Thx for the great feedback!

Fantastic bike!

Glad to hear that this can be set up as a 2x. This is a requirement for my riding.

Great build! Sounds awesome. Two little ones myself, ‘opportunistic’ is such a great way to describe it. Get those miles in when you can!

Are 27.5x2.1 tires the maximum size for this frame and fork? Or maybe 27.5x2.2 possible?

Officially 650b x 2.0, but could vary with rim and tire combo

Too kind! I hope so too.

Nice! Sold on steel then? Fascinating about the cable issue. I just don’t see it being as big a deal as some make it out to be. Right, you could just add a length of housing as a sleeve and call it a day.

Hey Alex - What size front chainring and cassette did you decide to use with your SRAM Rival system (and how do you feel about it)? I am considering a similar Outback v2 build/use case with a 36t in the front and a SRAM 12spd 10-52t in the back.

Sounds super nice!

Thanks for watching. You won’t be disappointed I think (if you can source one right now)

Oh my, what an awesome build. Green or sunburst?

Thank you kindly! I had briefly considered Campagnolo Ekar 1 x 13, but Shimano GRX 1x is so reliable on my current bike, I decided to stay with it. As for colour: I saw both the green and sunset frames that belonged to other customers at my LBS. Looking at just pics, I would've said green. But having seen the sunset, that's cool too, in an '80's, kitschy way LOL. I told my LBS that whichever colour comes in first in my size in their next shipment, I'll take it! :)

Niiiiice! Happy nbd

I'm also hesitating between M and S. I'm 1,70 m. Could you tell me your height as a guide?

@@olivierpicon1860 hi, 168cm. Running an 80mm stem. Zero offset post. Been trialling a 90mm stem, also good. Bars are a Pro discover reach is 65mm.. extra stack with the medium works well for me. Hope that helps 🙏

@@andrewhamilton3486 thank you very much. It helps indeed.

Sorry to bother you again. I'm almost sold on getting an M like you. Just wanted to know: don't you have problems with the standover height? Thank you in advance.

Right on!

Dude. Baller!

Ohh right. Looks like you’ve read his new book? Fantastic overview of all things all-road. Thanks for watching

@@TheBikeSauce Right! It is a nice book for sure and I'm loving those tires. If you haven't yet, give those a try!🙂

Rene Herse tires are on the (ongoing) wishlist 😆

@@TheBikeSauce Just arrived from a ride with a old school Panasonic mc 6500 with Rat Trap Tires and am still smiling.😍

Legendary. Late 80s or very early 90s, right?

Right on. Heard great things about the Nicasio. I have a ton of respect for cyclists who ‘earn’ their upgrades by starting basic and learning what components actually improve the ride experience. Too many riders going straight for the top shelf these days.

I think pretty much every branded frame has logo text on it?

Ha, right on!

Well..... Don't talk to loud, so they maintain the affordable price!!!!!

😆

Right on. 2 different bikes for sure, both are pretty awesome

Thx. Others have the same concern, but it’s easy enough to run full housing yourself if needed.

Bad idea. Hidden cables make it difficult to work on a bike.

Yes! congrats! Green or Sunset fade? Tough question for sure.

@@TheBikeSauce Had no choice, green or nothing! :-)

There’s no wrong choice

Yea interesting comparison. They both do well in off road stuff, but I have to say the Outback plows through the chunk with more confidence. The diverge (as with many modern all road bikes) adopts the short chain stays which I suppose improved road responsiveness, but the longer stays improve off-road stability. Regarding weight, the Outback is actually (marginally) lighter than my carbon diverge! The outback’s butted tubing is really a testament to great material design and the older stigma of steel = heavy can be put to rest. Could probably do a whole video on this, but overall I’d say the Outback favors riders who like 50/50 split of road and gravel, whereas a bike like the diverge seems a bit more biased toward road, but still off road capable.

@@TheBikeSauce Sounds like my initial sense of intended purpose for my own bike wasn’t a bad selection. The reality is that, given my location and Tri-goals, leaning towards road with off road options wasn’t too off base. There are only thousands of options to pick from that ultimately I had a budget, and bought from the local cycle shop I liked best. Thank you for helping me see a bit into the world of Richey!

Big difference is Diverge has tire clearance issues. Depending on rims best I can do is 35mm. Wider is more comfortable on gravel my Salsa Vaya has 45s. Steel nice ride on gravel . Mine have road cranks. Pitched that weenie compact stuff

Inseam is roughly 29-30”. Short legs. Consider checking out @pathlesspedaled recent video on bike sizing between sizes. Sounds like you’re #smedium too!

