Just In: Enigma Escape - updated titanium gravel bike arrives for review

@davearthur - any update on when your review is out?

first world problem: I'm seriously considering pulling the trigger ASAP on one of these (as hopefully an all-in-one quiver killer audax/endurance road bike and gravel rig), so would be keen to know your thoughts on it's use as a 700c endurance road bike (for eg vs the etape), and it's handling w/ 650b wheels on. any compromise with handling with differing BB drop and BB clearance with the two set ups? (having discussed this w/ Mark Reilly last year with regard to the gradient, he seemed to intimate there was always a trade off if using one bike with both wheel standards). the set ups i'm looking are coming in at over £4k, so for that kinda money i could almost consider a lower spec fairlight secan and a strael 2 which would defo cover both bases.

I have ordered one myself with 2x grx and it arrives on Thursday!!! So excited always wanted a titanium bike! Enigma are so easy to deal with just email them what you're after and they can tailor everything to your needs. Mine has a different group set and wheels to what was originally on the website at the time of ordering. Also I have gone for my name and a Pan Celtic Race logo (it's an ultra race I'm doing in July and they are a sponsor of) etched onto the frame. Couldn't be happier!

Mungecrundle - Yes flat bar is no problem. Depending on your fit, you may be able to take a stock frame and build with a flat bar, or it might make more sense to have a custom frame with a longer top tube made. If you email us with your height / saddle height / flexibility and other preferences we can look at this and send you a draft design/spec.  The Snowdon Paradox is a frame made by us, (but designed, marketed and sold by Snowdon) specifically for flat bar, so if their stock geometry works for you that is also an option. The gravel frame they offer is based on an Escape with some small tweaks. 

Alan Sherman - You can add inline barrel adjusters where the cables exit the tape. Personally I find the latest (Shimano) systems need very little adjustment, and have not felt the need to do this on my own bike. Their front derailliers now also have a tension adustment at the cable clamp whereas for previous generations a cable adjuster of some sort was a benefit when setting up. 

Mudguard mounts are on the back of the fork leg. They require a small adaptor which SKS make. I agree that on the axle would be a little easier to fit, but these work fine. Other forks can be specified such as ENVE (+£200) which have a mount at the base of the fork blade. 

Richard

I completely agree about the issue with creating holes at stressed areas for internal routing. I see you've gone full outer all the way, so no handy barrel adjusters for on the fly adjustments. The fork with dyno routing looks great, where are the mudguard mounts? Up the leg seems wrong to me. By the axle would be my preference.

I'd love to test this bike, the croix der fer Ti and Reilly gradient back to back. All great machines!

Enigmabicycles.

Seriously, is a flat bar setup a viable option?

Hi Fraser,

Thank you for the comments. 

Yes you can specify whatever components you would like. We're advertising GRX600 in a 1x configuration and GRX800 with 2x, but you could have it the other way around if you prefer. The price would not change much but if you would like a definate quote please send us an email with your preffered spec and we will get back to you. 

If you like the Secan, check out our Endeavour model as that is also steel and pretty similar to the Escape. 

Richard

Richard /Enigma
Utterly beautiful, and love the spec. Will hopefully be getting this or a Fairlight Secan next year, for off road adventures and bikepacking.
Can the GRX be specced with a x2 chainset? Your website suggests not, but that's my ideal spec.
All the best
Fraser

Thanks all for the comments. To address a few points:

IanEdward - Thanks! Canti mounts can be offered by the way, included in the £300 custom option. 

Morat - How many online followers do you have? That's the way it works for a free bike nowdays! 

srchar - Yes that is correct, custom frameset for £2.5K with pretty much any features you would like. 8-10 week lead time. Bead/Mirror finish one of many options starting at £200. Can even add your name/custom logo. 

CyclingInBeastMode - Canti mounts are available for £300 as above. We don't offer them as standard - there is simply no demand for a wider tyre and rim brakes. Rim brake sales have gone from 50% to less than 20% and falling in the last year, that is all road bikes, not cross/gravel . The MTB industry converted 20 years ago and hasn't looked back! The same will happen with road. Unfortunately discs are more expensive, and with inflation plus the increased cost of imports due to the poor exchange rate (yes, BREXIT!), costs have gone up. Our prices are pretty reasonable compared to some, as highlighted above by srchar! 

