pnsathyan

Hi,

Trying to get into gravel biking. I have an old barely used Nashbar CX1 bike ( sora groupset). Should i try upgrading this with better wheels or better off trading for a better bike .

If i plan on upgrading i m looking to spend 1-1.5k for a used CX bike.

Thoughts please ?

Thanks

thehammerdog

what is issue with bike?
if it fits and works enjoy it.
maybe upgrade wheelset but sorta is fine.
get a feel for what u want if good steel frame 9 speed soar is fine.
but I bet heavy.

shoota 

Do you mean wheels or do you mean tires? Because I see no sense in selling a cx bike just to buy another cx bike, without riding the current cx bike first. I feel like we might be missing some info here.

chas58

I agree - ride it to pieces before upgrading.

The only thing I would change is tires - putting the biggest on you can find, and that fit your style. I love CX bikes, but sometimes they can be too agile for gravel.

Don't buy wheels. That stuff gets obsolete so fast these days. Wheels are changing fast. Hate for you to have a nice set of wheels, then upgrade your bike and find those nice wheels are not compatible. That said, if your bike is rim brake - you might be able to find some used ones cheap.

dwmckee

A cross bike is going to be stiffer than a gravel bike and more twitchy handling, but still it sounds like what you have is good enough to get some gravel time in for a while. If you do want to trade up, used bikes are selling quick but there are not many good new gravel bikes left in the shops now... By fall the stock should be starting to improve however. You can get a great mid-range steel bike in your price range. Jamis Renegade is great and Giant Revolt is nice and rather inexpensive for the base models. Salsa Journeyman is another option that can fit either 700c or 650b. Plenty of choices in that price if you wantt to trade up now.

If you are going to want a bike that handles like a gravel bike instead of a cross bike, do not spend anything on upgrading your current bike, especially if you have quick release instead of a thru axle frame.

RadDog

As has been suggested, ride it until it breaks. What kind of riding will you be doing? I got into gravel bikes by accident. I built up a road bike, and while riding the local tarmac I found out that in the back of my neighborhood there was an AMAZING gravel route.

I started stealing my sons hybrid and after some glorious time on the gravel I realized that there was some very challenging off road stuff where I live as well. Then I found out there were some world class MTB trails a 10 minute drive from where I live. That dictated what kind of bike I would get, and now I am trying to decide between a gravel bike and a 29er hard tail.

So get out there and ride before you spend money. Ride what you have until you make that decision.

That is my 2 cents.