Do You Need A Gravel Bike? Does Anyone? 

One chainring to rule them all!

@@VideoNOLA These guys ironically do not promote a one by setup iirc

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Ralph Pickering Good one. Made my belly-laugh.

🤣🤣🤣🤣

Well played!

If gravel contains coal. I guess it may be used to build carbon bikes too! Considering their price - literally money is lying on the street ...

right? and a cross bike is def not for Jesus

But what about an all terrain bike? How would you combine the different materials? It’s a nightmare!

@@SquarebobSpongepants wut the actual fuccckkkk. I diedd laffffffiinngggg

Well said! ;-)

"Jack of all trades, master of none, but oftentimes better than master of one'' ? :)

Spot on. Mudguard clearance, comfy riding position, and the choice to fire on plenty of different tyres makes them a clear choice for most folk. I reckon I'll get a "gravel" bike for my next "road" bike.

Yes, well said.

I agree with all these comments! I have a "go anywhere" bicycle, but pretty sure some would call it a gravel bike. it lets me do things that I would not want to do with my other children. :) I have masters of one AND a jack of all trades ready to roll!

Ditto and calling them SUB is excellent idea, looking at the delineation of pure CX vs gravel vs monster cross from preceptive of competitive or experienced rider is pointless. Anyone who can put out 200-250 watts for hours on end or 350-400 for CX or XC race is going fine on any of the said variations in geometry, rim diameter and tire size of these confirmations (e.g. Nino Schurter could win CX race on XC bike or vice versa against field of competitive amateurs). When I worked at bike shop about 2003-2004 it was for example really hard to sell a Big S Roubaix when everyone wanted a Tarmac because it looked sleek. They didn't want to seen as old, slow or inexperienced. The few people I could convince to buy an entry level Kona Jake rode those into the ground and had fun vs most people stopped riding the Tarmac or TT bike because fit too aggressive. Or later we'd have put on 50-80 mm stems or +30 degree rises so people necks and backs didn't hurt, never mind the harshness of cheapo 23 mm tire. Also a one-by with 40 T up to 48 T with up to 11-50 in back is easier to manager vs a 50x34 by 11-28 and just ride around less then 10 mph around a 34 in the 11 or 12 with chain rubbing on front mech. Finally there's the safety factor it's easier to stay up right on 35 mm plus tire vs 28mm or less for most riders

Totally agree. Just not a fan of the term SUB.

Confusing when thats sarah ulmer bikes brand tho... SUB

I call them Adventure bikes.

So guys if I want to get back from the awesome MTB world to get ONE type of roadbike, should I buy the SUB?

crux is a cross bike.... the diverge is their gravel

I certainly agree. It's very hard to find MTB worthy trails where I live. Therefor my gravel bike does get a lot of use. Nevertheless I still ride the more expensive bike more often. And that recently changed when I got a new XC Hardtail.

Be careful with the shorter stem it may render your bike very twitchy.

Edgar, That's it ! What the British cyclo tourist used to call "Rough Stuff". They managed quite well with the machines you and I are riding today. I'm riding a 74 Gitane Interclub with bar ends , 32's and a compact crank set to go where so many have been told that they need a "Gravel" bike to get there. Been doing it for decades .

ME TOO :d

Yes, this pretty much sums it up! I have no problem with people buying a niche bike that they think they need but could probably do without, if it gets you off your arse and out riding thats great, and if it keeps your car on the drive even once a week then that's great. I have more bikes than I strictly need but love them all.

Wonky Lommiter that’s not possible. You can’t have more bikes than you need

I started with a road bike now i got a niner rlt9 a specialized diverge expert and a specialized camber mountain bike, but now it takes me 30 minutes to decide which bike to ride.

N+1 I've got 16 too many. I need an intervention

Zachary Jones good point, I've always think a true biker should ride home to home, not using a car to travel

You weak as fuck, thats why u miserable! 60-100 km easy on my hardtail.

