Kinesis Tripster commuter with Metrea groupset

[Miller]

If you can position a bike on a continuum from 'thrilling' to 'practical', this Kinesis flatbar is very much on the practical end of that spectrum. I do a fair bit of utility cycling and although my 2010 Whyte Cambridge has been excellent in that respect I fancied something new, not least to take advantage of wider tyres to deal with crappy urban roads. Kinesis is a UK brand prominent in CX and gravel and this summer their alloy Tripster frame was widely available on sale. I bought one. Here is the built-up bike, it's 9.5kg as pictured.



The alloy frame is chunky and well supplied with mounts for bottle cages, mudguards and so on.


For handlebars and seatpost I went direct to China - USD37 the pair. This 58cm bar weighs about 150g. It feels very stiff. Gusset bar grips.


Metrea is a Shimano groupset aimed at urban cycling introduced in 2015. "Sail through the streets with minimal effort and distractions. METREA offers reliable performance with clean, simplistic design for urban riding." They don't seem to promote it all, I had never even heard of it until I was researching components for this build.


I like the chainset, 42T single ring, hollowtech. It has a built-in guard to keep trouser hems off oily teeth.


It's paired with an 11-32 11 speed cassette.


I wouldn't have minded a wider range but the Metrea rear mech is only rated for 32T max, showing the age of the design there.


Designed with input from the late Mike Hall.


Metrea is only offered with 140mm disc rotors. Thru-axles front and rear.


The grey-looking mudguards are reflective all over.


I'm looking forward to riding this if it evers stops raining.

[rexyi1990]

cute one

[Miller]

Thanks. It's a pleasure to ride.

[mentok]

I've got a Tripster as my gravel bike. Drop bars and big rubber. Very relaxed, lazy geo. Rides nicely, but not a snappy race machine like my old CX bike was. Hoping to do some bikepacking on it one day...

[jpeterson1012]

How does the flatbar version of metrea perform? any reason to go for that over, say, a MTB groupset? I've got the bullhorn version of Metrea and I'd place mine at around Ultegra-level feel, appropriate for the price. The ergonomics of it aren't the best though, I get sore palms despite it looking like a natural hand position.