How robust/ tough are gravel bikes at the more road end of the spectrum?

Hi all,

A bit of a weird question but here goes; how tough, and realistically what kind of riding in terms of durability, can a average gravel bike put up with?

I had a longish demo of an Enigma (Escape?) and frankly I found it terrifying off road. Coming from a MTB perspective it was not the easygoing, fast cruiser I was expecting and the toe overlap meant it was a no go in slow speed or twisty situations.

Having recalibrated expectations and treated it more of an “all road” style bike, or a road bike with the ability to occasionally by-pass some busier roads with nice long, straight, smoothish off road bits then it started to make sense. A roadies way to take rougher roads rather than a mountain biker’s XC bike replacement IMO. Anywaaaayyy 🙂

I then got to hurtling down a track and ungracefully hitting some large holes I hadn’t seen and had a bit of a panic about putting what is in reality little more than a road bike with larger tyres through these kind of hits. Yes, by choice I would ride smoother, and no I am not aware of “gravel” bikes spontaneously combusting…

… but would you have any concerns riding something like a Trek Checkpoint, Spec Diverge/ Crux, Giant Revolt with MTB inspired carefree abandon? Logically I assume they are fine but I think only the Lauf Seigla makes reference to tougher strength tests passed and really stand behind riding anywhere and anything off road (i.e. wheels on the ground XC style).

Worrying about nothing or some respect and caution required with the average gravel bike in terms of durability how and where you ride it?

Thanks!

Ride it like you stole it!

I’d not worry about it, XC, CX and road frames are much of a muchness weight wise. So it depends on the fork, wheels and tyres. I quite happily ride my CAAD-X as hard as I can. Even my road bike (and old CAAD4) takes more of a beating than the designer probably ever intended (unless they were watching Paris Roubaix whilst sketching it out).

They are robust. Just picked up a ‘used’ Colnago World Cup – CX bike, race geometry etc. I go slower on the descents locally on it than I do on the FS, but it more than makes up for slower descents with speed on the flat and up-hill. Road wheels are surprisingly strong. You’ve got to watch out for holes etc, but that’s cause you’ve no suspension to soak it up. It’s no slouch on the tarmac, which is what’s surprised me.

Fork was probably the main concern TBH. My only bike at the moment is a rigid SS with a Whisky fork so the concept of a light carbon fork off road is ok in my mind but I do just wonder what these lighter forks are really designed for?

I was a bit taken in by the gravel marketing of long, comfy adventures anywhere you like off road whereas in reality I found my rigid 29er with wide flat bars to be much faster and more enjoyable for me and my local rides. I just worry about misinterpreting the hype and marketing in a more painful way with a gravel bike 🙂

Realistically I would be using any new bike as an all road bimbler to give me some gears and a less demanding ride vs rigid SS but it is good to give myself some realistic expectations of gravel bikes.

I had a 3T Exploro, definitely at the road end of gravel. Concerns over the frame material/strength never put me off trying anything. The geometry did as which is why it went in favour of a bike with 20mm more reach and a slacker HA, but I hammered that bike over some pretty rough trails without any concerns, I even lapped all the trails at Sherwood pines on that bike only missing the jump area out.

You’ll find the forks are very strong. The big bonus with a gravel bike, is that it’s not overly compromised on road. An MTB is joyless to ride on tarmac. If you are mixing it up a lot, then go for a gravel bike.

I’ve always had road bikes and MTB’s, nothing in the middle. The CX bike will do most of my routes off road, but enables me to mix it with tarmac, and also saves me cleaning off a full suspension bike for a bimble.

I reckon fear/lack of comfort will slow you down before you can do too much damage to a gravel bike.

Definitely try some others though. My starter was a Boardman ADV 8.9, that was a really good all rounder which went well on the road and off.

