I will point out there’s plenty of gravel bike riders who push the idea that they can replace a mtb 🤔
Strawriders? 😉
I had one and have to agree with the OP. Fair enough, mine was not top of the range but it felt like a lump on the road and meh off it. Sold it and bought a HT, then sold that and got a road bike. Road bike makes sense in a way the gravel didn't as a ying to the FS yang.
For gravel mincing I have my retro bikes.
I obviously still maintain an interest in buying another gravel bike because n+1.
It’s just a marketing phrase for a type of bike that has always existed. As marketing scum bags are involved, they are currently over hyped. Sounds like you fell for the hype.
Yeah, to be fair CX with drops was a thing 30 years ago.
Didn't work for me so went back to a ht set up for bikepacking.
Is it a tourer is it an mtb who knows but it's a darn site more comfortable and utilitarian.
I reckon my Arkose is more capable off-road than the MTBs I started out on in the early 90s.
13thfloormonk
not sure if you can really ride 150km of remote highland gravel ‘on the rivet’ the whole time, would get tiring…
It can go from nice gravel to oh shit in seconds... 🙂
I have a trek Slash , Giant Defy advanced and just got the bearings done on my Trek Superfly . Since Covid ive not any had any need to ride the slash but have used the superfly constantly. When my c2w comes round in August I had planned a gravel bike but beginning to wonder If I really need one. My plan was to sell the superfly but its been a blast the last few weeks and I know Id struggle to ride some of the stuff on a gravel bike.
Will see what happens cant imagine there are much better than a heavy hardtail with drop bars.
I'm not really qualified to comment. But why let that spoil the fun?
My BIL recently got a gravel bike which he let me have a quick go on the other week.
Now granted it had SPD pedals on and I had normal shoes, so it was a bit sketchy.
Other than that, it had a dropper and disc brakes, and a 1x gearing setup so was basically great. Pedalled really nicely. Then the bridleway headed downhill and then I noticed the riding position and the narrow bars.
So, IDK, I guess it depends what you're expecting. With proper pedals I can imagine one being great for whizzing around in a pedally sort of manner while coping with somewhat bumpy terrain. If you want to shred your local deathgnar woods it's maybe not the best tool in the box.
My plan was to sell the superfly but its been a blast the last few weeks
Funny, it was my Superfly that got me hooked on the idea, stuck narrower bars and 38c tyres on it and started going further and faster. Did a couple of seasons CX on it too with CX tyres and even narrower chopped down bars.
The Superfly could end up being my longer distance cruiser if my Kinesis turns out to be too much of a handful, would just keep the Kinesis for CX duties.
I've got a few bikes, the gravel bike being the most recent acquisition. I don't need it, but it's certainly fun. It reminds me of when I was a teenager in the early 70s riding my Sun 5 speed racer off-road and breaking it - except that the gravel bike doesn't break. It's just as capable off-road as my 92 Eldridge Grade was, but much nicer on road. I'll admit that is a bit slower on-road than I expected, but it's very comfortable on the rubbish road surfaces we now have to put up with.
mmmmmmmmm!
Had one since January (Tempest) and haven't ridden anything else since. It's the perfect join the dots bike, linking all those NCN / landy track / woodland path and tarmac sections together in a way that my hardtail can't match and my road bike wouldn't even consider. Perfect pandemic pootler.
downshep
...It’s the perfect join the dots bike, linking all those NCN / landy track / woodland path and tarmac sections together in a way that my hardtail can’t match and my road bike wouldn’t even consider.
That sums it up nicely.
If you're wanting a fast bike, then there's one for each of those categories, but none do it all as well.
I'm sure for a lot of people, being a bit shit is part of the appeal- same as singlespeeds, fatbikes, rigids, cross bikes. These can do other things really well too of course but I've always liked to have at least one bike where instead of being me and the bike vs the trail, it's me vs the bike and the trail
Try telling the blokes racing Strada bianche that you need 40c's and a 67 degree HA to ride off tarmac.
You're just gullible consumers wanting to spend money and hoping that it will make you happy. If you had a MTB you'd ride it and enjoy it. If you had a road bike you'd go and ride it and enjoy it. The irony is that most of you crave a gravel bike because you were sold a 170/170 29er to ride the red route at dalby.
Your enjoyment isn't magnified by anything magical, titanium or niche and owning it doesn't make you special.
We are not for want of wonders, but want of wonder. Go get some CBT and spend the money on making memories when this all eases up.
Try telling the blokes racing Strada bianche that you need 40c’s and a 67 degree HA to ride off tarmac.
...you mean the trained professionals with full time mechanics following them in cars with spare bikes on the roof? Trained professionals who still finish the event looking utterly destroyed, assuming a puncture or mechanical hasn't finished the event for them? Good example!
I see gravel bikes as
Just another marketing excuse to create another segment.