@@tapdq exactly! I have an older cross bike and I easily travel 100+ km a day on it. The only fatique is from the lack of training or maybe the wrong type of saddle, everything else is just excuses.

I casually ride about 30-50km with my xc bike , didn't think about efficiency on gravel over xc or something , just love whatever bike u have

hiro111 it would be interesting to have Ben, the US editor, throw his weight into this debate. Colorado has a large number of these rural gravel roads which are ideal for this kind of riding.

we'd have loved to get Ben's view on this, but trans-atlantic video production can prove tricky at times! we're working on it though

colorado is somewhat unique in that there are tons of very smooth dirt roads that you can ride on a proper road bike. many other states (i've lived in pennsylvania and washington) more or less demand a gravel, cx, or mtb.

It's all about where you live and what you like to ride, right? A downhill mountain bike doesn't make any sense for me, for example, as a roadie in Colorado. Similarly, a rider in London might not get a lot of use out of a gravel bike. But somebody in, say, Montana, where there are hundreds and hundreds of miles of gravel roads? Pretty ideal.

There are heaps and heaps of 'gravel' roads in the UK. They are not called that and are ignored by roadies because they too rough and ignored by MTBers because they are too smooth. Hence the false perception they don't exist here. In the UK we have dirt tracks, fire roads, farmer's roads, greenways, byways, bridleways, rail trails, RUPPs and BOATs - many of which would be called gravel elsewhere. Not to mention many of our country back roads are crap condition and often have a layer of gravel or even grass growing down the middle. I'm currently riding ALL the area around where I live and a gravel/cx bike is the perfect bike by far for the job because I'm constantly riding 'gravel' roads.

Back in the day we'd call them a touring or randoneurring bike, just not exactly loaded up with racks and bags. They had to be dependable, bigger tyres (650b) and more comfort. More recently Hybrids were a big deal, until the 29er came along, but I still think the gravel bike is nothing new, and nothing special, and certainly not at all necessary.

Actually, gravel bike is derived from gravel racing/sport events.

That's probably the best explaination I've read tbh. I was struggling to see the reason for them until I read that haha

thats right, the ergo benifts of tried and true rodies and the comfy benifts of off road sized tires as options is the killer app of transport.

Alex Paulsen says: "but I still think the gravel bike is nothing new, and nothing special, and certainly not at all necessary." == Gravel bikes maybe not new but bikes before always had some short coming or sacrifice to fit in THEIR idea of marketable bikes. Gravel bikes are the one that everybody wanted in their sub conscious but they couldn't visualize until someone put together. (Before this, I loved the idea of so called "sports bike", usually you could find under bottom of the line road racing bikes which come equipped with all the eyelets ready for anything maybe except ability to fit the fatter tires.) Now that the makers got the basic message, I'm expecting to see slight difference among each makers competing who can come up with the best idea. From this on, I'll consider having two bikes for everything, one folding bike for train and bus travel and a gravel bike for everything else.

Thats true because except for more tire clearance and slight geometry changes, they are almost the same. If one puts skinny tires on a gravel bike, the difference is minimal.

Drop bars a a LOT more fun on smooth surfaces though. The riding position on a mountainbike is just too unaerodynamic. I have an XC Hardtail and a gravel bike. I have swapped their wheels in the past. It does improve the Mountainbikes capabilities on smooth roads but it's still far from a road or gravel bike. (Also skinny tires look really silly on Mountainbikes there is too much empty space around them.)

@Carbon Proksi you're right, it's personal preference. I personally find mountainbikes on the road feel slow and boring. Especially since I know that I could be going quite a bit faster if I had a road bike. Therefor I could get further with the same amount of time and effort. And as I usually only ride for fun, stress relief, or to get somewhere, I always prefer going faster. I don't usually ride for the training although that's a very nice side effect of riding a lot.

Sounds good! Planning to do this.

