Can we stop with this gnarmac nonsense please

But gravel bikes are for riding gravel roads, and we don’t really have those over here

I am surrounded by them, in fact it is what I mostly ride on.

I sort of agree with TINAS- I have one, I ride it on actual genuine off road so feel it’s justified. But using one as just a road bike a) is making life difficult for yourself b) horrid and c) daft.

I bought mine to cover some touring duties as well, so I wouldn’t disagree,
But I also use it about 50/50 on/off road for my local riding, it’s much better on the road than an MTB, it’s a lot better off-road than a road bike, just a different set of compromises, TBF some people buy fat bikes without living in the Arctic circle or the Sahara…

I was chatting with a fella at work the other day, who had changed the tyres on what he called his “CX bike” for 25mm road slicks @~100psi…
He did this as soon as he bought it, and has never actually ridden it off-road, I suggested then it was really more of a disc-braked tourer, this apparently offended him slightly, he sees it as more of a “winter road bike” (although he won’t fit guards) personally I can’t see the point of buying an off road capable bike and then adapting it to use it only on the road, he might as well have just bought a normal road bike…

“Gnarmac/Gravel/allroad” bikes sell because the brakes are generally better, and they still look/ride much like a normal road bike, a good chunk of the target market simply ain’t interested in the full spectrum of potential uses these bikes have, fair enough, I wouldn’t say they’re making life difficult or unpleasant for themselves, and it’s not all that daft really, they’ve just missed the point of such capable bikes a bit…

I just spent the past 10 days riding up cols in the pyranees on my GT grade and I might have been a bit slower but I tell you I wasn’t finding as difficult as some of the guys with normal chainsets and 23 tooth cassettes. Plus I felt a lot safer on the decents. It will now be doing a week towing the 3 year old on the forest tracks in the vendee. It’s saved me taking two bikes on holiday.

chip – Member
I have a towpoon an bridleslayer

Very clever, very clever indeed..

Have a

KrissKross?

Only if you’re hitting up the doubles.

(Jump, jump)

Don’t forget Mountain Cross predates Gnarmac by at least 3 years.

I had a set of 700c disc wheels for my Mt Vision Pro (still got them actually) at least 10 years ago.

I think Pikes Peak is all tarmac now, isn’t it? Maybe Derbyshire county council have been there.

must be nice to live/ride somewhere where potholes are single, rare, avoidable entities

You live in Sheffield not Borneo, MTFU.

how about you stop telling people what to do? Or is it not ok that i’ve got 28mm tyres on my road bike?

riding around potholes isn’t always possible, sometimes there’s a car in the way, sometimes often it’s another pothole, or etc.

Ah, 2 pages and i get it now.

Hybrids

I appear to have hit a nerve bigger than the average Sheffield pothole.

Someone referred to mine as a ‘hybrid sort of bike’ and it pee’d me right off. I’d rather it be called a road bike.

Not sure what mine actually is as the whole point of getting it was to commute on road with the option of buggering off somewhere else when the road is boring me. Gnarmac seems to fit the bill, but no one understands what it means, so I end up calling it a ‘road bike but a bit beefier’ to non cyclists!

Mines Brian and so’s my wife’s.

Is Gnarmac 700c restricted? where does that leave Cannondales Slate?

I ended up ditching my roadbikewith25mmtyres as the paths I took it on may have killed it in a short time.

I have the option of gnarmac-ing my 29er hack bike easily, but that would make it a hybrid… 😉

Didn’t they used to be called “rough stuff bikes” or “rough stuff tourers”?

Far too evocative of wool plus twos and cotton duck saddle bags for toady’s marketing departments though.

Someone referred to mine as a ‘hybrid sort of bike’ and it pee’d me right off………………….. road with the option of buggering off somewhere else

So kind of a hybrid[/i][/u] between a road and off-road bike?

I’ve nothing against them, I’ve got a touring bike, with canti brakes and 32mm tyres and masses of mud/guard room. It just amuses me that people keep re-inventing the nomenclature to avoid the use of the words “touring” or “hybrid”.

I think the CTC needs to do a Rapha-style black and white advertising campaign with photos of mud splattered manly men with 1000yard stares and quips like:

“Touring bikes are gravel bikes for those that know the true meaning of rule 5”

“Touring bikes, adventure bikes for people who don’t have to be back before tea time”

“Touring bikes, cross bikes for people that can pedal for longer than an hour”

waiting for the Kinesis KrisKross replacement for the Tripster ATR…

Someone referred to mine as a ‘hybrid sort of bike’ and it pee’d me right off..

I had the same! Then realised I had no argument whatsoever to say it wasn’t.

