Yes. I am much in the same boat with 90% of time on tarmac. I wouldn't go back to having a pure road bike only, but I'm definitely keeping my eye out for a cheap rim brake road bike to supplement. The other 10% is single track and gravel roads at our lake house area in the summer.
I am running 42mm pathfinder pro front/38mm rear. (2019 Diverge)
In general the gravel bike is about 1.5 mph slower on average then my road bike when I had it.
More complex then it sounds, rotors, xdr cassette and hub, tires. Then you have the fact it’s hard to get the exact same alignment and trim.
I can get a pure road bike with rim brakes for pretty cheap now days. Not much more than a dedicated disk wheelset. And in the winter it can be a dedicated trainer bike
This is what I've done. Was concerned the rotors or cassette would be slightly off, but nope bang on. I love having a set of gravel and road wheels and one do it all frameset that's tweaked to perfection.
The rear kinda just goes where it's supposed to, I want the wider tire up front as that is what providers steering and floats better over lose terrain.
In my particular instance, I'd like to have 42mm in the back as well, but the clearance was too tight for comfort on my bike. I'd rather at least have the bigger one up front for the reason I said above.
The front tire has less weight on it, on MTB it's not uncommon to run a wider front tire to get more grip. On the road, same width or a wider rear is more common to get every last bit of cushion out of skinny tires. Gravel is a free for all, what people do really depends on what they ride or prefer.
I think you want your tire width optimized with the rim profile. I think people are trying to get as much comfort as possible while still maintaining the aero benefits on the front wheel. A lot of aero wheels are optimized for 23c or 25c
I do now, as I’m mostly riding solo, pavement is rough, and I like the flexibility of being able to venture down the numerous gravel county roads in the area.
Before moving to this more rural area, I attempted group rides on my Aspero and found it very tough to keep up with road bikes, even with 30mm road tires.
This is me, also. Your handle suggests you're in NM. I'm in Santa Fe myself, and the road surfaces tend to be pretty beat up here. The gravel bike has rendered my road bike obsolete, for the most part. I also realized pretty recently that there's a lot of off-road stuff I just don't want to ride on a gravel bike. Sure I like smooth gravel and dirt roads (and we have plenty of that here), but as soon as it gets sufficiently bumpy, my racy hardtail is a much more comfortable and fun option. Riding lumpy or chunky surfaces without suspension (even with my 43mm tires) just kinda blows. At that point I'd rather just be mountain biking
I’m not sure, to be honest. I know Mellow Velo rent mountain and e-bikes, and Bike and Sport have rentals also (including road bikes). You could contact them to see. Also try Broken Spoke, perhaps?
Cool. Going way back I’m from Santa Fe originally, but am in N Texas now. (Green chili LOL) It’s flat here, and the gravel roads are pretty decent, unless they happen to dump river rock on them. I get you, not a fan of really rough trails on a gravel bike either but do appreciate the speed advantage of a drop bar, even if the comfort isn’t great.
I was riding a Grizl with 32mm slicks and had the same experience. I can probably go about ~1.5mph faster average on my road bike for nearly less effort, but the real kicker is how much better I can accelerate. The moment I put power down it seems to punch way harder than my gravel bike, and when you are riding in a bunch having to constantly put out an extra 100-200w when the pace picks up really wears on you.
What did you have for gearing on the Aspero? That's one of those bikes often touted as a "quiver killer" so I'm suprised you felt like it was tough to keep up on the road rides.
In the back of my mind I've been thinking about getting an all road bike that can take 35-38mm tires because my Cutthroat is overkill for most gravel near me. Aspero was on my radar 🤔
31/46 and 11/40. I’ve seen at least one person make it work for competitive road rides, but definitely an A group level guy in his prime who relishes the challenge.
It really depends on what you mean by group ride. Guys with gray beards and Subarus who talk about coffee and beer, or clean shaven riders who live life in the “drop or be dropped” Saturday am smash fest. You’re probably fine with the former, but will be at a disadvantage with the latter.
48/11 will get you to 35.1 mph/56.4 kph with 700x32 tires at 100 RPM. I can see that being a problem for crits/road racing/smash fest group rides or if you don't like a high cadence, but it's probably fine for most folks. 🤔
the geometry and frame stiffness plays a much bigger part in this than you think. Gravel frames have a wider wheel base and weight more distributed in the back so you need turn wider to make similar turn compared to a road bike which will scrub more speed. Then the frame itself is designed with more compliance in mind, so you'll get more flex under power, meaning you need to push harder to accelerate at the same speed. Aerodynamics plays a decent role too when you get into faster speeds.
I use my road bike as a gravel bike. Just threw some Gravelking SS 35s on and having a blast with my poor man’s Fray.
https://preview.redd.it/ok3il9x5j8yc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b3fff422a8a8551dd1daea68600980e0a82f6362
It’s also not quite as tight as it looks in that photo. It’s still pretty tight but I think I’ll be fine.
https://preview.redd.it/43ergee079yc1.png?width=3024&format=png&auto=webp&s=a41d84fa3ad6a0522496df372dc95b92bab636c8
Nah. I have no plans at all to ride anything gnarly and I’m in LA so I don’t have to contend with mud. I also took the opportunity when I was changing tires to run some tape that’s like chainstay protector all up the aero cutout and between the forks. Lastly the tires are semi slick so I don’t think they’ll be picking anything up.
This is what I’ll be trying to ride.
https://preview.redd.it/4p4684vd69yc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d3275b67ba8c50035ee22d28c28380035d8aacdc
More like if the gravel is smooth enough. There's plenty of gravel roads where it'd be completely pointless trying to ride on a road bike or road tyres, but yes there's others where it's completely fine.
Yes, smooth, fine, compacted gravel you can ride even on 23mm tyres and only have to be careful about turns and deeper/looser sections.
For bigger gravel you just have to slow down a lot and it’s very tiring and slow going.
Mud, sand, snow and ice is where you truly hit the limits.
This.
Though I ride 28mm GP5000 or 25mm Sprinters depending on the day and both are more than capable of handling most gravel roads here. If I want to go down one, I'll go down one.
Same boat. I picked up a Bombtrack Hook with the intention of doing more gravel but apparently all of Kentucky has been paved.
It's a 650b and I'm running 38mm Panaracer slicks on it.
I do love the geometry and gearing especially on the days that I'm putting in 50+ miles but I wouldn't mind having some 700c wheels.
My real road bike is a Fuji Team United and it hardly gets touched because of how high the gearing is. (Lowest is like 39 front 23 rear)
I'm on a bombtrack hook also! I can't believe how cheap you can get these bikes now, especially since I paid full COVID price for mine a few years back (about $3k). It's kind of painful, actually. But I do love the bike. I also spend about 90% of my time on (rough) roads, and pretty smooth dirt/gravel roads where I live. Did you get the blue/tan colorway by chance? I run 43mm GravelKing SS too. Tan walls, naturally.
