Aeroad on gravel, hot or not?

[kuuttia]

Hi!

My first post here. Going from Cannondale CAAD12 with 32mm GP5000's to an 2020 Canyon Aeroad CF SLX 9.0 SL with 28mm GP5000's forced me to steer away from some of the gravel road I had been riding with the CAAD12. This made me think how I could fit a little bit bigger tires on my Aeroad...

Couldn't find any 650b builds with the previous Aeroad frame that I had, so I ended up doing some calculations and took some measurements and ordered the parts to try it out:

• DT Swiss G 1800 gravel wheels 650b

• Schwalbe G-One Allround TLE 35mm tires

• Sram Force 10-36 cassette

The cassette was the biggest risk, since I had the Red 10-28 on my road wheels and the Red Etap rear derailleur doesn't officially support 10-36. Many people have gotten it to work flawlessly and so did I! Another concern was the bottom bracket height with the smaller wheels. The BB height with these tires ended being 260mm which is pretty good.

Not necessarily the most Weight Weeniest bike, but fairly light and aero! So what do you think, hot or not?

[saldegracia]

Looks like you have enough clearance there at least for dry conditions, so why not! I have the rimb-brake version of this bike and it's really quite comfortable. I don;t think there would be any issues with riding it on light gravel...but there's not enough clearance for wider tires and I have a gravel bike anyway, so my Aeroad stays on the road

[zmjones]

i've done a gravel race on my aeroad. you can fit 30-32mm tires at 700c, don't see the big advantage of losing the aero benefits of a deep wheel for a measly 3-5mm of extra tire. it is of course never going to be a real gravel bike anyway and i think 30-32 is enough for light duty.

[Stefano]

I think it's cool! I recently did a 650b conversion on my bike (going from 700x28 to 650x38) and it totally changed the character of the bike for the better. 650b is a really underrated wheel size.

Hope you really enjoy it!

[kuuttia]

i've done a gravel race on my aeroad. you can fit 30-32mm tires at 700c, don't see the big advantage of losing the aero benefits of a deep wheel for a measly 3-5mm of extra tire. it is of course never going to be a real gravel bike anyway and i think 30-32 is enough for light duty.

You're probably right. I'm sure 30mm GP5000 would fit, but I tried 32mm GP5000 and that was too much. With the 650b I could go 38mm for sure. With the 35mm G-One I'm able to go as low as 45psi which makes the ride really really smooth on gravel. One other point was to keep the 62mm DT Swiss ARC 1100 with the 28mm. Enjoy!

[edwardstemmler]

I would like to revive this old thread to ask for any advice about this setup.

I'm considering 650b wheels to increase clearance on my '22 Aeroad so I can partake in rougher gravel races. I currently run a road wheelset (aero, 25mm measured width) or a 700c gravel wheelset (33mm measured width) with adequate clearance and great success.

The rationale is that I do not want to purchase another bike. I mainly race on the road. My Aeroad setup is fast, dialed, and comfortable. I've been very pleased with how well the bike rides with the 700c 33mm tires, so I am wondering if I can go even wider as allowed by 650b. I don't run a front derailleur and, estimating by caliper, I imagine I can get up to 38-40mm, which is as wide as I would want to go before getting on a mountain bike.

Does anyone see major drawbacks of this approach? I don't mind if the frame gets nicked a bit with rocks or whatever.

[spdntrxi]

not