A reason for middle aged gnar MTB riders who have never had a road bike / CX bike to admit that they don’t need their 150mm gnar enduro bike because actually they only gnar riding they do is on a gravel track. (but now they can do it and be kool, and wear baggies)
Christ knows how pro riders have ridden Paris-Roubaix for years on their flimsy road bikes, or some of us have ridden the 3 peaks on CX bikes.
It's really semantics. From my point of view gravel bikes are simply a return to the norm. Take any pre 1970s EU/UK sports/roadster bike and you have a bike that fits the multipurpose capabilities of the American gravel bike.
It was a bike capable of getting you to where the countryside starts and to ride through it. In the UK it was the sort of bike favoured by the RSF set, and I suspect the UK idea of a gravel bike is more that than the USA version where there are tens of thousands of graded dirt roads.
And a shout out for On-One for spotting the gap in the market because IMO the Pompino was a "gravel" bike before it became a trend (yes, I know about the Dawes Galaxy and others).
There's more to riding bikes in the mountains than heading downhill being gnar.
Christ knows how pro riders have ridden Paris-Roubaix for years on their flimsy road bikes, or some of us have ridden the 3 peaks on CX bikes.
*Swoon*
And a shout out for On-One for spotting the gap in the market because IMO the Pompino was a “gravel” bike before it became a trend
Did the Pompino pre-date the Kona Sutra?
I see gravel bikes as
Just another marketing excuse to create another segment.
Sort of, to a point, it's just giving us another choice, and choice is great, what a time to be alive!.
Does make me chuckle when folk on here slag off enduro riders as some kind of fashion victim, and don't see their new found gravel bikes in the same light... 🙂
Mine makes a great winter bike when the trails are too boggy to ride.
Try telling the blokes racing Strada bianche that you need 40c’s and a 67 degree HA to ride off tarmac.
Strada B is hardly the mtb trails the OP mentioned though is it? It's more like a long lumpy disused rail way turned into a bike path than you can even ride a road bike on.....oh wait, that is what they are riding.
I bought a Salsa Fargo from Charlie in 2011, I bought it because I was into bikepacking and thought it would be ideal, this was "back in the day" before we called it gravel riding, monster cross was the genre I suppose.
People pointed and laughed at me, especially my riding buddies, but now they all have gravel bikes with skinner tyres than my Fargo and are therefore slower off road.
As it turns out I did 2 or 3 Welsh Ride Things on the Fargo and realised that my Trance would make bombing down lakeland passes more fun, and it doesn't really matter what bike you are dragging across a welsh bog.
But I still love my Fargo, it's easily the most versatile bike I own and really fast in the right conditions, really comfortable and capable, just avoid sustained rock gardens and really steep stuff and it'll pretty much ride anything I'm capable of, it will be the bike I still own into my old age when all my bottle has gone and I just want to pootle around or tour.
Currently it is on my turbo, but I'll get a cheap road bike and liberate it again soon.
Riders finish Strada bianche done for because they've just raced a world tour one day classic. They look worse at the end of liege Bastogne liege; your 43c tyres would just have them finishing slower.
And the OP already established that he'd have more fun on a mountain bike as soon as it gets anywhere technical. I don't really see your point - the segment is about selling you on the need to buy something new to satisfy an internal paucity, not filling it with experiences.
scotroutes
Did the Pompino pre-date the Kona Sutra?
No idea, but I'm pretty sure it was in a completely different price bracket in the UK market.
It’s really semantics. From my point of view gravel bikes are simply a return to the norm. Take any pre 1970s EU/UK sports/roadster bike and you have a bike that fits the multipurpose capabilities of the American gravel bike.
I’m sorta with Epi on this, everything started to go more niche once bikes went more recreational so the gravel is just a return to something more general purpose as it’ll take a variety of tyre/wheel sizes and fulfill more roles.
My rides are typically 40% road, 55% gravel and 5% single track. They are perfect for a gravel bike and a gravel bike make the most sense (I don't ride a gravel bike but it still makes most sense on paper)
The whole ride is a compromise so any bike chosen is a compromise. Just pick the bike you like riding the most and get on with it (in my case a 28c tyres fixed gear)
And the OP already established that he’d have more fun on a mountain bike as soon as it gets anywhere technical
Well that depends on how you're getting to the technical bits. Which is the point you seem determined to miss.
I cobbled together the Lockdown Lava Dome at the end of February. I didn't want to spend much money, and I have no interest in n+1 (one mountain bike, one road bike, that's it). The bike has been a bit of a revelation and, if I was in the market for a new bike, it'd be something from the burlier end of the gravel spectrum. It would, note, be replacing the road bike, not the mountain bike...
Around Cardiff trails are quite rocky mostly, so much as I’d like a gravel bike it’s a non-starter because I like going fast.
This is a reflection on your riding, not the trails around Cardiff.