Nice - a Ritchey lineup! No problems putting a flat bar on. If they're going to be really wide, then perhaps consider a shorter stem, but that's about it. Would be a unique build for sure

😆 didn’t know that was specific to the Fullerton vernacular

@@TheBikeSauce a lot of fullerton roads are in desperate need of repair.

Haha got it.

Beginner or not, it all depends on what type of riding you’ll favor. 1x is honestly sufficient for 90% of riders in my opinion. I’d go with a midrange group, similar to grx600 or the bulletproof 105. No need to drop toms of cash on a high end group set. Better places to spend money on the bike in my opinion.

Thanks for the feedback!

Phenomenal Review - where can you get this bike fully built ?

I don’t think they offer it as a full built. It’s fun to build it up from the frame though!

Nice, I think I could go either way. Just prefer riding smaller frames. Not sure how to measure arm length exactly, but fingertip to shoulder joint is about 28-29"

Yea this bike was setup with a Ritchey finishing kit. Bars are VentureMax. Really great bars for mixed terrain riding

Mm. Bummer. When they come back in stock on Ritchey’s site, perhaps jump on one then?

Thx. Haven’t ridden the Swiss cross, but geo chart would suggest it would be a little less relaxed and more nimble.

Thx for watching. Yea I’m always on the border between small and medium, but I generally prefer the small for better control. Stem is not extended, and fit tends more toward upright rather than hunched and stretched out

Thx for watching

Too.. supple..?

It’s a Lead Out bar bag

Appreciate the kind words!

Can’t say exactly, but it had GRX 600 1x, and Ritchey finishing kit. Best guess between $2800-$3200 out the door. I don’t have any experience on Fairlight frames (yet 😆), but they’re in the same genre

Until you get on the road, then a mtn bike is a dud. I ride on roads/gravel to smooth single track. Gravel bikes can't be beat for that.

That weight was with the hunt carbons and gravel king sk (43mm) tubeless. Probably marginally heavier with the zeta alloys.

Thanks for the prompt reply!

Haha yea slim pickings right now. Best of luck. Bug your local shops persistently haha

I bought a ritchey logic. Most comfortable bike I've ever rode. If you're not competing seriously, go with steel. The durability and comfort can't be beat.

Happy belated NBD!

If you saw the raw footage, you'd see that I really need them 😆

Great plan, but may as well go wider for road rides. I might run a 700c x 38 tubeless for dedicated road efforts. Will be just as fast as high pressure skinnies but far more comfortable

Outback crushed the Floop. Could probably handle more depending on how spicy you’re feeling

I’m 5’8” and I actually think the test bike was a small

The Ritchey was a bike sent over for review. I returned it after the review period was up. The Diverge is my personal bike. Very different bikes, but both aspire to be a do-it-all machine and both do it all pretty well. If I had to summarize in a line, I might say the Diverge is all-road capable, but slightly more road oriented and more nimble, while the Outback is more dirt oriented and more stable

Yeah, me too. Did you miss the future shock??

Yea interesting comparison, but I do have direct experience 😆. If you look at the geometry charts, they’re actually somewhat similar, save for the longer stays on the Outback. They both tend somewhat toward upright. Do a comparison on bikeinsights.com and you can see. Regarding the feel, the Outback is surprisingly compliant with the butted steel tubing. The future shock on the diverge definitely adds more compliance for bigger bumps, as it has 20mm of travel, but the feel of the Outback is comparable in terms of muting out the high frequency chatter.

The diverge comes in 9 different tiers all at different price points. Tough to compare costs without knowing which model. Also the Outback isn’t available as a full build

Sounds like a fun project. No first hand experience with force AXS, unfortunately, but I’ve got a couple of detailed 1x vs 2x videos you might check out before you rule out 1x.

