Am I the only person that finds a road bike more comfortable than an MTB for sustained periods sat in one position?
For the same period of time I find the MTB more comfy but I do ride road bike a lot less and could probably do with messing around with the stem length etc on mine. For any sustained period though I would get a lot further on the road bike.
I use a mtb, but that’s only as my commute is 4 miles in, I tried the road bike but with roadworks for the commonwealth games and constant diversions closures at 4am it wasn’t fun, before that I used an Orange speedworks for 3 years and it was spot on, I know its more flat bar gravel than mtb but was a very capable commuter/canal and trail bike as and when I needed. Unfortunately lost that and trying to source a replacement still after 6 months, I now use a trek x-caliber 7 a cheap HT but it’s done the job well so far but really want to replace the orange with something similar.
Am I the only person that finds a road bike more comfortable than an MTB for sustained periods sat in one position?
I find drop bar bikes more comfortable even for short periods (i.e. an hour).
As for OP, I would just try the gravel bike on the off road parts as it will be fine.
I’d say yes.
Aerodynamics are still the largest reason for the speed differential. On my Scott Spark 920 and Rocket Ron’s I can close almost all of the difference by using clip-on aero bars.
I have a 17 mile road loop I smash out if nothing else is motivating me and I have done that at 19.7mph on the MTB.
Quickest road bike time without clip-ons is only 20.1mph.
Whilst i have a gravel bike, i oddly dont want to ride it off road
Yes that is odd.
(i got it as a more relaxed geo road bike… rightly or wrongly!).
Which is exactly why I bought a Specialized Diverge. At my age and level of (lack of?) fitness I wanted something other than a stretched out race bike. Having bought it I have discovered using it off-road is (unsurprisingly) excellent. I regularly use tracks and bridleways hereabouts to avoid the worst major roads even if what I am doing is predominantly a road ride. Having said that at the beginning of this year I spent the first couple of months exclusively on the MTB in order to work harder than I would have to on the gravel bike.
So it depends what you want. A fast commute or a bit of hard work as training.