It’s the same as Nimby’s moaning about cyclists riding through their villages, people exercising in the park etc. Some people just feel threatened by other people doing something different to them and having the temerity to be enjoying it. It’s utterly bizarre.

Personally mine was never meant to replace my MTB and if it wasn’t for lockdown I’d be riding the MTB in remote(ish) bits of Scotland by now. But it has replaced my road bike

Sense at last. 🙂

Some people just feel threatened by other people doing something different to them and having the temerity to be enjoying it. It’s utterly bizarre.

Threatened? don’t be daft.

The issue is when you get someone who lives in an area with bugger all in the way of technical trails, buys a gravel bike and announces that gravel bikes are soooo much better than MTBs.

No mate, you just bought the wrong bike/moved to the wrong area in the first place.

I do a lot of mixed terrain rides these days and – just to state the obvious – you need a bike that can do the road bits and the offroad bits.

Gravel bikes err on the side of the road bits as they are/have:
– mid-width drop bars
– steeper steering
– shorter wheelbase and stiffer frame
– 40mm-ish small-knob tyres

whereas a rigid 29er is better on the offroad bits, cos:
– wider 700mm+ bars
– slacker/longer geo
– more supple frame/bars
– wider small-knob tyres (2.1 – 2.25)

Both weight the same, if you build a decent 29er.

So it’s all about where you want to make the compromise. Rigid 29ers are compromised on the road sections, whereas gravel bikes are compromised offroad.

For me, my rigid 29er* is the way to go, as I prefer the compromise to be on the road bits. I can still ride 60 miles on it. A mate has a gravel bike and he’s significantly slower on the offroad sections we tackle.

* sub 9kg Scott Scale, Exotic rigid carbon fork, 1×11, WTB Nine Line/Schwalbe Thunderburt tyres, carbon bars/post/cranks/etc.

Threatened? don’t be daft.

The issue is when you get someone who lives in an area with bugger all in the way of technical trails, buys a gravel bike and announces that gravel bikes are soooo much better than MTBs.

Er. This is a thread entitled ’Gravel bikes are a bit shit’

Rigid 29ers are compromised on the road sections, whereas gravel bikes are compromised offroad.

Depends on what the offroad bit is.  Around here I can do practically anything from towpath equivalent forest trails to single track to to technical rocky.  For the 60 miler mile munching days, the gravel bike (actually a CX bike) is absolutely spot on for those forest trails. The 29er with far fatter tyres would be the compromise and be much draggier (imho).

All bikes are a compromise. Even 650b/27.5 which bring the trails alive, and only ever took the best bits of 26 and 29 and none of the compromises 😉

significantly slower on the offroad sections

This is the most important point – every ride is a race. Outright speed and how fast you can get to the cake stop is the single most important factor 😉

Er. This is a thread entitled ’Gravel bikes are a bit shit’

Aye, and it’s trolled a lot of you the way it was intended to! lol!

They’re shit. I bought one as I figured could be more interesting than road rides and I cant access decent mtb from home. But it was too much effort on road compared to the roadie and crap off road (bumpy bridleways). I don’t see the point of drop bars off road either…

But if I had loads of gravel tracks near me, say I lived in the new forest then it’d be great.

depends where you live as to what your experience is!

They’re shit.

But if I had loads of gravel tracks near me, say I lived in the new forest then it’d be great.

Er…

I would have a rigid mtb any day as I would prefer the riding position and that includes only road rides.i am not a roadie I am a mtber
I have no desire to try drops esp for off road.

Personally I love mine, though I’m about to switch from an On-One Bish Bash Bosh to a Sonder Camino Ti for a bit more clearance and rack mounts for light touring rather than a full on tourer.

For a niche class of bike they’re probably the most normal non-niche bikes there are. Especially if paired with a double chainset.

They are so shit I have 2 with a 3rd on order 🙂

I think they are popular as they provide contrast to a gnarly mtb which is the way it should be for a second bike

They’re a different flavour – who cares what’s ‘better’ or ‘best’?

I couldn’t give a stuff, I just like having different bikes to ride and I don’t even stop to think or care about what, why or how.

If a different type of bike gets built and sold, I’ll probably want one, as long as it’s got fat tyres on and isn’t covered in stupid springs and hinges.

They are so shit I have 2 with a 3rd on order

😆

They are so shit I have 2 with a 3rd on order

Aye, but that’s cos you canny be trusted on proper trails!

stupid springs and hinges

Bizarre.

Malvern Rider
Member

They’re shit.
But if I had loads of gravel tracks near me, say I lived in the new forest then it’d be great.
Er…

My final point was:

depends where you live as to what your experience is!

i.e each to their own

This is when marketing wins and we lose.

We live in the UK. Not the US where they do have hundreds of miles of gravel roads.

Yes, all bikes have a bit of a compromise somewhere, so pick the one that has the smallest compromise, or go N+1. Or better still, get your butler to follow you in a van with a selecton of bikes suited to each bit of the ride 🙂

We live in the UK. Not the US where they do have hundreds of miles of gravel roads.

Thankfully, we have hundreds of miles of gravel roads in the UK too.

Premier Icon
Trimix
Subscriber

This is when marketing wins and we lose.

