New bike recommendation? Gravel, touring, CX?

ylwambulnce

I'm novice enough at cycling. Been at it for 3 years on the same bike.

My area of cycling is very rural back-roads, dusty trails, and forestry roads
I'm not a mountain biker by any means, and do not want a mountain bike. But I do like to fly down the odd rocky trail on my adventures. I'll mainly be doing hill climbs and branching off into forestry.

I've been doing this on a Scott Sub, which i got because I bought into the whole "trekking" bike marketing. It's served me well but has a lot of downfalls. I would buy a different Scott bike. They seem like a solid brand.

I think a touring bike sounds more up my alley as I'd like to eventually do 1 day tours.
Would like to fit a rack too. It needs to be able to take a beating.

Budget €500-800. Would rather not push it past 1000. As I want to factor in an extra couple of hundred on top of the bike cost to buy accessories.

Secondly, I do not want to have to assemble the bike myself. Would rather buy from a brick and mortar shop so online is out I presume.

Any brands/models you could recommend?

a148pro

ylwambulnce wrote: »

I'm novice enough at cycling. Been at it for 3 years on the same bike.

My area of cycling is very rural back-roads, dusty trails, and forestry roads
I'm not a mountain biker by any means, and do not want a mountain bike. But I do like to fly down the odd rocky trail on my adventures. I'll mainly be doing hill climbs and branching off into forestry.

I've been doing this on a Scott Sub, which i got because I bought into the whole "trekking" bike marketing. It's served me well but has a lot of downfalls. I would buy a different Scott bike. They seem like a solid brand.

I think a touring bike sounds more up my alley as I'd like to eventually do 1 day tours.
Would like to fit a rack too. It needs to be able to take a beating.

Budget €500-800. Would rather not push it past 1000. As I want to factor in an extra couple of hundred on top of the bike cost to buy accessories.

Secondly, I do not want to have to assemble the bike myself. Would rather buy from a brick and mortar shop so online is out I presume.

Any brands/models you could recommend?

Sounds like you're enjoying yourself and getting into it for the right reasons which is a good start

What is wrong with the Scott Sub as a matter of interest, might guide a bit in terms of what you want from the new bike?

When you say one day tour what do you mean? Why do you need a rack? You can now buy bike bags and can easily carry enough on them for touring, particularly if one day doesn't mean camping? I've done two day BnB trips with just a large saddle bag, no problems

From the terrain you describe a "gravel" bike sounds right for you, but bear in mind that there is an awful amount of marketing bullsh*t about bikes. If you are doing less then say 60k in a spin I'm not sure you'd need a gravel bike. Also, bikes are, as I understand it, in short supply at the moment, and gravel bikes in particular as people want to get out into the wild even more now.

At your budget look at halfords, they have a voodoo adventure bike. Bike snobs who rarely actually experience the joy of cycling will sneer at you but I'd bet its absolutely fine. At your budget I don't think you'll get much more, but I also don't think that's a problem.

Re online, I think you usually just have to rotate the handle bars and you're good to go, or at least that's all I had to do with the last bike I bought.

ylwambulnce

a148pro wrote: »

Sounds like you're enjoying yourself and getting into it for the right reasons which is a good start

What is wrong with the Scott Sub as a matter of interest, might guide a bit in terms of what you want from the new bike?

Flat handlebars
Frame proved impossible to add a rack to
Pointless front suspension
Awkward shaped frame, difficult to small bags and lights onto.
Gearing felt poor for the amount of hills I tackle.
Very heavy in terms of weight.
It's essentially a hybrid bike.

When you say one day tour what do you mean? Why do you need a rack? You can now buy bike bags and can easily carry enough on them for touring, particularly if one day doesn't mean camping? I've done two day BnB trips with just a large saddle bag, no problems

Sorry I guess I was doing short half day trips on the scott but I felt the bike itself wasnt suited for longer than this. I meant to say I'd like to do overnight tours or something I could do longer and further with.

