Originally Posted by
Nitrius
Hello.
Looking to venture into the gravelbike world.
About two months ago I bought a hybrid bike(Scott Sub Cross 30), and fell in love with biking, probably 10-15 years since I did it last.
Anyway, been looking at the Specialized Diverge, what do the people on here think about the bike?
Will mainly be used for commuting to work, about 10km each way, which consist of about 80% road and 20% dirt/gravel and some recreational riding in my spare time, which probably will consist of 50/50 road/offroad biking.
As stated in the title, never used drop handlebars before, but i've had some testrides with bikes that have it now recently in shops around where I live, and it's for sure a different experience from what i've used too.
I know there are a lot of other gravelbikes around as well, but they are hard to find these days, I firstly fell in love with the Scott Speedster Gravel 30 and Scott Addict Gravel 30, mainly because of the color scheme, but they are nowhere to be found around my area at the moment.. So i'am open for other brands as well, but so far the color scheme on the Specialized Diverse Sport Carbon have caught my attention.
It is a really nice bike. I have 2nd generation, in the aluminum frame, no future shock, and I still love that bike. Other than the name, very little has stayed the same however. BB height is only marginally higher in this iteration (2.5mm), but most other geometry comparisons are different. Mine was virtually an endurance road bike that took slightly larger tires. Short rear stays, same head tube angle as a traditional road bike, etc. I can probably squeeze 35's in front...maybe 34 behind. I've got 32's that measure close to 33 and some change with room to spare. It handles gravel well, for it's given tire limitations just fine. The typical rails-to-trails crushed limestone is really quite in its element. Rough pavement, just fine. The new Diverge takes really a huge tire...unless you are tip toeing over a lot of exposed root/rock on your off road gambits, you should be in good shape.
The future shock is a really nice feature that while I don't have it on the Diverge, I do have it on it's carbon cousin the Roubaix. Takes the edge off nicely.