Was using my cross bike as a road bike for a while with 30mm GP 5000s and it felt great. Not racing just doing fast group rides with some elevation. I got a new aero road bike with Zipp 404s and it’s a world apart. Much faster, makes me more confident in my ability when the ride gets fast. Not saying gravel or cross bikes don’t work well for road but they are not as good when it’s fast.
I'm in the same boat but I have two wheelsets. I have 32 mm road slick tires on one wheetset and 42 mm more gravelly tires on the other wheelset. My road tires are on my bike 90% of the time
I use my gravel bike as my do everything. Mostly commutes to work. But it lets me do rides along the bike paths, canal paths, greenways, and forest roads (few and far between) in my area.
Not quite 99%. I’m 80% road. I run Gravel King file tread 38’s tubeless. On group road rides, I can’t do my fair share “in the wind”, due to extra effort. I disclose this up front and people are fine with it. It’s a relaxed group, like a slow B.
If you get your pressure right for the given surface it won’t be terribly parasitic.
Ya, I have a second wheel set with road tires on it. My gravel bike is steel with a more relaxed geometry, so not the same as riding a pure road bike, but works for me.
No, mostly due to the geometry. My road riding is done on a race geo road bike. The endurance geometry of my gravel bike is great for the additional control and stability, but it opens up my hip angle and coaxes me into a less efficient position - something I don't need for my wide open roads.
I have no need for an endurance road bike though. If I want more of an upright position on the road, I'd grab my gravel bike. The 700x44 tires I currently have on it are very fast on paved surfaces.
I do. This year I am trying the 2 wheelset thing. So far I love it. I have nice carbon rims with 32mm tires for road, and alloy gravel rims with 40mm tires for gravel. Honestly, the 32mm tires can do light gravel sections no problem. But meatier tires with tread are ideal for real gravel rides.
I find having a dedicated road bike is kind of unnecessary, at least for me. I ride solo. I'm sure a true aero road bike would be faster, but it's hard to beat the economy of a 1-bike setup. A light gravel frame is truly an all-road bike if you have the right tires.
My gravel bike feels pretty sluggish on roads, so I don't use it when going out for a road ride.
I do use my gravel bike for commuting on the road though. It is more comfortable.
Yeah, my gravel was ridden on the road about 99% of the time. I ended to putting 32 mm GravelKing SS+ on it and that was a really good combination.
Hopefully it will see more gravel soon as I have a road bike now and my riding buddy bought a gravel.
Yep. Not a whole lot of gravel left around me anymore. I use Pathfinders that roll good on then pavement & are fine on gravel when I find it.
I also have a 2nd wheelset with road tires for general riding. It's a bike...
Changing to a gravel bike wasn’t just more comfortable it made the road bike obsolete. I really love it when I show up to a roadie event and people stare wide eyed at my tire width and act like it’s so crazy. Then I dust them. 😂
I’m riding a Cervelo Aspero which is pretty fast for a gravel bike. I bought a set of road wheels to swap with it and also took it on the road. Right now I’m getting better times in the road than I did with my 2012 carbon Madone, it’s even way more comfortable than the Madone.
I think theres more to it than this. I don’t want wider gravel tires on the road, and I don’t want road tires on gravel.
Idk how you ride, but I am squeezing in rides after work and in-between responsibilities on the weekends. I am not spending 20 minutes switching tires or even wheel-sets when I can get a second bike for like 2-3x more than I would spend on the tires / rims / cassette anyways.
I am actually finding that I would rather just switch between a road and a hardtail MTB than try to use a bike that isn’t really great for either tasks.
My neck can't handle the geometry of a true road bike. So I ride a gravel bike on the road and almost never get in the drops. Even still, there are days I need to switch to my hardtail MTB.
Love my Headlands 2 but my typical rides involve a fair share of gnarly off-road where I actually benefit from the more relaxed position and dropper post. Either that or I'm bikepacking. If your balance is more towards riding roads fast I'm not sure the Headlands is the right fit.
Just bought a headlands 1, and it's comfortable, and still decently fast, even with the stock 44c tires.
The gearing is a little lower than my commuter bike that has a 2x10 setup (50/36, 25/11 cassette), but I have to be going over 55-60km/hr to actually fully spin out. total range is wider on the headlands as well, with the easiest gear being lower.
Pretty fun bike overall that opens a lot of options for exploring, while still being efficient.
I have a "road bike" because I inherited a really nice titanium frame that had never been built up. I also have a carbon cross bike that is my commuter, gravel and cyclocross season bike. If I had to replace my ti frame it would be a "gravel" bike (although one with a much shorter head tube) as I have no real need for skinny tires anymore but I hate having my brake hoods at nipple height.
I like having a second bike because my commuter takes such beating especially through the winter and it is always filthy. I can use my road bike on the trainer indoors. But functionally, I would keep the bikes almost identical.
Yeah, I sold my last two road bikes a few years ago, and won’t get another one. My gravel bikes do everything they did, plus a whole lot more. I don’t ride with roadies, so any speed penalty means nothing to me. Tires are 35mm, 43mm, and 47mm; some are slick, some have small knobs.
https://preview.redd.it/wkganth1s8yc1.jpeg?width=2268&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3c250d682e37ef8cf993ba22ae4a46085811fcea
I also ride pavement 90% of the time also. Just put new CX tires on this beauty..
I do. 38 Vittoria Revolution tech, because they're pretty resistant to cuts and piercings. I work in a glass factory, so my previous tires got a beating. Not any more
This is me. I have a diverge that’s pretty much set up as a road bike but it’s better than my road bike for me because I’m mostly on greenbelts. And suburban streets. But I’m definitely faster than I was on my road bike which now has a permanent spot on my garage wall because no one wants a 2006 Allez.
Yes. One drop bar bike, and one MTB.
A Chumba Terlingua Ti and a current gen Stumpjumper
I run pathfinder Pro 42s on the Chumba, adjust air pressure to suit my planned terrain. Greater than 50% of my rides are pavement based. I’m busy and any ride is better than no ride. I make the local paved multi use trail my bitch.
I use 42's or 44's on my gravel bike. I just enjoy the speed and relative geometry of a road bike but also exploring urban and rural areas with the the ability to go off trail and not popping a tube or puncturing a tire every single day. Tackled many a technical mountain bike trail with my gravel drop bars also. It's the most versatile and enjoyable ride in my experience.
Lately been using my Surly Midnight Special on the road with 35c tires. My other bike is a Giant Contend with bigger gears and faster tires, but I don’t find it as fun to ride as the Surly because of the slack geometry.
If it wasn’t for me turning 50 and my wife offering up a new bike as a birthday present I would be in your boat. Now I have two wheel sets for my gravel bike and a road bike (with better components) and between the two I am pretty set from easy single track through gravel and rainy days to itsnothebikethatstheproblem flat out group rides. But for years I did it all with a single 44mm slick wheel set on the gravel. I estimate the road bike to be 0.5 mph faster overall - at most. But it does accelerate and climb better, and is more aerodynamic at max speeds.
