A direct competitor worth reviewing is Poseidon’s Ambition X. It’s an all road bike and it seems you tend to enjoy off road with your gravel bikes. Curious how far you can push the X off road or if it really needs to stay on groomed gravel. Great video library! Keep it up.
Its a solid bike, especially if you are able to grab a warehouse deal. The base frame is setup well for upgrades, love the threaded BB and thru axles, but most of the stock components are not bad at all. Big recommendation is to upgrade calipers (essentially unusable), I use State's cable-hydro calipers, and of course a new seat.
Great recommendation. I felt like the brakes were fine for flatter terrain and gravel type rides, but I totally agree to upgrade them at some point if you're going to be doing a lot more trail type riding.
@@RideYearRound Yeah, I don't know if it's a hit or miss situation, but I couldn't get my rear tire to skid after bedding in the stock brakes, so it sounds like your initial experience was improved in that area!
Bought the drop bar 4130 for my son, with the 650b wheelset and i highly recommend getting that spec for the 2.1 tires! You can get cheap 700c wheels easily.... I picked up a (DT, Camyon takeoff) 700c wheelset locally for faster/less chonky rides. Just an fyi, the stock wire bead Barzo tires are not labled for tubeless, but they set up fine. If he rides it enough, I might upgrade further with the carbon fork, brakes and eventually groupset. If he doesn't, it's not a big investment.
I ended up buying the bike from them after the review because I enjoyed it so much so of course now I'm also on the hunt for a 700c set to use for "fast" stuff. I hope your son enjoys it!
Looks like a very capable bike. The latest model of the 4130 All Road can accommodate up to 700c x 2.1" (with the monster v2 fork). On the terrain you were riding, do you think you would prefer your 650b or a 700c at 2.1"?
I understand when bikes are offered in 2 diff wheel sizes, what I don't underatand yet is manufacturers not adjusting their geo to match the wheel sizes IE: L&XL could be a 29er 2inch plus while S&M could be 27.5 2inch plus, the whole having to convert to 650b on a size L and XL still makes no sense to me, bottom bracket drop/height is maybe the limiting factor that I can think of but it's the limiting factore when you drop down to 650b anyways with the recommendation beeing 650x47 the minimum why not provide the clearance for bigger 29er tires to begin with? Maybe that would result in too many diff SKU #'s. I've just never liked the idea of a size L and XL being for taller riders needing what some would say 27.5/650b is for shorter riders to open up tire clearance. It's not a criticism to anything you touched on in the video you have some very well thought out opinions/observations, the whole downsizing to 650b has never made sense to me as far as geometry for wheel size goes
This is a really nice bike at a good price. But why this geometry? These design principles are already a quarter of a century old. I also have a bike with similar data and know what problems you get into.
I had that thought initially, but then I remembered the name of the bike: "all-road". At the core it's a gravel bike, not a mountain bike or even a drop bar mtb, so the geometry is going to seem "old school" if you compare it to modern mountain bikes.
@@RideYearRound yes - that is true - what I can imagine - is a bike in the style of the old Klunker and Cruiser - that were ridden in the repack races - steepen out the seatangle - shorten rearend - having a relatively long geometry - without necessarily being sluggish
There is no such thing as an "ideal" geometry for a muti purpose bike. Like most things in life, it is a matter of making compromises in one area to benefit another. On top of that, every individual rider has their own preferences, so you cannot hope to please everyone. The characteristics of differing frame geometries have been studied for over a century, and are well understood. Pretty much every combination has been tried at some point. People should choose a bike that suits their needs, not buy the wrong bike and then complain the manufacturer chose the wrong specifications.
A direct competitor worth reviewing is Poseidon’s Ambition X. It’s an all road bike and it seems you tend to enjoy off road with your gravel bikes. Curious how far you can push the X off road or if it really needs to stay on groomed gravel.
Great video library! Keep it up.
Thanks! Yeah I’ve reached out to Poseidon about the Ambition X but I’ll try again and see what they say.
Its a solid bike, especially if you are able to grab a warehouse deal. The base frame is setup well for upgrades, love the threaded BB and thru axles, but most of the stock components are not bad at all. Big recommendation is to upgrade calipers (essentially unusable), I use State's cable-hydro calipers, and of course a new seat.
Great recommendation. I felt like the brakes were fine for flatter terrain and gravel type rides, but I totally agree to upgrade them at some point if you're going to be doing a lot more trail type riding.
@@RideYearRound Yeah, I don't know if it's a hit or miss situation, but I couldn't get my rear tire to skid after bedding in the stock brakes, so it sounds like your initial experience was improved in that area!
Thanks for reviewing this bike.
Bought the drop bar 4130 for my son, with the 650b wheelset and i highly recommend getting that spec for the 2.1 tires! You can get cheap 700c wheels easily.... I picked up a (DT, Camyon takeoff) 700c wheelset locally for faster/less chonky rides. Just an fyi, the stock wire bead Barzo tires are not labled for tubeless, but they set up fine.
If he rides it enough, I might upgrade further with the carbon fork, brakes and eventually groupset. If he doesn't, it's not a big investment.
I ended up buying the bike from them after the review because I enjoyed it so much so of course now I'm also on the hunt for a 700c set to use for "fast" stuff. I hope your son enjoys it!
Looks like a very capable bike. The latest model of the 4130 All Road can accommodate up to 700c x 2.1" (with the monster v2 fork).
On the terrain you were riding, do you think you would prefer your 650b or a 700c at 2.1"?
I understand when bikes are offered in 2 diff wheel sizes, what I don't underatand yet is manufacturers not adjusting their geo to match the wheel sizes IE: L&XL could be a 29er 2inch plus while S&M could be 27.5 2inch plus, the whole having to convert to 650b on a size L and XL still makes no sense to me, bottom bracket drop/height is maybe the limiting factor that I can think of but it's the limiting factore when you drop down to 650b anyways with the recommendation beeing 650x47 the minimum why not provide the clearance for bigger 29er tires to begin with? Maybe that would result in too many diff SKU #'s.
I've just never liked the idea of a size L and XL being for taller riders needing what some would say 27.5/650b is for shorter riders to open up tire clearance.
It's not a criticism to anything you touched on in the video you have some very well thought out opinions/observations, the whole downsizing to 650b has never made sense to me as far as geometry for wheel size goes
this is Road bike worthy?
Great bike, BB ,wheels and brakes are trash so buy the frame and build it up, if you are a casual rider, then its probably fine to ride as is.
This is a really nice bike at a good price. But why this geometry? These design principles are already a quarter of a century old. I also have a bike with similar data and know what problems you get into.
I had that thought initially, but then I remembered the name of the bike: "all-road". At the core it's a gravel bike, not a mountain bike or even a drop bar mtb, so the geometry is going to seem "old school" if you compare it to modern mountain bikes.
@@RideYearRound yes - that is true - what I can imagine - is a bike in the style of the old Klunker and Cruiser - that were ridden in the repack races - steepen out the seatangle - shorten rearend - having a relatively long geometry - without necessarily being sluggish
There is no such thing as an "ideal" geometry for a muti purpose bike. Like most things in life, it is a matter of making compromises in one area to benefit another. On top of that, every individual rider has their own preferences, so you cannot hope to please everyone. The characteristics of differing frame geometries have been studied for over a century, and are well understood. Pretty much every combination has been tried at some point. People should choose a bike that suits their needs, not buy the wrong bike and then complain the manufacturer chose the wrong specifications.