Hey guys,

About to pull the trigger on a new bike. N + 1 and all that. The bike is to fill the gap between my road bike and full-sus.

Has anyone ridden or does anyone own a Norco Search XR A1? It’s the one I’m thinking of going with.

Additionally, has anyone ever felt the need for a dropper post on their gravel rides? I don’t think the frame has internal routing for one. Curious if people are using droppers. I note many gravel frames don’t accomodate for inteneral dropper routing.

My idea of use for the new bike will be – road winter training, bridal ways, gravel fire roads, some of the tamer xc trails around.

Thanks for the input.

Get a 120mm travel hardtail! That what I did… loads of fun.

Not wanting a hardtail. Have had before. Also have a very light trail bike. Wanting drops and rigid for something different.

Gravel bike really isn’t for everyone. I found it shit on road and compromised off road. Depends where you live I guess. 29’r rigid suited me better 🙂 Ymmv etc

a dropper on a gravel bike does just the same job as on am MTB, gives you more confidence on descents. it’ll get you out of trouble when you push the limits. gravel bikes make trails that are boring on a MTB into a bit of an adrenalin rush. however, if all your are going to do is ride it on the road and fire roads get a road bike, if you are going to ride it on single track and rough broken bridleways a gravel bike will surprise and scare you, the latter being what off road riding is all about imo

Considered a dropper for mine (Kona Sutra LTD) but went for a Cane Creek Thudbuster instead as thought it would make more of a difference more of the time.

Prob depends how far you might stray into MTB territory with the gravel bike. I don’t think I’d bother with a dropper as most of my gravel rides aren’t on terrain that need them. It might mean backing of on the odd trail if I get too adventurous but to me it would just be a sign that an MTB would be better for that ride/trail. I do like the idea of thud buster though.

There are lots of contradictory comments about gravel bikes because they’re a broad church and if you get the wrong one, it will be a compromise too far. I’ve been riding a Cannondale Topstone Carbon for about six months and love it. It has internal routing for a dropper and the kingpin rear flex really works to make bumpy trails more bearable.

It’s fast on the road (tyre and wheel choice mean it’s a bit slower than my S-Works Tarmac, but put racier wheels and tyres on and the differences would be marginal).

Off road it‘s a lot of fun on woodland singletrack, gravel tracks and I’ve even used it on some challenging Lakeland trails. This is the only time a dropper might have helped, but it would have to be a short travel dropper and, to be honest, if I tried to ride the descents that required the dropper, I’d probably have ended up injured. I’d rather get off and make use of the bike’s 9kg weight to shoulder it and make quick progress on foot.

Rather than the dropper, I’d recommend fitting the Redshift Shockstop stem, which really helps take out trail buzz.

The best thing about the gravel bike is that it makes XC trails fun again. You have to concentrate all the time, hone your skills and the bonus is that I nab KoMs on pretty much every ride! Go for it.

I do like the idea of thud buster though

Went for the ST Gen 4, was after the eeSilk but couldn’t find anywhere that had them in stock.

I have the Search XR carbon and my mate has the A1, we are both very happy with them. We are lucky that we have loads of forest tracks and cycle paths around us in South Germany.
As always in this discussion what you ride is brought up. We both ride next to the road or in the forests because riding on road puts us in fear of our lives. We’ve never been in formal cycling clubs, don’t know our FTPs but love racing each other around without wondering if we will be clipped by a wing mirror.
However, we do both have full sussers for when we want to do proper mountain biking.

I’ve got a dropper on my gravel bike and wouldn’t be without it, but it’s all personal preference. I started with a 150mm drop but reduced it to 120mm which seems to work better for me for some reason. I use it on every ride, even the ones on the road. It’s just nice to have on the road, but steep loose rocky off road descents without a dropper? No thanks.

As for the bike itself; I treat it as an endurance road bike that I can use to explore any trail that takes my fancy. It may not be quite as fast as a full on road bike (although with 38mm slicks it’s not far off) but I don’t enjoy riding a road race bike for more than a couple of hours these days whereas I’m happy to ride the gravel bike all day.

Have a search XR Carbon, I love it, makes me want to go out and explore, never owned a road bike but it feels fast on the road to me when linking up fun bits. Did my first 100k last week, never had the urge to do that before I bought it. Don’t feel the need for a dropper.

It may not be quite as fast as a full on road bike

Neither is my tourer but I wouldn’t right now swap it for a ‘full on road bike’ (as in something weighing 8-9kg with racing geometry). Tourer weighs a fair bit (never weighed it guessing maybe 12-14kg especially with 28c or 32c puncture-guard tyres, weighty Brooks saddle, rear rack, full guards) – but also is mega-comfy, lovely to ride, swift, easily links lanes/roads with a surprising amount of light-offroad terrain and carries anything I want/need should it be required. Seeing it makes me wish to cycle off exploring from sunrise to sunset, lunch-stop mid-way, early-evening pint-stop near home. No ‘compromise’, it’s the perfect tool for the job. Then again, have been enjoying such cycling since I was a kid and parallel to enjoyment of MTB. Probably 80% vs 20% exploring/touring vs MTBing over my lifetime.

