Sonder Broken Road Owners - Whatcha Reckon?

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The Cumbrian
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Sonder Broken Road Owners - Whatcha Reckon?

Post by The Cumbrian »

What do Broken Road owners think of them? If my finances survive Covid 19, they're in my top two bikes, fitted with Jones bars and rigid forks.
I have a few questions too:
What are the biggest 29er tyres that can fit front and rear?
How much vertical clearance is there?
If you've got rigid forks, what type have you got?
Is it possible to get the handlebars high without a riser stem?
Are you running 1x or 2x?

Cheers, Michael.
“I want to see the wild country again before I die, and the Mountains..."
Bilbo Baggins.
ssnowman
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Re: Sonder Broken Road Owners - Whatcha Reckon?

Post by ssnowman »

The Cumbrian wrote: Thu Jun 11, 2020 6:34 pm What do Broken Road owners think of them? If my finances survive Covid 19, they're in my top two bikes, fitted with Jones bars and rigid forks.
I have a few questions too:
What are the biggest 29er tyres that can fit front and rear?
How much vertical clearance is there?
If you've got rigid forks, what type have you got?
Is it possible to get the handlebars high without a riser stem?
Are you running 1x or 2x?

Cheers, Michael.
I have the Jones bars, also a rigid carbon fork, which I bought on eBay from China for £100 which weighs in at c. 650g.

Running GX Eagle with 30t front ring which gives about 17.4 gear inches. Top end does suffer on road though with this gearing.

Currently running stock 27.5 plus tyres at 2.8" and there's still lots of clearance.

It's a brilliant bike. I did lots of research before I bought and just kept coming back to this.
May satan walk with you
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Piemonster
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Re: Sonder Broken Road Owners - Whatcha Reckon?

Post by Piemonster »

I did pretty much exactly the same as ssnowman

Jones bars, rigid carbon forks, ages looking just to come back to this. I’m running 2x which needed some thinking to get the cable to work, ended up with a problem solver cable stop.

Very happy with mine (Mk1), rear is up to around 29x2.6 iirc. Although I much prefer it as 27.5x2.8.

I’ve recently changed things about a bit for some planned outings, carbon bars, Rebas, dropper post.

Imageimage uploading

Needs some tidying up but rides lovely. Even though a bolt fell off just after this photo!
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trob6
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Re: Sonder Broken Road Owners - Whatcha Reckon?

Post by trob6 »

Hello Micheal

I tested one from Alpkit in Hathersage and had both sets of wheels, 650b plus and 29er, tried both on the same loop and found the 650b to roll better and be more comfortable.

They built me one with forks I supplied (Travers Prong), brakes, seatpost (carbon) and saddle, they just take the price of the bits you don't want off.

I took all the parts up to HQ on build day.

650b plus 2.8 tyres have tons of clearance.

I have about 40mm of steerer before my stem which get the bars level with the seat and have the Alpkit confusius bars.

1x gears 32t chainring, goes like stink and can get up any hills my legs can.

I have had trouble with the dub bb, first one died at 940 miles which they replaced, second one is on the way out after another 500 miles. I spoke to the local bike shop and they suggested it could be the bb shell needs facing. I wanted some hope cranks anyway so got the hope bb as well, bike shop faced the shell and the drive side was quite a way off which explains the dub not lasting very long. The cranks spindle on the that came with the bike have quite a groove worn into them now (sram gx) so I have sent them back along with the second bb to Sonder and assume they will replace them.
Upshot is ask them to face the shell for you on build day or take it to your local bike shop.
I would recommend going for the gx spec gears.

I waited until they had a discount weekend and ordered it then and all it it cost me £2019 which I think is pretty good value.

The bike is really comfy to ride in the long term, all day riding is a pleasure on it.

Tim.
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Chrisps
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Re: Sonder Broken Road Owners - Whatcha Reckon?

Post by Chrisps »

I've got an XL Broken Road that is 2 years old now, but I believe still the most recent version. Mine was slightly tweaked for me by Neil to be corrected for 120mm forks, have a fractionally steeper ST angle and extra mount holes added. The best of these additions is definitely the top tube water bottle mount (see picture below).

