First Look: Sven Cycles Pathfinder 11 Adventure Bike
Custom handmade steel bikepacker from Dorset
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The Pathfinder from Sven Cycles is an adventure bike, a gravel grinder, a bikepacking workhorse or a touring machine, it's whatever you want it to be. Part mountain bike, part touring bike, the steel Pathfinder 11 is good to go in whatever sphere you choose.
Sven Cycles have been building steel bikes in their Dorset workshop, Weymouth to be precise, since 2012. They specialise in custom builds and semi-custom builds based on their current handmade frames. We are taking a look at the Pathfinder, their adventure bike built for long days, lots of miles and plenty of luggage.
The frame and forks are made of Reynolds 921 steel and built for 650B wheels, with plenty of room for beefier tyres. At the front is a specifically built unicrown fork with a 12mm thru axle, matched by a 142mm thru axle at the rear. The guys at Sven Cycles say they work closely with Reynolds, specifying their tubing to the exact millimetre needed.
As standard, the bikes comes with SRAM Apex 1x11 gearing and SRAM Rival chainset. There are DT Swiss wheels with Hope Pro4 hubs to keep you rolling smoothly, shod with Schwalbe G-One tyres. Sven Cycles say the maximum width of tyre for this bike is 56mm/2.2”. To stop the bikes uses SRAM Rival hydraulic discs and finally, the finishing kit comprises of a Salsa Cowchipper handlebar, Thomson stem and seat post and a Hope headset. All in, that little bundle will cost you £3,200, but there are plenty of spec options for a pricier build if the wallet will allow and in this spec the bike weighs in at 11.2kg (24.6lbs). There is also an option for a hub geared version of the bike, that's called the Rohloff Explorer and you can find out more about that here.
Interestingly there are four sizes to choose from, Small, Medium, Large and Extra Large, then within those sizes there are two geometry options to choose from depending on your personal preferences and the purpose of the bike. It's easy enough to get in contact with Darron or Andrew at the brand to find out more and to see what would suit your riding if you were thinking of buying one of these bikes.
The unpainted finish of the Pathfinder is pretty eye-catching and it looks like a pretty capable bike, Dave at road.cc has already ridden this bike from Bath to Minehead and back again so watch out for a review soon!
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