Help me choose a frame

[Antoine23]

Hello everyone

I'm looking for an all-purpose bike.
The specifications for this bike are :
- 60/40 or 50/50 road/gravel riding. I live in Switzerland and there is a lot of road compared to gravel
- Take 700x45 and bigger with 650b
- I would like this bike for long road rides with a 32mm wheelset and fast gravel rides with a wheelset between 36mm and 42mm. I would also like to take this bike on bikepacking adventures (Torino - Nice gravel route for example).

I've found several bikes that seem to fit the bill, but I'd like your opinion:
- Carbonda 696. The only problem is that I have no feedback on this bike with a road wheelset. Also it doesn't have fully integrated cables but
well, I can go over it
- BXT gravel bike. I've just discovered it. It seems to be exactly what I'm looking for but its weak point is that it's really heavy (1300g for the frame).
Carbonda 505SL. Again, relatively new and not really back.

If you have any other ideas or want to give your opinion, don't hesitate, I'd be very interested.

[Pedaldancer]

What's the issue about the Carbonda 505SL being a newer model? Older models don't have the full infernal option.
I know some 505SL riders.. they seem to be happy with it.
Regards the riding /geometry you can also sneak to the 505 "old" model.. the geometry did only change very minor. It brushes closer to a endurance road bike than to a hardtail. If this is what you want, that fits the bill.

If I would go for a new frame..i would take the 505SL. But I have the old 505 already.  it's my every day bike in fact.
Go and check out also mtb news.de  There are tons of information about all Carbonda road/ gravel frames 

[Antoine23]

What's the issue about the Carbonda 505SL being a newer model? Older models don't have the full infernal option.
I know some 505SL riders.. they seem to be happy with it.
Regards the riding /geometry you can also sneak to the 505 "old" model.. the geometry did only change very minor. It brushes closer to a endurance road bike than to a hardtail. If this is what you want, that fits the bill.

If I would go for a new frame..i would take the 505SL. But I have the old 505 already.  it's my every day bike in fact.
Go and check out also mtb news.de  There are tons of information about all Carbonda road/ gravel frames 

Thank you very much for your answer. Do you also use some road tire on the 505 ? If yes, how does the bike handles ?

Is the clearance really 42 or it can take a bit more ?

[Pedaldancer]

Thank you very much for your answer. Do you also use some road tire on the 505 ? If yes, how does the bike handles ?

Is the clearance really 42 or it can take a bit more ?

The "classic" 505 has 40mm regarding spec. However my rear tire grew fatter from using and it turned out to be close to 42mm. But for that I would not ride to muddy stuff.. this would definitely lead to collisions if the tire is coated with a mud layer.

I can't tell you whether Carbonda widened the rear by 2mm or just updated the clearance values at unchanged design.
I used my road bike wheelset for a while. It was  28mm GP5000 (30mm real width)
The riding is an endurance road bike riding, slightly less vivid in the steering. Maybe that's due to the steering angle. The rear is very short for a Gravel bike, which makes it more road bike feeling. "Verspielt" . I don't have a translation for that.

But as a clear assessment: though it is a vivid bike, it will never be as good as a pure road bike, guess it already starts with the broader fork, which is probably not helpful for the CV value  . But if someone would force me to reduce to one bike.. it would be the 505..
The thin tires however do look a bit funny .. for good weather i do use 32mm tires, which grew up to 33-34 in the rim.. it looks still a bit funny, but better than 28.