Thanks again everyone, good to be able to explain things. 

Richard

I think this looks awesome and 1) Love a proper threaded BB 2) have no issue with the routing as external does make more sense in my opinion 3) It's all about disc brakes in my opinion especially on anything that wants to go offroad. If my numbers come up tonight you I might just get one

Another company who have all but removed rim braked bikes from their line up and gone the route of the rest with discs, simply doesn't attract me, no need for it braking wise even off road and aethetically it's ugly, shame as the frame is alright in itself.

You can get a 35mm Conti Gravel King under a 57mm caliper brake and with some frames get a 35mm road tyre under a mudguard as well (have seen it so know it to be true). All about frame design but because the focus is on discs frame design to accept wider tyres for rim brakes has been utterly ignored. With V/Canti pegs you can go to 50mm wide with 700C 

If Cantis were good enough for CX World Champions in ridiculously muddy conditions then they're good enough for me though I use mini Vs which are epic stoppers in all conditions.

As an aside 4 years ago you could get the top-spec Dura-Ace Mavic Ksyrium SLS  Evade for £3,899 according to the Road CC review at the time, how things have changed!

Good response Richard! There are still those of us who like flexibility and ease of swappability over aesthetics.

Now if you could go one step further and do one with canti posts you can take my money!

Maybe I'm some sort of sick weirdo, but I'd very much like a bike of this spec with a flat bar setup, though I'd assume it's not as simple as just changing the bar, stem and controls.

But maybe as simple as buying a Snowdon Paradox when Mrs Mungecrundle isn't looking.

Richard from Enigma here. Thanks for the comments, would like to clarify a few points: 

We do offer T47 / Internal as an option on all our frames. To have an Escape with T47/ Internal routing and custom geometry (no extra charge for this as we would be starting from scratch anyway) is £300. 

The choice not to use T47/internal on a stock frame is not down to cost. We aready have a design set up and the tooling / labour difference is insignificant, so we could easily offer the frame for the same price with these features if we felt that was the right decision. 

The reason for the choice is as follows:

1) Full internal cables (through the BB) will require T47. Many customers are not interested in anything other than BSA.  

2) The ports required for 3x internal cables require a large hole in the frame, which isn't going to make the frame any stronger. In our opinion it doesn't always look that good either, the large oval ports you commonly see in particular are not very elegant. We recommend internal brake only with Di2 or Sram Wireless, for looks and longevity. 

3) I agree that hydraulic systems are generally reliable and should not need regular maintenance, however this is a bike people choose for world touring and endurance racing. In the unlikely event you do need to swap a hose/cable you would be very glad not to have internal cables. 

4) Although you may not need to perform any maintenance, many riders do like to swap groupsets, change from 2x to 1x, try out a Di2 or wireless set up. The system we use is easily adaptable and does not leave any excess ports/guides on the frame, so looks great with any set up. 

We will be offering our future road frames with T47/internal as standard, but the Gravel/Touring/Audax models will likely stay as they are for now. 

Remember - if you want that set up it's no problem, £300 extra will get you whatever set up you would like! 

Thanks,

Richard (frame design, fitting, sales and more) 

My new bicycle has full run outer and external cables, not the tidyiest look, but so easy to change things, it will be wasteful in cable ties, but so simple.

Totally agree. Modern frame, external routing, no buy.

"You’ll have spotted the external cable routing by now. Enigma chose this over interna routing because it feels it’s better suited to the riding this bike is going to be used for, where easy maintenance is desirable, whether it’s at home or in the middle of the wilderness."

I really don't understand this cut-and-paste comment from so many similar frameset reviews, the whole point of hydro hoses is that it makes the maintenance so much less - the point to put them internal is to get them out of the way, if you actually ride this bike and get it dirty every time; those hoses are really going to be a pain for years to come.  The better frames are now using t47 bb's and bingo, hoses can be neatly routed internally, without loss of performance before you comment.