It’s a tax on the stupid.
Just take a look at the types of people who ride these bikes (you’ll find them on Instagram). Generally deluded middle aged men that’ve got some wild idea in their heads that they’re going to go off into the wilderness “exploring”.
Where do they live?
The South East, the most densely populated area in Europe.
It looks like the business to get into though, these lot are happy to spend several thousands of pounds on a bike for pottering round the lanes on, so long as it’s made from Titanium and called something like Resolution.
You can kind of understand the reason for spending several thousand on an MTB, even if you aren’t Steve Peat, it still gets a good hammering. But LOL, these gravel bikes; the adverts sell you a false dream. The reality is they’re just a boring road bike or a less capable mountain bike for double the price. Just get a hardtail and keep your self respect.

This post is either the best troll or the biggest load of crap I have read on this forum for quite some time. Well done sir/madam.

This post is either the best troll or the biggest load of crap I have read on this forum for quite some time. Well done sir/madam.

But it’s not a million miles away though is it 🙂

The best trolling has more than a grain of truth about it.

But it’s not a million miles away though is it

Then its on par with the majority of folks riding 4k gnarpoons round thier local red loop in full face helmets and body armour thinking it makes them like Danny Hart. Deluded middle aged men who still think they are “rad” because they hop off a couple of 1ft drops.

Or the the other lot riding 6k super bikes in full team kit on 60 mile sportives pretending to be Chris Froome.
At the end of the day, we all like riding bikes. And if you spend a lot of time doing something then its nice to do it with the best (or just decent) kit.

Then its on par with the majority of folks riding 4k gnarpoons round thier local red loop in full face helmets and body armour thinking it makes them like Danny Hart. Deluded middle aged men who still think they are “rad” because they hop off a couple of 1ft drops.

Or the the other lot riding 6k super bikes in full team kit on 60 mile sportives pretending to be Chris Froome.

Yes and Yes.. It astounds me how few riders actually ride the bike best suited to their actual trails rather than the bike they want.

Arguably, i could be one… 🙂

Then its on par with the majority of folks riding 4k gnarpoons round thier local red loop in full face helmets and body armour thinking it makes them like Danny Hart. Deluded middle aged men who still think they are “rad” because they hop off a couple of 1ft drops.

This is the real reason so many MTBers don’t like the Gravel bike scene. Having justified a long/slack/low 160mm gnarpoon to themselves based on the rad trails they are riding, seeing someone on the same trails riding a skinny-tyred, drop-barred bike upsets their feeling of self-worth. It’s a defensive mechanism.

Then its on par with the majority of folks riding 4k gnarpoons round thier local red loop in full face helmets and body armour thinking it makes them like Danny Hart.

Totally. Embrace the absurdity of our hobby rather than get defensive about it.

As long as people are out pedaling any bike in the great outdoors it’s great anyway.

Totally. Embrace the absurdity of our hobby rather than get defensive about it.
As long as people are out pedaling any bike in the great outdoors it’s great anyway.

except e-bikes, nobody likes e-bikes right?

Yeah, but who wants to replace three wheelsets per winter?

This is a myth. I replaced one set of rims a year when I was mountainbiking through the winters with rim brakes, and that was proper hilly muddy winter MTB. Am on my second winter on the stock rims of my rim braked winter bike.

The people who are wearing rims out at that rate are the exception, not the rule.

Deluded middle aged men who still think they are “rad” because they hop off a couple of 1ft drops

Oi! I’ll have you know I can ride through shallow water too! 🙂

The people who are wearing rims out at that rate are the exception, not the rule.

Then the also run crap if your wheel goes out of true, I have zero interest in going back to rim brakes on any of my bikes, nowt to do with marketing or any of that I just like the way they work

TBH I don’t think the move to disk brakes is marketing led at all. In fact I reckon most of the manufacturers have been dragging their heels, caught up with the restriction that the UCI placed on CX racing and not catering for the recreational rider that really wanted more than 33mm tyres. I look back at photos of my Kona Sutra and ask where the other big players were. It was around 10 years before Giant caught up with the Revolt, the Specialized Diverge etc.

