Adam Schulz Head over to GMBN, there’s been several videos. In brief, they like them for the purpose they were made for, but they have their limits, much like mtb aren’t really suited for munching road miles.
The biggest downside to a gravel bike is you can buy a good cross country, xc bike and if using it on the road fit low rolling resistance tyres and have a far better bike at anything remotely ‘gravel’
That’s what 90% of mountain bikers say on every ride. We’ll think to themselves at least. Can’t be admitting you’re rubbish when you spent >£5k on a bike. 😅
Agreed. And I’d like to see it go the other way where Blake gets taught road racing craft and has to take part in a crit. I reckon he’d do pretty well!
Yea... As soon as Ollie said his secret is uphill (using the fullsus), it's started to sounds weird for me. I do both mtb and road, and that uphill section there looks pretty easy for the cx (I even bet the cx will be faster than a hardtail front suspension in the same hand) (Because suspension means bigger power loss do to the rebound effect at every crank roll). In other way, I predict that the fullsus and uphill 'secret plan' section will backfire Ollie's plan. With that Ollie's pace downhill, Blake can have a 5 minute margin I presume.
Yeah that was fun to watch but if you know the Mega Avalanche you know it isn't that hard in particular but ofc brutal with a HT because of the length. I did saw him on the track live back in 2016 or 17, I only saw it later that I passed him on my own video :P
Love how Ollie explains why they've moved the levers so that they're more accessible when you're not on the drops, because who wants to be on the drops on a muddy descent... then Blake spends the entirety of the downhill section on the drops.
Im a mountain biker that recently got a road bike...when i do single track on it, im usually in the drops. The 4 inch lower center of gravity for my torso is a HUGE advantage.
It just depends on the terrain. If it's fast, not too steep not too bumpy, you go for the drops. If it's steep, slower and technical because there is rocks, you prefer be on the hoods in a position more similar to moutain bike flatbar.
@@mirak63I'm the opposite, my hands can bounce off the hoods on the rough stuff, I hold the drops through all the fast and rough and corner carving too
My two absolute favorite presenters in a cross over. Fantastic! You two should make more content together. Like Blake can teach Ollie to send it lika mad man and Ollie could take Blake for an epic 24 h ride or bike packing.
Neil and Si did a bikepacking trip in Iceland a few years back, with Neil on a hardtail and Si on a gravel bike. And Mr 24 hour rides is Hank, not Ollie.
Loved seeing Blake show what is possible on a road bike in the woods. The man is of course amazingly skilled. As a roadie looking to get off road, I’d love to see a series where he teaches Ollie what it’s all about, on a hardtail that a beginner might buy, and Ollie gives feedback on what it is really like.
Fun and inspiring. Blake clearly knows exactly how to ride a bicycle. I haven't hard-core mountain biked since the 2000s (and the route here wasn't very hard), but this reminded me that most mountain bikers actually have way better bike handling skills than most roadies. To his credit, though, Ollie did quite a bit better than I expected; being really fit apparently makes up for a lack of experience.
Defo but vice-versa too. Would love to see Blake’s road race placement try beat Ollie’s MTB one. 2 great cyclists trying to outdo one another’s discipline with tips + hints from the GCN/GMBN crews respectively. I’m sure they could both learn a lot off each other, and us lot too at the same time.
One of the best videos in awhile. The dichotomy of Ollie, barely able to ride the jump line on a XTR/Fox Factory build Reactor, and Blake throwing whips on a gravel bike is priceless. I vote that Manon should do the next GCN/GMBN collaboration.
Kudos to the editor that chose the music for Ollie’s decent! I was rolling on the floor! I’m pretty sure Ollie rode them brakes so hard I saw smoke coming off them!
Please more Ollie on a mountain bike! I would love to see him do a series on learning to mountain bike as a cross over, ending with a race. I'm a roadie learning to go off road and the combination of Ollie and Blake is magic.
Laid my Felt Breed 30 down one time. GRX Brake lever literally snapped in half. :( This is why it's better to use MTB Components for this type of riding I guess. Imagine if they had given Blake the 1 by with a dropper post hooked up to the non-shifter. It's an option!
The comedic timing and the banter make this one of the best in a long time. It's reminiscent of the Dan/Matt/Si chemistry. Thanks guys & girls at PSN, more of this please :)
Honestly love the crossover episodes. As someone who enjoys both MTB and road cycling, I'd love to see the gmbn presenters participate in more roadie challenges and gcn presenters on full suspensions riding off-road
obviously he's in on the joke. But I can't decide if he's pretending to be worse than he really is, or if he's just never been on a mtb at all before. we would all look like that our first time riding a trail, but I find it hard to believe that he's that green
Cool video Ollie. Yeah I like my road bike to. A friend took me out on MTB, I got to ride a Santa Cruz with a dropper which is a great feature to have on a MTB except that one time as I was going down a steep incline, I reached for the dropper but instead got a handful of the front brake lever. Funny how everything slows down as you go over the handle bars then, Bam you hit the ground, I got up looked around got back on the bike. The next day I had a bruise on my left hip(I was 60yrs old), which I thought for sure I was gonna break but, luckily it help up. I haven't ridden a MTB since(64yrs old now) and my hips feel just fine.
