Road bike as light gravel?

I don’t break bikes, but I’m not light. I do wonder if fitting 32c gravel tyres to my road bike and going on fire roads is a wise idea.  Will I die? It weighs 8kg but it cost about 1/3 as much as an 8kg gravel bike. I’ve got budget Prime carbon wheels on it, and a disconcertingly light and cheap Brand X carbon bar…  That might have to change.

On fire roads, it will be fine.  Uncomfortable, but fine.  For anything more aggressive, I’d be a little bit more wary.  Road bikes are tested to a lower safety standard than gravel bikes which I believe share the same testing requirements as MTBs.

Oh, and non of my gravel bikes have gravel specific bars or wheels and they’ve been through some serious abuse.

You’ll be fine, what you’ll have is basically a cyclocross bike.

I have ridden track bikes, with 25c tyres, on gravel for 20 years (along with some single track) and nothing has ever broken. They are slightly less comfortable than a bike with 45c tyres but not that much as the gravel where I live is mostly as comfortable as riding on roads as the surface is a bit softer.

If it has clearance for 32s, it’ll be fine. (usually the biggest issue is behind the bottom bracket.)

I use a endurance geo road bike for “light gravel”. As loads of roads round here are just that, light gravel. (or light mud when it rains too much)

A mate uses a Canyon Endurace for “heavy gravel” with the biggest tyres you can physically fit in the frame. Even done some 100+km races on it.

Only think i’d be wary of if it’s 8 kgs, is what the frame is made of, if its an older silly light aluminium frame, it *might* not last too long with the pummelling you get from endless gravel trails. If it’s a carbon, go for it.

Yes, it’s carbon.  I will probably upgrade the bars. This will have to happen next summer as it wont fit 32s with mudgards on and anything less is too small for my fat arse.  It would be only for fire roads. Some of them are quite rough but tbh no worse than some of the roads.

Surely people have been doing this since the bike was invented.

I’ve used my Canyon road bike on “light gravel” trails in Girona and a couple of parts of Italy with no issues at all (plus cobbled roads in Belgium). The pros routinely use “road bikes with slightly wider tyres” even at the Gravel World Champs and you only have to look at races like Paris-Roubaix or Strada Bianche to see the punishment that even a regular road bike can take these days.

So long as you’re not trying to set a new PB down a rocky descent, it’ll be fine.

Surely people have been doing this since the bike was invented.

Er yes but not since MY particular bike was invented, in 2020.  What the 1903 TDF riders did isn’t that relevant for me today.

My “road bike” is a Cannondale Supersix Evo but the CX model so it has more tyre clearance but other than that isn’t particularly beefed up I don’t think. It’s actually great for me with 32mm Panaracer Gravel King Slicks on forest fire roads, super comfy. But I do only weigh about 70kg so I’m running about 45/50psi on the road with these tyres anyway.

I can’t believe that I’m the first to say – GET A RIGID HARDTAIL. It’s normally the first reply in any thread about gravel bikes isn’t it? (Do I get a prize?)

 It would be only for fire roads. Some of them are quite rough but tbh no worse than some of the roads.

If you’re talking about the fire-roads of South Wales, which I suspect you are, they become disconcertingly rugged when you’re on narrow tyres. Volume is always your friend. I’d be more concerned about lightweight carbon rims and narrow tyres than a lightweight frame.

Surely people have been doing this since the bike was invented.

And this. We’re all still alive. Well, not actually all, but you know what I mean!

Other than clearance it should be fine. I ride a 12 year old CX race bike, which is effectively a road bike, with better welds. I’ve just bike packed 300km on 20/24 spoked Aksiums with gravel tyres on !

PS, if you die, don’t come back here to complain about poor advice !

FWIW when i moved over here i used to do “light gravel” on my old race bike, which *barely* has clearance for 25mm and my training bike, which takes 28s and mudguards. So i reckon 32 will be ok. (Both bikes still fully functional.)

I did the three peaks cyclocross on a road bike with 32c tyres on, bike didnt break, I didn’t die

Paris Roubaix & cobbled classics, Strada Bianche, stage [9] of this year’s tour, all riding road bikes on “off-road” sections.

The issue will be clearance for the tyres and the potential for small pieces of gravel to get stuck in the tread and then wear the frame and forks. Everything else can to some extent be managed with changes to position or contact points. Whether it is fun/pleasant is another matter altogether and depends on the condition of the tracks you use.

 did the three peaks cyclocross on a road bike with 32c tyres on, bike didnt break, I didn’t die

I’ve done the Three Peaks 3 or 4 times, and broken a back wheel once; another time double punctured at the bottom of PyG; I rode past someone who had head injuries and another who had broken his leg. Both being treated btw, I didn’t just ride past them!. It was rare to ride the 3Peaks without a mechanical of some kind – even Keith Bontrager had to borrow my pump once -, but then modern bikes might have sorted that out.