Then the also run crap if your wheel goes out of true

At the risk of turning this into the old disc vs. rim argument, I’d rather true a buckled wheel than a buckled rotor. Currently I spend more time trying to straighten rotors than wheels (albeit just to stop them skiffing and chiming, they’re not slowing me down).

Also not suggesting that the move to discs was purely marketing led, but am suggesting that the idea that disc brakes are the ONLY solution for gravel bikes very much is. Depends on your flavour of gravel but I don’t need a set of disc brakes to negotiate minor roads and forest tracks!

My point was mainly that people seem to agree that discs make gravel bikes more expensive than equivalent rim braked bikes, and I believe there is room for a few rim braked gravel bikes on the market, lighter and cheaper, surely that’s a win-win for a given subset of riders.

I’m a fully paid up retro grouch and I’d not go back to rim brakes over disk, regardless of the use.

13FM-Cheap bikes are never light tho a coupe of hundred grams off a heavy cheap bike is immaterial. And the only folk that want rim brakes on high end cross bikes are the purists/vanity types.

It still beguiles me that you’ve not got on with disc brakes when pretty much everyone else does!

This appears to be behind your logic more than anything else.

IMO now it’s proper road bikes that are niche and weirdly expensive. I’ll probably be riding mine 2 or 3 times this year, solely for long sportives. Otherise I’ll just use my “gravel” bike (although I bought it before gravel was really a thing 😂) as it’s way more versatile. TBH I wouldn’t buy another proper road bike these days (and don’t really see why anyone would unless they’re actually racing), I’d just spend the money on a nicer/lighter gravel bike instead.

13thfloormonk

At the risk of turning this into the old disc vs. rim argument, I’d rather true a buckled wheel than a buckled rotor.

I can’t think of a time when I’ve buckled a rotor out on the bike, but rims certainly, and that was decades ago. For the sort of use gravel bikes get I’d be surprised by a buckled rim because modern rims are much better.

I’ve had many a warped disk though, and that irritates me, but it’s not something that needs a roadside repair.

But the answer to both problems is drum brakes. 🙂

I can’t think of a time when I’ve buckled a rotor out on the bike, but rims certainly, and that was decades ago. For the sort of use gravel bikes get I’d be surprised by a buckled rim because modern rims are much better.

Mine went out of true a few times, not bucked just not true

Gravel bike scene.

I don’t think any but the strangest mtb’er dislikes gravel bikes, for many riders they’re the best bike for the job. It’s just this whole scene thing 🙄 It’s just riding bikes like many of us always have, but on a basically retro drop handlebared mtb (with better brakes).

It’s just riding bikes like many of us always have, but on a basically retro drop handlebared mtb (with better brakes, geometry, handlebars, tyres, wheels, forks, hubs, gearing, cranks, headsets).

fixed that for you

I’ve not RATS but I do wonder why road sti si mo much more pricey than mtb sti/shifters (unless the way it’s integrated, like the flippy mtb shifters everyone hated is intrisically more £££)

I’ve not RATS but I do wonder why road sti si mo much more pricey than mtb sti/shifters

They have been around for about 10 mins compared to mtb. Stuff will get cheaper but for anyone who isn’t sram or shimano you need to release something that does the shifter job too so not as easy a marker to get into.
The big boys are taking it down the product line as they usually do working out how to get cost down one step at a time.

They have been around for about 10 mins compared to mtb.

If 30 years = 10 mins

Well worth a read.

https://janheine.wordpress.com/2019/01/22/all-road-bikes-are-the-road-bikes-of-the-future/

And it should keep the gravel pedants happy because it uses the term all-road for the category.

Now they don’t have to worry about gravel heretics getting mud and rocks on their carefully groomed and smoothed special gravel with impure bikes.*

We’ll be out rough-stuffing on real tracks with our all-road bikes instead. 🙂

.

.

