Reluctantly needing a new bike.

[StuAff]

Ian ole boy.. You know how faithful,I have been with my military bike. It's just now I want to spend on, not a replacement, but a fast bike to perhaps join a a club with but have it still not just be suited to a road. Hence a cyclocross pedigree.

Have looked at a Litespeed T5 gravel bike...... What do you think? W

As I have a T5 Gravel, let me tell you what I think....
Brilliant bike. Not perfect, I will come back to why, but very, very, very good indeed.
Beautiful build quality, through axles front and back, rear rack/mudguard mounts, clearance for 40mm tyres. Currently running 35mm Schwalbe Marathon Racers on it. Barely slower, if at all, than my Viner. First ton I did on it was the second fastest I did all last year. Stiff where it needs to be and very comfortable. Shrugged off Belgian pavé. Been touring twice on it so far this year, and it made an excellent load-lugger. Never felt cumbersome fully-laden. I have the 2015. Wiggle have the 2016 version in stock- slightly tweaked geometry- they still say 40mm though, slightly reduced frame weight, 12mm through-axle fork rather than 15mm, and switched to the flat mount brake standard. Want one bike that can do pretty much everything well? You won't go wrong with one of these.

So what's wrong with it? Apart from the price (a smidge under £1600 for the frameset with Wiggle 12% discount, but then it is made in America by Americans), there are no mudguard mounts on the front fork. My very nice LBS (now forced to shut by acts of landlord, git) reckoned that it wasn't really designed for guards at all. They got creative on the front (Sugru/magnets/cable ties), while the rear guard needed a bit of trimming to clear the Ultegra 6800 FD. Six hours work, fortunately they didn't charge me full labour. If you don't want or need full 'guards, not a problem obviously. Rear rack was much easier, seatpost collar and P-clips (there are a single set of rear eyelets, the 'guards took those. 2016 has rack mount eyelets as an option, I imagine Wiggle would be able to order that). That's about it.

 

[StuAff]

Stu

Strangely, I have considered the Litespeed T5 Gravel, it's £2.7k at Evans reduced in price. I know so little of bikes (other than my own Montague para bike) that I thought a Cyclocross and a gravel bike are the same thing - I note your comment above and I get the take that they are different pedigrees? Help me out here cos I really don't know.

What I intend to use the bike for is to be nimble enough for club rides, tough for going on unmade tracks and commute with as well. I will only buy one bike at a time

Evans no longer have the T5G in stock, sorry to say...
Some say the whole gravel bike thing is a fad, a marketing exercise, they're just CX bikes with different stickers....harsh and not particularly fair. As with most categories of bike, there's a lot of variety. Some CX designs are more race focused than others, in terms of frame fixtures and fittings (some racier ones lack mudguard mounts and have single bottle cage bosses, for example) and geometry. There are plenty of CX bikes that would make an excellent gravel bike, just as they'd make a perfectly good road bike with the right build kit. Trek make at least four gravel/adventure bikes (my own Portland was much in the same vein, several years back). None of them are marketed as such...neither is the Slate, at least as far as Cannondale is concerned. Ted King would probably disagree! In short, don't get hung up about what they call it, more if it'll do what you want and at a price you want to pay.

That said, the T5G (and its stablemates) are a good illustration of how 'gravel' can be distinct from 'road' or 'cyclocross'. Litespeed have a sister model, calliper-brake road bike (plain T5). The T5 Disc is still a road bike, but slightly wider tyre clearance, rear is QR dropouts rather than through-axle. The T5G has through-axles front and back, different geometry (longer chainstays, longer wheelbase, clearance for fatter tyres, longer head tube). Litespeed's CX model is one of the aforementioned racier ones- no rack/guard mounts, shorter BB drop, shorter head tube. So, if you never go off-road, but like disc brakes, and aren't bothered about a rack or mudguards, you might go for the Disc. The CX if you're more off-road focused, though there's nothing to stop you fitting slicks for road rides of course. As for the Gravel...road bike? Yes. Commuter? Yes. Tourer? Yes. Off-roader? Yes. Just fit/remove tyres/racks/guards as applicable and it'll cover all those bases. It's less jack of all trades, more master.

 

[Kajjal]

I moved from a normal road bike to a gravel bike (specialized diverge) and much prefer it. It has sharper handling, better brakes and you can fit a wide variety of tyres to suit your riding. Over the winter on road 25mm tyres and 30mm at the moment so i can take it off road in the dry with plenty of traction. I am setting strava pb's all over the place and it is much faster downhill. On smoother, less technical offroad trails it is faster than my xc mountain bike. A decent do it all bike but a little slower up hill.