A friend of mine recently sent me this link of a locally made (?) gravel bike frame being sold as a fully built bike. The bike looks nice, but the page lacks a lot of info.
As of writing the Marbel Vibro gravel bike I linked above is still on sale for around PhP25k+ which is a pretty affordable price if you factor in what components are used. While it does offer two sizes, I have no idea what the geometry of each size is. I recently realized that stack and reach might be better metrics for measuring if I'll be good on a bike or not. Effective top tube might not be a good enough metric to see if I can ride comfortably on a bike.
Good thing my friend is more sensible than me. He also researches stuff better and he basically told me I'd probably be downgrading the frame if I do get the bike. He does make a good point since we're both not sure how well the frame is made, what the frame is made of (though he did say it could be an alloy bike), and the geometry of the bike.
So after a couple of hours doing back and forth in our chat I decided to just stick to my original plan of trying to save up for my original upgrades, better wheelset, better branded cassette, and narrower tires.
I am still targeting tubeless ready rims, and a better brand for my either 11-50 or 11-46 cassette. I'm sticking to either 32 or 35mm Panaracer Gravel Kings for my tires, or something of a similar width. Maybe if I save enough I can even change my chainring to either a 44T or 46T from my current 42T, though I have no idea why I want to get a bigger chainring. I have a weaker riding stamina now than before, though I can still cruise at around 20 kmh along the Service Road. I do feel my quads burning along the "false flat" section going back home but I was averaging around 18 kmh or so.
So yeah, a 35m wide, gravel ready tire on tubeless ready rims with an 11-50T cassette and a 46T chainring is probably going to be my next bike upgrade. Most likely along with a better bike saddle, if I'm being honest.
Out.
