I have never bought a bike new and never will 🙂 . In fact unless I destroy one of the ones I have I doubt I’ll ever buy another bike until I go for this for a planned long tour well into my retirement. Now it will be used for touring with a bit off offroad where we can so would that make it a gravel bike?

slowster – Member
Not in my experience, because the nature of the gravel tracks means you don’t need to brake much (there is no need to brake for traffic and the tracks are fairly flat, since gravel would be washed away on a steeper slope), and the smaller gritty particles don’t tend to get get picked up and embedded in the brake blocks in the way that does happen if the tracks are muddy dirt tracks rather than gravel tracks.

They do round here. I was wincing yesterday as I indulged in cowardly braking on descents. I could hear my rims being ground away. Once they go, I’ll rebuild the wheels with drums.

Bez – Member
…Road bikes didn’t have the tyre clearance or the brakes, CX bikes lacked brakes and bottle mounts, neither took mudguards, and the tourer market was kind of asleep with toast crumbs in its beard…

Agree, after bikes ceased to be common transport, the market was racing, and so everything tended towards the racing look with all its limitations such as narrow tyres, slammed steering positions etc.

To me a gravel bike is a go anywhere bike for where the surface isn’t highly technical or bog and you’re generally keeping your wheels on the ground.

Hence it has to adopt the best bits of many niches. An old Dawes Galaxy is a perfectly usable gravel bike, but now we can have better brakes and wider tyres to increase the versatility.

Mudguards are a given as far as I’m concerned. If you ride in winter in places where shelter isn’t available every few miles, hypothermia becomes a real prospect, and keeping a spray of close to 0ºC water away from your body is a big help in staying warm – regardless of how waterproof your clothing is.

Not in my experience, because the nature of the gravel tracks means you don’t need to brake much (there is no need to brake for traffic and the tracks are fairly flat, since gravel would be washed away on a steeper slope), and the smaller gritty particles don’t tend to get get picked up and embedded in the brake blocks in the way that does happen if the tracks are muddy dirt tracks rather than gravel tracks.

Fair play thats top quality A1 bollocks

I quite fancy one anyway. Fairly road biased.

If you ride in winter in places where shelter isn’t available every few miles

Do you think down South people are stopping into cafes and pubs every few miles to get warm? 🙂

Agree, after bikes ceased to be common transport, the market was racing, and so everything tended towards the racing look with all its limitations such as narrow tyres, slammed steering positions etc

Actually yes, I was just about aware of older people complaining about ‘racers’ as road bikes were then called.

Any hoo those french guys do seam to be having a lot of fun on their two wheeled conveyances 🙄

Looks like what I would call “an old man’s bike”

Presumably get a discount if showing bus pass.

Good point. what’s the “he’s XX in dog years” equivalent for bikes?

I’ve got an ’87 Raleigh Randonneur which I reckon is definitely older than me “in bike years” and a ’99 Dekerf, which I feel is still a bit older than me, maybe the same age.

So I’m going for 2 or 2 1/2. Let’s say 2.

How does that fit with your bikes?

Mind blown!
[/quote]Sit down for a minute.

Take a deep breath.

Relax.

My tourer is also marketed as a CX bike! 😯

I know, crazy, isn’t it. Almost as if Van Nicolas didn’t get the marketing memo that said we need a different bike for every activity.

My tourer is also marketed as a CX bike!
I know, crazy, isn’t it. Almost as if Van Nicolas didn’t get the marketing memo that said we need a different bike for every activity.

Except that the requirements of both are actually different – the modern CX marketed bike isn’t really a CX bike, the handling is too slow for racing – particularly with the current fashion of dead 180 degree turns, and the spiral of doom.

Do you think down South people are stopping into cafes and pubs every few miles to get warm?

*looks around nervously, whistles, shuffles feet*

*looks around nervously, whistles, shuffles feet*
[/quote]Oi! – Stop scratching the lino!!!

wicki – Member

Any hoo those french guys do seam to be having a lot of fun on their two wheeled conveyancesBit early to be commenting on the content, isn’t it ? We’re still working on the terms of reference 😀

molgrips – Member

Do you think down South people are stopping into cafes and pubs every few miles to get warm?

There’s a number of options:

They’re not riding far in winter rain (or venturing out in it at all)
They are a damn sight harder than us softies in the real north.
They are coffeeandtearing – and if the opportunity is there and the weather is foul, why not?
The rain is warmer.

Or they have proper mudguards. 🙂

Hypothermia is real and dangerous and worth avoiding (except for the exquisitely fashionable of course). I’ve rescued a couple of roadies in the last few years in remoter parts of the Highlands who were caught out by a good soaking in what appeared to be mild weather.

I would argue that the most important feature of these new” bikes is disc brakes. Gravel goes up and down an awful lot as most of it in on FC roads which are mostly in hilly places like Scotland and Wales. I used to get through a front rim a year using rim brakes. About 4000 miles with less than 5% tarmac.
Other than that I don’t really worry which bike I ride. The pre war fixed with tubs works as well as the trike, the CX bike or even (carefully!!!) My carbon TT bike. Bigger tyres bike get most of the use but although one is running 40mm Nanos its the 30 mm shod bike that works best. I see why shop like labels but as there are blurred edes it all gets a bit daft. But as riders don’t know what they are doing its bound to. Eg the pillock who told me he rides CX most days. He has never ridden a race in his life!
Ah well.