Good to hear, thanks all

What I have in mind probably doesn’t exist but that is the next challenge 🙂

I’m thinking traditional road style design rather than something bastardized by a MTB brand (to be more flexible between fun on and off road and not too specialised either way), 40-45mm 700c tyre clearance, longer and slacker front to try to eliminate toe overlap with my very rearward cleats and I already have GX AXS spare for a big range 1x setup. Some of those things are at odds with each other but it is a work in progress 🙂

My Merlin G2P is at the road end of the spectrum. Overlap, 36mm tyres, rack and guards, relatively steep geometry, skinny carbon fork with no mounts (etc).

In narrow, twisty situations I have found it a handful – the toe overlap being most noticeable. This includes (sorry) QECP red route, Comrie Blue, Arran singletrack, Argyll woodlands and some inadvisable lekking around in Mine and Uni woods in Bridge of Allan.

As for robustness and damage, I haven’t had much concern. This includes battering down some proper rough estate tracks loaded with panniers and a 14st rider…

I’ve hammered the absolute nuts off my Pinnacle Arkose (and before that a Trek XO, really old rim brake one) and both have been fine. I have snapped a steel Kona MTB frame in the past too so I’m not just bimbling.

And of course we need to remind you that nothing new under the sun….

I reckon the force of unintentional pothole hit at 60 km/hr on the road is worse than anything you’d intentionally do off road.

I found I enjoyed the gravel bike more when I viewed it as a road bike with extra capabilities (good for quiet routes involving gravel fireroads etc but not too many singletrack descents, and quick on tarmac) rather than a drop-barred mountain bike. A slight mindset change.

And of course we need to remind you that nothing new under the sun….

I can’t help thinking when ever I see those old rough stuff-a-like photos, that they’d probably have happily sold their grannies if you’d offered them a modern full suss.

I’d say worry about tyres and maybe rims, they’re the bits taking all the damage. Once you’re hitting them hard enough to damage frame and forks you’re probably also damaging wrists and ankles!

I ride mine surprisingly hard, never found toe overlap an issue, and comfort seemed dictated in part by ride position, I have saddle slammed back now and a 90mm stem, basically whole position is 20mm more rearwards than road bike. I do however get into situations were me and the bike are fine, but I somehow end up damaging tyres or rims hitting them too hard off things, sometimes things I didn’t even notice until I spot the dinged rim or pinch flatted tubeless tyre! ☹

I was a bit taken in by the gravel marketing of long, comfy adventures anywhere you like off road whereas in reality I found my rigid 29er with wide flat bars to be much faster and more enjoyable for me and my local rides. I just worry about misinterpreting the hype and marketing in a more painful way with a gravel bike

‘anywhere you like off road’ is where people seem to go wrong, there is definitely an upper limit where gravel bikes start to suck. It’s just surprisingly higher than you might think (and also very personal I guess). Having invested an awful lot in a custom gravel bike which is basically my pride and joy, I’m now finding more and more trails on it where I actually wish I had my Superfly, but then, would I have ridden 20km of tarmac on the Superfly just for 500m of beautiful new singletrack? Probably not… Compromises, compromises…

Go and watch Road Bike Party on YouTube and then decide

In my view it’s all about tyres. You need rubber to protect the rims. If you ride rigid you aren’t going to go fast enough to give your forks a proper hit doing something like landing from a jump. Your arms share the pain experienced by the fork crown so that tends to limit your speed.

An MTB is joyless to ride on tarmac.

Depends on the MTB, mine is fully rigid, has fast tyres and steep angles. It’s fine on road, but on steep lanes with bad road surface it’s much better than a road bike. It’s the best thing I have ridden for *any* surface, it’s ok on everything from road to steep technical singletrack and air. It has no major downsides – I can ride miles of road and fire-road and also do a steep rocky descent or pretty much anything I’d take an MTB down – just slower. It has no major strengths either except pedalling dynamics.

Whenever I see the RSF photos I think back to my first Road bike (a 531c Falcon) and it’s snapped steerer tube.

‘anywhere you like off road’ is where people seem to go wrong, there is definitely an upper limit where gravel bikes start to suck. It’s just surprisingly higher than you might think

There’s definitely a limit beyond which they’re certainly slower than an MTB, but when you consider that even on a really rough ride, probably 80% of the time is spent climbing, and a fair chunk of that will be on smoother trails (otherwise you’d have picked to ride in the other direction). Conversely depending on budget there’s not a lot in it between a super XC bike and a gravel bike.