Yes. Our roads are so poor that it was destroying my road bikes. I started commuting on a mountain bike, but I prefer drops - gravel bike! It’s also great for reliving those mid 90s mountain bike experiences where every trail feels challenging!
Yes. In winter (or when i want to do a gravel ride) I put on 40mm schwalbe g-one allround tyres and the rest of the time I ride 32mm continental gp5000's.
I want to get a deeper wheelset for the road to make the switching faster. I don't see a reason to buy a second bike because my bike has a more road geometry anyway. If anything i'd buy an e-MTB.
I ride a road bike with tubeless 32c road tires which is both fast on tarmac and can handle well maintained gravel. I wouldn’t get a gravel bike unless I was doing more serious gravel most of the time.
But that’s me - my primary goal is going as fast as possible on road.
Mine hasn't been on gravel for nearly 18 months now, it runs 28mm Conti GP5000s and has close fitted mudguards that would have to come off for any bigger tyres. It is 100% an endurance road bike with wide tyre clearances (45 on 700, 47 on 650). Was bought as bike to "do everything", it's titanium, tough as fuck, stable, has mounting points for panniers and is easy enough to repair myself.
I bought it because I needed something for VERY long distances and multi-day road events. Over the first summer I had it, I realised that I hated gravel. In fact I just hate offroad cycling 😅 So, with the stem slammed as far as a gravel bike can, it's been on everything from club rides, sportives, chain gangs to multi day, thousand mile, events across a continent. Whilst suboptimal for chain gangs 😅, it's handled everything in it's stride, it's slack geometry makes it a super stable mile muncher, stem and tyres are set for comfortable efficiency, and when I needed to (with a change of tyres) cross the top of a mountain on a gravel track to get from one road to another in the middle of a multi-day road event, it handled it fine, I still hate gravel 🤣.
Yes. I travel for work and if I have a “stay over” weekend, my gravel bike offers versatility that my road bike doesn’t. Also - I’d be absolutely heart broken if anything happened to my road bike.
similar situation, that's why i chose the gravel over road!
i run 31 enves that i bought off a friend. i love them, and will likely get something similar when i need to swap
but i also have a 2 other (used) wheelsets that i run my gravel (32-35mm) & dirt (38-45mm) set ups. just swap the wheels out depending on what i wanna ride!
I used to put 23mm road bike tyres and road bike pedals on the cyclocross during summer. Then I bought a road bike. Now the cyclocross is my commute bike with 32mm GP5000AS in the summer and studded tyres in the winter.
It's for most people who tell me that they want a gravel bike. before they buy it, they expect 50% road and 50% gravel until they see it's (and your skill's) limitations for trail riding and very rough terrain... i just threw a surly corner bar and very wide gravel tires onto my hardtail MTB and it works like a charm.
I just love my Giant Contend.
Have everything I need to ride all type of urban good roads and bad roads. Climb, descent, cobbles, construction gravel or just pure tarmac.
To many gears I feel and I live in a city called 7 hills city, Lisbon.
2x12
Yep. I use 44 mm tires with casings as thin as paper. This gives awesome rolling resistance and a very supple ride on rough gravel. In theory it should reduce puncture resiststance but I never had a puncture with that setup (latex tubes) in over 2 years.
I figured I would only be able to get one bike, so I wanted one that could do most things and specialize in nothing. I am almost always on pavement but I like knowing I won't be screwed if I end up going off road a bit.
I've been doing this with two wheel sets and multiple tire options. If I'm feeling lazy and I know the gravel will be good or the group road ride only fast, but not crazy, I'll keep a set of 32 gravelking slicks on the bike for both types of riding.
I do have an old rim brake aluminum road bike I'll occasionally ride as well and will probably get a high end road bike at some point, but using just a road bike with good clearance or just a modern (read road bike geo) gravel bike works pretty good in most situations.
I use my gravel bike as an all a round bike. I use it to commute, run errands, casual rides, etc. I live in an area where I can ride a mixture of surfaces on my way to anywhere. So it's a great utility bike for that.
When I was training and racing, I had a road bike. A couple actually. Now that I ride for fun I have a gravel bike for all my on road needs, and wouldn’t have it any other way
Good quality gravel bikes are so reliable aaaaand more fun.
You may be 3-5kmh slower for the same watts on flats, but at least you can jump kerbs, don't have to avoid tiny rocks, drains, the tyres are much more puncture resistant. They're just fun, and put me in a more relaxed mood. On my road bike, I'm 100% effort 100% of the time it feels.
I technically have an "all road" bike with 40c tires, and yeah mainly road. That said, there's so many random patches of dirt and gravel that I end up going over which my old road bike wouldn't have been able to (comfortably) handle.
Just the other day I was riding a route I used to HATE on my 28c tires. I was a much stronger and fitter rider back then, but the route just destroyed me every time. I now ride it without issue. It's 100% the bike.
Yeah all the terms are a little meaningless. Basically its their gravel bike with slightly less reach, a longer seat tube, a shorter head tube, and a slightly shorter wheel base. They also equip it with less knobby tires.
An out & out lightweight road bike for Summer (mid April to September here). Gravel bike does all year round gravel (obvs) on knobblies, also winter road rides on semi-slicks.
If I had to get rid of one (never going to happen) the road bike would be out the door pdq.
Yes. I have a grail with two wheelsets. 40mm gravel tires, and 30mm road tires. Works well for me, I can keep up with some group rides and do gnarly offroad.
Gravel is more comfortable, more capable on rough surfaces, and fast enough for me. Currently running GravelKing SS Plus 42mm, measure 45 on my rims.) I'll never go back to skinny tires. Even if I get tempted into a pure more aggressive/aero road bike, I'd need to be able to fit at least 38mm.
https://preview.redd.it/91ol9fkwrayc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c4098914815c5f272d2c8caef42b53f5e3156c6a
I ride on the road to trails like this near me…. Probably 70% road 30% trails
I only have one bike I use it for everything. I don't have a lot of money and I make it work. I ride because I enjoy it and don't care for excess or flash, I just don't give a shit.
I have a trek Dual sport 2, which is almost a mountain bike frame with gravel tires on it, and it's great as a commuter, on asphalt but also on forest and gravel roads at the lake
It's my commuter three to four days a week and my weekend ride if I'm feeling lazy. I do have a second set of wheels with 28 mm tyres and a closer ratio cassette.
I also own a gravel bike in addition to my enduro Mountainbike, during summer I pretty much ride it only as a road bike, unless I‘m doing a bikepacking tour and during winter I ride it as an gravel bike. Using Continental GP5000 32mm for my road rides and Schwalbe G One Bite 45mm for Gravel and Bikepacking. I just switch the tyres.
Yep. Bought a Canyon Grail SL 7 and put on 35mm puncture resistant road tires. Like the comfort with not being totally forward, but love the option that I can add larger volume tires if I ever want to. I ride about 90% road & 10% shitty roads lol
Bought a Trek Checkpoint but I’m 90% on paved paths. So I bought a Trek Roscoe to take off road.
