A gravel bike for me has always been a beefy road bike. I had a planet X London Road for a good few years, which was a fantastic gravel bike even though it wasn't a gravel bike....
When that died, I bought a Cotic Cascade, and it was just too much of a MTB, so I ended up turning it into a HT XC bike and it was great. In the end thogh I got rid, bought a Cotic Solaris Max and a Boardman ADV 9.0 which is an awsome gravle bike. Light, stiff, twitchy just like a road bike but can handle light off road. I've done road rides on it and it feels great. I even sold my road bike, I'm not racing though.
I certainly wouldn't want to ride it on the op's route though....
However the over-riding impression (one that I've been forming for the last few big rides) is that at no point did I not miss my faithful old 29er.
This is the conclusion I had every time I rode my 700 x 45mm or 650 x 50mm gravel bikes on majority off-road routes over about 8hrs, and anything like the Ridgeway double or more, never again please. Light XC 29ers (rigid or not, ideally with alt bars) are the tool for the job ime. A bike with drop bars and a road-ish riding position on a long, off-road ride is about wear and tear on the rider, they're fun for a while but in the end you're beat.
I feel the same as most on here. My gravel bike is good on gravel, anything rougher than that and it becomes tiring.
Boardman ADV 9.0 which is an awsome gravle bike. Light, stiff, twitchy just like a road bike but can handle light off road
Yep, have the same - absolutely zero crossover with an MTB, which is what I personally want from a gravel bike
I’m at the start of the West Highland Way - all gravel bike friendly until Inversnaidish,
‘You what....that's simply not true.”
Depends on your take on friendly I guess? I like it.
I’m at the start of the West Highland Way - all gravel bike friendly until Inversnaidish
There's some chap on YouTube who's just done the WHW on a Brompton*
*G-line, but still. And he had some sort of shoulder harness arrangement for the inevitable portage.
I’m at the start of the West Highland Way - all gravel bike friendly until Inversnaidish...
Couple of years back we saw a group of about 12 gravel riders very much enjoying the gravel bike friendly West Highland Way on gravel bikes - the Fort William to Kinlochleven bit (going North to South).
They definitely weren’t finding it dull.
Unfortunate something very sad must have just happened before we arrived because they all looked distinctly ****ing miserable as we cycled past. 🙂
I've been out in Spain for the last 5 weeks and there are 1000s of miles of gravel roads and a gravel bike is definitely the tool for the job, I'm probably going to fit some Cane Creek inverts to my Fustle causeway purely because my wrists are knackered after a motorbike accident
Had a Crux which was a lovely bike but gravel is more or less non existent around me except a disused railway and a track around a reservoir. Bridleways are either too shitty in winter or rock solid with horse ruts in summer in which case I’d rather ride my hardtail.
Traded the Crux for a Cannondale Synapse as it seemed a lot more practical for the riding I do and still capable of light off road and can run up to 42mm tyres if need be but at the moment it’s 32mm tyres for the crap roads around me.
And I’m at that age and decrepitness where I want comfort on my rides.
I see them as a mis-selling scandal, have done for ages. Sadly, there will likely not be any gov compensation scheme for those looking to move back to the 29 HT they should have bought in the first place.
I think I agree.
My do it all bike (Vagabond) on paper is the ultimate rough road gravel. But 4/5 years in and I am still not convinced by curly bars, not convinced by a solid fork and limited tyre sizes.
I do find that 'proper' 2.2/60mm off road tyres make a huge difference. And I find that decent, supple tyre carcasses and properly set pressures make a massive difference. I find proper brakes assist.
But, when the Vagabond finally dies (here is hoping a few years away) I will be on some 29er/hybridish flat bar with bar ends thing with 2.2 tyre clearance and lots of concessions to comfort.
That said, I like my Vagabond and will not change....
A good example is the Corrieyairack pass. I love the aptly named segment “Corrieyairack is for MTBs” I really don’t enjoy it on a gravel bike.
Another one is the Gaik pass. Great on a gravel bike apart from the Loch an Duin singletrack path. However if you take your mountain bike and come back over Dromochter pass you start wishing you were on a gravel bike after you cross the A9.
I’m at the start of the West Highland Way - all gravel bike friendly until Inversnaidish,
‘You what....that's simply not true.”
Depends on your take on friendly I guess? I like it.
Last week, we joined the WHW at Drymen heading south and, walkers and puddles aside, that section was a gravel bike delight. Maybe it's different between Drymen and Inversnaid?
I've ridden Inversnaid to Drymen on my touring bike-with-knobblies. I'd say it was the perfect option (I did skip Conic Hill though).
