What can a gravel bike do?

For me the sweet spot for a gravel bike is something that you *could* ride on a road bike if you really wanted to. The job of the gravel bike there is to let you be more comfy and go faster. Riding more technical stuff is ok in small doses, but it end up being far less fun on account of it being knackering and slow.

Thanks everyone. Sorry for not replying earlier – working as a doctor is ‘slightly’ busy at the moment!

Sounds like some of the less techy rides in the Dales round Mastilles/Weets might work well – especially with some tarmac options. At least one of the roadie group has ridden mtb before but is currently without a mountain bike

Not after any huge gnarr. I’m massively overbiked on my full suss but I just love being out in the hills and fresh air – which I think is what we’re all after.

This ‘gravel bikes can handle anything, it’s the rider that’s at fault’ is bollocks.

Yes, you can physically get down most trails on a gravel bike, but you have to go so much slower than you would be expecting to go on a decent MTB that it will probably be rubbish. It doesn’t make a difference if you’re Chris Akrigg or anyone else. You’ll going much slower than you otherwise would be on an MTB, and therefore the level of excitement will be significantly lower than the bar you’ve set on your MTB; and the level of discomfort significantly higher. If you’d never ridden an MTB then your bar would be set differently and you’d enjoy it. But you can’t un-know how much better technical trails are on an MTB.

What a load of nonsense, since when was excitement all about the speed you are going? It can be a huge buzz to really push the limit of what a less capable bike can do, be it gravel, retro or short travel. Pushing your own boundaries is exciting and you get there much faster and things can go wrong much quicker on less capable stuff which is great fun.

I love my big 29″ FS but it’s not better than all my others, it’s just different. You speak for yourself but don’t think for a minute that makes you right.

working as a doctor is ‘slightly’ busy at the moment!

Yeah, yeah pull the other one!

An old work mate snapped his Reynolds steel framed gravel bike in half the other day! So yeah, it’s about the bike as well as the rider.

I just love being out in the hills and fresh air – which I think is what we’re all after.

Amen.

What a load of nonsense, since when was excitement all about the speed you are going? It can be a huge buzz to really push the limit of what a less capable bike can do, be it gravel, retro or short travel. Pushing your own boundaries is exciting and you get there much faster and things can go wrong much quicker on less capable stuff which is great fun.

Maybe you’re talking about different sorts of terrain than what we’re talking about. Picking slowly down a rocky Peak District trail on thin tyres (rather than blatting down it on a MTB) is just annoying and I don’t believe there’s a single person who would enjoy that more on a gravel bike than on a mountain bike.

For me the sweet spot for a gravel bike is something that you *could* ride on a road bike if you really wanted to.

This ^^

to the OP – the Hetton/Mastiles/Weets loop is good on xbike (counts as gravel yeah?), in fact there’s a nice loop heading up from Hetton, across to Mastiles (two difft ways to do it, bridleways obvious on the map, then down Mastiles to Kilknsey, cross the valley to Conistone, up the bridleway to Mossdale, leadmines route down to Hebden, road to close loop depending on where you’ve parked.

This also works on mtb, but there’s the problem: on xbike I can ride out from Ilkley, do these rides and ride back (sometimes over Pockstones when going well). No way I’d do that distance on mtb. Basically the xbike’s a lot faster up the hills and a lot slower down them and less fun, for a v average rider like me, making mixed rides best as an occasional thing.

my cross gravel bike (1×10) runs Swinley Red. All but the big drops on Red 25. Of course a double puncture on a tabletop landing was probably the limit, but it’s not really the bike. It’s definitely not the rider – I’m the biggest MTB mincer around (definitely wheels on the ground stuff as a rule), but the cross bike, whilst not fast, does help with skills. And my son gets to ride the FS.

Re: terrain
Speed is relative.
A gravel bike would feel useless (or, at least, hopelessly out of its depth) on the fort william dh track, in much the same way that a dh bike would be useless for whizzing through a small village in rural france in july.
It’s not about speed, it’s about control, ime the most exciting parts of a ride is when the bike is sliding on the edge of control.
Gravel/cross bikes will be in that sweet spot on much tamer terrain than an mtb would.

Personally, I get as much fun from my gravel bike as my FS. The routes / trails that it doesn’t do so well on are mainly those with fist-sized to babyhead rocks, where the wheels get pinged about too much. Down here that means big flints on a few short stretches of the SDW. No idea what the peaks are like. Other issues might include traction and gearing on the steeper climbs. If any areas are muddy just remember that most gravel bikers will have less grip and clearance than a MTB. Other than that, it’s mostly rider attitude.

Maybe you’re talking about different sorts of terrain than what we’re talking about. Picking slowly down a rocky Peak District trail on thin tyres (rather than blatting down it on a MTB) is just annoying and I don’t believe there’s a single person who would enjoy that more on a gravel bike than on a mountain bike.

No mate, my point was directed to the below which suggested ‘most trails’, not specific trails you mention.

Yes, you can physically get down most trails on a gravel bike, but you have to go so much slower than you would be expecting to go on a decent MTB that it will probably be rubbish. It doesn’t make a difference if you’re Chris Akrigg or anyone else. You’ll going much slower than you otherwise would be on an MTB, and therefore the level of excitement will be significantly lower than the bar you’ve set on your MTB; and the level of discomfort significantly higher. If you’d never ridden an MTB then your bar would be set differently and you’d enjoy it. But you can’t un-know how much better technical trails are on an MTB.

Obviously, the tougher the terrain the more suited it will be to full suss monsters but my point was that there are other fun elements to riding bikes rather than going as fast as you can as easily as possible. If that were the case we’d all be on 180mm fs ebikes.

Personally there’s a tipping point at which I would take my MTB rather than gravel but there’s plenty of cross over. I might be mistaken but wasn’t the tipping point kind of the reason for the thread?

It depends not just on the rider but what sort of gravel bike — if you’re talking 35mm slickish tyres, the only bit of the south Dales I can think of that’d be pleasant is the loop of Malham Tarn and perhaps the north west section of the Settle Loop.

I did the bridleway over the back of Simon’s Seat years ago on 35mm tyres and it was horrrible, I was just sinking into the deep loose rocks, but that same trail with 50mm 650b tyres is much nicer.

Other nice trails for gravel bikes in that approximate region are the forest tracks in Langstrothdale and the Cam High Road out of Ribblehead

https://gravelmap.com/