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Going n-1 with my adventure bike

by jurth
Wed, Jan 06, 2016 22:04
5

Hey everybody

About a year ago I bought a adventure bike, a Kona Rove. I use it for cx, gravel, singletrack, road and touring, I'm really happy with it, and my race bike (GT GTR Series 1) have hardly had any time on the road since my purchase. Now I’m considering selling my race bike and use some money on making my adventure bike more road friendly. The Rove is fine for road, just not fast and light as my race bike, this of course expected at the Rove is not a race bike. However I would like to make the Rove more road friendly, and are looking for advices, I'm not interested in making the bike less capable for adventure.

I hardly do any road races, maybe one or two a year, and I don’t do many club rides either. However, chasing a segment happens from time to time 1

Here are my consideration:

I could change the fork, buying a cross carbon version. The currently one is steel, so that should mean something for the weight. 

I could also buy a new wheelset, the stock ones is pretty heavy (as far as I know, it is hard to find specs for them), so here, weight is reduced as well. I could either buy a better cross wheelset, or a road wheelset so I could swap wheels when I do purely road racing. However i’m not really sure the difference between cross and road wheelsets is worth it.

I could also do the big upgrade and get a new frame, the Rove frame is steel, one of the reasons for choosing steel is that I would like to do touring. Steel is great for fully loaded bike with racks and fenders. Racks rule out Carbon. Aluminum and titanium would be good materials, if i’m looking for a lighter bike. I’m quite attracted to the idea getting an adventure titanium frame from Lynskey, Kinesis or some other manufacturer.

What i’m asking is what upgrades could I make, to make my Rove faster for road racing without changing the geometry, and adventure capability.

Hope you can help me spend my money right.

 

Best regards,

Jonas

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5 comments

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Dicklexic | 9 years ago
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Hunt 4 Season Disc wheels would be a fantastic upgrade. I've had them on my bike for almost 9 months now and have been superb. They will handle CX and gravel riding with ease, yet are light enough to feel fabulous on the road too. Will also take tubeless tyres.

http://www.huntbikewheels.com/products/mason-x-hunt-four-season-disc-brake-road-bike-wheelset-tubeless-ready

I think your suggeston of a carbon fork would make a lot of sense too, and would shed a decent chunk of weight, but choice may be limited due to the headset/steerer size on your Kona. Most decent forks are now tapered.

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joemmo | 9 years ago
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Wheels definitely. I have a cx bike as my only road machine now and just swap between 2 pairs of wheels / tyres / cassettes for on / off road as needed. I'll even put aero bars on it during the summer for a bit of half-arsed frankenbike TT action. 

Avatar
jurth | 9 years ago
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Thanks for all your replies, it gave me some good food for thought. I think I will be looking at some new (or used) wheels, that is a decent upgrade over the stock ones. Suggestions are welcome, I think my budget is around £400. I will also be looking at road specific tires.

The new frame option is not off yet, but not the first thing I will be looking at. I am falling a little bit in love with the new Genesis Datum, even though I means no racks, but frame fixed bags seems like the hot stuff at the moment. The Datum is a bit more endurance than adventure, but still seems great for a gravel/off-road adventure.

/Jonas

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alotronic | 9 years ago
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Start with the wheels, then upgrade the wheels and then the wheels again.... Keep current pair for plugging around and a nice set from somewhere like Hunt wheels or even better custom and some 28 tires. That will assuredly make the most difference - then select wheels on basis of what you will riding on that day...

Avatar
Simon E | 9 years ago
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Lighter wheels and tyres can make a big difference to the feel of a bike. 28mm tyres such as Schwalbe One or Durano, Michelin Pro4 etc etc will help a great deal. The weight difference won't make you fly up hills (the effect of wheel weight is often smaller than people think) but it will certainly feel nicer.

A Ti or aluminium frame won't be that much lighter and there's a possibility you could spend a load of money and end up with something rather similar to the GT you already own.

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