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Donnelly rolls to DK200 on their own new G//C & C//C carbon gravel & cross bikes – Updated

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One could be excused for confusing that Donnelly – the tire company formerly known as Clément – is debuting two all-new, race-ready carbon bikes. But the G//C for gravel & C//C for cyclocross bikes continue the racing development Donnelly has been pouring their heart into over the last decade. From developing cross, gravel & adventure tires, to tubeless wheelsets, the Donnelly team breathes drop bar racing, so developing their own bikes seemed a logical step. Updated with weights!

Donnelly carbon G//C gravel & C//C cyclocross bikes

Since 2009 company founder Donn Kellogg has designed & produced a wide range of conditions-specific cyclocross and adventure gravel racing tires. Those airport code named tires have developed a strong following, suiting a wide range of terrain. While not making tires, Donn & brand manager Brandon Dwight can be found at the races, competing on the bike or supporting those who are racing. So they felt that developing a set of “world class frames” was just a logical next step.

To make that huge leap, the company brought Rolf Singerberger of RS Development onboard. Rolf brought with him years of bike design experience from running development at both BMC & Merckx. His management and experience with carbon frames is what got the project off the ground.

Donnelly G//C gravel carbon race bike frameset

The G//C gravel bike will be the first to see its official debut racing the Dirty Kanza this weekend under pro crosser Jamey Driscoll.

The hi-modulus carbon G//C gravel frame blends geometry to come to a happy medium of gravel race or even weekend group road ride handling.

That gives the bike a 71.5° head angle paired with a slightly taller headtube, 67mm of BB drop, 435mm chainstays, and a 73.5° seattube.

The 12mm thru-axle, flat mount disc gravel frame was designed to fit a 45mm tire on a 700c wheel, or to be able to run a 650b wheel with up to a 50mm/2″ tire. It also gets full rack and fender mounts, in addition to a third bottle cage mount under the downtube.

The gravel racing G//C frameset will sell for $2000 with a five size range (XS-XL), and comes only in a gloss sand tan finish. Frame weight including all the alloy bits – hanger, cable guides, front derailleur mount, and even all the bottle & rack bolts like in the picture above is claimed at 1280g for a medium. The uncut carbon fork adds another 490g.

Donnelly C//C cyclocross carbon race bike frameset

The C//C cyclocross bike will also be floating around Emporia at the DK200 expo area in Donnelly’s booth. But it will be a couple of months ’til cross season is underway for its racing debut.

The hi-mod carbon C//C cross frame promises precise race-specific geometry with 72°/73.5° head/seattube angles & 64mm of BB drop, efficient power transfer through 425mm chainstays, and plenty of mud clearance around the tires for racing in any conditions.

It’s said to have the same 45mm tire clearance (and 650b compatibility) as the gravel frame.

Frame weight for the cross bike also includes the alloy bits – rear derailleur hanger, cable guides, front derailleur mount, and the bottle bolts at 1090g for a medium in black, plus 530g for the uncut carbon fork. Unsurprisingly (although nice that they shared it with us), that light blue requires a good bit more paint and adds another 40g to the frame & 10g to the fork.

While many cyclocross bikes are too stiff to cross over even for training, Donnelly claims the C//C is more vertically compliant in the rear end to make it comfortable on long distance rides as well. The frame gets a 12x142mm thru-axle rear paired to Donnelly’s won hi-mod tapered steerer fork, also with a 12mm thru-axle and flat mounts for disc brakes. While the cross bike builds are 1x only, the frame has a removable front derailleur hanger and traditional under the bottom bracket cable routing or is Di2 ready.

The C//C cross frameset will sell for $2000 for frame, fork, internal headset, and seatpost clamp. It comes in five stock sizes (XS-XL) and two color schemes – all black or an “Amy D blue” that we suspect will share a bit of the proceeds with the Amy D foundation to support young women racers in honor of late cross racer Amy Dombroski.

Complete Bike Builds & Availability

Besides the bare framesets of each of the new bikes, Donnelly will also be offering them in complete builds spec’ed with SRAM groups, FSA components, and of course Donnelly’s own Ushuaia wheels & appropriate tires – tubeless ready X’plor MSO 700x40mm for gravel & tubeless ready MXP 700 x 33mm for cross.

Both the G//C Rival and C//C Rival completes will sell for $3000 with the standard Ushuaia wheels. The G//C Force and C//C Force will sell for $4000 and upgrade also to Ushuaia SL wheels. Donnelly weighed a couple of complete bikes in their office for us, with a G//C Force coming in at 8.6kg/18.9lb and a C//C Force at 7.9kg/17.5lb.