We live in the UK. Not the US where they do have hundreds of miles of gravel roads.

there aren’t many mountains in the UK either, and yet…

Where I live, the roads I can ride from my doorstep have slowly disintegrated in the last decade to the point where a racy narrow tyred road bike just doesn’t feel like the tool for the job- the tarmac at best is rippled and scarred, at worst fallen apart and strewn with gravel and mud from the farmers so theres barely any tarmac left….and no-one in the foreseeable future is going to do anything about it. These are roads that are actually part of national cycle routes, but in my opinion the maps should more honestly re-classify the roads as unmaintained tracks, like those often found in regions of rural France. This is where a gravel bike would be the most sensible application, in that it takes the place of a road bike that is no longer suited to the crumbling infrastructure, and yet can use smooth or grassy tracks to link up some interesting route variations. I want one. It needs to be P.A.F. though….(Pimp as F) -‘Coz I is a BikeTart.

The gravel bike is a good tool for owning less bikes, and people are using them as an excuse to own more.

if i could have only one, it’d be a gravel, but i’m unmarried so i can have as many as i like.

This is when marketing wins and we lose.

We live in the UK. Not the US where they do have hundreds of miles of gravel roads.

Loads of gravel roads where I live in the UK but apart from that, how exactly is marketing winning. Have you ever bought a completely unsuitable bike because marketing ‘conned’ you into it?

there aren’t many mountains in the UK England

FTFY!

I bought a Specialized Tricross about a decade ago, replaced by a Giant Toughroad a year or two back. I still refer to them as “cross bikes”.

I have to admit I love my cross bike. Probably about 70% of the riding I do is on it now. And in the nightmare scenario of only being able to have one bike, the cross bike it would be. As many folk have said above, it comes down to where you ride, and what you’re looking for. For me the simple fact is I love riding my cross bike and it gives me hours of fun. Not everyone’s cup of tea but each to their own.

Oh and please do keep the “you’re all just victims of marketing/hype/capitalism but I’m not” comments coming. They do make me laugh.

Not a gravel bike, an endurance bike with some crossover features but I took my new 2020 Roubaix up Ramsbottom Rake, which with 34/34 was as easy as it used to be in the old mountain biking days, then up the gravel track to the Peel Tower. Everything was going well until I pointed it down the hill, at which it became a difficult, choppy, slightly unnerving ride as the fork geometry was unsuited to a steep downhill and the tyres kept bouncing off stones. That’s when I realised that a road-biased bike will never be the same as a mountain bike.

Gravel bikes for lycra. Only SPDs allowed
Rigid MTB for baggies, trousers or normal outdoorsy attire. You’re allowed flats on these

Anything else is just wrong 🙂

I think that they’re great (for where I live on the outskirts of Birmingham), precisely because they aren’t a capable MTB. The limited offroad isn’t full of jumps, drops and rock gardens and has to be stitched together with small roads. The faster offroad descents need skill and concentration to not stack on ‘features’ you wouldn’t even notice on an MTB. The only thing I would change on my CDF would be the ablity to run a slightly bigger tyre (and maybe a couple of kg lighter!). A 40c is a squeeze and probably a size too far. Just brought some 38c’s to try them out.

That’s when I realised that a road-biased bike will never be the same as a mountain bike.

Wait, you previously thought that it would? I think I’m beginning to understand why so many MTB riders are confused about other types of bike.

Is this thread still going? Surely it’s long past time for the next one to start?

Is this thread still going? Surely it’s long past time for the next one to start?

No one has invented a new type of bike to argue over yet though.

No one has invented a new type of bike to argue over yet though.

Yea, but usually someone starts a “cross bikes are rubbish” thread then disappears every other day.

No one has invented a new type of bike to argue over yet though

There are lots of types of bikes but it’s only gravel, CX and monstercross bikes that have committed minor trespass against territory that makes dyed-in-the-wool MTBers cry ‘fight you!’ in their sleep. 😉

Try telling the blokes racing Strada bianche that you need 40c’s and a 67 degree HA to ride off tarmac.

A race that’s 2/3rds tarmac.

veldrijden explained to a non belgian 🤷🏼
Tiktok: averagerob pic.twitter.com/DdUIppy0CP

— Average Rob (@AverageRob) April 16, 2020

Another point I was musing over is that gravel bikes have just portioned off all the generally cowardly, boring and not very competent mountain bikers who never really liked riding up and down actual mountains anyway.

It’s also captured loads of the roadies who were never very fit, competitive or capable racers either.

So what we have here is not two or three similar people who disagree over a bike, but two different people who disagree over what fun is because they have different approaches to life.

Maybe gravel bikes are just for type B people. It’s so.. inclusive man.

There are lots of types of bikes but it’s only gravel, CX and monstercross bikes that have committed minor trespass against territory that makes dyed-in-the-wool MTBers roadies cry ‘fight you!’ in their sleep

FTFY. Us MTBers know they’re nowt to do with us. 😉

This was invented 30 years ago:

Put some bigger tyres on it and it’d be bang on trend….

Rigid 29ers are compromised on the road sections

Not that much. Mine is great on road, just a bit slower. However, a 32c drop bar bike on my local trails would be more than ‘a bit slower’ it’d be murderously uncomfortable and have its rims smashed to bits in weeks. It’d ruin most of the good descents entirely.