Personally I love mine, though I'm about to switch from an On-One Bish Bash Bosh to a Sonder Camino Ti for a bit more clearance and rack mounts for light touring rather than a full on tourer.
For a niche class of bike they're probably the most normal non-niche bikes there are. Especially if paired with a double chainset.
They are so shit I have 2 with a 3rd on order 🙂
I think they are popular as they provide contrast to a gnarly mtb which is the way it should be for a second bike
They're a different flavour - who cares what's 'better' or 'best'?
I couldn't give a stuff, I just like having different bikes to ride and I don't even stop to think or care about what, why or how.
If a different type of bike gets built and sold, I'll probably want one, as long as it's got fat tyres on and isn't covered in stupid springs and hinges.
They are so shit I have 2 with a 3rd on order
😆
They are so shit I have 2 with a 3rd on order
Aye, but that's cos you canny be trusted on proper trails!
stupid springs and hinges
Bizarre.
Malvern Rider
MemberThey’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…
My final point was:
depends where you live as to what your experience is!
i.e each to their own
This is when marketing wins and we lose.
We live in the UK. Not the US where they do have hundreds of miles of gravel roads.
Yes, all bikes have a bit of a compromise somewhere, so pick the one that has the smallest compromise, or go N+1. Or better still, get your butler to follow you in a van with a selecton of bikes suited to each bit of the ride 🙂
We live in the UK. Not the US where they do have hundreds of miles of gravel roads.
Thankfully, we have hundreds of miles of gravel roads in the UK too.
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Trimix
SubscriberThis is when marketing wins and we lose.
We live in the UK. Not the US where they do have hundreds of miles of gravel roads.
there aren't many mountains in the UK either, and yet...
Where I live, the roads I can ride from my doorstep have slowly disintegrated in the last decade to the point where a racy narrow tyred road bike just doesn't feel like the tool for the job- the tarmac at best is rippled and scarred, at worst fallen apart and strewn with gravel and mud from the farmers so theres barely any tarmac left....and no-one in the foreseeable future is going to do anything about it. These are roads that are actually part of national cycle routes, but in my opinion the maps should more honestly re-classify the roads as unmaintained tracks, like those often found in regions of rural France. This is where a gravel bike would be the most sensible application, in that it takes the place of a road bike that is no longer suited to the crumbling infrastructure, and yet can use smooth or grassy tracks to link up some interesting route variations. I want one. It needs to be P.A.F. though....(Pimp as F) -'Coz I is a BikeTart.
The gravel bike is a good tool for owning less bikes, and people are using them as an excuse to own more.
if i could have only one, it'd be a gravel, but i'm unmarried so i can have as many as i like.
This is when marketing wins and we lose.
We live in the UK. Not the US where they do have hundreds of miles of gravel roads.
Loads of gravel roads where I live in the UK but apart from that, how exactly is marketing winning. Have you ever bought a completely unsuitable bike because marketing 'conned' you into it?
there aren’t many mountains in
the UKEngland
FTFY!
I bought a Specialized Tricross about a decade ago, replaced by a Giant Toughroad a year or two back. I still refer to them as "cross bikes".
I have to admit I love my cross bike. Probably about 70% of the riding I do is on it now. And in the nightmare scenario of only being able to have one bike, the cross bike it would be. As many folk have said above, it comes down to where you ride, and what you're looking for. For me the simple fact is I love riding my cross bike and it gives me hours of fun. Not everyone's cup of tea but each to their own.
Oh and please do keep the "you're all just victims of marketing/hype/capitalism but I'm not" comments coming. They do make me laugh.
Not a gravel bike, an endurance bike with some crossover features but I took my new 2020 Roubaix up Ramsbottom Rake, which with 34/34 was as easy as it used to be in the old mountain biking days, then up the gravel track to the Peel Tower. Everything was going well until I pointed it down the hill, at which it became a difficult, choppy, slightly unnerving ride as the fork geometry was unsuited to a steep downhill and the tyres kept bouncing off stones. That's when I realised that a road-biased bike will never be the same as a mountain bike.
Gravel bikes for lycra. Only SPDs allowed
Rigid MTB for baggies, trousers or normal outdoorsy attire. You're allowed flats on these
Anything else is just wrong 🙂
I think that they're great (for where I live on the outskirts of Birmingham), precisely because they aren't a capable MTB. The limited offroad isn't full of jumps, drops and rock gardens and has to be stitched together with small roads. The faster offroad descents need skill and concentration to not stack on 'features' you wouldn't even notice on an MTB. The only thing I would change on my CDF would be the ablity to run a slightly bigger tyre (and maybe a couple of kg lighter!). A 40c is a squeeze and probably a size too far. Just brought some 38c's to try them out.
That’s when I realised that a road-biased bike will never be the same as a mountain bike.
Wait, you previously thought that it would? I think I’m beginning to understand why so many MTB riders are confused about other types of bike.
Is this thread still going? Surely it's long past time for the next one to start?
