Gravel grinder recommendation. On-One Bish Bash Bosh?

[gippyz]

I'm looking at cutting down number of bikes i have (N+1). Decided to replace my hard tail and roadie with a gravel grinder bike instead.
I have been reading and contemplating few brand/model; Cannondale Slate, Kinesis AT, bombtrack arise, etc. I have arrived at On-One Bish Bash Bosh as by far the most ideal in terms of light weight, accomodate 650b, and generous tyre clearance (the 3 most important requirements).

What's people opinion on this frame/bike? Any other brand/model I should look at?
Ideally I want a bike/frame that allows me to ride on road, jump on fireroad where available, and ride on mellow singletrack like top section of RNP in sydney.

 

[XYGTHO]

Interesting thread. Have thought about this myself. Roady seems to sit unused and have been riding my hardtail to work. Thought about a 29er hardtail with bigger gearing ratio, maybe steel. No help sorry lol. But going to have a look at the On-One Bish Bash Bosh, never heard if it. Ah a cyclecross type bike.

 

[Ky1e]

Niner rlt9 or Spesh sequoia fit the bill? Both look like reasonable gravel grinders

 

[Snockers]

My Surly Straggler has been great for about 3.5yrs/25000km so far. Mixed-terrain commutes most days with front panniers, and lots of long mixed terrain weekend rides. This definitely isn't a light bike though by any measure...

Kona has a very gravel-heavy lineup this year between their Sutra's and their Rove's, the Sutra LTD has been pretty awesome the last 2-3 years, but the Rove range has had a big refresh this year.

Have you seen the Polygon Bend RV? $1700 for a SRAM Rival CX1 Hydro bike with alloy frame and carbon forks seems like a great deal to me, but haven't seen one in the flesh or heard any opinions on the bike's performance.

 

[Oddjob]

Kona Sutras are good but they are proper heavy steel touring bikes. I took mine on the mundabiddy in WA and it was great.

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[Daniel Hale]

you want drop bars or flat bars?
-a mate has the slate -the 650b is a slow peddla & at $4K you can buya lot more bike for less.
-i have just bought a spare set of wheels for my hardtail -put some tubeless panaracer gravel king 42's on them, rides really well.
-another buddy has the kona rove -the steel on it is pretty heavy, heavier than my hardail [norco torrent ] with the gravel tyres

if you wat more road oreinted can try the specialized diverge, focus paralane Al also buys you a lot of bike [mate has this also]
wiggle has a big sale of plenty of steel gravel bikes with entry level groupo's for under $1K at present..check them out

If you have a good hardtail -id look at converting it--either with carbon fork /drop bars, clearance will be better & i think youll prefer the geometry [we regualrly do 75-100km gravel rides in wombat forest or macedon-cobaw ranges]

 

[droenn]

Check out the new Kona roves.

I picked up a bombtrack arise mid last year, ss gravel bike but provides awesome platform to build it up into whatever

 

[SDA]

+1 for a Kona Rove. Fantastic bike. Have had one for about three years now. Would have no hesitation buying another - especially the new Ltd version.

 

[gippyz]

Drop bar for the new bike.

My hardtail is cannondale F4 26" that can take 27.5" rear with skinny tyres (<2.0"). It crossed my mind to convert it as I just need to get a fork for it, then again the frame is quite heavy.
Atm, the hardtail is only used as a commuter and run around bike.

I'll check out specialized diverge and Kona Rove. They look interesting.

Those who have gravel bikes, what tyres do u guys run for 650b? Ideally I would like to run only 1 set of tyre for road and gravel. So something like Maxxis Tread Lite, but if there is no such thing, no dramas. I just need to sus out 2 sets of 650b wheels.

 

[Daniel Hale]

650b is a bit of a dog on the gravel, i'd stick with 29/700c if i were you -the slate which has 650b 40-42mm's has to be kept pedalling -doesn't roll as well as the 29 tyres [esp. on the harder surfaces or when on the bitumen, the 26"er might take a 700x35 -you'd have to measure] 650b is also limited slightly for tyre choice, many more tyres in the bigger rim size, you can get WTB's & a schwalbe in the 650b sizing

 

[Jubas]

I'm using a second hand CX bike as a commuter/gravel bike - running 32mm tires and it suits most of the riding I do (80% on-road, 20% gravel). It's an old Cell Brunswick 2: disc, 1x, hydraulics. A bit of a tank, but that's ok by me!

 

[black rider]

While you're looking at On One, check out the Ti Pickenflick. Great for all day mixed terrain rides or with slicks for bike path commutes. It's got good tyre clearance: I've run Rock N Roads on mine, which measure ~45mm on Stans Flow rims. The frame's made by Waltly.

 

[smitho]

I did the same, sold a carbon road bike for a steel gravel bike. Set up with 35mm slick tyres. With the pressure up around 70 psi can motor along almost as quick as a ‘pure’ road bike, but can back the pressure off for more adventurous riding. Looking to get some knobby tyres to have a go at some smooth single track. Have a Curve Grovel (V1) and can’t recommend it enough. The steel one isn’t for sale anymore but have seen a few pop up in the Facebook for sale groups - worth keeping an eye out for.


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[gippyz]

While you're looking at On One, check out the Ti Pickenflick. Great for all day mixed terrain rides or with slicks for bike path commutes. It's got good tyre clearance: I've run Rock N Roads on mine, which measure ~45mm on Stans Flow rims. The frame's made by Waltly.

What size r u running?
Man they look nice. Not sure how to get them in to Aus though!

 

[black rider]

I'm 183cm on a large frame. Actually, just realised you might be talking about wheel size, I'm running 700/29". It's a great frame, although the downtube shape at the headtube junction is fugly. Purely aesthetic though. The shipping costs are bad; I purchased my frame 18 months ago in a sale, which pretty much negated the shipping charges.