Advice sought building a gravel bike.

[highandwild]

Good evening.

I’m thinking of getting a gravel / adventure bike. I want to be able to go for short forest rides but also multiple day trips in the wilds.

I’ve looked at the Sonder Camino Titanium frame and it seems to meet most of my requirements. Unless I get one custom made it will never be 100% what I need.

I want to be able to use it on the road as well so 1x will give me big jumps between ratios that I don’t want.

I have a number of 1990’s Ultegra double and triple chainsets with a good choice of rings. I never used anything bigger than 46 teeth and often had a setup using half step ratios. These were built for 9spd. I also have a number of 9spd rear mechs. I’d ideally like a triple set up on the gravel bike using this equipment. Getting hold of 9sp STI levers is difficult but possible.

I may need to get a rear mech with a clutch. A standard 1* 40 tooth chainring on a 42 tooth large sprocket gives a nominal 25” gear, is this likely to be low enough?

I understand that the third tube inside the down tube is used for the dropper seat cable but can be used for the cable for front changer.

Has anybody any experience of setting up a triple on a gravel bike and or experience of buying a Sonder frame and building it up themselves?

I'd like to use mechanical STI's. Main reason is that mechanical are easier to fix. Is the move between mechanical and hydraulic worth it.

Any advice that you can give me will be welcome.

Thanks

[Bearbonesnorm]

I tend to think that gearing depends on so many factors such as where you're riding and who you are. My favourite set-up with drops are non-indexed bar end shifters because they'll work with absolutely any combination of rings, cassettes and mech from any manufacturer ... ultimate in reliability and future-proofing. In the past I've also found that a MTB triple to be of more use than a road set but that could just be me.

I recall Problem Solvers (and maybe others) make a bolt-on cable stop if required.

[Cheeky Monkey]

My Gryphon (pre-dates all this "Gravel" shennanigans but could be classed as one of them bikes) runs bar end shifters. Works just fine and was the only way to solve some compatibility issues.

My personal experience of the Camino (Alu, V2 IIRC) was terrible toe overlap in a medium and being 5'10". Might well have just been "me" as lots of others seem to be happy campers but I would check a full bike for fit.

I bought a Titus Goldrush (Planet X) in the end. Got it in one of their random sales but it was a full bike with carbon fork, 12 spd STI and discs for the same or less* than a bare Sonder Ti frame and fork. It's been excellent IME. Maybe worth a look and not sure what the pricing is like nowadays.

Edit - * degree of hyperbole / bullshit, see below

[fatbikephil]

+1 for shimano bar end shifters - still widely available in 9 speed and flexible to use 1x9, 2x9 and 3x9. You can then use Can creek 'V' or normal brake levers which are cheap and comfy and allow use of BB7 mountain or road disk calipers. If you want hydraulic use the TRP hylex's if available. When I'm not singlespeeding I use a 36t/ 11-40 on the gravel bike (Surly straggler) which will get you up most things and still allow you to pedal past 30mph. No need for a clutch mech - a standard old style shimano XT/ deore / slx mech will go to 40 no probs and without any extra widgets. If you use a thick/thin chainring you won't get any issues dropping the chain. I would tend towards a double if you want a wider range as you can get the same spread as a triple more or less but without the cross overs.

[Cheeky Monkey]

Sorry, 1*11spd and currently £1,999:

https://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/CBTIGRFOR ... ravel-bike

Equivalent Sonder looks to be £2,249 (built) or frame+fork only for £1,399.

[fatbikephil]

Or https://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/CBTISRRIV ... nture-bike - looks bloody good value
The tempests were down to £1300 at one point. Currently the rival one is £1800.

[Cheeky Monkey]

Or https://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/CBTISRRIV ... nture-bike - looks bloody good value
The tempests were down to £1300 at one point. Currently the rival one is £1800.

Great comedy recommendation.

Oh.

You're serious.

:boke:

[fatbikephil]

Its nay worse than plenty of others (see the gravel bike thread...)
That odd looking top tube is very long though
Sorry OP, this tends to happen a lot on this forum.

Just realised the Titus has slidey drop outs so SS is possible

[Bearlegged]

I'm running a 40/28 MTB double chainset with 11-36 cassette. Gives a 19" ish bottom gear, which should do for pretty much all inclines right up to the point you say, "Bollocks to this, I'm getting off and walking."

