When Robin came to us he wanted to dip his toe into the gravel scene and see what the fuss is about. Not wanting to stray to far down the rabbit hole, what better way to go than our All-Road Groad bike the Mamtor.

To date the largest tyre Robin had ever ran was a 28mm and he was curious what a bigger tyre with more volume could bring to the table. For years road bikes had been his bread and butter, but what if we gave Robin a bike that was still going to cruise dreamily on the tarmac, but would happily gobble up some of his local dirt roads without even the blink of an eye.

To many the idea of running a 35c tyre for general road duties has become standard, but old traditions die hard, and with the pro peloton only just daring to go 28mm it’s been a hard sell to many. But those who’ve know, know right? After all, we’re not all pros.

Having settled on 35s for all-round road and gravel duties we set about putting together a build that would complement our chosen style of All-Road. Thinking hard about the groupset we opted for a traditional 2x setup but taking advantage of some big gears for when the road gets rough. 50/34 up front and an 11-34 on the rear gives us a nice 1:1 climbing ratio, perfect for gravel ascents where poor traction favours those who can climb seated.

Of course electronic shifting was the way to go with such a build, giving us faultless crisp shifts no matter the conditions and allowing us to tuck all the cables inside, aiding the cleaning when the bike comes back from the rough stuff.

The ever popular Kassite I finish from the Paint Haus rounds this build off perfectly with it’s fades for days and subtle copper front end fleck. All in all another head turner of a build.

• Custom Quirk Cycles frameset

• Columbus Life tubing

• Columbus Futura Gravel Disc Fork

• Shimano Ultegra Di2 Disc Groupset

• Pro Vibe controls

• Chris King Red Headset and Matte Turquoise BB

• Hunt Gravel 30 Wheels

Photos by Nikoo Hamzavi