Gravel wheels, is two sets daft?

Rotor rub?

FFS it’s a 2-sec job to ease off the callipers.

I’d only look at 650B if the bike you’re buying won’t take a decent width 700c – don’t see the point of smaller wheels.

I have two pairs on my Mason bokeh. Hunt carbon 700c with 38 Panaracer Gravelking Slick and some Ribble carbon 650b with 47mm Halo GXC that I got for less than £200 in the sale.  I live in the lakes and more and more I’ve been riding the 650bs. I love the lower centre of gravity and the cushioning of the fattish tyres. The 700c are much faster though. Although the hubs are different the c/l rotors and the cassettes are perfectly in line so no messing when I change them

I have a Brother Mehteh. 700c with 44mm WTB Raddlers for longer rides, 650B with 2.1” Maxxis Ikons for “XC lite” rides.

If I had to chose I’d keep the 650B no question.

Edit: vital to have the same hubs on each set for the faff-reduction reasons other contributors have mentioned.

It’s rubbish in winter because you still won’t have propper mudguards unless you take those on and off too. And propper mudguards are the critical bit in making winter road rides bearable, not half bodged half-length gravel mudguards that only protect your back.

I “winter road biked” my SSCX/gravel bike a few years ago and haven’t turned it back. It does both equally well but it’s not both bikes at once.

I’ve got Nick Craig’s old PX ti cross. I’ve had it 18 years and I think he raced the 3 peaks on it in 2004. It was my gravel bike before we talked about gravel. In many ways it was one of the most “gravelly ” cross bikes of the time, designed by Nick for winning races such as the 3 peaks within Thier rules of the day but with bosses a plenty to do other stuff too. It did (and still does) winter road and commute duties. But it also did a bit of CX in the autumn and what we now call gravel duties in the summer. The once a year switch from guarded and racked winter bike to summer gravel bike was no drama but the weekend switch and switch back for a CX race was a total nause. So it’s very much depends how often you want it to change modes. Gravel bike to summer road bike is obviously no drama.

Re your other point, I think it depends how off road your gravel tyres are as to how compromised you are when riding on the road with others. There is no way in hell I’d keep up with many people on my 2.1″ Mezcals. In fact my 40mm G one overlands would give my a hell of a workout! But if your gravel tyres are more at the road end of the compromise spectrum you have a point.

Edit: vital to have the same hubs on each set for the faff-reduction reasons other contributors have mentioned.

I think that’s overdoing it a bit. As said it’s not that hard to tweak the calipers each time or shim just the once at setup. I certainly wouldn’t (I didn’t) be ditching hubs I already had or turning down a good deal just to have them matching.

It’s rubbish in winter because you still won’t have propper mudguards unless you take those on and off too.

Have a set of SKS Speedrocker mud guards that are pretty much full length and take a couple of minutes to fit without much faff.

It’s rubbish in winter because you still won’t have propper mudguards unless you take those on and off too.

I tend to just fit guards in winter and ride on the road. Riding over wet rocks/roots and through slop on skinny tyres just isn’t my idea of a good time. For the occasional wet spring day, I just put some clip ons on.

Maybe I’ve just been lucky, but I’m running mostly different hubs, and I have more issues with disc thickness than I do with spacing.

Edit: vital to have the same hubs on each set for the faff-reduction reasons other contributors have mentioned.
I think that’s overdoing it a bit.

Yeah but if you’re building or buying from scratch and have the opportunity, you might as well.

Re your other point, I think it depends how off road your gravel tyres are as to how compromised you are when riding on the road with others. There is no way in hell I’d keep up with many people on my 2.1″ Mezcals. In fact my 40mm G one overlands would give my a hell of a workout! But if your gravel tyres are more at the road end of the compromise spectrum you have a point.

Mine are 42/45mm Vittorias. I don’t deny they’re harder work than 25/28c slicks, it’s of the order of 20-40W (most gravel tyres are about 25-30W, road tyres ~10W at appropriate pressures, the gaps less if you stick 45psi in some 42mm tyres to make them pretty solid).  But as I said, unless you’re already the slowest in the group 20W is just a few less turns on the front over a couple of hours.

Have a set of SKS Speedrocker mud guards that are pretty much full length and take a couple of minutes to fit without much faff.

Anything that doesn’t extend down to the BB / chain stay is just dumping all the water into the back of the legs IME. And if the guard/flap doesn’t go past 9o’clock at the back of each wheel then it just ends up spraying your feet / the guy behind you.  Winter riding is weird, you go into it with the belief that it should be cheap in relation to your summer kit. Then after a while you’re riding with mudguards that cost as much as your summer tyres, your clothing is an order of magnitude more expensive, the repurposed bike has been swapped for a dedicated one 😂

Nothing to add that hasnt already been said other than the Fairlight Secan looks lovely!

Currently have a Camino for Gravel/Commuting etc and a Giant Defy as a road bike, but not really used it much as I cant be arsed with the car drivers anymore.

Did think about getting a revolt and doing the 2 wheel thing though,  in the event i did fancy a road ride.

But that Fairlight has turned my head!!

I have two sets, Ultegra C50 for road, and some Mavic Ksyrium that came with the bike for gravel. But as mentioned above, the discs aren’t in the same place (only on the rear) which made swapping a hassle. So I thought I’d shim them.
As I’m time-poor but relatively cash-rich I figured this would be the perfect job for my LBS. Who point blank refused to do it as “the shims aren’t Shimano and aren’t a Shimano approved part”. Somewhat surprised by that, I used it as an man-excuse to buy a pair of Ultegra C36 wheels to use for gravel. From another shop.

A thread on STW with consensus? This cannot do, so I’ll beg to differ just to save the universe from imploding.

I had a Diverge which I thought I’d get a second set of wheels for. Instead, I just put Ramblers on and it’s been fine for both on road and off road duties.

But I bought a hardtail for “proper off road, exploration and I’ve got a proper road bike as well, so all bases seemed to be covered by using the best tool for the job.

In fact, I’ve hardly ridden the gravel bike since I got the hard tail…