I want to get into gravel riding as I am fed up with the mad drivers in central Europe. I cannot decide between the two bikes.\nI want to connect hardpacked double tracks, and b-roads in the forest with less used back country roads and bike paths.\nDifferent prices aside, which one would you choose? And why?\n\nLooking forward to your opinions.
If I were rich, I would go with the Open UP. The Slate is a nice bike, but you can't really fit 700c wheels on it because they could rub the lefty crown during compression unless you are running small tires like 23c. The Open UP is much more versatile in its ability to accept different wheel and tire sizes. Though ultimately there are other options that are much cheaper than the Open UP.
ljsmith wrote:If I were rich, I would go with the Open UP. The Slate is a nice bike, but you can't really fit 700c wheels on it because they could rub the lefty crown during compression unless you are running small tires like 23c. The Open UP is much more versatile in its ability to accept different wheel and tire sizes. Though ultimately there are other options that are much cheaper than the Open UP.
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\nWhat are the alternatives to the Open UP that can fit 2,1 650b wheels.
There are several, but I don't feel like searching around for them. Right off the top of my head, I know Lynskey has a new gravel frame that does. You can probably get a complete Lynskey for the price of an Open UP frame. And IMHO, titanium is a much better material for a gravel bike than CF.
Imho the Lefty fork is the slates biggest advantage and also the biggest disadvantage. Good for absorbing hits or running higher tire pressure for faster onroad riding. But it is heavier and needs to be serviced. A second wheelset costs more than a comparable standard 700c wheelset.
The Lefty is nice, but it seems like overkill to use a Lefty for only 30mm travel. Ultimately I think it is more of a marketing gimmick on a bike like the Slate. The worst part about it is that it doesn't even use the newest Lefty hub/axle, so it limits your hub/wheel choices even more. It seems like a better designed headshock would be a much better solution. It would allow regular hubs, and likely larger tire sizes. I think with the popularity of Gravel racing now we will start to see more suspension options in the future. Specialized has suspension now on their Roubiax, kind of like a Headshock but under the stem. I'm sure that will make its way to some of their other bikes.
ljsmith wrote:The Lefty is nice, but it seems like overkill to use a Lefty for only 30mm travel. Ultimately I think it is more of a marketing gimmick on a bike like the Slate. The worst part about it is that it doesn't even use the newest Lefty hub/axle, so it limits your hub/wheel choices even more. It seems like a better designed headshock would be a much better solution. It would allow regular hubs, and likely larger tire sizes. I think with the popularity of Gravel racing now we will start to see more suspension options in the future. Specialized has suspension now on their Roubiax, kind of like a Headshock but under the stem. I'm sure that will make its way to some of their other bikes.
\nI agree with you that 50-60 mm would be better, but 30 mm are 30 mm more than on a rigid fork.
+1 For Open UP
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\nI road around a a decent amount of slates when choosing a bike, but ultimately I was let down by the bike. I almost pulled the trigger on one for a CX1 for $3,400
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\nThe wheels is an issue with it. Proprietary front lefty fork makes it difficult to find replacement wheelsets with necessarily all the features you would want in a hub/rim combo.
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\nTire options are also limited at this time. You're maxed out with the tires size that the bike comes with, there is the the 650b schwable g-one, surley knard, soma Cazadero, and maybe a few compass tires. There just isn't enough good 650b tires, until you hit that magical 2.1 mountain tire size that the Open UP can do. Rear of the bike is just real tight on the drive side and any mud just will clog a lot with anything bigger than default tires.
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\nThe gearing, just doesn't plain make sense on any of the models. It has great road gearing, but terrible "gravel" gearing. Bike just isn't well thought out for gnarly mountain-ey, single-trackie stuff.
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\nhttp://www.cyclingabout.com/cannondale-slate-review-long-term-test/
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\nEverything that you want to do on a slate can be done on a Open UP. Even the 30mm of travel can be done by a lauf grit.
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\nhttps://lauf.myshopify.com/products/lauf-grit
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\nIf you got the $$$ go with Open UP. IF you don't, there are about a dozen other bikes out there that can do the magical 700x40ish to 650x2.0ish wheel swap.
cattiy19 wrote: What are the alternatives to the Open UP that can fit 2,1 650b wheels.
Greetings from Norway!
Given our wild nature adventure bikes with ample tyre clearance is a hot issue in our chat forums.