The contrast between Blake and Ollie is exactly what goes on in my head.... I feel like I'm riding single track like Blake... but know I'm shredding the gnar more like Ollie... have similar leg scars on the shins to prove it :)
Thats just weird....if you enjoy it, and know that sponsors, are the reason these channels are delivering free content, and likes shows sponsors, that we like the content, and makes them continue to sponsor, for more quality content.... weird🤔
@@wonderwatch2239 You are getting stuff mixed up. A RU-vid channel has the right, and often need, to have sponsored content. But: Them having the right, and need, to be sponsored, doesn't come with a "Johnny must watch and throw likes at all of it" clause. That is not how things work. I do respect their business model and even watch some of their sponsored videos. More than half of it i think. I just won't throw a like at people being paid to sell me stuff (with a few exceptions, like this video). Commercials doesn't excist for my benefit. I have no reason to give a commercial a like.
unfortunately its a fact that Road riding does not require anywhere near the bike handling skills that mountain bikers do. Other than missing the odd pothole or going round a corner a bit quicker than usual thats about it for a road bike... with continioulsy variable terrain and grip levels a relatively fit MTB rider will win almost every time on a challenge like this. Teach a good mountainbiker to generate power and efficiency and you end up with the best road bikers like Sagan!
Agreed. MBN seems a lot more technical. Only issue is having to drive out to a technical trail to get the full use out of the bike, rather than starting from home. I don't own a mtn bike, but the handling seems fun.
Doing both, I can say Absolutely. Being able to ride more technical trails with jumps and rock gardens takes more technical skill than a road ride. However, a good long road ride takes quite a bit of fitness. I know people that are faster than me on a mountain bike solely because of their riding skill not fitness, Put those riders on a road ride for 50+ miles and they wont make it.
It's a different set of skills. Mountain bikers don't have the pack skills to handle themselves in something like a criterium where dozens of riders are consistently shoulder to shoulder. And cyclocross racers probably have better bike handling than many MTB riders simply because they can't rely on the bike to deal with as many problems on its own.
@@tylerreid1789 I know that a lot of people in the MTB world drive to the trails then ride for 1-2 hours, and mainly focus on descending, tech skills, jumps, etc. But you can hop on an MTB and do all day rides off road on technical and not so technical terrain, and a 50 mile off road ride might take you as much time as a 100 mile road ride. 🙂 It's really up to you how you use your bike. Personally I do long rides on the MTB as well. I ride everything. Gravel, dirt roads, smooth trails, rough trails, sometimes even pavement. We don't have trail systems, bike parks, 2000m tall mountains, but I still enjoy it more than road riding because i'm out in nature with no cars.
Seems like he never had a decent experience on trails. You would expect that he will hit that ramp full gas like what we normally do on tt ramps but he really eased off on the decents, hilarious!
@@bentolzabala4055 you know someone have no MTB experiance if the rear wheel is lifting like that and or if you look how he garbed the brakes. MTB brakes are powerful enough that you need one finger.
I ride MTB from time to time and i am still a beginner. Seeing hin going down so slowly, like i do, makes me feel more comfortable. xD The trail does not look tricky, but as a beginner, i always must use my brakes because i don´t feel safe enought, to get down the trail with more speed. so that was nice to see, that going down so slowly is a normal thing. i feel better now. actually i felt as if i was waching myself. xD
To go all in on a trail needs a lot of confidence in your own skills and trust in your bike and believe me when I say that every mtb guy hammering down a trail super fast has crashed and fallen multiple times before...
Then Si would surely win? They wanted to show the gravel bike is pretty good, if it got smashed then it wouldn’t of looked so good. Think that’s why they’ve done it this way
@@TheJanope13 blake wasn't pro DH, he jumps, anyway, you missed the point, the difference between Blake/Si would have been way way less than blake/ollie
Maybe I'm old. What does dope mean in this context? To me, being old, the word dope can be a noun, meaning 'herbal/happy baccy', or a verb, meaning to alter performance through drugs, for example, the rider was disqualified after allegations of doping.
Blake know’s how to let the bike run on the over the terrain. Ollie was fighting the terrain the whole way down. That is not a skill you learn on the road, that’s years rolling over rough terrain to learn it. Great try Ollie enjoyed watching you out of your comfort zone.
Really good to some friendly competition/collaboration between the 2 channels. I enjoy mountain biking and road cycling and learn a lot from both GCN and GMBN 👍👍👍
Loved this video. Ollie & Blake work so well together, and so do the cross over viedos. I also think seeing people who aren't ex-pros MTBers on MTB trails is good as it's more relateable. It also just puts into perspective how good Blake/Neil ect are.
Ollie + Blake = massive thumbs up. Also the high pivot point on those brake levers is the first thing I've seen for ages that looks like a useful bit of new design instead of marketing waffle
Blake is so friendly! As someone who wants a gravel bike for their next bike (Current bike is a cyclo-cross setup as a commuter) this is great to watch!