For long legged people, the stack height is great. Means that I can run my 40mm rise bars with a normal stem (7deg/100mm), rather than a stupid long stem (35deg/90mm) that I normally need to use.

When you say vertical clearance, I presume you mean for saddle bags? I use a 13L Alpkit Koala on an exorail with a 150mm PNW dropper and I can slam it without the bag hitting the wheel. I have 35" legs.

I find it is quite a flexible bike. I have had it setup with 29x2.6 on Halo Vapour 35s (Nobby Nics - rather draggy) with a lot of clearance spare, 2.4 minions and currently have it setup with 2.2 Mezcals on my trusty Hope Tech XC rims.

I use Eagle GX 10-50 which I find is a good gear range for everything from winter road stuff to my commute up an extremely step 300m high escarpment on a mix of road and rocky tracks.

For bikepacking, the front triangle is massive... to the point that a custom Alpkit bag is a bit saggy really. It could do with more stiffening.

For general local biking and XC, its good, with snappy acceleration, although I would say that it feels its weight... i.e. it isn't a rocket ship like some bikes I have ridden, but it isn't heavy either and feels efficient

Like others, I have had Jones HG2.5 loop bars on it, but just couldn't get comfy for some reason - made my back really sore. Which is weird, as they are great on my Krampus.

One thing I have found is that bikepacking on rocky paths, being a hardtail, it gets really quite tiring. Mainly because you are constantly having to shift weight, getting your momentum sapped, etc. This doesn't happen on my Krampus with 3" tyres on 50mm rims. Unfortunately that tyre size won't fit in the back of a Broken Road, hence I still have the Krampus. It also obviously doesn't happen bikepacking on a suspension bicycle either.

I can't comment on whether the Ti dampens trail buzz. I honestly can't tell and suspect that 2.6 tyres will do more than metal ever will.

Build quality is excellent, bar a cockup with a bottle mount / cable routing due to my additional mount points. I take it down the local downhill trails (no jumps, but some little drops and lots of chunder. I have never had any reason to question its robustness.

I took a demo one with 650b+ out in the Lakes before buying it, and that was an absolute hoot on really rocky technical trails. I keep toying with the idea of investing in some cheap 650b wheels to give it another go.

On trails, I find that it is very easy to throw around and is also perfectly precise. Being tall, I have never really found 29ers to be vague though - I guess the wheel size suits the frame size better

For negatives: for months, the movable drop outs kept moving of their own accord. Got really annoying until I added some loctight. They are fine now (finally). I personally don't like the rear thru-axle. It only has a 6mm hex hole, which means that you risk ragging it compared to the beefier 8mm hole on Banshee axles. I also find you have to torque the axle a lot to stop it coming loose.

Overall, its easily my most used bike out of my Krampus and full sus bicycle, but I am still glad I have those other 2 bikes for specific uses.

ImageSonder Broken Road by chrisp455, on Flickr
wriggles
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Re: Sonder Broken Road Owners - Whatcha Reckon?

Post by wriggles »

I have an XL that is 18 months old. I would have got one a lot earlier if I had known that they take 29 x 2.6, which came from a chat with Richpips. Mine was built from frame up. Spec is:

Fox 34 set to 110mm
29er Hope Pro4/Kinlin XL29 rims (30mm internal). Ardents 2.25 rear 2.4 front.
Hope brakes.
1 x 10 drive train 11-46 Sunrace cassette, XTR shifter, XT M8000 rear mech, M785 none boost chainset (works fine with Boost hub), 30t Hope NW ring. At some point will try Shimano 1 x 12.
Thomson inline seatpost & 70mm stem. Easton 711 bars.

I run my bars quite high and have 30mm of spacers fitted. The BR has quite a long headtube (XL=160mm?) which I like.

Love the bike. I think its plain guage Ti, so more on the sturdy side than other Ti bikes I have had, but still rides very nicely.

Sorry for crap pic - trying out a new (to me) frame bag

Broken road.jpg
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Piemonster
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Re: Sonder Broken Road Owners - Whatcha Reckon?