[Boab]

I'm running an aftermarket Garbaruk setup on my Shimano GRX equipped gravel bike. I currently have a 1x11 setup up, with a 38T chainring and a 11 - 50T cassette. That setup served me well on the WRT, but is totally overkill for the flat lands of the East; I'm looking at getting a 44T or 46T chainring for betterer riding around here. There are times I'd rather a 2x11 setup, especially when whizzing around on the road in the winter, I've never considered a triple as the large range on the rear cassette make that redundant.

[substandard]

I have a camino as my commuter, it’s great for the odd bridleway and mostly road (running specialised pathfinder pro tyres tubeless)

The current frame design v4 is slacker and overcomes toe overlap issues for all sizes. Wouldn’t want to venture off into the wild with it though for multi day stuff or do bearbones200 on it, 29x2” clearance is too limited for my interpretation of wild and the stuff I like riding/ what is on the great rock of ours. Proper mtb tyres as a bare minimum, ideally 29+. I have other bikes for this purpose.

[rivers]

I'm running a 46/30 with an 11-42 cassette and deore 5120 rear derailleur in the back, with 105 shifters on my gravel bike. I needed to put a jtek shiftmate on there as well to change the cable pull ratio to work with the mtb rear mech. But it shifts brilliantly, I have a huge range (19 to 115 hear inches), so good for loaded off road, but nble and quick on road as well.

[Dr Nick]

I've just built up an old Canondale headshok equipped hybrid as a drop bar'd rough stuff/ gravel bike.

It's running mostly shimano 2 x 9 speed: Shimano bar end shitfters, (which i can run on friction when (not if ) I crash it and bend stuff), a 11-36t rear sprocket and 39/24 at the front. I'm using a j-tek shiftmate on the rear shifter as I'm running a clutched Sram GX 10 sped rear mech.

I'm very happy with how it works - I chose bar ends as I prefer them to STI brifters but all 9 speed shimano is, as far as i'm aware compaitble. I think I've go some Tiagra 9 speed brifters in the parts box, that could find a new home if that helps.

I've no experience of Sonder builds - sorry

[faustus]

On the Camino -in either form it's a great bike, no toe overlap issues for me. Very versatile, although depending on your riding needs 'into the wild' then 27.5x2.1/29x2.0 might not be enough. 29x2.0 is pretty tight in the back of my one too, that's with a narrow rim. They can take road or mtb chainsets so retains options there for altering gearing for your needs.

Plenty around to keep a nice 9 speed set up going, I think current Shimano Sora R3000 is pretty decent, I had some levers for a bit and they were very good, and a nice modern shape too. Fairly affordable too, and should still be mtb cross compatible. Personally, hydraulic brakes on drops are ace, reliable, and powerful. But not that cheap.

Other thing that strikes me is: Are you sure you want a 'gravel'/drop bar bike? Maybe think afresh about your needs and put the legacy components compatibility to one side. Do you need a bit more room for bigger tyres, how much and what kind of road riding will you do? Maybe a versatile mtb/atb flat bar bike would be better? You could have a lighter wheelset for slicks and road, but still have ability to go fatter if you needed. If you're not going for all out speed then a flat bar bike with sensible geometry might be just as good as drops, and keeping 9 speed will be a breeze, and using hydro brakes. In my mind i'm thinking something like a genesis longitude or brother cycles big bro, but there are other similar options. Just a thought?

[Bearbonesnorm]

Other thing that strikes me is: Are you sure you want a 'gravel'/drop bar bike? Maybe think afresh about your needs and put the legacy components compatibility to one side. Do you need a bit more room for bigger tyres, how much and what kind of road riding will you do? Maybe a versatile mtb/atb flat bar bike would be better? You could have a lighter wheelset for slicks and road, but still have ability to go fatter if you needed. If you're not going for all out speed then a flat bar bike with sensible geometry might be just as good as drops, and keeping 9 speed will be a breeze, and using hydro brakes. In my mind i'm thinking something like a genesis longitude or brother cycles big bro, but there are other similar options. Just a thought?

I'm glad someone else broached that rather than me