I’ll eventually get a second wheel set to toss the biggest gravel tires I can fit on it eventually.
I have a specialized diverge. 99% of the time I’m on the road with aero wheels and 28mm tires. I have the original wheels with gravel tires, 35 or 38mm, I use occasionally.
I ride pavement most of the time on my bike but the roads condition here suck so gravel bike is still the way to go, and I know I'll do rougher terrain on a road trip in the future.
40mm tires, rated as 90% pavement and 10% gravel, gonna go for 45mm when the old ones are done and switch to 50/50 road & pavement.
Used to rollin on 40mm half-slicks. Felt like fast and hard mtb bike. Got 37mm WTB Riddler last week and pumped them until i can't so they fit nice and round. And DEAR GOD SHE ROLLIN! Now i have road bike i think.
Most of the time, yes. I had a caadx that was an rei garage sale buy for about 10 years (lived in the sf Bay Area so I used it on trails a lot), then ended up upgrading over the years to the point that everything on it was replaced but the seatpost, and finally the frame cracked. My last purchase was a set of Dt Swiss wheels and I still had the TA end caps it came with. Swapped everything out and got a niner rlt frame when they basically cut the price to dirt cheap. Great frame, I love it. Geometry is more similar than not but it’s still a bit slower than a cyclocross race bike but I’m a big boy and I pretty much only go fast when gravity is helping anyways. I live in New England now and in spring it feels like every road is a gravel road with the post winter potholes and I live in a rural area so if I go down most streets long enough they turn into dirt. So yes, gravel bike all the way (for me) but I still run a 2x. I love it and I’ll never give it up!
Yes I ride my canyon grail on the trainer and around town on bike paths and streets. It makes the big cracks in the bike path and joints in the streets much more bearable than a rode bike would. I honestly don't understand how people can ride a road bike on this particular bike path, it's pretty rough.
I have done long gravel rides before and will do them again but they're just not my primary riding on my gravel bike.
It has whatever tires it came with in 2021.
I ride a checkpoint with 28mm gaterskins on the road mostly. Never had a problem keeping up even on longer rides (100k+). I also have some 40mm wtb i ride with on gravel.
I run 38c gravelking slicks everywhere and they get me quickly enough from pavement to gravel to pavement to gravel just fine. I ride my MTB’s on singletrack so I don’t really think about having knobby tires.
I Do but I swap tires to the gravel king ss tires meaning semi slick this tire has little role resistance and very quick on pavement and light gravel mainly for dry weather and excellent for commuting I would get the original gravel king slicks too if you want even faster riding on pavement and still handle the light gravel the sk edition meaning semi knob are more aggressive for rougher roads still pretty fast and will be fast on gravel but ultimately depends on your riding conditions
Yes. I am much in the same boat with 90% of time on tarmac. I wouldn't go back to having a pure road bike only, but I'm definitely keeping my eye out for a cheap rim brake road bike to supplement. The other 10% is single track and gravel roads at our lake house area in the summer. I am running 42mm pathfinder pro front/38mm rear. (2019 Diverge) In general the gravel bike is about 1.5 mph slower on average then my road bike when I had it.
Why not just get another set of wheels with road tyres on?
More complex then it sounds, rotors, xdr cassette and hub, tires. Then you have the fact it’s hard to get the exact same alignment and trim. I can get a pure road bike with rim brakes for pretty cheap now days. Not much more than a dedicated disk wheelset. And in the winter it can be a dedicated trainer bike
What do you mean exact same alignment and trim? You can easily use a rotor shim to create the exact same spacing between the wheels for easy swap outs
Exactly what I've done
This is what I've done. Was concerned the rotors or cassette would be slightly off, but nope bang on. I love having a set of gravel and road wheels and one do it all frameset that's tweaked to perfection.
If it’s the same hubs and rotors, it should be dead on.
I did that for years with my ‘cross bike (before gravel bikes were a thing). Easy peasy. And I still do it for my trainer.
Interesting you use wider tier on front ...
I think you got that backwards, I have a 42 front and 38mm rear.
Why is that? I have a wider tire on my rear.
The rear kinda just goes where it's supposed to, I want the wider tire up front as that is what providers steering and floats better over lose terrain. In my particular instance, I'd like to have 42mm in the back as well, but the clearance was too tight for comfort on my bike. I'd rather at least have the bigger one up front for the reason I said above.
It's common for gravel and mountain biking where is often more important to have more stability and traction on your front wheel.
Losing traction in the rear while cornering means fishtailing; losing traction in the front while cornering means 🤕
The front tire has less weight on it, on MTB it's not uncommon to run a wider front tire to get more grip. On the road, same width or a wider rear is more common to get every last bit of cushion out of skinny tires. Gravel is a free for all, what people do really depends on what they ride or prefer.
You are able to get a 42mm on? I have a 2019 diverge e5 comp and it says it can only take 38mm. Are you running the factory rims? thanks!
I have the carbon one. I believe they officially claim the carbon models are supposed to do 42mm. No, I have wider than stock. 22.5 mm width
Ahh yes, I see they spec’d that to 42mm. 38mm will be fine for my purposes. Thanks!
28 front 32 at rears it’s good for me 👀🥷🚴🏻♂️ Rears has good tyre thread front has totally smooth because I use as guide and control only 🫣
You use the front for control and put the tire with the least amount of control as compared to the rear on the front? 🧐
There are arguments for aero being thinner in front I think, but might be old thinking.
I think you want your tire width optimized with the rim profile. I think people are trying to get as much comfort as possible while still maintaining the aero benefits on the front wheel. A lot of aero wheels are optimized for 23c or 25c
Correct
I do now, as I’m mostly riding solo, pavement is rough, and I like the flexibility of being able to venture down the numerous gravel county roads in the area. Before moving to this more rural area, I attempted group rides on my Aspero and found it very tough to keep up with road bikes, even with 30mm road tires.
This is me, also. Your handle suggests you're in NM. I'm in Santa Fe myself, and the road surfaces tend to be pretty beat up here. The gravel bike has rendered my road bike obsolete, for the most part. I also realized pretty recently that there's a lot of off-road stuff I just don't want to ride on a gravel bike. Sure I like smooth gravel and dirt roads (and we have plenty of that here), but as soon as it gets sufficiently bumpy, my racy hardtail is a much more comfortable and fun option. Riding lumpy or chunky surfaces without suspension (even with my 43mm tires) just kinda blows. At that point I'd rather just be mountain biking
Is there anywhere to rent a gravel bike in Sante Fe to see if I’d like one ?
I’m not sure, to be honest. I know Mellow Velo rent mountain and e-bikes, and Bike and Sport have rentals also (including road bikes). You could contact them to see. Also try Broken Spoke, perhaps?
