Which Gradventourer?

[holdsteady]

Hitting 50 next year so decided I deserve a new bike, especially after not buying one this year due to redundancy concerns. Predominately will be used for tow paths, commuting, bit of light bikepacking and credit card touring where the terrain is a little more forgiving. Currently do not have a cycle to work scheme available at my work which could be a deciding factor, but I am hassling senior management to introduce it.

Current thoughts...

Surly Straggler -UK version is £1,750 with SRAM Rival 1 and Halo wheels, been lusting after one for years and love the new "Chlorine Dream" colour. Downside is they are pretty heavy especially compared to 2 other options.

Sonder Camino Ti - Shimano GRX version is £2,150.00, even cheaper with Cycle to work scheme

Planet X Tempest Ti - (Usually £1,800 for SRAM Rival 1, £2k for SRAM Force 1 but the latter is often on offer for £1,800). Downside is cycle to work scheme not available so would work out as effectively costing more than a Camino.

Did quite fancy a Genesis Croix de Fer in Titanium but they are £4,400

Would appreciate any thoughts on above particularly from owners of these 3 bikes, or anything else I should be looking at (steel or titanium only) and around the £2k mark. Cheers

[RobLyon]

if you've wanted one for years just scratch the itch. I personally don't worry about bike weights too much and would probably prefer a reynolds stainless over ti.

Stooge are looking to do a drop bar bike next which would tempt me also.

[PaulB2]

There's a few small manufacturer possibilities in the Fairlight Faran, Brother Cycles Mehteh or the Temple Adventure Disc all of which are around that 2k mark.

[Bearlegged]

I've got a lot of love for my Cotic Escapade.

[holdsteady]

I've got a lot of love for my Cotic Escapade.

ooh, good suggestion, hadn't realised they had re-released the Escapade

[faustus]

Lots of options in steel and Ti, guess it comes down to your preferred usage and how much tyre clearance you need, and if you want different geometry...Some like the Straggler are fairly conservative, whereas others might be slacker and/or longer. As above, wouldn't worry about weight too much. Other options:

Ribble CGR 725 and Ti - Ti a bit over budget but good value
Pipedream A.L.I.C.E. (frameset only)
Fearless bikes Vulture (frameset only)
The Light Blue Darwin MT or One By
Kona Rove ST
Nordest Albarda and Super Albarda (Steel and Ti, framesets)
Bombtrack Hook EXT
Salsa Vaya

[Jurassic]

This type of bike is all the rage just now so there's loads of choice (until the bubble bursts and the industry move on to the next big thing). I can only advise on the Camino Ti as that's what I have however it is a very nice bike in my experience. I rode an alu Camino before and had pretty low expectations for it (it was a cheap way to get away from the press fit BB which my previous bike had). It totally blew me away though and as it became by far and away my most ridden bike I decided to treat myself and upgrade to the ti version. The titanium bike is nicer to ride but there's not a huge amount in it and given that the ti frameset is roughly four times the price of the alu version, it's definitely not four times better as a bike. Mine is the latest V2 frameset which has bolt through axles, a full carbon fork with anything cage and mudguard mounts and clearance for 700x50 tyres (I'm running 700x43 Gravel King SKs and there's plenty of clearance left). I'm sure there's loads of other nice options available but I wouldn't swap my Camino for anything that's currently on the market irrespective of cost. I built mine up myself from the bits I wanted to fit so can't comment on Alpkit's builds but I do have GRX on it and I prefer it to the SRAM groupset I was using on the alu Camino (not that the SRAM stuff was crap, I just prefer Shimano).

[darbeze]

Have a chat with Simon at Aske Bikes down here in South Devon. He may be able to make something near your budget...

www.askebikes.co.uk

Cheers,

Si

[ScotRoutes]

This is what I would buy if I didn't have my Amazon

http://www.albannach.cc/torragar/

[holdsteady]

should have probably been clearer, my £2k approx budget is for a complete build, some of these frames and framesets are lovely but to bring them in under budget would require me to delve in skips for the rest of the build

[mustang]

Have you seen Fairlight?
The Faran 2.0 looks nice.