I’ve been asking myself this a lot. I really want to love my ‘16 Kona Roadhouse even just half as much as I do my ‘86 Trek 770. I don’t.
Tires do make a ton of difference.
my “gravel” bike has become the Roadhouse when it’s with 32c Paselas. It has a 72 deg headtube
my Roadie is the Trek with 25c Corsas. It has a 74 deg headtube. Also it’s a lot more flexible.
I haven’t yet looked at the trail difference to totally say that geo is doing something to me. Their stack and reach aren’t far off. I’ve done everything I can to make the bb-bars-saddle relationship close to identical between the two bikes.
Even with the Corsas on the Kona, no matter how hard I hammer it, how much time I spend in the perfect tuck, I am slower on it than I am on the Trek.
Getting off of a 100miler on the Kona and being ready to pass out and just taking the beat up old Trek to grab some groceries, I feel ready to hammer out another hundred miles. If I do the opposite, I find I’d rather walk to the store.
I think that some of it is the tires, but more of it is (I don’t know which) in either the modern fork’s extra stiffness fighting back at every pedal stroke or the slack geometry that asks your legs “what’s the rush? Why not sit up and ease back for a bit”
20%? I don’t think it’s that much. My trying-to-snap-the-cranks-off-on-the-Kona times are only about 2-5% longer than my having-fun-on-the-Trek times on the same routes. I’d sure love to experiment with some powermeter pedals to have an answer before I give up on the Kona and try having Waterford build me a wide-tire-clearing copy of my Trek.
Last edited by hsuBM; 08-02-20 at 03:48 PM.