Christ knows how pro riders have ridden Paris-Roubaix for years on their flimsy road bikes,
In serious discomfort, that's how.
I have no idea what the problem is here. We now have more choice than ever, which means you can get a better bike for what you want to do.
I have no idea why people are bitching about that on the internet. Everything that any company makes is subject to marketing, nit just gravel bikes. And you don't have to buy the thing that is marketed. That's under your control, not theirs. If you want to ride trails in a road bike or road on an MTB, go right ahead.
This is a reflection on your riding, not the trails around Cardiff.
It's both.
Mis-sold rubbish in my opinion.
I tried to spread mine on the driveway & it didn't work at all!
This place confuses me sometimes. I can't understand why anybody would deem any bike shit just because it doesn't suit their needs, but nor can I understand why bike owners get so defensive. If my "gravel" bike doesn't suit you that's fine by me.
Personally mine was never meant to replace my MTB and if it wasn't for lockdown I'd be riding the MTB in remote(ish) bits of Scotland by now. But it has replaced my road bike, mainly because I'm old and slow anyway now, so might as well enjoy the comfort and the ability to explore those interesting looking tracks when the fancy takes me. But it's just a bike. If you want something a bit more capable off road but a bit slower on road or something a bit faster on road but a bit slower off road you've got plenty of choices. Just pick one and (don't) be a dick about it 🙂
It's the same as Nimby's moaning about cyclists riding through their villages, people exercising in the park etc. Some people just feel threatened by other people doing something different to them and having the temerity to be enjoying it. It's utterly bizarre.
Personally mine was never meant to replace my MTB and if it wasn’t for lockdown I’d be riding the MTB in remote(ish) bits of Scotland by now. But it has replaced my road bike
Sense at last. 🙂
Some people just feel threatened by other people doing something different to them and having the temerity to be enjoying it. It’s utterly bizarre.
Threatened? don't be daft.
The issue is when you get someone who lives in an area with bugger all in the way of technical trails, buys a gravel bike and announces that gravel bikes are soooo much better than MTBs.
No mate, you just bought the wrong bike/moved to the wrong area in the first place.
I do a lot of mixed terrain rides these days and - just to state the obvious - you need a bike that can do the road bits and the offroad bits.
Gravel bikes err on the side of the road bits as they are/have:
- mid-width drop bars
- steeper steering
- shorter wheelbase and stiffer frame
- 40mm-ish small-knob tyres
whereas a rigid 29er is better on the offroad bits, cos:
- wider 700mm+ bars
- slacker/longer geo
- more supple frame/bars
- wider small-knob tyres (2.1 - 2.25)
Both weight the same, if you build a decent 29er.
So it's all about where you want to make the compromise. Rigid 29ers are compromised on the road sections, whereas gravel bikes are compromised offroad.
For me, my rigid 29er* is the way to go, as I prefer the compromise to be on the road bits. I can still ride 60 miles on it. A mate has a gravel bike and he's significantly slower on the offroad sections we tackle.
* sub 9kg Scott Scale, Exotic rigid carbon fork, 1x11, WTB Nine Line/Schwalbe Thunderburt tyres, carbon bars/post/cranks/etc.
Threatened? don’t be daft.
The issue is when you get someone who lives in an area with bugger all in the way of technical trails, buys a gravel bike and announces that gravel bikes are soooo much better than MTBs.
Er. This is a thread entitled ’Gravel bikes are a bit shit’
Rigid 29ers are compromised on the road sections, whereas gravel bikes are compromised offroad.
Depends on what the offroad bit is. Around here I can do practically anything from towpath equivalent forest trails to single track to to technical rocky. For the 60 miler mile munching days, the gravel bike (actually a CX bike) is absolutely spot on for those forest trails. The 29er with far fatter tyres would be the compromise and be much draggier (imho).
All bikes are a compromise. Even 650b/27.5 which bring the trails alive, and only ever took the best bits of 26 and 29 and none of the compromises 😉
significantly slower on the offroad sections
This is the most important point - every ride is a race. Outright speed and how fast you can get to the cake stop is the single most important factor 😉
Er. This is a thread entitled ’Gravel bikes are a bit shit’
Aye, and it's trolled a lot of you the way it was intended to! lol!
They're shit. I bought one as I figured could be more interesting than road rides and I cant access decent mtb from home. But it was too much effort on road compared to the roadie and crap off road (bumpy bridleways). I don't see the point of drop bars off road either...
But if I had loads of gravel tracks near me, say I lived in the new forest then it'd be great.
depends where you live as to what your experience is!
They’re shit.
But if I had loads of gravel tracks near me, say I lived in the new forest then it’d be great.
Er...
I would have a rigid mtb any day as I would prefer the riding position and that includes only road rides.i am not a roadie I am a mtber
I have no desire to try drops esp for off road.
