Is it possible to be competitive in gravel races with a relatively light hardtail 29er? I don't have a cross bike or really the funds to justify shelling out for one.. Thought I could put a long/low stem on my 29er, some narrower bars/tires and hold my own pretty well..
wradom wrote:Is there significant upside in grabbing a rigid fork? I have a reba rl right now, which isn't too heavy and locked out it doesn't bob too much..
A carbon fork would shed a lot of weight, and if its a aero fork, better aerodynamics. Most mtb suspension forks aren't very active over gravel, so you're carrying around a lot of extra weight for little benefit.
Finding a carbon 29er fork that is 1 1/8", thru axle and aerodynamic is probably going to be close to impossible. There are some Chinese ones on ebay, but I don't trust those (I once cracked a Chinese CX disc fork in half braking too hard.) You might be able to find something like this one from Nashbar (the Nashbar one does not have thru axle)
I came to the exact same conclusion, already have this on order, thanks! Lucky for me I purchased a QR front wheel ages ago that I've never been able to use..
Just FYI, you can also use 9mm adapters to run a thru axle wheel on a QR fork. These are Mavic adapters, but I have used them on all different brands of wheels with no problems.
If the frame works well for bikepacking, then it should work well for gravel. You just need to pay attention to the "reach" length if you want to use drop bars (which I recommend for gravel).
For the front, sometimes - gives a nice cushion. I use the front tire as my "suspension" Other times, I run WTB Nano 2.1" front and rear for gravel.
For the rear, I run a 2.1 or 2.2 all the time, for both MTB and gravel. That being said, I am looking for a set of Specialized Renegade 29x1.8's to try for gravel.
The bottom bracket on the Swift is pretty low already, so if I put 40-45c tires on there it would risk pedal strikes. That and the WTB Nano 2.1" tires have pretty low rolling resistance, even on pavement.
If you are going to run gravel width tires (40-45c) you might look for a 26" hardtail instead (so that the bottom bracket height is kept with 700c wheels:
But for me...my next bike purchase...I'm determined to get a Lynskey GR250 or something very similar...I just can't see anything with this frame not to like...