For those worrying about rim wear just go brakeless fixed (Or fit a front brake but don’t use it).

It is more fun on gravel roads than tarmac

For those worrying about rim wear just go brakeless fixed (Or fit a front brake but don’t use it).

Why would I want to do that? Discs are a no brainer.

Gravel is the perfect place for fixed. No need to worry about other road users . Biggest problem for me is either boar or timber lorries.

I think for those saying “gravel” bikes don’t need discs, and that gravel rides tend to be fairly flat fire-roads should take a look at events like Dirty Reiver or Charlie’s Gravel Dash in Dorset, there was a hell of a lot of climbing and some fantastically fast descents.

For me a gravel bike is completely different to a true CX bike, CX is an our long blast where is doesn’t matter whether the frame is stiff and racey and takes a 33c tyre max. Gravel bikes take a bigger tyre and have to be comfortable for events like Dirty Kanza and 200 miles.

I’ve never understood the backlash against discs on a bike like this, they work and they work well and they allow the bigger tyre clearance.

Why would I want to do that? Discs are a no brainer.

You wouldn’t so don’t worry about it. However, those with a bike that has rim brakes may not see the no brainerness of using discs

Those who don’t go gravel racing may not see that only having a fixed wheel as a brake is probably unlikely to make a competitive gravel bike 😉

I think for those saying “gravel” bikes don’t need discs, and that gravel rides tend to be fairly flat fire-roads

Which is not what I said.

When I commented on the advantages or otherwise of discs over rim brakes I was very specific in what I said, i.e. that it was ironic that on “actual gravel tracks” the disc brakes which would typically be considered essential for a ‘gravel bike’ do not offer much if any advantage (for similar reasons that kerley can ride a brakeless fixed gear reasonably safely on such tracks).

Gravel tracks are by their very nature flat/not steep. If they were steep, the gravel/stones would quickly be washed away or fall to the bottom of the slope.

To state the bleeding obvious, the extent of actual gravel tracks in England is limited, and an off road ride of any significant distance using gravel tracks would almost inevitably include other terrain where disc brakes would be an advantage.

As for the question of rim wear, I said “in my experience” and the limited wear on my V braked bike (which is now used almost solely on gravel tracks) over the last few years has surprised me, because I was expecting the smaller gritty particles in the gravel to wear through the rims quite quickly, and I could only assume that the reason for this was the lack of mud on the tracks to bind with the grit and turn it into an abrasive paste which the wheels and rims and pads would pick up.

That all said, it’s interesting that the gravel bikes built for the likes of Jan Heine in the USA use centre pull rim brakes, which are just one of the retro features like 650B wheels which they share with the French randonneur style bike upon which they are based.

slowster – Member
…To state the bleeding obvious, the extent of actual gravel tracks in England is limited, and an off road ride of any significant distance using gravel tracks would almost inevitably include other terrain where disc brakes would be an advantage…

However there is the whole rest of the UK, and from what I’ve seen much of the north of England is pretty lumpy too.

The fire roads I ride on are fairly undulating and I can get up to 35mph+ going down some of the hills.

However, I don’t find that I need to stop or slow down very often as there are very few people around on the miles of fire roads I ride on and when there are people I have plenty of time to slow down (they are not jumping out from behind trees!).
It is not like I am riding through a town full of traffic and pedestrians.

Are you havin’ a larf?

That all said, it’s interesting that the gravel bikes built for the likes of Jan Heine in the USA use centre pull rim brakes, which are just one of the retro features like 650B wheels which they share with the French randonneur style bike upon which they are based.

That’s fashion – nothing to do with function.

Jan Heine’s bikes also seem to be rim braked because of weight and frame/ fork flex which is necessarily minimised on disc braked bikes.
I’ve ridden CX bikes for over 20 years on off road tracks which aren’t muddy school playing fields (I’ve done that a lot as well), but up in the Lakes, the Pennines, Dartmoor, Surrey hills, Shropshire, mid Wales, South Downs, Friston etc. I’ve never found them to be a problem, and I finally wore out a set of Campag Eurus 3G last year which I originally bought in 06…
I do now have a 650b, 48mm tyred disc braked drop bar ‘capable’ bike which I really like. I rode it on the Gravel Dash 50/50, at Paris-Roubaix, on Tuscant Road 17, and will be riding it at Srada Bianche and Tro Bro Leon in early spring next year.

Anyway, €5 to enter? Awesome. I’ve done a few (sportive) events in France where the prices have been at this level but the support is incredible – signposted routes, multiple food stops, and food at the end. How do they do it for these prices?

**** me do you lot also think that mountain bikes are only for riding up and down actual mountains too?

I’ve gone through a rear rims in 6 months on an old rigid hardtail with vees that was ridden on exactly the terrain I now use my Gravel bike on…sometimes….its about 70% a road bike tbh.

I’ve got a couple of bikes that are pretty decent for, er, y’know.

An old rigid mtb and a tourer with 2″ tyres.

The tourer (Surly) is absolutely perfect for 90% of the riding I do. My local trails aren’t very techy and although I have a ‘proper’ MTB with suss forks I find it more fun locally on the other bikes, tbh.

Mrs has an AWOL which she’s ridden on Welsh slate, local singletrack, Peak grinding paste etc.
With some knobblies and the stock flared bars it’s probably better off road than I am.