<£1500 XC bike Vs Gravel bike, they’re quite specialist.
>£3500 XC bike Vs gravel bike, really not much in it, the XC bike will probably be a gnats hair behind the gravel bike uphill on smooth stuff, and thrash it as soon as things get even slightly rowdy, all you really lose is a bit of aero on the road.

Road and MTB EN test loads are fairly similar in some areas and fork length is a big factor in why an MTB frame has to be so much stronger.

As others have said, handling ability on a typical drop bar bike will be the limit/problem before impact strength generally.

I was a bit taken in by the gravel marketing of long, comfy adventures anywhere you like off road whereas in reality I found my rigid 29er with wide flat bars to be much faster and more enjoyable for me and my local rides. I just worry about misinterpreting the hype and marketing in a more painful way with a gravel bike 🙂

Realistically I would be using any new bike as an all road bimbler to give me some gears and a less demanding ride vs rigid SS but it is good to give myself some realistic expectations of gravel bikes.

They’re just non-race road(ish) bikes that don’t fall apart or come to a standstill at the first sign of a byway. You could ride one off-road all day – it’s a handful/challenge and there’s some fun to be had in all that but bike brands promoting them as ideal off-road adventure bikes? Yeah ok.

Enigma escape is more if a touring bike really, great for light off road touring.
More off road focused look at the seigla as mentioned, the fustle causeway, Cotic cascade and generally any drop bar bike that’ll take a 50mm tyre seems to be good for off road. A dropper post is great for exploring trails you don’t know so if you come across something dodgy you can get the saddle out if the way.
There’s definitely a split now between those companies that have just repurposed a road frame for bigger tyres ( although some still reckon 35mm is “fat”) and those that have designed the bike from the ground up to be more Cairngorms adventure than Richmond park at a Strava beating average speed
There is a different technique to riding drop bars on MTB stuff though and one ride shouldn’t be the final judgement

I did 3 peaks CX on my Mason Definition https://masoncycles.cc/reviews/categories/definition-bikes/?taxon=categories%2Fdefinition-bikes.

I reckon if you can get 35mm tyres in, any road bike is a go anywhere bike

it’s a handful/challenge and there’s some fun to be had in all that but bike brands promoting them as ideal off-road adventure bikes? Yeah ok.

I should say, the ‘yeah ok’ is aimed at the optimistic bike brand marketing of gravel bikes, rather than doubting what you said DanW. Read it back and thought it wasn’t clear or might come across badly.

I can’t help thinking when ever I see those old rough stuff-a-like photos, that they’d probably have happily sold their grannies if you’d offered them a modern full suss.

yep. I mean they are great pics, but they’re clearly having “type 2” fun 😂

I reckon if you can get 35mm tyres in, any road bike is a go anywhere bike

There are many trails on my local loops where you wouldn’t be able to ride 35mm up and would trash your rims down, unless you were very light. And even then you’d be going very slowly.

I’ve taken gravel bikes on relatively stupid trails in the past and always survived as has the bike, but in reality I much prefer riding a rigid or short-travel 29er hardtail on anything other than relatively smooth gravel

Have you considered a dropbar 29er with some Mezcal’s or Thunder Burt’s or something?

I can’t help thinking when ever I see those old rough stuff-a-like photos, that they’d probably have happily sold their grannies if you’d offered them a modern full suss.

I can’t help think it’s nice to see an old picture of the formum big hitters having a nice day out in their youth without arguing about politics or complaining about all the things that make them feel old.

My starter was a Boardman ADV 8.9, that was a really good all rounder which went well on the road and off.

I’ve got one of them, and one of the decals on the frame states it’s tested to MTB standards,  so not too worried about the strength of it.

The wheels have Mavic Open Pro rims, built by me, and they seem plenty strong too as they are quite wide for a roadie rim.