Gravel bikes were probably invented for cyclists such as me but I haven’t tried one tbh. If they’re like a monster-cross/audax/tourer hybrid then yes would probably love one.

I read this on another forum:

Let’s imagine an approximate Ventoux – a brutal 22km climb at a constant 9% grade. Let’s also imagine an approximate rider – he weighs 80kg and puts out a constant 160w. Using the (very accurate) calculator at kreuzotter.de, we can see that on a 6.8kg UCI-minimum racer, he would expect to complete the climb in approximately 3 hours and 8 minutes. On a 9kg winter trainer, he would take another 6 minutes. A 14kg tourer would be 9 minutes slower again. Obviously that’s an eternity to a racer, but to a tourist or a recreational rider it’s a sandwich stop. On normal routes, this time difference shrinks considerably – over a typical 200km audax, a kilo of weight is worth less than a minute to most riders.

This seems totally counter-intuitive, but it’s not hard to understand the underlying physics. Very lightweight bikes feel fast because they’re easy to handle and accelerate from a standing stop, but that represents only a tiny proportion of the energy that goes into propelling a bicycle. The vast majority of pedalling effort is lost to aerodynamic drag, which is largely a product of rider position.

Additionally, has anyone ever felt the need for a dropper post on their gravel rides? I don’t think the frame has internal routing for one. Curious if people are using droppers. I note many gravel frames don’t accomodate for inteneral dropper routing.

Personally I prefer to keep my gravel bike simple and don’t feel the need for a Dropper on it as TBH I’m not tackling terrain or features that are as technixal/challenging, but I wouldn’t be without one on my MTB.

My idea of use for the new bike will be – road winter training, bridal ways, gravel fire roads, some of the tamer xc trails around.

Your planned use sounds a lot like my own and a dropper isn’t a necessity IME. Of course YMMV, if so I think the various brand-x jobs look good VFM and can be had internal or externally routed…

Get a gravel bike, but do be honest with yourself, if it’s not what you were hoping for/expecting, they’re fashionable enough that you won’t lose much money flipping it on.

I found it shit on road and compromised off road. Depends where you live I guess. 29’r rigid suited me better

Weird, I have a rigid 29er and yet find it shit on the road and compromised off-road!

Tourer + hardtail suit me better, much less compromise 😆

29er is handy for when I really have to compromise and try and cover all bases.

OP you say bridleways and xc trails. Suitability of a ‘gravel bike’ may well hinge on the length and severity of these (combined with frequency they are ridden)

Dropper? Get behind the saddle and hang on. It’s not Red Bull Rampage. 🤣

Dropper? Get behind the saddle and hang on. It’s not Red Bull Rampage

I’ve never seen a dropper on a rampage bike

OP, I’d start as ‘bare bones’ as possible e.g. rigid seatpost etc. then see how you go.

Most of the debate surrounding gravel is because no two people share the same definition!

For me, I want the effort and style of riding to be as close as possible to road cycling, but with the benefit of being able to use rougher/looser/muddier surfaces (I call it ‘US style gravel’). My perfect route would be 100km of remote, scenic landrover or forest road.

Some would dismiss that as a ‘bimble’ but I’m absolutely loving being able to smash along fast gravel trails, trying to pin the inside line of every corner and feeling the tyres scrabbling for grip, and generally just staying on top of the big ring. The occasions I might want a dropper are so infrequent that I’m happy to just go a bit slower or even just carry the bike down/over the obstacle! For this reason, a suspension seatpost is infinitely more valuable than a dropper so I’ve got a Thudbuster.

I personally try not to confuse gravel with MTB, the joy of gravel for me is making quick, uninterrupted progress over distance a la road cycling. Endless faffing and janky slow technical stuff just isn’t part of picture for me.

But that’s just one definition of gravel. If you have your eyes on some techy rooty muddy singletrack then maybe a dropper post would be ideal!

I personally try not to confuse gravel with MTB, the joy of gravel for me is making quick, uninterrupted progress over distance a la road cycling. Endless faffing and janky slow technical stuff just isn’t part of picture for me.

I would agree with that definition and it is what gravel riding is. Yes you can do more MTB type terrain on a gravel bike but that is not gravel biking, it is MTB type riding on a bike that isn’t an MTB.

For same reason, I would never require a dropper on a gravel bike but if someone does then fine by me.