A good example is the Corrieyairack pass. I love the aptly named segment “Corrieyairack is for MTBs” I really don’t enjoy it on a gravel bike.
Yeah, rode it recently, me on hardtail, buddy on gravel bike. Kudos to him for getting down, fast and intact, but I enjoyed a relatively chilled but fast surf down the loose stuff on my 29er, didn't miss the gravel bike there!
we joined the WHW at Drymen heading south and, walkers and puddles aside, that section was a gravel bike delight
Oh yes indeed. South of Drymen it is indeed perfect for a gravel bike.
I've ridden Inversnaid to Drymen on my touring bike-with-knobblies. I'd say it was the perfect option
What really ridden. Including the section by Anniversary Crag*and that long staircase? I guess the staircase might be ok going south, but not north
(I did skip Conic Hill though).
Hmmm yes, Cornic Hill need a proper bike ( or no bike 🙂 )
To be fair, I guess it depends what your key motivations/ goals riding are. Some people go for speed, some go for distance, my personal aim is to ride as much as possible and there's no way a gravel bike is the best for that between Drymen and Inversnaid. If you're quite content walking big chunks of it then fair enough
* Admittedly I didn't ride that bit even oin an MTB, so ....
I've said before that my gravel bike is more capable off-road than the MTBs I was riding in the early '90s. I guess we were more accepting of bicycle limitations off road back then because there was no alternative. I really enjoy linking up road and off road, the gravel bike is perfect for that and the off road sections aren't long enough for fatigue to set in. Some of the Cycling UK routes like the West Kernow Way are the sort of thing I'm talking about.
I see them as a mis-selling scandal, have done for ages. Sadly, there will likely not be any gov compensation scheme for those looking to move back to the 29 HT they should have bought in the first place.
I would argue that mountainbikes are a bigger miss selling scandal. You only have step outside to see people who never leave tarmac dragging knobbly tyres everywhere. Because they were sold mountainbikes as perfect commuters and touring bikes.
They are just different bikes and for alot of people they are way mire sensible than a heavy draggy lump for a bot of canal towpath and a gravelly track up a hill or two.
I see them as a mis-selling scandal, have done for ages.
Sort of agree, the marketing got out of hand. Videos of jumps on carbon-fork gravel bikes or riders looking fresh on a mountain pass with big rocks. Young semi-pros on them for multi-day races that would have been seen as easy XC MTB terrain not long ago. The reality is seeing riders with >10kgs of luggage struggling along the SDW, etc.
US gravel isn't rough (edit, well, they have a lot more smooth gravel at least) and to me for UK riding they were always more of a Paris-Roubaix type of bike - most of the ride is on the lanes and you find cut-throughs and sections of trail or track that add interest and variety to the ride. They never were meant to be off-road all the time on the majority of UK terrain, i.e most terrain away from the areas of big forest access roads like Kielder. They're not 'off road' bikes imo, they're road plus or mixed terrain. By the time you get the geometry and tyres right for actual majority off-road time, you may as well swap out the bars too and you'll have a decent XC 29er.
I propose "off surface" as a new monicker
First pics are my typical local gravel, albeit I did a bit of a Baslow loop in the last pics which is about the extreme of where I'd want to take it
Around here (Dunoon / Argyll), gravel means forestry tracks. These would normally be fine for gravel bikes and why I bought one. However, they seem to be constructing new forestry roads using sharp, fist sized rocks. Horrible to ride on and very puncture prone.
I wish I bought a cross country bike instead. With the right tyres, it wouldn’t be much slower on the road but night and day off road.
When we were looking for a bike for Mrs hoppy a lot of the available 29ers were 1x specific and had max 36t front ring limitations, makes them sub-optimal for mixed terrain use.
I've got a gravel bike and a Stooge, there is a sizeable crossover on the venn diagram of use but for me the distinction is the gravel bike is for going fast as the priority, stooge is for going harder. The distance of the ride and how loaded is not the differentiator. I like having the option of both.
However, they seem to be constructing new forestry roads using sharp, fist sized rocks. Horrible to ride on and very puncture prone.
Yes I've noticed this! Two tyres shredded on small repairs to otherwise relatively good forestry/ windfarm tracks. I've changed to the new Panaracer X1+ which is supposedly 'Gralloch proof', thought it was a good swap but the bike feels noticeably harder work on tarmac once I've dropped pressures to something approaching comfortable, harder work even than the Mezcals on the MTB which is weird.
