KeatonR

Turning 50, and so for the occasion went all in on this (or I should say, my wife did — I am lucky).

Ultegra drivetrain, Mavic Allroad Pro wheels.

Secret Squirrel

Nice bike. I just got my 50 bike in August. Same wheels and tires

Hondo Gravel

Awesome bike! Tell us about some of first rides.

shoota 

Sick color dude. Turn the front tire around.

KeatonR

Will report back this weekend. Can’t wait to log some miles on this thing.

KeatonR

It looks wrong, I agree, but that’s how Mavic says to run the front one.

shoota 

Ok well that's bizarre. I'd love to hear why.

KeatonR

this thread sheds some light on the matter:

Gravel Cycling Forum | Riding Gravel

one commenter there said he was going to reverse it to avoid further comments about it being backwards, ha. In the end it probably doesn’t matter too much, since it’s a not very aggressive tread pattern anyway.

shoota 

HA! Now that is funny. I'd probably install them the same way too, my OCD wouldn't allow two different directions.

riverdrifter

Beautiful bike! Congratulations!

Secret Squirrel

I ran this tire with the Mavic recommended direction for about 100 miles and then turned it around for another hundred (mixed road conditions). I did not notice any difference. The tread pattern is really tight. Running Gravel King slicks for a change.

LeFreakyBone

I have pretty aggressive dual sport tires on my motorcycle and the front is installed in the "reverse" direction like this. I hear it has to do with better braking performance. Besides the obviously different amount of force required for braking, I am wondering if it is the same concept here.

gus6464

That is common in motocross. Same tire front and rear mounted in different direction.

mstateglfr 

Really nice looking bike. Its a rare day that I see NBD threads and immediately click into them, but this is one time where I did because of the title. Funny to see the tread like that, as others mentioned- that was one of the first things I saw since the opening pic has the tread in the foreground. Wild.

What is the 303 sticker?...is that what they call their own mix of tubing?
Also- those are 40mm tires, right? how much clearance on the rear?

Chi_Z

should have spend the extra $300 for made to measure, the frame stack is clearly too low for you

KeatonR

The 303 sticker is from the local shop that built it up for me, Vecchio's in Boulder.

Those are 40mm tires, yes. And there's still plenty of room left in the back. I'll take a pic.

KeatonR

No, that's just a starting point for me. The shop set it up based on the dimensions of my previous bike, but I'm aiming to flip the stem over at the very least. I just want to get some miles in on it first.

On the other hand, I am turning 50, so ultimately I'll go with comfort over aesthetics.

mstateglfr 

makes sense- 303 area code. i thought that for a second before remembering the area code for Waterford WI. Then figured it might be what Gunnar calls the tubing since from afar it looks similar to a Reynolds tubing # sticker.

thanks for the pic in back- i think Richard Schwinn said a 42mm tire is the max, but wasnt sure if thats really conservative or what.

Chi_Z

that was my point, with higher stack frame you can move the bar even higher, currently you are already at the 40mm spacer limit for Enve fork, going higher you risk snapping the carbon steer

KeatonR

My point is that if anything I'll go lower.

I looked around at a lot of steel frames, and this one already has one of the tallest head tubes, so I didn't really think I needed to go any taller there. But you're right, at the moment I'm at the limit.

KeatonR

Here’s how the fit looks. The tires are 40s, as I said, but they’re on rims with a 22mm internal width (pretty wide), so inflated width might be wider than 40. Either way, there’s room.

gus6464

I'd say you can comfortably fit a 45 Riddler in there.

GailT

Beautiful bike, love that colour. I bought a Waterford at Vecchio's a year ago - it was a custom frame, but it still has about same number of spacers as your bike. They built it with the handlebars near the top of the spacers, and I've gradually moved it almost to the bottom of the stack. It is nice to have the ability to move higher in the future, in case I have less flexibility when I'm older. So I think you did the right thing with the number of spacers.

Koyote

Nice bike -- I've got the same model (complete with the same Enve fork) on order right now. How long did yours take to arrive?

Also, you bought it from a great shop - Vecchio's is great.

Enjoy your birthday gift!

gravelED

Beautiful bike. How do you like the Mavic wheels? I was looking at getting a set