Originally Posted by
JayNYC
The Checkpoint was high on my list as well, but it’s dropped a bit lately…
For starters, there are actually 3 color choices — 2 for men and one for women — at least for the US.
What made the Checkpoint drop on my list was the really low bottom bracket. It sounded great at first, but if you think you might ever put 650B wheels on the bike the low botttom bracket will pretty much make that impossible. I’m now looking at bikes with higher bottom brackets which I can lower somewhat with skinny tires or 650B tires. It just gives me more options.
On the Trek website for the carbon frameset (not the complete bikes), it only shows one color -- a light grey color that they call, "gravel." It's okay but, like you, I would like another option.
As for the low bottom bracket? That's a positive point in my opinion -- one of the primary reasons it makes my list. (A 70mm drop is just a road bike.) I rode gravel bikes for 3 years with a similar drop number -- with 700c x 38 tires. Worked great, even at Dirty Kanza. I occasionally mounted 700c x 28's for the road in the winter. I never had any clearance issues anywhere. And as for going to 650B's? If I recall correctly, a 650B x 47 tire/wheel is the same total diameter as a 700c x 35. (I could be a couple mm's off, but it's very close.) That's why people go to 650B -- a bigger air volume with the same diameter tire/wheel package. A properly sized 650B shouldn't cost you any ground clearance -- unless you decide to go both small and skinny with the tires.
Thanks for the input.