Bike for the Alps

[weedram]

I have a bit of a dilemma.

Off to the alps next week and only room in the car for one bike.

I was originally going to take my newly acquired GT Grade adventure bike and 2 sets of wheels. 1 set with the 28mm road tyres for road cycling and 1 with a set of 32mm cross tyres for some off road. I am a roadie with only very limited off road skills.

I found out last week that there is a cyclosportive starting and finishing in our town (Les Menuires), so I have signed up for the 137km ride, which has 4200m of climbing.

My dilemma is the Grade weighs 1.3kg more than my road bike at 9.5kg fully set up with pedals, cages etc. Most of that extra weight seems to be in the wheels, which is no surprise with the disc brakes and wider tyres.

With all that climbing in the sportive I am now thinking about just taking the road bike and pretty much forgetting about riding off road.

Thoughts??

[weedram]

That's part of my dilemma. The gearing is not an issue. Lowest gear on the Grade is as you say 36x32. My road bike runs 10S 105 with 36 x 30 as the lowest gear in it's current set up. I can borrow a 12-32 cassette from my son's cross bike which I believe will work with a 105 medium cage rear mech, so in theory the gearing can be identical. The only real difference between the bikes (apart from the brakes) is the weight.

[weedram]

Thanks for all the advice guys.

Decision made.

I have the road bike with me. Having ridden it today for the first time in a couple of weeks (been riding the Grade to get used to it on the road) while following my son's race in Belgium,it is definitely the right decision. I love the Grade, but riding the Colnago again was a revelation, just more responsive, so will absolutely be the best bike on the climbs.

I'll let you know how it goes - wish me luck.

Edited by weedram on Thursday 28th July 21:26