STOP BEING RAESONABEL!!!!!!!
can we at least all agree that E-Gravel bikes are shit? 🙂
summed up perfectly Bez
(which tells you everything you need to know about the intended market for gravel bikes)
Disagree. There are nearly as many ‘markets’ for gravel bikes as there are for mountain bikes, and one of those niches won’t tell you ‘everything’ about much except a very narrow (and usually shallow, vain, stereotype that in real-life applies to very few people)
Here look. Gravel biking marketing is a ‘niche for grey leggings and running shoes’
Don’t believe me? Look at the marketing. Tells you all you need to know about people who buy gravel bikes?:
Same as MTBing is a niche for rich cityslickers with a penchant for loud branding and expensive ski-masks. The type of colour-matched race-onesie-wearing model-rugged rich-kids who can afford to buy £3-4k bikes in order to ride a horse to the trailhead of endless desert-downhills with no uphills. The type of people who have an Insta-drone which follows them everywhere, from the brand new 4x4 pickup truck to the hot-tub at the ski-Lodge
Don’t believe me? Look at the marketing. Tells you all you need to know about the type of people who buy MTBs?
I’ve got a bike
I’ve got a bike
you sold out to the marketing!
I have to agree with the OP. I have had a couple of gravel bikes. An Orange RX and a Cannondale Slate with front lefty fork.
It was like the 90s all over again. Skinny tyres, odd head angles, narrow (drop) bars. Gravel bikes are just a rubbish off road. A better option is a rigid 29er. If I wanted skinny tyres and drop bars I'd buy a road bike thanks.
Not sure whether monkeysfeet read my post and decided to irony the shit out of it (bravo, you really aced it) or whether we're just stuck in Groundhog Facepalm.
Obviously I've left the door wide open to a claim of the former, but hey.
It was like the 90s all over again
I like Bez's recursive Point 4 🤭
I like bikes.
I like riding them.
I like drop bar bikes, flat bar bikes and riser bar bikes.
I don't like the tyres not touching the ground.
Over the last 2 or 3 years a lot of my riding has been well suited on a flared drop bar bike. Sometimes with a niche French-made saddlebag. Sometimes with a niche America-made front bag.
All the rest? Shrugs.
We just need the trendsetters to widen and flare the drops a bit more on the current trajectory towards horizontal and we've arrived back at the ultimate do it all type machine, same as it ever was..
Hardtails rule.
for anyone who is gravel curious this probably reflects most of what my gravel rides look like although i tend to throw in some singletrack too, basically a very mixed bag.
I think Bez has pretty much summed it up.
Ride whatever you like, and let others ride what they want without comment. No one cares if you think they're riding the wrong bike.
That Arkose rider wants some of those combo flat/SPD pedals surely?
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.
Well in some areas, people seem to need this pointed out. I've seen a fair few gravel bikes and classic tourers being carried through my local trails when their riders want to enjoy a bit of this new 'gravel' idea and realise they haven't got the tyres or the gears for what is locally available.
I'm all in favour of gravel bikes, for the record. I'd quite like one.
downshep
Subscriberpandemic pootler
You heard it here first folks.
epicyclo
SubscriberThere’s more to riding bikes in the mountains than heading downhill being gnar.
Try telling that to my kids. 🤪
Apparently my riding is 'old man' and 'boring'... Seems then that most of the bike marketeers and product managers of the world are 15 and 18 years old 🤔
classic tourers being carried through my local trails when their riders want to enjoy a bit of this new ‘gravel’ idea and realise they haven’t got the tyres or the gears for what is locally available.
I met a 76 year old called Arthur on 1970's road tourer last summer. This was at White Bridge above Linn of Dee, having ridden up Glen Tilt, heading for Braemar for the night before finishing a couple of the last Munro's on his list.
Be more like Arthur.
I rode my bike
Be more like Arthur.
Why?
Lycra? SPD? Stupid socks? No helmet peak
He's dead to me
Why?
I mean it from a live life to the full. Just get out and ride. With a smile. And a sense of adventure.
Matt
I think i met Arthur's Da riding up glen tilt early 90s on my Muddy Fox Pathfinder
He was on a tourer wasnt too impressed with these new fangled mountain bikes
Ride what floats your boat
Im confused now. I have couple of different bikes inc gravel and FS. Do i need to decide which one i like more and sell the others? Ever seen Kramer vs Kramer? Its not pretty.
I mean it from a live life to the full. Just get out and ride. With a smile. And a sense of adventure.
Why do you think we aren't doing that?
I mean it from a live life to the full. Just get out and ride. With a smile. And a sense of adventure.
But how can he achieve that without a horse and a retro pickup?
i layed on the gravel hate but think I may order a Fustle
I've had three now, the first being an adapted cx bike, all seemed a great idea, all got sold. They're just not as fast on the road bits as you think they might be, aren't as capable on the rougher stuff, and unless high end, aren't much (if any) lighter than a hardtail mtb. Versatility is good but ultimately I fall out of love with them fairly rapidly when I remember all the compromises.
I think perhaps my problem is I can't really bimble, I need to have a bit of a go, and if I'm gonna do that, I'd rather be quick on the off road bits, and not terrified. I don't really do plain road riding, it's just boring to me.