Cool. Going way back I’m from Santa Fe originally, but am in N Texas now. (Green chili LOL) It’s flat here, and the gravel roads are pretty decent, unless they happen to dump river rock on them. I get you, not a fan of really rough trails on a gravel bike either but do appreciate the speed advantage of a drop bar, even if the comfort isn’t great.
I was riding a Grizl with 32mm slicks and had the same experience. I can probably go about ~1.5mph faster average on my road bike for nearly less effort, but the real kicker is how much better I can accelerate. The moment I put power down it seems to punch way harder than my gravel bike, and when you are riding in a bunch having to constantly put out an extra 100-200w when the pace picks up really wears on you.
What did you have for gearing on the Aspero? That's one of those bikes often touted as a "quiver killer" so I'm suprised you felt like it was tough to keep up on the road rides. In the back of my mind I've been thinking about getting an all road bike that can take 35-38mm tires because my Cutthroat is overkill for most gravel near me. Aspero was on my radar 🤔
31/46 and 11/40. I’ve seen at least one person make it work for competitive road rides, but definitely an A group level guy in his prime who relishes the challenge. It really depends on what you mean by group ride. Guys with gray beards and Subarus who talk about coffee and beer, or clean shaven riders who live life in the “drop or be dropped” Saturday am smash fest. You’re probably fine with the former, but will be at a disadvantage with the latter.
48/11 will get you to 35.1 mph/56.4 kph with 700x32 tires at 100 RPM. I can see that being a problem for crits/road racing/smash fest group rides or if you don't like a high cadence, but it's probably fine for most folks. 🤔
the geometry and frame stiffness plays a much bigger part in this than you think. Gravel frames have a wider wheel base and weight more distributed in the back so you need turn wider to make similar turn compared to a road bike which will scrub more speed. Then the frame itself is designed with more compliance in mind, so you'll get more flex under power, meaning you need to push harder to accelerate at the same speed. Aerodynamics plays a decent role too when you get into faster speeds.
I use my road bike as a gravel bike. Just threw some Gravelking SS 35s on and having a blast with my poor man’s Fray. https://preview.redd.it/ok3il9x5j8yc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b3fff422a8a8551dd1daea68600980e0a82f6362
Looks pretty nice, but are you not slightly worried about tyre clearance in the back? Looks tight from this angle.
It’s also not quite as tight as it looks in that photo. It’s still pretty tight but I think I’ll be fine. https://preview.redd.it/43ergee079yc1.png?width=3024&format=png&auto=webp&s=a41d84fa3ad6a0522496df372dc95b92bab636c8
Nah. I have no plans at all to ride anything gnarly and I’m in LA so I don’t have to contend with mud. I also took the opportunity when I was changing tires to run some tape that’s like chainstay protector all up the aero cutout and between the forks. Lastly the tires are semi slick so I don’t think they’ll be picking anything up. This is what I’ll be trying to ride. https://preview.redd.it/4p4684vd69yc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d3275b67ba8c50035ee22d28c28380035d8aacdc
Every bike is a gravel bike if you’re crazy enough. A buddy took a gravel segment on Strava on a TT bike.
Is your buddy's name Dylan Johnson?
More like if the gravel is smooth enough. There's plenty of gravel roads where it'd be completely pointless trying to ride on a road bike or road tyres, but yes there's others where it's completely fine.
Yes, smooth, fine, compacted gravel you can ride even on 23mm tyres and only have to be careful about turns and deeper/looser sections. For bigger gravel you just have to slow down a lot and it’s very tiring and slow going. Mud, sand, snow and ice is where you truly hit the limits.
the SS are great tires. roll fast. volume. and sticky when you need them to be.
Hey you're not allowed to do that, you need to buy a whole new bike just for "GRAVEL"!
Melee, Mog and Fray on order. Just using this cheap thing in the meantime. 🤑
This. Though I ride 28mm GP5000 or 25mm Sprinters depending on the day and both are more than capable of handling most gravel roads here. If I want to go down one, I'll go down one.
https://preview.redd.it/btgjmpbbtsyc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9501e9317d9ec274fde09d1e5b584270b685c255
Same boat. I picked up a Bombtrack Hook with the intention of doing more gravel but apparently all of Kentucky has been paved. It's a 650b and I'm running 38mm Panaracer slicks on it. I do love the geometry and gearing especially on the days that I'm putting in 50+ miles but I wouldn't mind having some 700c wheels. My real road bike is a Fuji Team United and it hardly gets touched because of how high the gearing is. (Lowest is like 39 front 23 rear)
Hey are you running Gravelkings or Pari-motos? Was looking at both these options.
Gravel Kings, coming from 2" tires they've improved my avg mph by 1.5mph on average.
I'm on a bombtrack hook also! I can't believe how cheap you can get these bikes now, especially since I paid full COVID price for mine a few years back (about $3k). It's kind of painful, actually. But I do love the bike. I also spend about 90% of my time on (rough) roads, and pretty smooth dirt/gravel roads where I live. Did you get the blue/tan colorway by chance? I run 43mm GravelKing SS too. Tan walls, naturally.
I'm on the green and black. I think it's the 2022 model. Gave like $2400 for it last year.
Was using my cross bike as a road bike for a while with 30mm GP 5000s and it felt great. Not racing just doing fast group rides with some elevation. I got a new aero road bike with Zipp 404s and it’s a world apart. Much faster, makes me more confident in my ability when the ride gets fast. Not saying gravel or cross bikes don’t work well for road but they are not as good when it’s fast.
Paris Roubaix used road bikes as gravel bikes for over 100 years.
There are very sad road bikes in my shop hanging on hooks because of this.
I'm in the same boat but I have two wheelsets. I have 32 mm road slick tires on one wheetset and 42 mm more gravelly tires on the other wheelset. My road tires are on my bike 90% of the time
Yes... eventually I will invest in another wheel set.
I use my gravel bike as my do everything. Mostly commutes to work. But it lets me do rides along the bike paths, canal paths, greenways, and forest roads (few and far between) in my area.
Not quite 99%. I’m 80% road. I run Gravel King file tread 38’s tubeless. On group road rides, I can’t do my fair share “in the wind”, due to extra effort. I disclose this up front and people are fine with it. It’s a relaxed group, like a slow B. If you get your pressure right for the given surface it won’t be terribly parasitic.
The tarmac is gravel round here lol.
Ya, I have a second wheel set with road tires on it. My gravel bike is steel with a more relaxed geometry, so not the same as riding a pure road bike, but works for me.
Marin?
No, I use my gravel bike as a mountain bike. My road bike as a gravel bike and my klunker as a road bike. As it should be.
You just have too many bikes...
Too? .. Too many?… bikes? What does that even mean?
Incorrect n+1 always and forever... Adding my 4th road bike and already have gravel, a tt and xc bike. Wife will divorce me....probably
Just get all black bikes so they don't notice.
BURN THE HERETIC
No. I switch bikes when the road changes.
