You guys might have seen the bike I purchased a little over a year ago. I put a couple thousand miles on it (before I broke my wrist\hand!) and I still have it. It's a great bike, fairly fast with a soft-ish ride. But it is a go-fast bike with a carbon frame, meaning not well suited for traveling via rack, gravel, grocery store trips, things like that.
So, I hopefully fixed that situation with a new GT Grade. This is built around the "gravel" setup that has been getting more popular in the last 5 years or so. Google bicycle gravel rides, and you'll see what I mean, I live in Iowa and they are getting more and more common around here (both the bikes and the rides). It's kind of a less aggressive cyclocross. Not to be confused with a cross-bike.
The GT Grade that I purchased is the low-end one, the "Alloy X". I didn't want another carbon frame, and the stock weight even with lower end parts is still pretty good at just under 22 lbs. And I plan on swapping out a few parts right away, I bet I can get it down around 20lbs before I start adding weight with accessories. I do admit to being a "weight weenie", I'm a smallish, skinny guy and I want my bikes to be skinny too.
I'm not positive that I'll like it - The geometer is different, more like a mtn bike (I rode mtn bike in Moab, Colo, Mass) in that the front end is more twitchy than a road bike. Bottom bracket is at least an inch lower, no front derailleur, only one ring! 700C wheels with 33mm tires - bike can take up to 38mm. Hydraulic disks so the darn thing will actually stop in the rain - something that rims brakes just won't do.
I'm hoping I won't regret the lower end components.
I still have some mods to do before I really get to riding it (and I still have my go-fast bike too!). I'll be changing the handlebar stem (too long for me), rear rack & bad, and some fenders.
Not sure about the seat, I've gotten to used to those ergonomic seats (hole in the middle), I'll probably have to change that too.
So, I hopefully fixed that situation with a new GT Grade. This is built around the "gravel" setup that has been getting more popular in the last 5 years or so. Google bicycle gravel rides, and you'll see what I mean, I live in Iowa and they are getting more and more common around here (both the bikes and the rides). It's kind of a less aggressive cyclocross. Not to be confused with a cross-bike.
The GT Grade that I purchased is the low-end one, the "Alloy X". I didn't want another carbon frame, and the stock weight even with lower end parts is still pretty good at just under 22 lbs. And I plan on swapping out a few parts right away, I bet I can get it down around 20lbs before I start adding weight with accessories. I do admit to being a "weight weenie", I'm a smallish, skinny guy and I want my bikes to be skinny too.
I'm not positive that I'll like it - The geometer is different, more like a mtn bike (I rode mtn bike in Moab, Colo, Mass) in that the front end is more twitchy than a road bike. Bottom bracket is at least an inch lower, no front derailleur, only one ring! 700C wheels with 33mm tires - bike can take up to 38mm. Hydraulic disks so the darn thing will actually stop in the rain - something that rims brakes just won't do.
I'm hoping I won't regret the lower end components.
I still have some mods to do before I really get to riding it (and I still have my go-fast bike too!). I'll be changing the handlebar stem (too long for me), rear rack & bad, and some fenders.
Not sure about the seat, I've gotten to used to those ergonomic seats (hole in the middle), I'll probably have to change that too.