I found it shit on road and compromised off road. Depends where you live I guess. 29’r rigid suited me better

Weird, I have a rigid 29er and yet find it shit on the road and compromised off-road!

I didn’t like riding drops off road and much preferred a rigid 29er, I also find the 29er fine on tarmac, but everybody’s different so I all comes down to personal choice

Can you borrow one to try? You don’t want to spend loads of money to find out it’s not for you

Gravel bikes, like gravel tyres, are now just on a kind of continuous spectrum blending into mountain bikes.

A super-light carbon gravel bike with 35mm tyres will be not much slower than a road bike on tarmac but pretty uncomfortable on anything but the smoothest of bridleways.

On the other hand, something like a Kona Sutra or a Pipedream Alice (dropping the latter in as I have one on order) will be cumbersome on the roads, but with the right tyres not far off a capable as a rigid 29er mtb offroad.

I think one thing worth mentioning is that the trade off between road and offroad isn’t symmetric. By that I mean that, say, a rigid 29er may be 30% or slower on the road than a light skinny-tired gravel bike, but it may be far more than 30% faster on any offroad stuff that is remotely technical.

Yep, I can’t imagine riding any bike with out a dropper now – can easily fit a 170mm dropper on the new Digger, had 2 spare, so stuck it on – no downsides that I can see.

I think one thing worth mentioning is that the trade off between road and offroad isn’t symmetric. By that I mean that, say, a rigid 29er may be 30% or slower on the road than a light skinny-tired gravel bike, but it may be far more than 30% faster on any offroad stuff that is remotely technical.

A fair point, but enjoyment and speed are not the same thing. I find being slow on the road is just tedious, whereas being slower off road because technical stuff is more challenging can be more fun. And it depends on what’s available: riding from my door, there’s virtually nothing that I’d be faster on an MTB on anyway, but miles and miles of bridleways that aren’t even remotely technical.

I think one thing worth mentioning is that the trade off between road and offroad isn’t symmetric. By that I mean that, say, a rigid 29er may be 30% or slower on the road than a light skinny-tired gravel bike, but it may be far more than 30% faster on any offroad stuff that is remotely technical.

I’ve found the opposite to be honest. Sticking big nobbly tyres on the gravel bike makes it a lot slower on road, but not much faster off it. But my off road tends to be rocky so tread doesn’t gain you much. The tyres are more fragile, but I tend to just ride it the same and surprisingly it doesn’t puncture as much as expected. Maybe I’m just a wuss though.

For me, I want the effort and style of riding to be as close as possible to road cycling, but with the benefit of being able to use rougher/looser/muddier surfaces (I call it ‘US style gravel’). My perfect route would be 100km of remote, scenic landrover or forest road.
I’m absolutely loving being able to smash along fast gravel trails, trying to pin the inside line of every corner and feeling the tyres scrabbling for grip, and generally just staying on top of the big ring.

I personally try not to confuse gravel with MTB, the joy of gravel for me is making quick, uninterrupted progress over distance a la road cycling. Endless faffing and janky slow technical stuff just isn’t part of picture for me.

Yup,good points,that’s mostly the way I feel about it ^^

Part of me wonders if those that dont get on with a gravel bikes buy a bike to hopefully suit a use/terrain rather than those who do get on with them buy a bike and adapt rides/terrain to suit it.

By that I mean that, say, a rigid 29er may be 30% or slower on the road than a light skinny-tired gravel bike, but it may be far more than 30% faster on any offroad stuff that is remotely technical.

Realise you have just made up some numbers but in reality the hardtail MTB (with fact XC tyres) is probably nearer 3% slower on the road than the gravel bike and most of that difference would depend on the gravel bike rider riding in the drops most of the time.

Wow, this thread blew up. Thanks for all the comments and feedback. Much appreciated.

I pulled the pin and bought the Norco Search XR A1 this morning. Was out for five hours this afternoon. So much gravel, old railways and paths to link up (NE). Ended up doing an 85km loop with a friend and finished off at the pub. Pretty Chilled with a few stops for photos and food. Spent about all of five minutes on roads. So nice not to have aggressive drivers and traffic constantly up your rear end.

I’ve now come to the conclusion that I don’t need a dropper on the gravel bike. I rode some rather rough trails at the start and that was harsh compared to my Fuel Ex 9.8. no surprises there! The bike really shines on the gravel, bridal ways, the paths, floaty fast woodland dirt trails. Big grin on my face a few times. It’s a bike that makes tame MTB trails really fun. It also accelerates really well up forest banks. Really relaxed geometry, comfortable and the 38s really grip hard when you want to pin corners. I don’t think I’d want wider tyres as the compromise between speed and comfort seems spot on at the moment.

I think this bike will be ridden more than my MTB and road bike during autumn and winter. As a gravel bike, for exploring and a winter road bike!