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Any experience or thoughts on the Inflite as an on/off road bike? Light gravel and bikepacking? I wonder how tiring it could be on longer rides?
Thanks so much for all your help!
@chas if you any other info or advise on the Inflite I will gladly appreciate it!
thanks
Liquen10 wrote:@chas if you any other info or advise on the Inflite I will gladly appreciate it!
Inflite is my N-1 bike. I do it all. Lasts night did 100k on some fast road, some MUP, and some single and doubled track.
(Its fun riding on mountain bike trails. While a mountain bike is slightly faster on downhills (that are appropriate for a ridged bike) and technical sections, this bike blows away a mountain bike if the speeds increase, or on climbing).
They make an AL and CF version which have some important differences. I’m going to address the CF bike for this discussion (unless you tell me otherwise).
Tires: On the stock wheels it will easily accommodate 50mm up front and 38 in the rear. I’ve run 54 up front (very little clearance) and 40mm in the rear (decent clearance). So, it has some room. I tend to run 32mm slicks in the summer/early fall, and 50f/40r the rest of the year.
It has very very precise steering (I had to train myself so I didn’t cut a corner too tight). The front end is also pretty stiff – but a 50mm tire at 25psi takes care of that, if its an issue. The rear is very, very compliant – when the bike was new I was always stopping to check if I was loosing air in my rear tire, it felt so soft.
The bike loves to dive into turns. Its great for keeping momentum on a CX course, it is right at home on a road bike Crit race (oddly), but on gravel I need to make a conscious effort to do a gradual turn initiation. With 32mm GP5000s, I do road race training rides and the occasional crit – I don’t think the bike is holding me back (its about 16lbs in road form).
Personally for long rides, 4-5 hours is ok. But I’m on the large side for my (small) frame, and thus the stack is fairly low. Its great for very fast riding but for an 8 hour ride, I would want something taller. The medium sized frame had a lot more stack, but I found for me, the top tube clearance was minimal on that size frame (I’m 5’9”).
Gravel descents – Ideally you want stability, not agility (if you are going fast downhill). – Inflite has a short wheelbase and a steep head tube angle. That makes the bike responsive, but for a fast loose decent you want low/long/slack for stability. You have to pay attention to the bike on loose downhills. On the agile-stable continuum, its pretty much pegs the agility button. On the other hand, it climbs like it has a motor. I drop mountain bikes on climbs, and on CX races have to dodge people who are carrying their bike up a steep incline.
Backpacking – probably the strongest weakness as it has no mounts. I’ll stick a frame bag on it and a large seat bag and its fine (esp with 50f40r tires). If you want to be on the thing all day, I’d get the largest frame you can fit on. The problem of course is you can’t get a larger frame and then just put a shorter stem on it.
Endurance racing: I think it would be perfect for the Michigan coast to Coast (212 miles) – especially with the 50mm up front for flotation in that sand we have at the end of the race. Sticking a frame pack on the bike is a little tricky because of the kink in the seat tube (although the horizontal top tube gives you more room in the triangle). Personally (my body on my bike) the stack is a little too low for a 12 hour event – but I’m at the tall end for my frame size.
Senna19 wrote:
You should be able to make adjustments to get you comfortable. The issue is how stiff the front end is. You feel just about everything through the bars on this bike. When I first got the bike my hands were sore a lot. I just recently put the 42mm Gravel Grinder on the front and that made a huge difference off road.
"The majority of my riding has consisted of what I'd deem 'adventure cyclo-cross'. That is to say, I've ridden just about everywhere on this bike, from road group rides through to single track descents where a mountain bike would have been far more appropriate. I've done some race training to mimic typical cyclo-cross terrain... My lasting impression of this bike is how much more of a capable off-road bike it is than 'just' a dedicated cyclo-cross race bike. I've happily ridden road, gravel and mountain bike rides on this bike, with the Inflite only really struggling on properly rocky terrain."