From the terrain you describe a "gravel" bike sounds right for you, but bear in mind that there is an awful amount of marketing bullsh*t about bikes. If you are doing less then say 60k in a spin I'm not sure you'd need a gravel bike. Also, bikes are, as I understand it, in short supply at the moment, and gravel bikes in particular as people want to get out into the wild even more now.

At your budget look at halfords, they have a voodoo adventure bike. Bike snobs who rarely actually experience the joy of cycling will sneer at you but I'd bet its absolutely fine. At your budget I don't think you'll get much more, but I also don't think that's a problem.

Re online, I think you usually just have to rotate the handle bars and you're good to go, or at least that's all I had to do with the last bike I bought.

Thanks for the info. I'll look into more about gravel bikes. And damn I forgot how short supply outdoors stuff is these days. Thats annoying.

cletus

Just to throw my tuppence in. I have the Voodoo adventure bike mentioned above (Voodoo Nakisi). I features here semi regularly when I post pictures of my cycle.

It's a little heavy, it runs Sora groupset (fairly bullet proof, but not too of the line), and for the money is probably one of the better bikes you could pick up, imo

Large bottle small glass

At 500-800 new you will be getting a bike with quick release, post mount mechanical brakes. Probably really heavy wheels and poor tyres.

And that bike might do you just fine, so is certainly and option.

There is really low availability on new bikes currently. A friend recently bought a Ridley Mango new discounted at 1300, the shop won't have any more until next year.

If it was my 800 or even a 1000 I look on the Irish gravel Facebook page and the linked buy and sell page.

There was at least two near new bike in medium yesterday. One is an Orbea Terra.

At that price you are somewhat future proofed with 12 thru axle, threaded BB, flat mount hydraulic disk.

BTW a mix of forestry road, tracks with back roads is as good as it gets. Keep at that and don't worry to much about getting the perfect bike.

Edit; left field and cheaper option is to buy a used rim braked cx. You'll get a lovely light bike for 500 easy. Old school 105/ultegra shifters with exposed cables with be nice.

Down sides is rim wear, needing to adjust cantilever brakes regularlyand you'll need to bodge something for a panniers.

I had huge fun for 3 years with a Ridley crossbow which I bought for 300 minus wheels. I was in road with self built tubeless wheels and nice tyres for 500.

a148pro

ylwambulnce wrote: »

Flat handlebars
Frame proved impossible to add a rack to
Pointless front suspension
Awkward shaped frame, difficult to small bags and lights onto.
Gearing felt poor for the amount of hills I tackle.
Very heavy in terms of weight.
It's essentially a hybrid bike.

That's a pretty comprehensive list! Hard to argue with that. But maybe find out what weight it is by way of comparison, most gravel bikes, even good ones, will be 11 - 12kgs. I'm not sure do you really need drop bars unless you're doing longer cycles, say 50k plus? A bit of suspension is a good thing though I see your point.

Its obvious you're unhappy with it so definitely time to look elsewhere

If you could get the voodoo it would be a good start, but I'd say its also sold out. Second hand market as pointed out is a good idea.

ylwambulnce wrote: »

Sorry I guess I was doing short half day trips on the scott but I felt the bike itself wasnt suited for longer than this. I meant to say I'd like to do overnight tours or something I could do longer and further with.

Just on this, if you're not planning on carrying camping and cooking gear then you don't need a rack (imo at least). If you are doing credit card touring (i.e., staying in a bnb or hotel) then a single 10L saddle bag is enough.

You can also actually cycle with a small back pack very easily, I thought it would be a nightmare but had to do it once and it was absolutely grand. There's a military industio complex that has cyclists indoctrinated into thinking they need very specific expert and expensive gear to anything at all, but a lot of it is BS. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE a good piece of gear that functions really well, but there's an orthodoxy out there that goes unchallenged a lot and when you deviate from it a bit you find other things work very well too.

magicbastarder

Are you buying on btw scheme? If not, have you looked at secondhand options?