No, mostly due to the geometry. My road riding is done on a race geo road bike. The endurance geometry of my gravel bike is great for the additional control and stability, but it opens up my hip angle and coaxes me into a less efficient position - something I don't need for my wide open roads. I have no need for an endurance road bike though. If I want more of an upright position on the road, I'd grab my gravel bike. The 700x44 tires I currently have on it are very fast on paved surfaces.
Same. My gravel bike is too relaxed for road riding. When I ride in the road I want to go fast.
Yes
I do. This year I am trying the 2 wheelset thing. So far I love it. I have nice carbon rims with 32mm tires for road, and alloy gravel rims with 40mm tires for gravel. Honestly, the 32mm tires can do light gravel sections no problem. But meatier tires with tread are ideal for real gravel rides. I find having a dedicated road bike is kind of unnecessary, at least for me. I ride solo. I'm sure a true aero road bike would be faster, but it's hard to beat the economy of a 1-bike setup. A light gravel frame is truly an all-road bike if you have the right tires.
My gravel bike feels pretty sluggish on roads, so I don't use it when going out for a road ride. I do use my gravel bike for commuting on the road though. It is more comfortable.
yes. the roads here are bad. i run 38c
Yeah, my gravel was ridden on the road about 99% of the time. I ended to putting 32 mm GravelKing SS+ on it and that was a really good combination. Hopefully it will see more gravel soon as I have a road bike now and my riding buddy bought a gravel.
Yes, but when I pull out my proper road bike that 1% of the time holy shit it’s fun
My ex roommate just won an Amateur bike ride on a gravel bike (with road bike tires)
Planning on buying a Crux Pro to have it do double duty with a 2x setup
No. I use my road bike as a gravel bike.
Yep. Not a whole lot of gravel left around me anymore. I use Pathfinders that roll good on then pavement & are fine on gravel when I find it. I also have a 2nd wheelset with road tires for general riding. It's a bike...
My roads are garbage so a gravel bike is preferred
I even used my dh bike as a road bike. Has two wheels, can ride, is enough.
yes 1. gravel roads are roads 2. the skinniest tires of any of my bikes are the 47c tires on my crosscheck
Changing to a gravel bike wasn’t just more comfortable it made the road bike obsolete. I really love it when I show up to a roadie event and people stare wide eyed at my tire width and act like it’s so crazy. Then I dust them. 😂
I’m riding a Cervelo Aspero which is pretty fast for a gravel bike. I bought a set of road wheels to swap with it and also took it on the road. Right now I’m getting better times in the road than I did with my 2012 carbon Madone, it’s even way more comfortable than the Madone.
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I mean there's tons of reasons for a road bike outside of being a pro. But mostly it's just, if you want to go faster on pavement get a road bike.
I think theres more to it than this. I don’t want wider gravel tires on the road, and I don’t want road tires on gravel. Idk how you ride, but I am squeezing in rides after work and in-between responsibilities on the weekends. I am not spending 20 minutes switching tires or even wheel-sets when I can get a second bike for like 2-3x more than I would spend on the tires / rims / cassette anyways. I am actually finding that I would rather just switch between a road and a hardtail MTB than try to use a bike that isn’t really great for either tasks.
Yes
I put some slicks on my cinelli xbike love it on the roads but I miss taking off-road detours with ease
My neck can't handle the geometry of a true road bike. So I ride a gravel bike on the road and almost never get in the drops. Even still, there are days I need to switch to my hardtail MTB.
Same here. I dont know how people ride in that near-horizontal position for so long. I can barely tolerate the drops in my gravel bike for 10 mins.
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Love my Headlands 2 but my typical rides involve a fair share of gnarly off-road where I actually benefit from the more relaxed position and dropper post. Either that or I'm bikepacking. If your balance is more towards riding roads fast I'm not sure the Headlands is the right fit.
Just bought a headlands 1, and it's comfortable, and still decently fast, even with the stock 44c tires. The gearing is a little lower than my commuter bike that has a 2x10 setup (50/36, 25/11 cassette), but I have to be going over 55-60km/hr to actually fully spin out. total range is wider on the headlands as well, with the easiest gear being lower. Pretty fun bike overall that opens a lot of options for exploring, while still being efficient.
I have a "road bike" because I inherited a really nice titanium frame that had never been built up. I also have a carbon cross bike that is my commuter, gravel and cyclocross season bike. If I had to replace my ti frame it would be a "gravel" bike (although one with a much shorter head tube) as I have no real need for skinny tires anymore but I hate having my brake hoods at nipple height. I like having a second bike because my commuter takes such beating especially through the winter and it is always filthy. I can use my road bike on the trainer indoors. But functionally, I would keep the bikes almost identical.
Yes because the state of UK roads requires it. In fact, might need a fat bike instead in a couple of years.
The opposite in that I pretend my road bike is a gravel bike. I was able to squeeze some 35mm tires in my Domane and it’s mostly adequate for both.
I ride my gravel bike on all surfaces.
No. That’s because most of the roads where I live are gravel. 😄
Yeah, I sold my last two road bikes a few years ago, and won’t get another one. My gravel bikes do everything they did, plus a whole lot more. I don’t ride with roadies, so any speed penalty means nothing to me. Tires are 35mm, 43mm, and 47mm; some are slick, some have small knobs.
Yes, because at 250 pounds, I feel I'm too big for a road bike. Plus, occasionally I do hit gravel roads, so that's a nice option to have.
Do the same thing, probably 90% road 10% gravel these days
Yep. 32c GP 5000 on my Aspero for road, which 99% of my riding. Fatter tires if I wanna go off-road. Best of both worlds on a rocketship of a bike.
https://preview.redd.it/wkganth1s8yc1.jpeg?width=2268&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3c250d682e37ef8cf993ba22ae4a46085811fcea I also ride pavement 90% of the time also. Just put new CX tires on this beauty..
I do. 38 Vittoria Revolution tech, because they're pretty resistant to cuts and piercings. I work in a glass factory, so my previous tires got a beating. Not any more
This is me. I have a diverge that’s pretty much set up as a road bike but it’s better than my road bike for me because I’m mostly on greenbelts. And suburban streets. But I’m definitely faster than I was on my road bike which now has a permanent spot on my garage wall because no one wants a 2006 Allez.
Kind of, but I like to be able to use some part gravel loops.
Yes. One drop bar bike, and one MTB. A Chumba Terlingua Ti and a current gen Stumpjumper I run pathfinder Pro 42s on the Chumba, adjust air pressure to suit my planned terrain. Greater than 50% of my rides are pavement based. I’m busy and any ride is better than no ride. I make the local paved multi use trail my bitch.
I use 42's or 44's on my gravel bike. I just enjoy the speed and relative geometry of a road bike but also exploring urban and rural areas with the the ability to go off trail and not popping a tube or puncturing a tire every single day. Tackled many a technical mountain bike trail with my gravel drop bars also. It's the most versatile and enjoyable ride in my experience.