Is this thread still going? Surely it’s long past time for the next one to start?
No one has invented a new type of bike to argue over yet though.
No one has invented a new type of bike to argue over yet though.
Yea, but usually someone starts a "cross bikes are rubbish" thread then disappears every other day.
No one has invented a new type of bike to argue over yet though
There are lots of types of bikes but it’s only gravel, CX and monstercross bikes that have committed minor trespass against territory that makes dyed-in-the-wool MTBers cry ‘fight you!’ in their sleep. 😉
Try telling the blokes racing Strada bianche that you need 40c’s and a 67 degree HA to ride off tarmac.
A race that's 2/3rds tarmac.
Another point I was musing over is that gravel bikes have just portioned off all the generally cowardly, boring and not very competent mountain bikers who never really liked riding up and down actual mountains anyway.
It's also captured loads of the roadies who were never very fit, competitive or capable racers either.
So what we have here is not two or three similar people who disagree over a bike, but two different people who disagree over what fun is because they have different approaches to life.
Maybe gravel bikes are just for type B people. It's so.. inclusive man.
There are lots of types of bikes but it’s only gravel, CX and monstercross bikes that have committed minor trespass against territory that makes dyed-in-the-wool
MTBersroadies cry ‘fight you!’ in their sleep
FTFY. Us MTBers know they're nowt to do with us. 😉
This was invented 30 years ago:
Put some bigger tyres on it and it'd be bang on trend....
Rigid 29ers are compromised on the road sections
Not that much. Mine is great on road, just a bit slower. However, a 32c drop bar bike on my local trails would be more than 'a bit slower' it'd be murderously uncomfortable and have its rims smashed to bits in weeks. It'd ruin most of the good descents entirely.
^^^^ my rigid 29er is also fine on roads when they link together more bumpy stuff. It also is steel and has drop bars (Vagabond) - a very versatile bike - 4 days of Hebridean adventures last May and it was the ideal bike for the combination of road, machair and some tracks, while lugging overnight kit.
FTFY. Us MTBers know they’re nowt to do with us. 😉
True that. Been riding bikes since I was 11, and by the time was in late twenties my riding buddy’s bikes began to look like this
And they began driving to the places that we used to ride TO, just in order to do the downhill bits. I was too chicken/under-biked and tbh fairly uninterested in the evolving super-expensive gravity sport and so I carried on riding the old loops on my one bike, also to work, to holidays, to the pub, to the hills, around the woods, often all the way to Welsh mountains and around ClimachX (before it was ClimachX)
So over time my ‘MTBs’ began to look like this
and this
I’d ride out with tools, pitch up camp and then dismantle the racks and ride the bike as a rigid MTB for a weekend before re-fitting the touring stuff to get home 🤣
Took me a number of years trying both road and various types of XC MTB To discover that I’ll probably always be a black sheep, ie on the ‘wrong bike’ (ie wrong bike for other people) - which sort of makes sense, because I don’t ride for other people, neither to ‘be seen’ riding a certain bike (go on admit it, your eyes melted at those pics
Those who seek to belong in a clique are (unsurprisingly) often keen to label you, whatever it is that you do.
I like many kinds of riding/bikes at different times and places, yet when pressed am happiest riding all day long on an tourer/ATB/monstercross, going mostly back roads and fireroads and RUPPS wherever over there with a packed lunch or maybe a sleeping bag.
I (barely)keep a hardtail (but really, really enjoy it when it’s working, and use it mostly to ride with friends at trail centres and on singletrack) and last time I rode a road bike I hated it.
For general use am tbh struggling a bit now with a 29er rigid MTB, mostly because am missing the monster-cross (Vagabond). It climbed better, was more comfortable to ride in general, and a bit more fun across the board at the limits. Have never ridden a so-called gravel-bike (unless those early DIY things I specced could be described as such, but I’d call them ATBs) yet would certainly like to try something like a Tempest or Fugio, or something before I shuffle off the coil. It’s almost like they were made for the majority of my type of riding/touring/exploring.
I’m delighted during lockdown to see people getting back into riding from the door, no matter what they ride. No one type of bike is going to be perfect for everyone, but for me the one that makes me smile so much that I do an extra loop/15k on the way home is as near as. That could be a touring bike one day/ride, or a hardtail another. Sorry to be boring!
All bikes are great, if they suit the riding you do then crack on.
BITD (about 2005 I'm not as old as some of you 😉 ) I didn't drive yet, so most of my MTB riding was basically from my door on pretty easy trails and paths. I loved the idea of mountain biking but barely did any real off road riding. I'd just bought myself a Stumpjumper hardtail and systematically went about making it as light and fast as possible, it was basically a gravel bike without drops including a rigid fork and stupid 1.6" Panaracer Speedblaster tyres that weighed about 350grams.
It utterly flew on paths, lanes and simple singletrack.
Then I got a car and much more frequent access to actual technical trails, my weight weenie hardtail was utter bobbins. Turns out when I actually got access to proper off road my primary concern wasn't going fast it was having fun. And riding a sketchy AF bike that made the boring bits more exciting just wasn't something I was interested in.
