bonsai171

Does anyone have a Kona Rove NRB? The spec looks pretty amazing for the price. How does it ride over really rough terrain? Do you feel a lot of bumps and vibrations transmitted thru the bike?

Dave

D-Fuzz

I have one and I love it. I bought it June 2019 and put about 2200km. Our gravel around here is either badly washboarded or thick pea-sized gravel and the bike rides nicely in those conditions. It’s best to run the wheels tubeless so you can run lower pressures. I’ve done some 5-6 hour days on the bike and have never felt beat up when getting off the bike. I tested lots of bikes before I bought and the NRB did everything I wanted in a gravel bike.

bonsai171

Very cool, sounds like it might be what i'm looking for then. Does it feel fast over gravel? We have a lot of washboards, and some of the wilderness areas can have golf ball size gravel. Does it come set up as tubeless?

Dave

SpindriftEd

The carbon fork combined with the big tires just about eliminates vibration. Although I haven't ridden mine on really rough stuff, I would either double wrap the bars or add bar gels, the stock tape isn't very cushy and you will feel big hits through the bars.

The wheels come tubeless ready so you'd only have to remove the tubes and add sealant. Highly recommend doing that.

D-Fuzz

As far as whether it’s fast on gravel, lots of that depends on the engine I suppose, but I find I am faster because I don’t have to worry as much about what line to follow, especially in heavy gravel. The WTB Horizon tires aren’t great for gravel though, unless it is dry and flat. I switched to Ventures and found them to be a great all-round tire. I’ve ridden the bike in dry, rough conditions, peanut butter mud and -10C winter gravel and never felt like the bike couldn’t handle what I was riding in.

bonsai171

Since the bike is under my budget, might wind up doing some upgrades to it:
1). Tubeless
2). Carbon handlebars (maybe try the double wrapped bars first)
3). Carbon seatpost
4). Lighter wheelset

This would probably be eventual, most of our gravel isn't super rough. Will probably see how it goes.

I've never had a tubeless bike before, but will probably need tubeless valves too, and a inflator for presta. Currently running a 8 gallon compressor with npt industrial fittings. Any recommendations on what inflator to get?

Dave

D-Fuzz

Running the bike tubeless made a huge difference. I ran with tubes when I first got the bike, generally running 32 front/35 rear. I thought the bike felt fine. Then a switched to tubeless and now run 25/28. The bike is much smoother. I also upgraded to a set of Easton EA70 AX wheels which have made the bike feel much quicker.

As far as carbon bars and seatpost go, for the price I’m not sure you’ll see a substantial difference in comfort. With the geometry of the NRB, I find there isn’t as much seatpost sticking out as compared to bikes with a more sloping top tube, so there won’t be much flex. A decent seat will help. And unless you are riding really rough surfaces, I think some decent bar tape will accomplish as much as a carbon bar for a fraction of the price. Carbon has some nice bling though.

There are at least a half dozen riders in our local community riding Roves. A lot of guys rode Jake the Snakes previously but recognized the limitations on tire sizes for our gravel conditions.

SpindriftEd

You won't regret going tubeless and yeah, you'll need valves. They may even come with the bike but since I had the shop set it up tubeless when I bought it, I didn't ask if they did.

If you stick with the stock tires for a while I'd suggest getting a Stan's Dart plug as it works better with smoother tires from what I've seen (I haven't had to use mine yet though). Keep your inflator and just get a one dollar presta to Schrader adapter. It threads on the Presta valve and lets you use a Schrader chuck.

bonsai171

​​​​​​Didn't think about the adapter. Got one laying around somewhere.

Greenhil

I’m an older rider with about 4K of some pavement and mostly gravel miles on my NRB. No issues on the hard-packed to loose gravel roads in these parts. Many rides here average 1,000’ of climbing every 10 miles and I really like this bike for hills. It doesn’t handle golf ball sized gravel (at least with me on it), but that seems like a tall order. I kept the Horizon Road Plus tires (not running them tubeless) because I like them on pavement and they’re surprisingly good on a lot of gravel - except sand and mud. I had a bike with front suspension, but the NRB is a better ride on rough roads. Some of the reviews for this bike felt is was a bit overpriced for the components it has. Sometimes I have groupset envy and wish for hydraulic brakes, and when I ride a higher end carbon frame I definitely notice the difference in responsiveness. I see this year’s iteration of the NRB comes with a 1X groupset vs. my 2X.