Tuesday, December 27, 2022

Bikes Of 2022: Noble Bikes GX5

 It's the end of the year and time to review what's up with the bikes I used over the course of 2022. You'll get a brief overview, any changes made, and what the future has in store for each bike listed. Enjoy!

The Noble Bikes GX5 started out as a review bike for RidingGravel.com back in 2019. For some odd reason it seems that I've had this bike longer than that, but there it is. 2019 was when it showed up here. 

Of course, that means that the Standard Disclaimer applies to this bike. I realize how fortunate I am to have a bicycle of this caliber available for me to ride. trust me, I think about that often as I would not have been eyeing a carbon fiber bike had it not been for this rig appearing in my life. 

Also, it is by extension, an evolution of the bike I advised Raleigh to make in 2012, as Mark Landsaat, the owner of Noble Bikes, was one of the engineers on the Raleigh Tamland project and took those ideas to use on the GX5. The Tamland and GX5 are almost identical in terms of geometry. So, it stands to reason that I'd have a liking for the GX5 and to be honest, it is probably right up there in terms of my favorites of all the bikes I've had. 

The GX5 as it stands today.

I've also swapped out everything on this bike except the head set. It was a SRAM bike when I received it, but now it is a Shimano GRX equipped bike. The seat post, bars, saddle, and even the bottom bracket are all different from when I got this bike here. 

Changes? there may be several, or hardly any at all. This kind of depends upon the whims of what comes in for review at RidingGravel.com. The Noble is my "test mule" for the site, so this is why it gets all these new parts on it all the time. 

For a carbon fiber bike, it is holding up pretty well, I think, but I also know that at some point it will need replacing. I've been keeping an eye out for replacements, actually, because you just never know with a carbon bike when it might fail due to impacts from rocks, or worse! But the reality is that it probably will be here next year for this same rundown of my bikes. Because I love riding it, and I see no reason now why I would stop riding it.

Stay tuned for more Bikes Of 2022 soon!

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