TINAS/nedrapier – Yeah that’s what pee’d me off the most, it is a hybrid! But usually hybrids are seen as those ones that old folk buy from halfords with about 30mm susspension and flat bars, whereas my gnarmac bridleslayer is frickin cool right*…….

*It’s a planet x London road so probably not really!!

It’s just a bike. But a bike where the head tube’s a bit too long.

A bit like fire roads are in the UK

Fire roads are an Americanism. We have tracks in woods.

Surely the phrase “roughstuff” which has been about for decades is much more suitable.
Oh no , it isn’t a trendy new word 😮
When Grit CX starting out I suggested that they should be using that rather than CX as what they were promoting wasn’t CX.
Can’t do that they said, it isn’t a recognised term.
Anyway, I was out today on my roughstuff bike as its the one I use for riding on rough stuff and have done for years.

Whoops.
Always read all of the thread first.

I think the CTC needs to do a Rapha-style black and white advertising campaign with photos of mud splattered manly men with 1000yard stares and quips like:

Gnarmac? Don’t be silly lad

The love towards gravel/gnarmac bikes here is pretty funny. It’s just another industry led push to make us buy new bikes, but when the 650B/29er band wagon roller through everyone hated it. What’s so different this time? Oh, this push appeals to my niche, middle class aspirations. I’m on board.

I like the term gnarmac ‘cos it’s exactly how I train.

Bridleway from home avoding rat run, Rural B road – Chiltern double track avoiding rat run, rural B road, bored bit of woodland bridleway, battered, rural B road, double track hill KOM attempt (fail), rural B road, bridleway home.

My gnarmac machine is a rigid 29er – it’s not about the bike more about riding where you want.

whatnobeer – Member

The love towards gravel/gnarmac bikes here is pretty funny. It’s just another industry led push to make us buy new bikes, but when the 650B/29er band wagon roller through everyone hated it. What’s so different this time? Oh, this push appeals to my niche, middle class aspirations. I’m on board.

I’m missing the point – why would a cross/gravel/gnarmac bike be more middle class than a 29er?

bridleslayer…
YES!!!

Double yes!!

The (cough) tripster (/cough) shall forever be known as a bridleslayer…

DrP

I’m missing the point – why would a cross/gravel/gnarmac bike be more middle class than a 29er?

29ers used to be niche, now they’re mainstream. This re-branded crossbike fad will be popular until they become common place at which time the either niche mongers will either desert it en masse or sit it out and wait until the johnny come latelys move on to the next niche fad.

Maybe it is fad, maybe it is B.S. but that is type of riding I’m doing the most and always did no matter what was it name.

My personal expression for that? Crossploration or Cycloration :p

Cheers!
I.

Oh, this push appeals to my niche, middle class aspirations. I’m on board.

Oooor…. this push actually reflects what I do most of the time because I’ve gotten bored of trying to eek out the most fun I can out of the short sections of local singletrack with miles of tarmac between them/the weekend drive for two hours to ride a trail centre etc. etc.

Granted they’ve just made cool what already (sort of) existed but I do believe the bikes are different from CX bikes, not designed for 1 hour balls out efforts for a start.

I guess the ‘can’t comprehend more than 2 styles of bike riding’ crowd will never be happy 8)

How is a Gnarmac bike different from a CX bike?

Is a Gnarmac bike to a CX bike what a Sportive bike is to a proper road bike?

3 pages on a crap troll? Come on now chaps.

Traditional (or Euro) cx race geometry is higher BB,steeper HA,shorter
CS,lower stack and a horizontal TT (for carrying).
More contemporary cx bikes have migrated to the point that there’s not much difference between them and [insert preferred term here]

Garmin should release a ruggedised Edge 520 GPS and call it a Gnarmin

nope. 3 pages in, still don’t get it. Just shut the hell up and sodding ride.

..I’m sure there’s some sort of bike forum spike on summer wet days like it is today…

gwaelod – Member
Garmin should release a ruggedised Edge 520 GPS and call it a Gnarmin

😀

miketually – Member
But gravel bikes are for riding gravel roads, and we don’t really have those over here…

What we have is close enough.

There’s hundreds of miles of this stuff not far from my doorstep, and an mtb is wasted on it, but a cx or roadbike is the wrong tool because there’s no guarantee there will be an actual track when you come barreling around a tight bend.

thisisnotaspoon – Member

I just like to mock peoples reluctance to admit that they’re buying a touring bike.

in a similar vein I’ve always thought that the only difference between a hybrid and 29er was the price tag

stop!! it’s only just got going i like gnarmac its faster than having to type

cxstylee(non-racing)/offroadadventure/gravelracer/dropbarhybrid-commuter

any chance of a proper [gnarmac] BBcode so we can crack on ?

Does Gnarmac demand drop bars? ‘Cos if not my SS Bad Boy with a Lefty Solo is right on message…