Post by Piemonster »

Chrisps

How have you fitted that water bottle?
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Escape Goat
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Re: Sonder Broken Road Owners - Whatcha Reckon?

Post by Escape Goat »

I put 29 x 3 in the other week and it's tight, but didn't ride it. 2.6 was going to go on it, but I ended up sticking with 2.4. Got some 650 x 2.8 tyres waiting for wheels to go on as well as the 29s.
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Chrisps
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Re: Sonder Broken Road Owners - Whatcha Reckon?

Post by Chrisps »

Piemonster wrote: Sat Jun 13, 2020 12:39 pm Chrisps

How have you fitted that water bottle?
I got Neil from Sonder to put bottle bosses on the top of the frame! That said, on other bikes I have used some gorilla clips (https://bearbonesbikepacking.co.uk/shop ... rilla-clip) in the same location. Works fine as long as you get the cable ties really, really, really tight to stop slippage. On round tubes, like a steel bike, jubilee clips would do the job too
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Piemonster
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Re: Sonder Broken Road Owners - Whatcha Reckon?

Post by Piemonster »

Escape Goat wrote: Sat Jun 13, 2020 1:05 pm I put 29 x 3 in the other week and it's tight, but didn't ride it. 2.6 was going to go on it, but I ended up sticking with 2.4. Got some 650 x 2.8 tyres waiting for wheels to go on as well as the 29s.
Interesting, would you think 29x2.8 would be a reasonable fit?
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Re: Sonder Broken Road Owners - Whatcha Reckon?

Post by Escape Goat »

If you moved the dropouts back it may go well... 2.6 is no issue.
The Cumbrian
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Re: Sonder Broken Road Owners - Whatcha Reckon?

Post by The Cumbrian »

Thanks very much, there's some great information and pics there. One of the things I was pondering was if it would take 29 x 2.6'' tyres, and that's been definitively answered.
“I want to see the wild country again before I die, and the Mountains..."
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Chrisps
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Re: Sonder Broken Road Owners - Whatcha Reckon?

Post by Chrisps »

29 x 2.6 will fit and not be bothered by the worst of mud. 2.8 would probably go on an i30 rim, but I realised 2.8 isn't really a size made for 29ers any more

Just been out for a spin down the local downhill courses on mine with it in summer XC mode. Good fun 🙂
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Re: Sonder Broken Road Owners - Whatcha Reckon?

Post by Escape Goat »

Chrisps wrote: Sat Jun 13, 2020 4:43 pm 2.8 would probably go on an i30 rim, but I realised 2.8 isn't really a size made for 29ers any more

Worth noting the Teravail Corondo 29 x 2.8
ssnowman
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Re: Sonder Broken Road Owners - Whatcha Reckon?

Post by ssnowman »

For 29", what width rims and tyres are people running?

I didn't buy mine with 29" in mind, but I am tempted.
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Chrisps
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Re: Sonder Broken Road Owners - Whatcha Reckon?

Post by Chrisps »

ssnowman wrote: Sat Jun 13, 2020 5:29 pm For 29", what width rims and tyres are people running?

I didn't buy mine with 29" in mind, but I am tempted.
Hope Tech XC, i19 I think and Halo Vapor i30 depending on tyre size
wriggles
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Re: Sonder Broken Road Owners - Whatcha Reckon?

Post by wriggles »

Pro4 hubs and Kinlin XL29 rim (Same rim as Halo Vapour i30). Have some Pro4 Hubs and WTB KOM i23 rims to build to try with skinny 2.1 tyres as well
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Chrisps
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Re: Sonder Broken Road Owners - Whatcha Reckon?

Post by Chrisps »

Escape Goat wrote: Sat Jun 13, 2020 5:12 pm
Chrisps wrote: Sat Jun 13, 2020 4:43 pm 2.8 would probably go on an i30 rim, but I realised 2.8 isn't really a size made for 29ers any more

Worth noting the Teravail Corondo 29 x 2.8
Yeah, I was wondering about that. They seem quite expensive compared to say an XR2 though
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