I reckon I'll inevitably end up with another one, but it'll have to be bloody light and fast.
They’re just not as fast on the road bits as you think they might be, aren’t as capable on the rougher stuff, and unless high end, aren’t much (if any) lighter than a hardtail mtb.
Your bikes, maybe. Not all bikes. Mine’s every bit as fast as the road bike it replaced and lighter than any MTB I’ve had (in fact it’s very nearly as light as the road bike once you account for the fact that it’s also got mudguards and dyno lighting).
They’re just not as fast on the road bits as you think they might be, aren’t as capable on the rougher stuff, and unless high end, aren’t much (if any) lighter than a hardtail mtb.
Or you could look at it another way. Faster on road than an MTB, better off road than a road bike. I don't think any advertiser would try to tell you to replace your MTB with a gravel bike for normal MTBing. That's patently absurd.
They are for mixed rides with light off road. No-one's pretending otherwise.
They’re just not as fast on the road bits
Mine’s every bit as fast as the road bike it replaced
Every ride is a race. That it the most crucial bit.
The main thing that stops my gravel bike being not as fast as the road bike on the road/bike path is the gearing means I'll spin out quicker or my leg power output. But then I'm not doing a TT road race, nor a gravel race, nor a sportive race. I simply "go for a ride". And the gravel bike gets me probably 40% more scenery ridden through than the XC bike per ride of a similar duration.
But then I have 5 bikes. And am not replacing XC or Enduro or any other discipline variant with gravel / ATB / just going for a ride.
Maybe the people who don't like gravel bikes have poor peripheral vision.
They don't notice all those skinny little tracks leading off the road into the wild nowhere, so they never get to think "Hmmm, wonder what's up there, let's take a look".
Or maybe they live in restricted freedom country and aren't allowed to do that...
They don’t notice all those skinny little tracks leading off the road into the wild nowhere, so they never get to think “Hmmm, wonder what’s up there, let’s take a look”.
Smart arse.
Maybe people just want to crack on and not dilly dally up every side road?
Why don't we all just criticise the way people like to ride if it's different from us? That'll make for a great community spirit and cheer everyone up, won't it?
"They don’t notice all those skinny little tracks leading off the road into the wild nowhere, so they never get to think “Hmmm, wonder what’s up there, let’s take a look”."
Have an ebike for that 🙂
molgrips
Maybe people just want to crack on and not dilly dally up every side road?
Sorry, forgot this was a roadie forum...
I have a few years old steel Norco search upgraded with carbon forks, Hunt wheels with 35’s and 105. I was doing 3k miles a year on it in all weathers.
Perfect for knackered roads and gravelled former railway trails.
As other people have said, gravel bikes are road bike -, rigid mtb +
Mine got nicked on 1st Jan, found two weeks later but broken(carbon)
I really do miss it for a do it all bike even though I have a few other bikes to choose from.
Sorry, forgot this was a roadie forum…
I'm no roadie. But I still like to crack on. You seem surprised that others enjoy riding differently to you.
molgrips
You seem surprised that others enjoy riding differently to you.
I'm surprised you've managed to construe that from what I've said. Any bike's a good bike as far as I'm concerned, but this topic is about gravel bikes, and my comment was about people who don't like them.
They are for mixed rides with light off road. No-one’s pretending otherwise.
I think a lot of people are thinking otherwise which is why they are disappointed that they have bought the wrong bike and instead of blaming themselves would rather just declare that gravel bikes are crap, marketing rubbish etc,.
But yes, they are very good for mixed road with light off road as is a road bike. One is better on the gravel parts and the other is better on the road parts and they are both poor on anything remotely challenging that an MTB would excel at.
Pick a bike at whatever end of the compromise is best for you and go out and ride it, easy.
Pick a bike at whatever end of the compromise is best for you and go out and ride it, easy.
HERETIC.....BURN HIM 🚳🔥
Any bike’s a good bike as far as I’m concerned
This could mean 'having a bike is better than not having a bike'
or
'I think all bikes are equally good'
You need to clarify which statement is the correct interpretation. It is safe to say that everyone will agree with you if it's the first one.
However, if the second interpretation is your message then it would suggest you cannot tell a good bike from an inferior one, which would be a concern if we are to take your position seriously.
kersey
Pick a bike at whatever end of the compromise is best for you and go out and ride it, easy.
Warning: it's dangerous to take bike advice from a bloke who rides fixed offload.
Even when he's right.
Because compromise means no N+1 bike... 🙂
The real dispute here seems to be between opposing extremes. Those who see a bike as a means to exercise their athletic prowess, and those who see it as a means to explore interesting scenery. I have always been very much in the latter category, so just about any bike that is comfortable, capable enough offroad and able to eat road miles to get there, will do. Important however, is to be light enough to be portaged over a bealach or two.
Have to say. That video posted on by sailor74 on P4. I’d definitely want my rigid MTB for most of that riding! I’d be broken by the end of that
Those who see a bike as a means to exercise their athletic prowess, and those who see it as a means to explore interesting scenery.
Not at all. Gravel bikes can still be used to smash it. Bike choice is affected by terrain and your attitude to it, not by how hard you want to pedal.
Gravel bikes can still be used to smash it.
As a couple of us have pointed out, they often ride better like this.