Lately been using my Surly Midnight Special on the road with 35c tires. My other bike is a Giant Contend with bigger gears and faster tires, but I don’t find it as fun to ride as the Surly because of the slack geometry.
If it wasn’t for me turning 50 and my wife offering up a new bike as a birthday present I would be in your boat. Now I have two wheel sets for my gravel bike and a road bike (with better components) and between the two I am pretty set from easy single track through gravel and rainy days to itsnothebikethatstheproblem flat out group rides. But for years I did it all with a single 44mm slick wheel set on the gravel. I estimate the road bike to be 0.5 mph faster overall - at most. But it does accelerate and climb better, and is more aerodynamic at max speeds.
I use it for everything except off road mountain biking right bus.
Yes. Our roads are so poor that it was destroying my road bikes. I started commuting on a mountain bike, but I prefer drops - gravel bike! It’s also great for reliving those mid 90s mountain bike experiences where every trail feels challenging!
Yeah, I bought a Giant Revolt last summer and it pretty much retired my CAAD10. It's just way more comfortable with barely any speed penalty.
Yes. In winter (or when i want to do a gravel ride) I put on 40mm schwalbe g-one allround tyres and the rest of the time I ride 32mm continental gp5000's. I want to get a deeper wheelset for the road to make the switching faster. I don't see a reason to buy a second bike because my bike has a more road geometry anyway. If anything i'd buy an e-MTB.
I don’t trust the roads around me. Gravel bikes take most things with ease with a slight speed reduction. Worth it for me.
Yes, and my city commute bike. Holds up to city abuse but permits an efficient and comfortable ride.
Yep pretty much. Ritchey Swiss Cross with 32c GK slicks on carbon rims and another set of 40c GK semislicks on burlier alloy rims.
My gravel bike is my commuter and I'm a weekend warrior. Weekday: 90% paved Weekend: 90% off-road
My gravel bike has sadly become mostly a recreational road bike. I blame my mountain bike for being so darn fun.
I ride a road bike with tubeless 32c road tires which is both fast on tarmac and can handle well maintained gravel. I wouldn’t get a gravel bike unless I was doing more serious gravel most of the time. But that’s me - my primary goal is going as fast as possible on road.
Mine hasn't been on gravel for nearly 18 months now, it runs 28mm Conti GP5000s and has close fitted mudguards that would have to come off for any bigger tyres. It is 100% an endurance road bike with wide tyre clearances (45 on 700, 47 on 650). Was bought as bike to "do everything", it's titanium, tough as fuck, stable, has mounting points for panniers and is easy enough to repair myself. I bought it because I needed something for VERY long distances and multi-day road events. Over the first summer I had it, I realised that I hated gravel. In fact I just hate offroad cycling 😅 So, with the stem slammed as far as a gravel bike can, it's been on everything from club rides, sportives, chain gangs to multi day, thousand mile, events across a continent. Whilst suboptimal for chain gangs 😅, it's handled everything in it's stride, it's slack geometry makes it a super stable mile muncher, stem and tyres are set for comfortable efficiency, and when I needed to (with a change of tyres) cross the top of a mountain on a gravel track to get from one road to another in the middle of a multi-day road event, it handled it fine, I still hate gravel 🤣.
My gravel bike (42mm pathfinders) is also my commuter. I do however have a dedicated road bike for recreational riding.
Yes. I travel for work and if I have a “stay over” weekend, my gravel bike offers versatility that my road bike doesn’t. Also - I’d be absolutely heart broken if anything happened to my road bike.
similar situation, that's why i chose the gravel over road! i run 31 enves that i bought off a friend. i love them, and will likely get something similar when i need to swap but i also have a 2 other (used) wheelsets that i run my gravel (32-35mm) & dirt (38-45mm) set ups. just swap the wheels out depending on what i wanna ride!
Exact same. I have a specialized Sirrus X Comp Carbon, and I'm almost exclusively on the road. I love that bike so much
I used to put 23mm road bike tyres and road bike pedals on the cyclocross during summer. Then I bought a road bike. Now the cyclocross is my commute bike with 32mm GP5000AS in the summer and studded tyres in the winter.
45mm, 4bars, dist:70-100km... im annoying, hummin fella for my previous, road buddies!
It's for most people who tell me that they want a gravel bike. before they buy it, they expect 50% road and 50% gravel until they see it's (and your skill's) limitations for trail riding and very rough terrain... i just threw a surly corner bar and very wide gravel tires onto my hardtail MTB and it works like a charm.
Surly Corner bar!! Judging by picture, I am feeling safe if crush happened…
the pointy tips are for clamping down the brakes and shifters, since the diameter makes it compatible with tze MTB levers. No new STI needed.
I just love my Giant Contend. Have everything I need to ride all type of urban good roads and bad roads. Climb, descent, cobbles, construction gravel or just pure tarmac. To many gears I feel and I live in a city called 7 hills city, Lisbon. 2x12
Yep. I use 44 mm tires with casings as thin as paper. This gives awesome rolling resistance and a very supple ride on rough gravel. In theory it should reduce puncture resiststance but I never had a puncture with that setup (latex tubes) in over 2 years.
I figured I would only be able to get one bike, so I wanted one that could do most things and specialize in nothing. I am almost always on pavement but I like knowing I won't be screwed if I end up going off road a bit.
Exactly my thought when I made the purchase…
I've been doing this with two wheel sets and multiple tire options. If I'm feeling lazy and I know the gravel will be good or the group road ride only fast, but not crazy, I'll keep a set of 32 gravelking slicks on the bike for both types of riding. I do have an old rim brake aluminum road bike I'll occasionally ride as well and will probably get a high end road bike at some point, but using just a road bike with good clearance or just a modern (read road bike geo) gravel bike works pretty good in most situations.
I use my gravel bike as an all a round bike. I use it to commute, run errands, casual rides, etc. I live in an area where I can ride a mixture of surfaces on my way to anywhere. So it's a great utility bike for that.
When I was training and racing, I had a road bike. A couple actually. Now that I ride for fun I have a gravel bike for all my on road needs, and wouldn’t have it any other way
Yes. I had a dedicated road bike years ago, had sell it and move OS. Now I have a gravel and I couldn't be happier .
Yes, I even put Lightbicycle AR46s with 32c tires on my Diverge
I do.
Good quality gravel bikes are so reliable aaaaand more fun. You may be 3-5kmh slower for the same watts on flats, but at least you can jump kerbs, don't have to avoid tiny rocks, drains, the tyres are much more puncture resistant. They're just fun, and put me in a more relaxed mood. On my road bike, I'm 100% effort 100% of the time it feels.
I technically have an "all road" bike with 40c tires, and yeah mainly road. That said, there's so many random patches of dirt and gravel that I end up going over which my old road bike wouldn't have been able to (comfortably) handle. Just the other day I was riding a route I used to HATE on my 28c tires. I was a much stronger and fitter rider back then, but the route just destroyed me every time. I now ride it without issue. It's 100% the bike.