Sort of agree, the marketing got out of hand. Videos of jumps on carbon-fork gravel bikes or riders looking fresh on a mountain pass with big rocks. Young semi-pros on them for multi-day races that would have been seen as easy XC MTB terrain not long ago. The reality is seeing riders with >10kgs of luggage struggling along the SDW, etc.
I see it as testament to what is GOOD about the gravel trend, it encouraged me to get back off-road, not as an MTBer but someone looking for relatively smooth tracks and through-routes through the glens. It has definitely rescued off-road riding for me as I thought I was done with MTBing but only because I was forever searching out the gnar and the singletrack, when it turns out (for want of a label) I was more of a 'marathon' MTBer.
When we were looking for a bike for Mrs hoppy a lot of the available 29ers were 1x specific and had max 36t front ring limitations, makes them sub-optimal for mixed terrain use.
Also agree, it's a pet peeve of mine that 1x has become so ubiquitous for MTB but I've been accused of boring people on here with that rant so I'll leave it 😎 Suffice to say I think people who still want to range/efficiency/versatility of 2x are probably a niche now within the MTB fraternity, after all you only really need the top end when you're back on tarmac and even then a 34/10 highest gear would *almost* be enough.
34/10 is what I’ve got on my hardtail now. It’s pretty decent on tarmac sections but as it’s an old 11spd XD cassette 34/42 as the low gear gets a bit hurty on the steep stuff. As ever, with bikes, it’s all a compromise but with my forks locked out and fast rolling tyres on I’d rather have my 29er than a gravel bike.
@13thfloormonk - marketing departments across the cycling world have picked up their ears at your “marathon MTB” phrase. They are now, at this very moment, setting up focus groups and firing up AI to make this the next big thing- after 32” of course!
I think the old dirty reiver route highlighted why a gravel bike was good.
Lots of grim forestry road and all of a sudden you pop out on the top of a very rough track descent.
And it was great fun. It would have been more comfortable, probably faster to do that descent on a mountainbike but it was certainly doable on a gravel bike with 35c tyres and a "**** it" attitude.
I don't think everyone agreed though. 🤣
@13thfloormonk - marketing departments across the cycling world have picked up their ears at your “marathon MTB” phrase. They are now, at this very moment, setting up focus groups and firing up AI to make this the next big thing- after 32” of course!
It's been done! Funnily enough I achieved my best results in the discipline although under fairly ignominious circumstances (dropped out of the longest distance, don't think anyone else was doing the middle distance, 1st place! 🤣).
I am 100% buying a 32" bike once they're affordable enough.
Having 6psi too much in your gravel tyres is massive. I'd try that first and see how you get on!
What tyres are you running? You might be able to get something that's faster on the tarmac whilst being fairly good off road still. I'm enjoying my Pirelli Cinturato M for Scottish chunky gravel but there will be newer, better stuff out there now.
Position can absolutely amplify the rough stuff - too much weight on your hands and they'll take a beating rather than employing your big leg muscles to smooth things out. Do you need to go higher at the front end maybe? Maybe your saddle is tipped too far nose down?
I really enjoyed my gravel bike at first as I revisited routes I used to do in the early 90's that had become no fun on my gnaar sled but soon got sick of roads so started avoiding as many as possible which naturally led me to rougher terrain. I wasn't getting on with drops so swapped gravel for an XC MTB which turned out to be better for 99% of my rides.
They certainly have their place and if I had the money and room I'd happily have one in the fleet but for anything rougher than a smooth gravel track a proper MTB works better.
I think gravel bikes work really well on gravel roads, ie, they are still roads but with an unsealed surface and every so often a big grading machine has to come through and smooth them out.
They aren't much fun on long off-road rides.
Really they should be called gravel road bikes.
Position can absolutely amplify the rough stuff - too much weight on your hands and they'll take a beating rather than employing your big leg muscles to smooth things out. Do you need to go higher at the front end maybe? Maybe your saddle is tipped too far nose down?
Yeah it was weeks of mucking around with bike fit that led me to the conclusion that maybe I was just taking the gravel bike out of its/my depth a bit.
I've gone pretty short (and high) at the front and already have saddle at least 1cm further back and 5mm lower than on the (very comfortable) road bike. Had it further back again but was getting pretty acute symptoms of over-reaching (I had this whole discussion with some folks on an FB page so won't turn this into a bike fit thread! 😂).
A wee tip for long gravel/mixed surface rides. Take an electric mini inflator with you. Ride at higher pressure on the road sections. Drop to a nice gravel pressure (for me 20psi) for the off road sections. Then boost the pressure again, maybe 35-40 psi for the tarmac ride home. Not worth it for short tarmac sections but well worth it if you have a 20 mile section of tarmac.The electric inflator with a digital pressure reading makes this so easy to do.
