Wanted a fast, lightweight daily driver with flat bar ergonomics and MTB shifting. Nothing like that exists off the shelf at a sane price, so I built it.
Why Flatbar on an XL frame?
Swap a drop bar for a flat bar and you lose ~80mm of effective reach — the hoods just aren't there anymore. To compensate, I went one (massive) size up to XL and paired it with a 130mm stem. The result matches my drop bar bike's reach almost exactly: same aggressive, stretched position, but with upright sightlines and the ability to run a full Shimano XT groupset off the MTB shelf for a fraction of GRX pricing.
The build:
Frame & Cockpit
Mondince FM316 XL (wanted purple, but got midnight-blue - ok, i´m fine with it haha)
Carbon rigid fork (just clearcoat)
Toseek Carbon Flatbar — 660mm
Kalloy Uno stem 130mm
Kactus Tech Ceramic T47 BB
Wheels & Tyres:
Elite Wheels Gravel Pro Carbon — 24mm inner width, swap to MicroSpline freehub
Tufo Thundero HD 44mm Tyres - love them!
Drivetrain:
SRAM Rival E1 Wide crankset — 165mm (cheaper than GRX)
Alugear Oval 42T chainring — 2mm offset (chains the chainline to 49.5mm for the 142mm rear axle)
Shimano Deore XT 12-speed — shifter, derailleur, 10-51T cassette (crazy cheap! 180€ total + 3 XT chains waxed)
Brakes:
Shimano XT M8100 levers + Flatmount calipers (for 120€ total)
180mm front / 160mm rear
Total weight: ~9.1kg with pedals, mounts, everything / Price: ~1800€ in germany
Happy to go deep on the chainline math or the geometry sizing logic if anyone's interested. Attatched a pic in comparsion with Tideace GV201 size 54.