*NB tongue firmly in cheek.

Never heard of buckled rotors. Are they even a thing? Trying to work out how on earth you’d even do it! Reversing over your bike with your car, perhaps?

Well worth a read.

Are you sure? An MTB or hybrid would still be just as good for most cyclists.

“In other words: All-road bikes will becomes the go-to bike for most cyclists. Racing and mountain bikes will move to the fringes of the market, used for very specialized applications where all-road bikes reach their limits”

And don’t you worry, I can still be pedantic about “all-road” as it clearly means a road of some sort meaning an all road bike is not intended to ride over fields, over rocks etc,. For that you will need an all terrain bike which I believe has been done 40 years ago…

It’s so poor mtbikers can’t afford them then look at us with envy as we whizz past gurning on the drops in a cool mix of Lycra and baggies whilst our beards flow freely in the wind.

But the answer to both problems is drum brakes

The questions: “what brake is heavier than discs” and “what brake works worse than cantis”?

They have been around for about 10 mins compared to mtb.

Erm…road still has been around longer (just) than mtb. – I didn’t refer to hydraulic-sti.

Apologies Al, it did read that it was still in the context of hydro brakes.

NP 😃

Do leading questions lead to useful answers, yes or no? 😉

I bought my first ATB in 1991 from a bike shop. It was 274.99 IIRC. Last years model

Bought my second ‘ATB’ in 2017 from a bike shop. It was £750.00. Last years model.

1990
Dawes Tracker
Reynolds 500 butted cromoly tubing
Rigid steel forks
Shimano Exage 21spd with thumb-shifters
Cable cantilever brakes
26″ Araya alloy rims 1.75 wire bead tyres

2016
Genesis Vagabond
Double-butted cromoly tubing
Rigid steel forks
Deore 20spd with bar-end shifters
Cable disc brakes
29er Alex alloy rims (tubeless-ready) 2.1″ folding tyres

So nearly 30 yrs on – and for an extra tenner or so – I got bigger wheels, better spec – and disc brakes! I lost one gear though. So there is that.

Erratum *Reynolds 500 plain-gauge. Not butted.

Wondered why it weighed a tonne! New ATB/gravelventuremonstertour is custom-butted and 12kg-ish, so also no lightweight but certainly reassuring when lobbing it around off kerbs like a trendy old man on a Sunday afternoon trip to the cake-bar/pub/bimbletrack 😎

Then and now for the same price – no competition.

I know that doesn’t answer yr question OP, but just showing that ‘fashion tax’ is probably a bolx hypothetical herein, as someone suggested. ‘Gravel’ is a very sensible multisurface capable (normally) rigid bike. As is ‘monster-cross’ IMO, of course. Not sure what type of hardtail MTB I’d get for the same price – but the newer version of my ’08 P7 w/lockout turnkey forks is way out of my pocket nowadays.

kerley

…And don’t you worry, I can still be pedantic about “all-road” as it clearly means a road of some sort meaning an all road bike is not intended to ride over fields, over rocks etc,. For that you will need an all terrain bike which I believe has been done 40 years ago…

You’re fighting a quixotic nomenclature war against bikes that can go places where your skinny tyred Rocinante cannot.*

Just as we do not call bicycles velocipedes, so we do not call our bikes all terrain, or ATBs.

I agree ATB is actually a better definition of what we ride than gravel, all-road, or even monstertour, but it’s a name lost in the mists of time and conjures up visions of a 3 ton BSO. Similarly hybrid which conjures up images of a traditional style roadster equipped with low grade groupsets and a crappy fork.

On another forum I asked the question what gravel bikes can take 2″  and plus tyres, and the list is just getting bigger and bigger.

The mainstream manufacturers are now onboard that gravel bikes should have tyres that are comfortable and competent on all surfaces likely to be met and that there’s a bigger market than the heads down racers.

No one is bigger than the market and the market has spoken, and the word is gravel.

.

.

*not intended as an insult, sticking to your guns is an admirable characteristic.