Gittus

Hi guys,

Just chasing some quick suggestions if you have any regarding a new rig.

Where I live I am quite limited on what is around in the adventure bike scene to buy but I have found a store than stock some Salsa Fargo’s + cutthroats, and various bombtracks (hooks, audax & beyonds) mainly.

Just wondering if you had any experience with any of these at all and could point me in any direction?

I am 27 and a roadie so very new to this game although I do plan on quitting my job as an electrician to spend a lot of time doing just that if I can find the right drop bar something that would suit both trails and road stretches.

I plan on doing some longer rides down the east coast of Australia, from the Gold Coast where I live to Melbourne then onto the ferry to Tasmania where I am from (roughly 2500ks) on the roads with a some trails thrown in for good measure to break up the monotonous tarmac.


Thanks heaps,

Ben.

chaadster

Oh, man! I can’t help on the bikes, I don’t think, as I’ve nothing more than name familiarity with Salsa and Bombtrack, but I do want to say I’m envious of your location! I’ve driven up to Byron Bay from Sydney, and shot inland to the Granite Belt area (Stanthorpe, Girraween), and while I didn’t have a bike, I could tell the riding was awesome! I’d guess you’d want something on the sportier/all-road side of things since you’ll have plenty of paved and graded dirt miles, but you can ride anything of course.

Anyway, lucky you with the great plans; have fun!

Gittus

Mate I’m so glad you loved it, it’s such an amazing part of the world and I am super lucky!

You’re dead right about needing something a little slicker but I doubt I can go wrong with either salsa which is what I will grab.
regardless I will get another wheel set so I can just swap knobbys for more road friendly tires easier.
Just slowly getting everything I will need together before I do that big trip maybe at the end of our winterish to avoid block headwinds and crappy weather

dwmckee

Our shop specializes in gravel bikes and we sell Bombtrack, Salsa, Giant, Jamis, Open, Wilier, Cinelli and 3T. You have some great choices in mind, but first you have to make a basic decision before you get down to specific models. Will you be doing much very rough riding that is closer to mountain bike trails, or are you mostly sticking to gravel roads? If very rough then I would say the Bombtrack Beyond 1 (definitely over the steel Fargo) or if you have the budget then the Salsa Cutthroat. If you are looking more gravel and paved road optimization then the Salsa Warbird carbon (delivery in July now I think for new ones) or the Hook 2 if you want steel. The Hook EXTC (Carbon) is a bit too racy for bikepacking but the Warbird and Hook 2 atr fantastic choices if you are not going to be doing a lot of rough singletrack and trail riding.

Gittus

Mate you are exactly the person I need haha.

thanks for replying.



My bigger trip will be mostly pavement with a sprinkle of off road.



I don’t plan on doing super isolated real rough stuff straight away but I will be eventually. I’ll build a bit more experience and knowledge first then after I tackle my long trip home I will take on the “Tasmanian trail” look it up on bikepacking.com it’s an amazing 480kish off road trail. (Forum won’t let me post the URL link sorry)



I have seen images of that trail done on a normal CX bike so I’m sure whatever I go with will be fine.



I’m thinking of either the Fargo or the cutthroat but I’m really just waiting for someone to say definitely get the cutthroat or definitely get the Fargo haha.



I’ve also heard someone say that the cutthroat is a jeep and the Fargo is a tank but I’m just trying to research that fact to see what I need.



I am just after something I can eventually load up, grab and duck off for a week or so.

Toespeas

well how much storage do you want , gravel can basically be anything , do you just want a name brand bike , or do you want to build ,
you can have a race bike with little to no storage , or a full packer with racks and 12 bottle cages ,
bike packing can be as far away from gravel as one could get , with belt drives and dynos for charging ,
you really have to look at what you need first , i could build just about anything into a gravel bike good luck !!

Gittus

I think I have narrowed it to the cutty or Fargo to be honest.
I test rode the cutty in a 54 today and my LBS will have the 2021 Fargo built up to test next weekend.
As a roadie jumping on the cutty today and chewing up gravel and rough stuff today with such absorption was amazing, I wish I went down this path earlier.
they are both convenient to obtain at the moment and even though building your own would be end game awesome I just think I will give one off the shelf a run for awhile first.

Russ Roth

When looking to change my gravel bike I wanted something based on what could do the Great Divide Tour, people have done it on cross and touring bikes so anything is possible but I wanted something more purpose built to the task. The Cutthroat was the bike named most often as the blueprint to work off from. Since none were available around me and I didn't have that kind of cash for both the wife and me I went with a Poseidon, don't know if they'll ship to Australia, but only for the framesets. The stock bike is very affordable, weighs far too much and uses some meh parts. Did buy one complete bike since it was the cheapest and fastest way to get the 10sp Microshift Advent parts for my son's cross/gravel bike but parted out most of it. Although snow and ice have kept me off of it since I'm very happy with the overall build which came out to 25lbs with pedals and cages ready to ride. That's with a Tiagra build and using parts I had lying around. A carbon fork will take it down more if I find the aluminum fork too rigid but I'm hopeful the 29x2.1 tires and carbon bar will take care of that. Might be worth looking at.