I can’t believe that I’m the first to say – GET A RIGID HARDTAIL.

If a new bike was on the cards I wouldn’t be looking at bodging my existing one 🙂  I have a rigid hardtail, as it happens, but I am looking at a loop including both road and gravel and I don’t feel like doing one of the UK’s best Alpine imitation road climbs on an MTB, it wouldn’t be as good.

 they become disconcertingly rugged when you’re on narrow tyres.

Yeah this concerns me, I’d need to try it out and then I’ve only lost £60 or so.

What’s a rigid hardtail? Do you mean a fully rigid bike with no suspension either end, or a hardtail which has front suspension and a hard tail? One or t’other shirley? [Confused of Suffolk]  winky smiley

Hardtail = front suspension only

Rigid hardtail = rigid forks on a hardtail frame

What’s a rigid hardtail? Do you mean a fully rigid bike with no suspension either end, or a hardtail which has front suspension and a hard tail? One or t’other shirley? [Confused of Suffolk]

A hardtail with a rigid fork. It’s not effing difficult.

It just depends on the “gravel” you’ll be riding. I have some routes near me I’d basically take my road bike on with road tyres and others that are really MTB tracks.

A rigid hardtail? Hilarious. *laughing my bollox off emoji* It’s a rigid bike, it’s all bloody hard.

Enjoy your cross bike. I don’t think you’ll die. Just moved my cross bike to gravel with the swapping of tyres and electric shifting. It’s a bike. Bikes were invented for gravel. Try not to get too much air on any tables or you may struggle to land them and keep the tyres inflated.

Road bikes should be fine on high frequency low amplitude bumps. I expect you’ll flinch before the bike does unless you go all Road Bike Party. Wheels on the ground and predictable, consistent surfaces with no big impacts, that sort of stuff should be ok.

Road bikes are tested to a lower safety standard than gravel bikes which I believe share the same testing requirements as MTBs.

Sort of but not really – it depends. There is no standard or set of tests for gravel bikes, just road and MTB categories. Brands should interpret and spec tests using things like product class and marketed/expected use. In some areas the road test is harder to pass than the MTB test, all things like levers (fork length etc) being equal.

Surely people have been doing this since the bike was invented.

Yes but not with 400g carbon forks with carbon steerers and 100mm+ stems clamped to them, etc.

Sometimes take my Langster with 28c road tyres off road, it’s doable but I wouldn’t recommend it! It’s ok on very smooth surfaced gravel paths but even then the constant small vibrations get to your hands after a while and it’s not fun. It’s kinda put me off gravel bikes but still interested to see how much difference bigger tyres can make to the enjoyment!

Ive done it on 22mm tubs.  It was slow and painful but it was pre mountainbike days

Using your road bike for the road climb and suffering on the gravel downhills sounds arse backward to me.  Surely the downhill is the fun bit?

Road bikes with tubeless tyres and disc brakes are probably more capable off road than the mountain bikes I started on.

I’ve ridden some pretty ridiculous terrain on 24 spoke carbon wheels, with bikepacking gear. Not recommended, but everything survived.

Kinesis 4s raceligh with 30mm cx tyres survived the Kennet and Avon canal and Savernake forest fire roads (although I did get a pinch flat, due to being a bit to enthusiastic in the forest)

Recently handled an unexpected “Bridleway”on 26mm slicks, too.

You just have to take things a bit more slowly

I only got a ‘gravel’ bike recently, prior to that my road bike with Zipp 404s went on gravel roads on 25mm GP4000s without any issues.

100s of miles of tracks like these in The Algarve…

IMG_3148 by Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr

I’ve done a lap of Swinley blue and red on a Merlin road bike with 25c tyres a couple of times. Punctures are the only issue on the man made single track. On the fire roads it’s pretty comfortable. As mentioned it’s what we used to do, granted with bigger tyres before we could afford mountain bikes.

. I expect you’ll flinch before the bike does unless you go all Road Bike Party.

I’d forgotten just how good road bike party is.

Yeah he did alright there but notice he didn’t ride on any really tough fire roads where the bike would have exploded.

Damn it, I saw the thread title and went straight to YouTube to copy the link to Road Bike Party!