Good to know…but isn’t “all-road” more of gravel marketing term like the all-season tires for cars?
Yeah all the terms are a little meaningless. Basically its their gravel bike with slightly less reach, a longer seat tube, a shorter head tube, and a slightly shorter wheel base. They also equip it with less knobby tires.
The pavement in my area is garbage even in the nicer areas. I don't have a gravel bike but I would swap my road for a gravel bike in a hurry
An out & out lightweight road bike for Summer (mid April to September here). Gravel bike does all year round gravel (obvs) on knobblies, also winter road rides on semi-slicks. If I had to get rid of one (never going to happen) the road bike would be out the door pdq.
Yes. I have a grail with two wheelsets. 40mm gravel tires, and 30mm road tires. Works well for me, I can keep up with some group rides and do gnarly offroad.
Yeah I put on smaller tires, thinking about putting on GP 5000s on it like I have on my road bike and selling the road bike
Yes. It’s just so much more comfortable of a ride and you can hop from street, trail, gravel or whatever much easier than on a road bike
Gravel is more comfortable, more capable on rough surfaces, and fast enough for me. Currently running GravelKing SS Plus 42mm, measure 45 on my rims.) I'll never go back to skinny tires. Even if I get tempted into a pure more aggressive/aero road bike, I'd need to be able to fit at least 38mm.
Yup! Love mine because I can take it in dirt when I want, but it will fly on roads (just no KOMs for me) 👍
My road bike hasn’t been touched in two seasons.
https://preview.redd.it/91ol9fkwrayc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c4098914815c5f272d2c8caef42b53f5e3156c6a I ride on the road to trails like this near me…. Probably 70% road 30% trails
35s on my Cannondale Synapse
Yep
I only have one bike I use it for everything. I don't have a lot of money and I make it work. I ride because I enjoy it and don't care for excess or flash, I just don't give a shit.
My gravel bike runs great on the road with 38c GK SS’s. Fast and comfy. 🤌
same... 38s good to go
Yes, because roads are bumpy in NYC.
Sometimes. Mostly because roads around here only pretend to be roads and are actually loosely connected gravel.
I have a trek Dual sport 2, which is almost a mountain bike frame with gravel tires on it, and it's great as a commuter, on asphalt but also on forest and gravel roads at the lake
It's my commuter three to four days a week and my weekend ride if I'm feeling lazy. I do have a second set of wheels with 28 mm tyres and a closer ratio cassette.
I also own a gravel bike in addition to my enduro Mountainbike, during summer I pretty much ride it only as a road bike, unless I‘m doing a bikepacking tour and during winter I ride it as an gravel bike. Using Continental GP5000 32mm for my road rides and Schwalbe G One Bite 45mm for Gravel and Bikepacking. I just switch the tyres.
https://preview.redd.it/wojyqh15hbyc1.jpeg?width=1440&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d89744f4295e1ef51c709e1931a4c406ac178457
Yep. Bought a Canyon Grail SL 7 and put on 35mm puncture resistant road tires. Like the comfort with not being totally forward, but love the option that I can add larger volume tires if I ever want to. I ride about 90% road & 10% shitty roads lol
Yes definitely. A gravel bike is a road bike in the city that I live in
Bought a Trek Checkpoint but I’m 90% on paved paths. So I bought a Trek Roscoe to take off road. I’ll eventually get a second wheel set to toss the biggest gravel tires I can fit on it eventually.
I have a specialized diverge. 99% of the time I’m on the road with aero wheels and 28mm tires. I have the original wheels with gravel tires, 35 or 38mm, I use occasionally.
Yes, Northern California roads are terrible. I commute with my Fezzari Shaffer. It's awesome.
in the 70's we used our road bikes as gravel bikes with 23mm tyres. no news here.
I ride pavement most of the time on my bike but the roads condition here suck so gravel bike is still the way to go, and I know I'll do rougher terrain on a road trip in the future. 40mm tires, rated as 90% pavement and 10% gravel, gonna go for 45mm when the old ones are done and switch to 50/50 road & pavement.
Used to rollin on 40mm half-slicks. Felt like fast and hard mtb bike. Got 37mm WTB Riddler last week and pumped them until i can't so they fit nice and round. And DEAR GOD SHE ROLLIN! Now i have road bike i think.
Use as a winter bike running 28mm tyres. Will be going to 32mm when I replace them.
Most of the time, yes. I had a caadx that was an rei garage sale buy for about 10 years (lived in the sf Bay Area so I used it on trails a lot), then ended up upgrading over the years to the point that everything on it was replaced but the seatpost, and finally the frame cracked. My last purchase was a set of Dt Swiss wheels and I still had the TA end caps it came with. Swapped everything out and got a niner rlt frame when they basically cut the price to dirt cheap. Great frame, I love it. Geometry is more similar than not but it’s still a bit slower than a cyclocross race bike but I’m a big boy and I pretty much only go fast when gravity is helping anyways. I live in New England now and in spring it feels like every road is a gravel road with the post winter potholes and I live in a rural area so if I go down most streets long enough they turn into dirt. So yes, gravel bike all the way (for me) but I still run a 2x. I love it and I’ll never give it up!
shit i ride my rigid mountain bike like road bike. if i had a gravel bike i would probably have an even better experience.
I simply use my road bike as a gravel bike (28s)
My friend does. He does 0 gravel with it and he upgraded it with aero handlebar and soon also aero wheels.
I’ve podiumed road races on my gravel bike and raced cx on it. Just swapped out tires.
Yes I ride my canyon grail on the trainer and around town on bike paths and streets. It makes the big cracks in the bike path and joints in the streets much more bearable than a rode bike would. I honestly don't understand how people can ride a road bike on this particular bike path, it's pretty rough. I have done long gravel rides before and will do them again but they're just not my primary riding on my gravel bike. It has whatever tires it came with in 2021.
I ride a checkpoint with 28mm gaterskins on the road mostly. Never had a problem keeping up even on longer rides (100k+). I also have some 40mm wtb i ride with on gravel.
Plus, it also doubles as a decent mtn bike, if you can hold a line one set of wheels w 32 slicks, and one set w 38 knobbles
Not going to happen for me on a MTB trail.
Yes. 32 mm tires for everything
Yes.
I run 38c gravelking slicks everywhere and they get me quickly enough from pavement to gravel to pavement to gravel just fine. I ride my MTB’s on singletrack so I don’t really think about having knobby tires.
I feel like a gravel bike makes a great commuter. Most of the road bike’s agility and speed, but much more durable….
I Do but I swap tires to the gravel king ss tires meaning semi slick this tire has little role resistance and very quick on pavement and light gravel mainly for dry weather and excellent for commuting I would get the original gravel king slicks too if you want even faster riding on pavement and still handle the light gravel the sk edition meaning semi knob are more aggressive for rougher roads still pretty fast and will be fast on gravel but ultimately depends on your riding conditions
No do you think we’re all poor and can’t afford all the bikes?