LONGTERM

£1850 ( frame) › Senior tech ed Warren continues his love affair with the Tripster

Techinal editor Warren Rossiter continues his love affair with his Kinesis Tripster ATR V2. It comes as a frameset, so Warren has beefed it up with choice kit, including Lauf’s Grit fork.

Ihad the original Tripster ATR in 2012 and have since updated to the V2, which takes both 700c and 650b wheels. It features stronger custom tubing, plus a top-tube with a !attened underside to appeal to the backpacking end of the drop-bar market. It also has !at mounts for disc brakes, although I’m still running the SRAM Force 1 from my V1 Tripster ATR via a post-mount adaptor. The dropouts are switchable so can be used with either 9x135mm quick-release or a 12x142mm thru-axle.

Recently I’ve added a Lauf Grit fork (£700) [1]. The massive carbon unit features an o"set front axle that joins to the fork leg via 12 #bre-glass ‘blades’, creating a leaf-spring with 30mm of travel. In its natural state it sags by around 6-10mm so the front of the bike feels only slightly taller than before.

The new Reynolds ATR 650 carbon wheels and luxurious Compass Babyshoe Pass TC tyres [2] combine for a masterful ride in the rough. That said, I also borrowed a set of Reynolds ATR 700 ‘full-size’ wheels and ran them with 40mm Boken tyres, a slimmer, more treaded prototype gravel tyre from IRC. Both sets were run tubeless. However, while the ATR 650/Babyshoe Pass pairing was airtight, the ATR 700/ Boken one lost pressure if left unchecked. Still, the Boken tyres’ #le-tread centres means rapid progress on tarmac and hard-packed dirt, and the softer shoulder knobs o"er plenty of cornering grip and bite in damp conditions.

I’ve enjoyed what the ATR has become, but I’ve added over a kilo with the big tyres and bouncy fork, so I may return to a lighter, rigid carbon fork for the winter.