pattrick

I am currently looking at these two as options for a new bike. I am currently using a Kona Jake the Snake for this ride. It performs well enough and has helped me lose quite a bit of weight, given its health related effects I can justify a new ride and put fenders on the Snake for wet weather and for winter riding, quite useful in southwestern PA. I am fifty six years old and looking for a bike for riding country roads primarily. Most of these are decent, the repairs often create more of a mess than the cracks and holes by causing moguls and speed bumps from the repairs which can be bad(think rumble strip like). I will probably never use anything bigger than a 700x32 on this bike. Having a hard time deciding which of these would be more useful as a road type bike. Looking at the geometry and the wheel base Of these two have me making a case for either and I know there is no way for a test ride. So I throw this question out there to those more knowledgeable than myself. Posted this below in the CX section, copied it here hoping for more input.

thedave80

Not sure about the GR250 but I have a cooper cx and love it. I raced cross last year, have done some gravel rides with it quite comfortably, and am now using it for road riding with 28's. I think the benefit to the GR250 is you can go wider than the 700x40's the cooper will take.

dieselrover

You'll be hard pressed to find someone who can directly compare both. I have a Cooper and a R250. They're both great. Geometry-wise, only you can say which would suit you better, but feature-wise, I'd have preferred the GR250 over the Cooper for the non-cyclocross cable routing.

The Cooper cable routing is over the top tube and 100% sleeved. The GR250 cable routing, I believe is similar to typical road bike routing. This will give you better front-derailleur shifting and no irritating cables on the top tube.

I did end up with the Cooper frame simply because I caught it on ebay direct for less than half the GR250. I'll enjoy looking at my top tube routed cables for $700.

-s

Planemaker

I was seriously looking at the GR250 until Litespeed came out with their 2018 Gravel titanium frame which I ended up with. My buddy went with WHY Cycle R+ titanium bike.

I love the bike

Gose

The GR250 will be closer in geometry to the current model Jake the Snake which is also not too far from a lot of xc hardtails. The Cooper CX will be lighter and quicker on road. The GR will be slower but less twitchy off road due to the slacker HT. If you're mostly riding road I would recommend the Cooper CX. If you want downtube cable routing get the Lynskey Urbano - it's exactly the same as the CX but with downtube routing instead of CX top tube routing. You can also get either a compact road crank (50/34) or cyclocross gearing (46/36). FWIW I have been riding an Urbano for the past year - on road, lots of gravel, singletrack. I have mounted a rear tubus rack with panniers and tires up to 42c. I wouldn't use it in place of a mountain bike but it has handled everything else flawlessly.

pattrick

I appreciate all the information. A quick question for dieselrover , if you could change the cable routing on the Cooper how would that effect your opinion of it being a pseudo road bike? Gose thank you for bringing up the Urbano it does match the Coopers geometry and does away with the top tube routing. I assume they are the same frames. Overall I am sure I can not go wrong either way but unfortunately I am so indecisive on such purchases. Again thank you all for taking your time to respond I do appreciate it.

Ball Bearing

My 2017 Cooper CX is not really very similar to my carbon road bikes - handling and ride are very different. I use mine for night riding and on wet roads, plus I enjoy the occasional gravel road route. I like the full length cable sleeves because I ride in the rain.