I still have my Stumpjumper - I used it on the turbo.
"You can go a great distance in a short time or you can have a great time in a short distance"
I don't really care about CX or gravel or whatever it's being called this decade, but that Niner on the last page (it turned up on another thread the other day as well) is repulsive and should be killed to death with fire. Whoever designed it should be ashamed of themselves, it wasn't funny or clever...
Evil have produced a gravel bike (the Chamois Hagar*) that looks horrid as well. When I first saw it, I genuinely thought it was an April fools gag. (I'm still not sure that it isn't)
*No, I'm not, that's actually what it's called.
Another point I was musing over is that gravel bikes have just portioned off all the generally cowardly, boring and not very competent mountain bikers who never really liked riding up and down actual mountains anyway.
It’s also captured loads of the roadies who were never very fit, competitive or capable racers either.
So what we have here is not two or three similar people who disagree over a bike, but two different people who disagree over what fun is because they have different approaches to life.
Maybe gravel bikes are just for type B people. It’s so.. inclusive man.
It's ironic because I'm sure average speeds seem to have dropped in proportion with the number of times the word enduro has been used as a hashtag.
Also:
MTB Clothing:
Golf clothing:
Perhaps we're only one step away from the full diamond pattern and the people who ride at the Golfie will actually go back to playing golf?
Perhaps we’re only one step away from the full diamond pattern
true dat, mind you; gravel-bike specific clothing from the likes of Morvelo and Rapha (which tells you everything you need to know about the intended market for gravel bikes) is also doing its very best to niche* its self into some sort of relevance amongst the more hipster-ish of this parish. Stupidly short shorts, long unkempt hair and a droopy moustache/rapist beard is oh-so on trend Dahling....
*You're not the boss of me, I can use this word how I want to.
true dat, mind you; gravel-bike specific clothing from the likes of Morvelo and Rapha (which tells you everything you need to know about the intended market for gravel bikes) is also doing it’s very best to niche* it’s self into some sort of relevance amongst the more hipster-ish of this parish. Stupidly short shorts, long unkempt hair and a droopy moustache/rapist beard is oh-so on trend Dahling….
When you can't spend money on kashima stanchions you have to find ways to show that you have the ££££ these days when any old chump can get a T6* on finance.
*Obviously these are the golfers in disguise, the real gravel enthusiasts would have already ridden 100km to get to the start of the ride and will be brewing up on their ultralight stoves or sipping single malt.
or sipping single malt.
To fill the empty void in their lives that they sadly thought the gravel bike would, no doubt 🙂
Don’t know which posts I’m enjoying the most, the armchair rampage riders Who are too rad or the you are being scammed by the advertising brigade who are all probably over biked and own plenty of shit they don’t really need.
They are only bikes, but as I actually ride one I wouldn’t raise much of an eyebrow if someone said they had 2 gravel bikes for different riding.
Really liking mine but for different reasons that I really like my mtb’s
Yeah, that's it sailor74, release that inner rage...ggrrrrrr 🙂
To fill the empty void in their lives that they sadly thought the gravel bike would, no doubt 🙂
*sniff* however much I spend on lightweight gear to fill my bags luggage made by some bloke in a shed you've never heard of, I'm still empty inside. Unlike the luggage which now weighs more than the bike it's strapped to.
Loving my gravel bike and my downhill gnar. Tools for the job in hand. So many angry people on here it’s jolly amusing.
made by some bloke in a shed you’ve never heard of
There was a video on an achingly on-trend site I found the other day featuring a bloke explaining why he'd gone from making super-high end leather shoes to making saddles instead...and he'd branched off into leather one-piece bar tape (which obvs misses the entire point of bar tape, but let's not go there...) It was clear who the marketing was aimed at, there were wistful shots of long (gravel) tracks through the wide open spaces of 'merica*
* which, given the actual inhabitants of rural 'merica; would shoot you with the AR-15 they have on a open carry licence to hawk your bike for meth.
So many angry people on here it’s jolly amusing.
Really? What do you think is the angriest comment? Or is all differing opinion ‘angry’?
I think this can all be summed up as follows:
1. Whatever terrain it is you're riding, and however you're riding it, some bikes will suit it better than others.
2. Sometimes the best one will be a gravel bike of some sort.
3. Other times it won't.
4. Some people who have encountered point 4 have taken their experience to mean that (a) anything that could be labelled a "gravel bike" must shit, (b) everyone riding gravel bikes must be stupid because they haven't realised that gravel bikes must be shit, and (c) everyone should bloody well hear about this fact via the internet every couple of weeks until the whole thing goes away and we're all happily riding either 6lb road bikes or full-sussers with 45 degree head angles and a wheelbase that spans postcodes, or playing golf.
5. A subset of the people who have nodded along with points 1-4 will still feel obliged to point out that a rigid 29er is better, having forgotten that they nodded along with point 1.
