird gearing!

That bike up there with it's offered gearing would appear to be aimed at nothing more than a mix of tarmac and smooth gravel though the first thing you'd want to do is lock out the rear suspension surely!?! The forks look interesting though (put me in mind of the old Maverick forks).

[voodoo_simon]

Double makes sense to me, it's not difficult to spin a 50 on the road and then use the 36/34 for the of road.

Have tested the Cannondale Slate and we all agreed the double was a better option than the more expensive single ring version. It was easy enough to spin out the single bicycle option whilst on the road. Guess you have to test these things before commenting

Reminds me of my old Giant Anthem from ten years ago but with drops.

Those forks are nice and as yet, not released

[Bearbonesnorm]

That bike up there with it's offered gearing would appear to be aimed at nothing more than a mix of tarmac and smooth gravel though the first thing you'd want to do is lock out the rear suspension surely!?!

Exactly ... which means there's very little point to the suspension. Surely fitting it with a 36 x 11/42 or maybe a 28/38 up front would make it more useable for the majority of people more of the time?

I'm starting to think that I'm not understanding who the intended market is?

Guess you have to test these things before commenting

I've never nailed my bollocks to a table but I'm fairly sure I don't want to.

34

Are we sure the cassette's that big? - looks smaller than 34 in the pic.

[voodoo_simon]

That bike up there with it's offered gearing would appear to be aimed at nothing more than a mix of tarmac and smooth gravel though the first thing you'd want to do is lock out the rear suspension surely!?!

Exactly ... which means there's very little point to the suspension. Surely fitting it with a 36 x 11/42 or maybe a 28/38 up front would make it more useable for the majority of people more of the time?

I'm starting to think that I'm not understanding who the intended market is?

Guess you have to test these things before commenting

I've never nailed my bollocks to a table but I'm fairly sure I don't want to.

34

Are we sure the cassette's that big? - looks smaller than 34 in the pic.

34 up front

Which does make me think why didn't they expand the rear cassette to something bigger, which probably makes my argument void

The fork has a lock out to it

[ScotRoutes]

Orange is not right for us oldies.

Feck you!

Laggan1 by Colin Cadden, on Flickr

[GregMay]

Reminds me of my old Giant Anthem from ten years ago but with drops.

Similar. Nice bike, rode well, excellent suspension performance. Little wheels though.

[Dave Barter]

Orange is not right for us oldies.

Feck you!

Laggan1 by Colin Cadden, on Flickr

I am 100% vindicated as wheels off the ground is NOT oldie. Get back to your Hungry Caterpillar books

[jameso]

Agreed, daft gearing for the tyre and sus combo. But it's a great show bike - even road.cc hadn't heard of Apro before .. and they must walk past that big Apro stand every year there