@@TheBikeSauce Indeed I already had :-), great stuff. I especially like what you have said about the lower gears ratio on 1x and 2x system. Though I prefer sram eagle to shimano, this is exactly what shimano is doing better. Anyway: 1x or 2x? I do intend to climb a bit as well as do some long distance flat rides, so I am certain -- I know my hills :-) -- I really need those extra gears for climbing. For me it comes down to this: If 1x, I need eagle range + drop down bars => sram AXS eagle + sram Red/Force AXS shifters + crankset (40 or 42t) to get me the range I want -- no way how to do this with shimano or anyone else I guess? And hence no cables at all. If 2x, I have plenty of options and probably both shimano or sram or anything else decently priced will do the job, no need for AXS there. I definitely consider myself being a smile-per-mile guy, so the exact right cadence and power output are ... not so important. I also love my 1x drivertrain on my Ritchey P-29er since the simplicity and performance is great, however, I do commute on my bike every day and riding the same gears all the time means new gx eagle cassette every year. 2x system will provide more options (more-or-less same ratios across the gear range) and thus less wear overall. But really thanks, your videos made me think it through -- I am writing my own gear-ratio comparison tool now -- just prefer matplotlib to matlab :-) -- and I will go for 1x mullet build with AXS eagle and AXS Force shifters (Red being too pricey). Again, thanks a lot and keep up!

Great! Sounds like you’ve done your research!

You can probably make it work fine. I prefer slightly smaller bike but I could’ve gone either way too

This was a fully built demo unit sent over by Ritchey . In general they only sell frame sets

It does depend on the rim width, but I'd say you could easily stuff a 50mm in there without fenders.

Ha, every bike can be ridden on gravel, but that doesn't mean every bike is FUN on gravel. Perhaps I may try a Road Logic for a while, but a key difference includes 700c x 30 upper limit on tire width on the Road Logic. Makes sense for a pure road bike, but even then, all the science points to wider being faster (even on the road). Then the much shorter chainstays and steeper headtube angle all orient the bike as a quick-handling, nimble road machine. I imagine it would make for some very white-knuckled descents down chunkier off-road stuff, but this is speculation.

@@TheBikeSauce I can squeeze some Continental 700x32s on my Road Logic but it is a close fit.

Ha, I still have the diverge. This is a review bike loaned to me by Ritchey. At 5’8”, it’s kind of the border between small and medium, but I prefer to ride a smaller frame

Haha interesting request from a lot of people since they’re very different bikes. Perhaps I’ll do a comparison, but it would be very apples to oranges. As far as speed, practically speaking, the Outback is as fast as any other bike. 99% of speed is a function of rider power and position on bike. Differences between bikes will be mostly in handling characteristics.

Perhaps, but I think I’d few too stretched out

@@TheBikeSauce thanks. Any thoughts on the ritchey ascent yet??

Video in the works. Either this week or the following week. Thanks!

Maybe 5’9” and taller, but it’s down to preference as wel

@ritcheydesign is announcing something big on Monday.. maybe keep tabs on their page! 💁‍♂️

@@TheBikeSauce woah thanks for the heads up!!

They couldn’t be more different, really hard to compare. Depends on how you ride a bike

Outershell half frame bag

the best cycling metric!

@@TheBikeSauce If you’re not already using that as a catchphrase, claim it and run with it! Best of luck.

Usually 40 or 42cm

Ha pretty loaded question. I’d say Swisscross for miles per hour, Outback for smiles per mile

Thanks for responding. I know the Swiss is racier and more agile so wouldn’t that be better for getting around obstacles and overall maneuverability etc? The outbacks more upright and relaxed geometry does sound appealing considering I already own a Road Logic. Thanks!

To a degree, but the point of stretched out slacker geo is to add stability on chunky off road descents. In my experience, ‘agile’ on the road can translate to twitchy and unpredictable off road. Outback I think favors the off road stuff and behaves decently well on the road.

I have a Swiss Cross with a 2X GRX group. It is one of the best bikes I've ever owned (road, mountain, or gravel). I chose it because my rides are a mix of paved and dirt roads, but it can handle the worst of the off road stuff. But, for really long adventures (and if you need racks, bags, fenders and the extra bottle cage) I'd say go for the outback.

Mostly within a 30 mile radius of Fullerton, CA

@@TheBikeSauce I figured it might be around Fullerton. I'm from Bakersfield. Lots of gravel out here.

If I can get my hands on one, I’ll review it and report back!

@@TheBikeSauce awesome mate, new sub here and enjoying your content.

Much appreciated!

I think a lot of cyclists consider the new gravel segment to be early 90s mtb w drop bars. Some truth to it, but gravel / all-road is certainly a standalone segment in its own right

I built mine as a mountain bike. 2.1 650b and bullmoose bars. Sub 8kg It’s a weapon 😃

Sure