Forum menu
I've been riding CX bikes since the mid 90s and just like the adaptability of them. I have my 96 islabike steel bike which has room for 40mm tyres, a carbon Argon18 which is fast but with clearance only for 33mm tyres and is a very sharp handling bike, and a Bokeh which is currently set up with 2.1" 650b Thunder Burt, but will be going back to 38mm Compass Loup Loup Pass tyres ready for Exmouth Exodus.
They don't cope that well with super technical trails, but they do enough of it well enough for me. Much as Bez says.
100% agree with Bez.
Some of those pics give an nice impression of sauntering along nice tracks.
However thats the point for me. Racing bikes are for getting from A-B quickly. Alot of those tracks Id prefer a an XC full susser so you can relax , not worry about lines, and dive down harder tracks when you see them.
My local rides are the perfect mix of road and bridleway for a Gravel Bike, bought a Giant Revolt a couple of years ago and it's great.
Running 28mm Continental GP4000 II at the moment, fast on the road and OK on hardpack dirt, grass is OK if dry. Got a bit skittish on a forest track that had just been redone with new aggregate and was a bit lumpy and you can forget anythying resembling mud.
It is a bit easy to get caught up in the marketing detail. It's a big scale with a bike for various points on the scale. Choose one or if you have the room and budget, buy more than one.
It's good that we have choice 🙂
I have no technical skills what so ever (so no highly technical off-road) and ride mostly road (some of which can be pretty rough itself around here) and a few tracks, trails and bridleways.
I'm sure that I'd get on fine with a gravel bike, but that said, I already get on fine with what I have and nice fat semi-slicks are fast enough and comfy. There are plenty of options though and I keep coming back to a Singular Swift whose frame and fork package seems of a similar weight to many steel gravel bike framesets (and lighter that some); I do keep eyeing up Pinnacle's Arkose though!
I was originally torn between a light 29er HT (or rigid), and a gravel bike.
I was looking at 29er options and wanted to customer build ideally. Full bikes didn't really come with the components that I wanted and were always stretching the budget.
I was all set to spend £1000 on an Arkose Alfine 8, but spotted the CdA in the classifieds and went for that.
The bike itself is immaculate! I want some new tyres and possibly some flared drops and wider range cassette too. Also, it's worlds apart from my Stumpy, so N+1 and all that 🙂
my 2p - I bought a gravel /CX bike off ebay earlier this year thinking i'd use it for commuting and on the local trails (Bristol - Ashton Court & Leigh Woods). I found it far too "leany-forward" for commuting with a back pack on (i've never liked drop-bars, even on the hoods), and absolutely horrible on the (mostly cobbled, unless they've been recently resurfaced) trails compared to my hardtail MTB.
I sold it a few weeks later - the reclaimed bike-budget might go on a spare set of wheels and touring/ gravel tyres for the 29er HT.
last time this came up (admittedly about CX bikes, but pretty similar in my book). I got shot down for slating my CX bike and saying a rigid 29er with thin tyres was better.
But everyone seems to have come round to my thinking. So my vote is a light weight rigid 29er, narrow bars and as thin as tyres (tubeless) as you are comfortable with off road.
rickonwheels did u buy my cx bike ? you picked it up near reading ?
rickonwheels did u buy my cx bike ? you picked it up near reading ?
No mine was picked up (and re-sold) in Bristol!
I think the drop bars thing is all about fit. I've tried to get on with them a few times and always preferred flat bars.
This time though, the frame is the right size for me and the stem has a bit of a rise when flipped over. Saddle is near the same height as the bars for once and it much more comfortable!
Still wanna try some flared ones though 🙂
I got shot down for slating my CX bike and saying a rigid 29er with thin tyres was better.
if you enjoy it great. IME my 29er rides awful with cross tyres. put them on a cross bike and it;s fine. don't know why. geometery?
I love my gravel bike. big 100 mile days of farm tracks/ bridleways and byways.
I went on a short, test bikepacking ride the other night (bear with me) on my 650b Soul, basically part of the gap route in the Brecon Beacons, anyway, most of the ride was on a wide, flattish, stoney track with some bigger rocks and loose sections ocasionaly, but not what I'd call difficult or technical.
Now I'd not have wanted to have ridden it on a CX/gravel bike, or a rigid MTB to be honest as you'd just get shook to shit, sure you could, and you'd be tough and all that, but suspension is just nicer and means you can ride in comfort for longer.
So a MTB (hardtail or full sus) with reasonable tyres is what you need, but what I was lacking was an alternate hand position, those long drags and monotonous bumpy tracks can end up making your wrists ache. So a monstercross, or a hardtail with bar ends would be ideal for that sort of thing, for me, and no slouch on road either.
I can average 15mph on road on my Soul for a 1.5 hour ride, on fairly knobbly tyres, so a 29er on XC race type tyres, with bar ends would be a perfect bike for 'gravel' type riding if the road sections are short in my opinion, you barely lose anything on road but your off road options are much better, mote comfortable and in control and with a few tweaks you have a trail centre ripper too.
Apologies for spelling and grammar up there, ^ I'm tired.
I have a road bike, CX / gravel and a 29er HT. And while I ride the CX most it really is the biggest compromise and least 'fun'. Drop bars are awful on anything steep IMO. So the 2 things that guide which bike are the following:
1) Balance of road to offroad.
2) Technicality / steepness of offroad.
Malvern Rider * Bustaspokes pics look perfect for a gravel bike. If your local trails are much steeper and / or rougher than than that, then 29er is a better option.
Gravel bike works well in the new forest. Plenty of fireroads that are boring on an mtb. Mtb for more techs rocky stuff and gravel bike for exploring/ linking gravel tracks, byeways and roads etc. Mines an escapade with flared drops, and 40c nanos. Roubaix bar tape as well helps a little bit perhaps. Wouldn't want to spend much time anywhere rocky though. It's for trails where sitting down to pedal is efficient.