Framesets or complete bikes can be pre-ordered now directly through Donnelly’s website. The frames will be available to customers by the end of June either consumer direct or through select bike shops. Complete bikes will be available by mid-July.

DonnellyCycling.com

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Kernel Flickitov
Kernel Flickitov
5 years ago

“…. so developing their own bikes seemed a logical step.”

Don’t see many tire companies making frame sets. Wether that is “logical” move or not is yet to be determined. Sure they tried wheels in the past, cheap entry level aluminum only available as OEM on some complete bikes, but where are they now? Innovation is great, but a company has to know it’s limits. Donnelly, stick to tires. It’s what you do best.

blah blah blah
blah blah blah
5 years ago

yeah but if FMB put some stickers on some generic frame set, everyone would behave like its the second/or is that third coming of you know who

Kernel Flickitov
Kernel Flickitov
5 years ago
Reply to  blah blah blah

Sure, maybe in Europe. If you’re US based nobody gives a sh!t about FMB except for industry rats.

Steve @ Gears 4 Good
5 years ago

Anyone want to talk about that FSA WE groupset with hydraulic disc brakes? They only show standard road rim brakes on their website.

Hexsense
Hexsense
5 years ago

Why do they lift the Bottom bracket so high?
BB drop of only 67mm in Gravel and 64mm in cross sound really high. Think about this, Tarmac SL6 has 74-72mm drop depend on the size. And that is on the bike that intended to use smaller tyres (which is no where as tall as Gravel tyre) and already designed to work well pedaling through corners in racing and crits which demand higher bb (less bb drop).

For cross, high BB may make sense. But why compromise stability of their Gravel frame with that high BB?

Kris
Kris
5 years ago
Reply to  Hexsense

67mm seems high, but if you plan or running 650b which the gravel frame is designed to take, it makes sense at that point. It’s a compromise for sure.

Morgan
Morgan
5 years ago

Well, if you’re going to rip off another company’s design, the Santa Cruz Stigmata is a pretty solid starting point.

VeloKitty
VeloKitty
5 years ago

> But why compromise stability of their Gravel frame with that high BB?

Let me tell you a secret… 5 mm, or even 10 mm, doesn’t matter.

blah blah blah
blah blah blah
5 years ago
Reply to  VeloKitty

nor 15 or 20

troykatt
5 years ago

I have never heard a positive comment come out of a Bikerumor article. I think that you all need to try a new saddle, it might make you a little nicer.

beradish
5 years ago
Reply to  troykatt

Troykatt, yours is the best comment I have ever seen on Bikerumor.

Tom Crean
Tom Crean
5 years ago

These look killer. Right combo of features and clean aesthetic at a respectable price (I’m looking at you, OPEN). Chapeau!

Eggs Benedict a.k.a Darth Baller
Eggs Benedict a.k.a Darth Baller
5 years ago

Nice geometry numbers, looks like they did their homework.

TI NO
5 years ago

Interesting frame, one more on my list of possible frames for a roadbike-rando-gravel-tourer (aside of niners RDO 9 RLT and Rodeos Traildonkey; still have to compare geometry-details).

Likes:
– rack mounts
– classic seatpost clamp and common diameter
– additional bolt underneath (i would use this for a toolbox)
– still 2x ready
– its not ugly and without dominant company-logos

Not so likes:
– that color
– pressfit BB

Questions:
– Is that flatmount on the fork? Looks like a flat postmount?
– Has anybody found some frame-weights?
– Or weight limits on that rack mounts?

typevertigo
typevertigo
5 years ago
Reply to  TI NO

Flat Mount on the fork. In most cases (as with this one), a Flat Mount caliper has to be bolted onto an adapter plate first. That adapter plate then is bolted onto the fork leg.

The adapter plate can usually be flipped to accommodate either a 140 mm or 160 mm rotor.

Sean
Sean
5 years ago

Perfect! Another “new” bike. Wake me up when someone makes something “new” How long til they go back to just making tires and scrap the bike idea. Demand gets high, production/ quality goes in the crapper cause it’s some overseas bargain carbon warehouse and they end up just in the tire game, where they should stay. Don’t try telling me cause their Brand Manager ran a mediocre bike chain in the bubble he’s going to pull off a brand new bike launch, give it time, back to tires… The open mold will be on eBay soon enough.

Brandon Dwight
5 years ago
Reply to  Sean

Now, now. Be nice. At least give us a chance. You never know what happen! (BTW, I think my shops were a bit more than mediocre, but I’m a bit biased.)

Sean
Sean
5 years ago
Reply to  Brandon Dwight

Everyone loves their own blend… bookmark this page “Dubba”, we’ll be back here one day sooner than later and see the predicted outcome. Maybe you guys get lucky and some box brand will buy your mold and start selling them at Performance or REI. Congrats?

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