I know, I know, done to death a gazillion times, but I searched as best I could and still no nearer a solution.
Currently riding (or did, before ruptured achilles in Feb, but hoping to be cleared for outside riding next week) an alu gravel - Sonder Camino. Love it for it's comfort and versatility, use it bikepacking as well as nipping around local trails, but yearning for something lighter and racier - it's around 10.8 kg or so "bare" - i.e. ready to ride but without waterbottles, no bags/racks etc. Would keep this as bikepacker/daily/dropping kids to school type ride, so can't strip groupset from it (Apex 1x11)
Budget is circa 3k euro or so, less preferred obviously. Have scribe alloy wheels which would "do", but would like to get something better but not necessarily immediate - have second wheels which could go onto the camino in the interim anyway.
If anyone could please suggest a good quality frame which ticks the boxes below, I'd be forever grateful.
Factoring in groupset prices I'm seeing (Sram) seem to be:
- 750 for AXS Apex
- 1050 for AXS Rival
so frame/fork/saddle/fixings/tyres/bartape (and wheels ultimately) etc need to be under 2k to make that budget of 3k achievable.
Many thanks
Ken
Desired:
- 45+mm clearance - 50 better still
- Normal round seatpost to facilitate dropper (yeah I know, doesn't exactly go with the lightweightness but I like being able to drop it for very loose descents)
- Frame and fork ~1.5kg max
- Threaded BB - BSA ideally.
- Short lead time - want to have it built in time to get some rides on it before event in early october (which ruled out my initial thoughts of the canyon grail, as that's not in stock for ages)
- UDH
- 160mm disc capable
Not fussed about:
- electronic shifting - mech is fine, even slightly preferred as no risk of battery failing midride.
- fully concealed routing - am ok with cables visible until downtube, have never built a bike with routing through the headset.
- 2x. I run 1x on MTB and gravel, have 2x on road bike which i only use on the turbo these days.
Don't want:
- obscure sized headset/BB that costs a fortune to get/replace
- proprietary seatpost etc
- to be shafted with customs/duty/tarrifs etc (I'm in ireland)
Have looked at
- Winspace (tyre clearance numbers doesn't seem great - though maybe that's just on the small/xs frame)
- YoeLeo (looks nice but not mad on the color, and pretty expensive for just frame/fork/bars - 1420 euro or so - which doesn't leave much leeway for 'finishing')
- Elves More Aerox - meets the spec on weight and price, max 45mm tyres and non-round seatpost it seems so no dropper)
- Aliexpress but just get confused, some bikes seem "too good to be true" in terms of pricing.
