My first experience was building a titanium gravel bike. I brought in the gravel bike I was riding at the time, and a custom road bike that is extremely comfortable to ride. I wanted this Alchemy gravel bike to be as comfortable as my road bike, but could also handle gravel roads like the current gravel bike but also go off the beaten path like a mountain bike. While I didn't need for this new gravel bike to handle technical mountain bike trails, I wanted it to handle single track that had some roots and rocks. What ended up being built was an amazing and comfortable gravel bike that was extremely versatile, stable, and rowdy-FUN! I couldn't be happier with the entire process and I absolutely love my gravel bike! My first experience was great, that I went back when I was looking to upgrade my mountain bike. Alchemy was the ONLY bike shop that had demo bikes. While I would be more comfortable on a small frame, the Arktos 130, that has 'flip chip' where the back wheel could be swapped between 27.5 and 29, the medium frame with the smaller wheel made this bike easy to ride. I'm barely 5'4" and the Arktos 130 mixed wheel pedals easy uphill, goes up and over and down stuff easily with the bigger wheel upfront, but easy to get through turns with the smaller wheel in the back. It feels like it hugs the trail with ease making the flowy stuff fun and fast! N+1!!