We're a good Decade into the whole Gravel bike thing no, so I'd call them it established Niche/product. I know some people don't like them encroaching on their own favoured Niche of cycling but for us Evangelicals they are very much a positive, diverse form of bike/cycling, acknowledging that gravel bikes don't cover all possible bases.
I'm a recent convert to fitting wider (i.e. 2"+) XC MTB type tyres to improve their offroad capabilities. But there is a tipping point once you go a bit further with the wider flat bars or suspension components where I think you're just making an MTB.
The OP's issue sounds a bit like reality and expectations just not aligning, they're not MTBs, the geometry and parts mean that (unsurprisingly IMO) they don't climb or descend off-road like an MTB. And there's no harm in ditching something when it doesn't match your expectations, Gravel bikes suffer as much as all the other cycling niches from hype and fashion, no shame in admitting a mistake and moving on, but I do think it's one of the saddest things ever when you see a Gravel bike relegated to basic commuter duties with a pair of marathons and a pannier full of kit fitted, I like to think of it as over-biked "work-packing" when someone spunks £3k on C2W rather than £500 on eBay. Sadly I think that is the actual fate of about 60% of Gravel bikes sold...
but I do think it's one of the saddest things ever when you see a Gravel bike relegated to basic commuter duties with a pair of marathons and a pannier full of kit fitted, I like to think of it as over-biked "work-packing" when someone spunks £3k on C2W rather than £500 on eBay. Sadly I think that is the actual fate of about 60% of Gravel bikes sold...
So you’ve seen my bike then!!
@13thfloormonk - marketing departments across the cycling world have picked up their ears at your “marathon MTB” phrase. They are now, at this very moment, setting up focus groups and firing up AI to make this the next big thing- after 32” of course!
The Kona 100 MTB Marathons in Wales (20 years ago?) were legendary.
Position can absolutely amplify the rough stuff - too much weight on your hands and they'll take a beating rather than employing your big leg muscles to smooth things out. Do you need to go higher at the front end maybe? Maybe your saddle is tipped too far nose down?
This is true - but I think points to the fundamental problem of a bike that wants you in the drops in order to use the brakes - it's just not where i want to be when descending anything remotely technical
This is true - but I think points to the fundamental problem of a bike that wants you in the drops in order to use the brakes - it's just not where i want to be when descending anything remotely technical
You don't need to be in the drops on descents. Modern shaped brake hoods are so well shaped that you can be on the hoods all day. I will swap between hoods and drops on very long and techy descents, to give my hands an alternative position, but if you are finding that you need to be in the drops then that's not a bike problem.
You don't need to be in the drops on descents.
I'd agree, as a man still running cantilever brakes I'm reasonably happy braking from the hoods most of the time. I guess it's another sign that Monday's ride was the wrong side of rough that I did actually start to find myself reaching for the drops just for a bit of security, thankfully it wasn't steep or tech just fast and rough!
I'm generally in the hoods most of the time, and can brake from the hoods, but as speeds go up and it gets rougher, you want all the brake power available, and the lever is at the other end
"12 year old Spesh Epic which runs 2.3 Fastracks"
This, but mine's on (IIRC) 2.0 RaceKings, is 14 years old, has the Brain set rock hard, and has some tarmac friendly inner bar ends. Closest to an actual gravel bike I want or need right now but does the job it's built for really well (mixed surface commuting - not that much slower under me in the real world than my road bike, plus lets me take the more interesting ways home).
i was planning on getting my first gravel bike for doing canal towpath road and a bit of offroading (my chisel fs is overkill for towpath and road). i was thinking either a planet x tempest or a fairlight secan 3.0.
my plan now is to hopefully get a specialized epic comp instead.it will be faster on the towpath and road than my chisel fs but way more capable offroad than a gravel bike. and if i want to turn it into a gravel bike i can also.
i was planning on getting my first gravel bike for doing canal towpath road and a bit of offroading (my chisel fs is overkill for towpath and road). i was thinking either a planet x tempest or a fairlight secan 3.0.
my plan now is to hopefully get a specialized epic comp instead.it will be faster on the towpath and road than my chisel fs but way more capable offroad than a gravel bike. and if i want to turn it into a gravel bike i can also.
I'd just sell the Chisel and get a full suss Epic. I went gravel, carbon xc ht, carbon xc fs and the fs is just as fast as either (+ usually faster) on everything but road.