Also in the camp that a lightweight XC bike is way more comfortable and in a lot of cases quicker than a gravel bike.
Completely unscientific I know….but having completed quite a few long distance off road (100+ mile) rides in a day, I’ve always been quickest and comfiest on my 100mm carbon XC hardtail. The only thing I found is that hand positions can be more comfortable on the longer road/fire road sections.

I still love riding my gravel bike though and have just come in from a short little blast….they’re great fun. I’ve even gotten rid of my road bike as I use the gravel bike for road and “gravel” rides….by gravel I mean light off road.

I’ve just built a Sonder Camino AL and gave it some stick this weekend. It’s not an MTB of course, but with my 128KG on board, the whole thing coped over roots, singletrack and mild pebbles at between 5 and 21 mph.

Using Hope pro 5 with DT GR361 rims and 44mm wide tyres, so I guess a degree of cushioning but, it was also surprisingly capable on road.

No toe overlap on the large and rode very well on all suefaces.

My carbon CX bike had toe overlap but I never found it an issue on 40mm tyres hammering down rooty and flinty single-track in the SE. It got very skittish once it got to the point where both tyres spent more time in the air than on the ground… Loose flinty pebble descents would also cause the headset to work loose (cheap frame)…

My Giant Revolt is a beefier and slightly slacker and comfier version of the CX bike. It’s very similar in that hitting technical stuff or drops fast rapidly exceeds my limited skill level and I usually slow down not least because my vision gets blurry… I’d happily take it around Swinley, being a bit cautious on the rooty drops.. I hang off the back a lot on steep stuff and don’t have a dropper.

My Scott Scale HT is a similar weight to the Revolt and unsurprisingly a lot more capable and forgiving off road. On road it’s a drag and I just feel like I’m wearing out the tyres for no fun..

I’ve little experience outside of the above and I’ve only ridden a 15kg behemoth long travel full suss downhill weapon once in Les Gets on a family coaching day down a green run. Compared to my then ancient 26″ HT it felt like riding a motocross bike across a golf course….

I guess if there is a point to the above ramble, road orientated gravel bikes are still very robust and very capable off road and how they feel depends on what you are used to and how fast you are going..

It’s personal preference I think..

anywhere you like off road’ is where people seem to go wrong, there is definitely an upper limit where gravel bikes start to suck. It’s just surprisingly higher than you might think (and also very personal I guess).

I bought a gravel bike. It was no fun for me off road. It was much draggier than my road bike on road. I always felt out of control above about 10/15mph off road.

https://ep1.pinkbike.org/p3pb20668065/p3pb20668065.jpg

I’d rather ride my (160mm forked) hardtail to the trails and have fun compared to medium slogging to the trails on the gravel bike and have limited
Fun while being jitteing about.

I almost never was on the gravel bikes drops to get out of the wind and only had a couple of rides where the multiple hand positions helped.

I’ve sold my gravel bike ( max clearance 35c) and replaced it with an MTB with 50c tyres. The gravel bike mostly got used for commuting after a summer building up to a big gravel ride which I didn’t enjoy. This new bike will mostly be used to commute with the odd bit of gravel on the way home.

Steel gravel bike with carbon rims and a lighter saddle about 11kg

Titanium hardtail with a carbon fork about 11kg.

This is my ‘rocket’ – old skool, but new to me – got it as it had rim brakes and I can switch it to road with extra wheels – my other road bikes have 53 x 39 gearing – so hard work on hilly stuff as I’ve got older.

Done a full service on it and well happy. Running 38c gravel tyres.

Also in the camp that a lightweight XC bike is way more comfortable and in a lot of cases quicker than a gravel bike.

Yeah, I reckon on almost any route that’s mostly off road, this is true. My gravel bike is painfully slow on techy descents whereas a flat bar XC hardtail would be much faster in my hands, I think. For mixed road / off road then the gravel bike is a good option.

Fork offset also has an effect on toe overlap.

My wrists give up long before my Whyte Saxon Cross complains. On the right ride with lots of well timed bunnyhops it can be great fun but anything proper rocky is just painful.