Can't find a gravel bike in your size? If they get enough interest, the Curve Titanosaur will come to your rescue with 36' wheels.
Melbourne, Australia’s Curve Cycling just launched a crowdfunding project for their new 36″ wheeled gravel bike, the Titanosaur. Far from the first company to buildThey are just looking for 20 people to commit to the project and it’s a go. The funds paid will serve as the deposit for your very own Titanosaur. If the crowdfunding project is successful, the final payment will be due upon delivery in 9-12 months.
SRAM AXS 1 x 12 groupset. Two options: Force / X0 Eagle or Rival / GX Eagle. These “mullet” groupsets mix drop-bar shifting and levers with an MTB crankset, rear derailleur, and cassetteCurve’s standard warranty for titanium frames, carbon forks and rimsThe Titanosaur works best for riders 6′ tall and taller, but with sizes M to 4XL available, the Titanosaur can accommodate riders that range from 5’7″ to 7’3″ tall.
So while the Titanosaur will be ideal for really, really tall riders, shorter riders can still get in on the action – as long as you’re an extrovert. According to Curve, riding a Titanosaur is akin to walking a puppy on the beach – “It’s a great way to meet people and will work faster than any dating app.”A 1400mm wheelbase … so it’ll steer like a dumptruck. But at least the available sizing eliminates around half of adults worldwide.
Going from 700c gravel to 36″ is not the same thing. The difference in rim diameter is an extra 165mm . It’s too much. A quick look at the geo’s and the reach numbers alone are waaayy out of hand. A 5’7″ rider on their smallest bike would need a zero-offset stem. That’s absurd. Add in the fact that a minimum height of 5’7″ eliminates about 1/4 of men and over 3/4 of women from the customer base, I don’t see this thing going anywhere.
750d, on the other hand might actually make sense for gravel. That wheel is 38mm larger than 700c – which is the same change in diameter from 27.5 to 29″ – enough to be very beneficial, but still small enough to work for smaller riders, given the right geo design. I actually have a full size run of preliminary 750d geo’s sitting in my BikeCad file right now, just waiting for the word “go” from the powers that be. That could actually happen.