Peak District Gravel on the Mercian Ventura

New Mercian disc-braked frames are hand built using the Bear Frame Supplies flat mount dropouts. Bear are tucked away on a farm deep in the White Peak, there they CNC machine a range of steel frame building components: dropouts, bottom bracket shells, headtubes.

Mercian work with a number of British suppliers, primarily Reynolds whose steel tubes make the short journey up from Birmingham. One benefit of working with local companies is that Framebuilder Tim could take the chance to head out on the Ventura All-road bike to go and pick up the next batch of dropouts. An ideal opportunity to capture some video of the Ventura out on the gravel trails of the Peak District (ideal apart from the weather...)

The Ventura is built with a Columbus Carbon fork and this one finished with a Shimano GRX 1 x 12 Di2 groupset, Mavic wheels and Schwalbe G-One 700x40C tyres. After some testing and rider feedback new Ventura frames will be built with Reynolds 853 steel, reducing the frame weight, and with more clearance to be able to run 700 x 47C tyres to cope with more lumpy gravel.

This one is painted in #13 Golden Bronze Polychromatic with a matt finish and matched the autumn colours along the lanes and tracks. If you haven’t already you can choose your favourite colour on the Custom Frame Paint Configurator and experiment with  various designs and colour combinations.

Each frame can be custom made to your measurements to ensure a perfect fit. The geometry can also be adjusted to place the Ventura exactly where you want it on the Gravel Spectrum, whether it’s a fast gravel racer or a reliable off-road explorer. The frame can be built for your choice of gearing system: one or two chainrings; mechanical, electric or wireless shifting.

The route took him from the Workshop out of Derby on the off-road Canal and Riverside paths, before heading over to Ashbourne on the road to pick up the  Tissington Trail into the Peak District National Park and then navigate some more gravel trails dropping down into Millers Dale before climbing up again to Tideswell and Bear HQ. The Ventura is the ideal bike for this sort of trip with the bigger tyres providing plenty of comfort  and grip on the trails, but still rolling easily and quickly on the tarmac sections.

Watch the full video here:

Mercian gravel ride on the Ventura up to Bear Frame Supplies