Here are some bikes - in addition to the mentioned Open U.P. and Cannondale Slate - that take 650b wheels with reasonably fat tyres. Most of them also take 700c:
3T Exploro Rawland Ulv (Ulv=Wolf in Norwegian, by the way) Rawland Ravn (Ravn=Raven) Planet X Pickenflick Ritchey Break-Away Ascent Mason Bokeh Lynskey GR 250
I'm sure there are many more.
I'll be back with another list of drop bar bikes that take fat 29" tyres
ljsmith wrote:The Slate is a nice bike, but you can't really fit 700c wheels on it because they could rub the lefty crown during compression unless you are running small tires like 23c.
Not correct. Per my measurements on my Slate:
Front - Slate Lefty Oliver fork crown can clear a 700 X 35c with 6mm clearance. Rear - clear 700 X 35c sans front derailleur with 4mm clearance to seat tube and 700 X 32c with front derailleur.
Headshok vs Lefty - The Lefty advantage is lower fork crown height for same stroke & tire diameter. This helps with frame geometry. I toyed with the idea of using the Cannondale Bad Boy 1 Lefty Headshok as a base to building my own custom Ti frame.
Front - Slate Lefty Oliver fork crown can clear a 700 X 35c with 6mm clearance. Rear - clear 700 X 35c sans front derailleur with 4mm clearance to seat tube and 700 X 32c with front derailleur.
Headshok vs Lefty - The Lefty advantage is lower fork crown height for same stroke & tire diameter. This helps with frame geometry. I toyed with the idea of using the Cannondale Bad Boy 1 Lefty Headshok as a base to building my own custom Ti frame.
Can you post some pics of your Lefty at full compression with that 700 x 35 tire? Everything I have read about this bike says that a tire that size will not clear at full compression. Looking at this pic, I don't see where you are going to get that room. The stock tire is a 650b x 38. So a 700 x 35 is going to come up roughly 15mm higher, then you compress the fork 30mm. All together that comes to 45mm or about 1.7".
ljsmith wrote: Can you post some pics of your Lefty at full compression with that 700 x 35 tire? Everything I have read about this bike says that a tire that size will not clear at full compression. Looking at this pic, I don't see where you are going to get that room. The stock tire is a 650b x 38. So a 700 x 35 is going to come up roughly 15mm higher, then you compress the fork 30mm. All together that comes to 45mm or about 1.7".
The stock size is not 650b X 38 rather it is 650b X 42. You must have a keen eye to be able to calculate clearances based upon the photo you posted. On my Slate there is 19mm clearance between the crown and the stock 650b X 42 tire when the shock is fully deflated. You do the math or believe whatever makes you happy.
Thx, for all your responses. Unfortunatly steel bikes are a no go for me. Some Ti bikes are looking sweet.
The On One Space Chicken looks good, but has yet to be released. Kinesis Tripster V2 looks good, but could be to much of a touring bike?
My dream bike would be (an cheaper than carbon and Ti) an internal routing aluminium frame, with in frame cables, and good sloping for seatpost compliance and a non BB30 bottom bracket and clearence for 2,1 650b tires. The Slate misses out on the 650b tires and the non BB30 bottom bracket.
3T exploro and Open UP are going to be your only non BB30 700c/650b that I know offhand.
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\nAdditionally most gravel bikes seem to run BB30. Offhand its the 3t exploro, Open UP, Jamis renegade, and pivot vault that use use bb386evo. Devinci hatchet and the salsa warbird use bb86.
The stock size is not 650b X 38 rather it is 650b X 42. You must have a keen eye to be able to calculate clearances based upon the photo you posted. On my Slate there is 19mm clearance between the crown and the stock 650b X 42 tire when the shock is fully deflated. You do the math or believe whatever makes you happy.
I've been riding 650b mountain bikes since 2009. Back then you had to find a 26" frame and fork that fit 650b tires. People would always post stuff on forums about how this or that frame and fork fit 650b. It was always a bad idea to trust people who would say stuff without pics of an actual 650b wheel and tire on the bike. Several people got burned by that, including me when I bought a fork that did NOT fit a 650b tire based on a forum post that said it did. So unless you have pics with a 700c wheel and tire combo I'm not really interested in what you have to say. I already learned my lesson the hard way, "pics or it didn't happen". You must think very highly of yourself to think that someone should spend thousands of dollars on a bike just based off of what you say.
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adventure bikes with ample tyre clearance is a hot issue in our chat forums.![[Jammin-on-the-Cannondale-Slate-All-Road-Bike-54]](http://theradavist.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Jammin-on-the-Cannondale-Slate-All-Road-Bike-54.jpg)