@Carbon Proksi i don't know why people always seem to forget or disregard the fitness hybrid, they are light, easy on the body, better braking than any road bike, fantastic gearing and you can have a decent one for half the price of a gravel bike

Now, you should get a horse as well.

Hahaha you need to much dude ✌🏻

such material consumption can be bad for the environment

@@jemma_19988 Cars are worse ;)

Haha you're thr embodiment of the n+1 formula and i think that's amazing

Haha, glad you noticed from Joe and Tom!

And the upper midwest. MN, WI, ND, SD, Iowa all have great gravel.

There are heaps and heaps of 'gravel' roads in the UK. They are just not called that here, plus they and are ignored by roadies because they too rough and ignored by MTBers because they are too smooth. Hence the false perception they don't exist here. In the UK we have dirt tracks, fire roads, farmer's roads, greenways, byways, bridleways, rail trails, RUPPs and BOATs - many of which would be called gravel elsewhere. Not to mention many of our country back roads are crap condition and often have a layer of gravel or even grass growing down the middle. Actually some of our main roads are rougher than off road trails. I'm currently riding ALL the area around where I live [South Yorkshire] and a gravel/cx bike is the perfect bike by far for the job because I'm constantly riding 'gravel' roads.

I agree. I think many people new to cycling went out and bought an aggressive road bike only to find that it did not suit them and sort of put them off riding. I also have a GT Grade (well, I have a stable of 18 GTs, actually) and I absolutely love it. I've done plenty of centuries on it as well as gravel. The geometry is perfect for an old guy like me. Is it as light as my Ti or carbon road bike? No, but I'm not a racer and the group that I ride with isn't all that fast. We just want to have a good time!

My dream bike is that GT grade with the floating rear stays.

I agree. I like having a gravel bike which I can fit out for light touring with panniers, take the rack off and go bikepacking, take everything off and do a fast (ish) run, get the shopping, look at least a bit cool (I am 68 after all). I have two wheelsets which means I can do most things that would usually require a garage full of bikes (er indoors might get tetchy).

Incidentally, I like mechanical disk brakes as a busted hydraulic line might get rather inconvenient and Scwalbe Marathons, which lose on speed but save on puncture repairs in the rain in the dark (which are not my idea of even type 2 fun!)

Of course not. I would ride a Trials bike in the Tour de France xD (you're probably better off walking)

I ended up going a similar route. About to get a crux (for all surfaces that aren't mtb) in this week and have a 2018 tallboy (suits my local trails better than a hightower).

A good combo of bikes to have. Prepare to have lots of fun on the Crux - but get it setup tubeless and drop tyre pressures, it makes a world of difference to handling, grip and comfort. Not to mention no pinch flats. I used a mere 50PSI with 28mm slicks on the supplied Roval rims, but when I upgraded wheels I dropped pressure to 40psi as the Pacenti SL25 rims are wider, so more air volume. 30-35psi with 32m tyres.This for a weight of 75kg BTW. My Sector 28s also cope with offroad riding way, way better than you would think. The Crux is pretty awesome for trails that most would consider very definitely MTB territory. I live on edge of Peak District and most riding is quite technical in these parts, but I have some of my fastest strava segment times on my favourite singletracks [only real way to really compare bikes accurately] on my Crux. However if pointing down a steep or big rocky DH then a full sus MTB will simply leave it for dust. I test rode one at a demo weekend when looking for a a new FS bike. Last ride of the weekend and I spotted it in the corner, thought 'why not?' and it was more fun and faster than the FS bikes I'd been testing [bar the steep or very rough DHs which are brutal even on a FS]. Left most of those on FS bikes behind too on the not exactly smooth Roman Road - s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/01/36/30/1363014_be8cbcd2.jpg I ride Sherwood Pines Trail Centre on it occasionally and overtaking folk on their FS trail bikes with massive tyres riding a bike with skinny 28mm road tyres and no suspension is very entertaining. Though the braking bumps can be hard on the hands.But the main benefit is that all surfaces are fun on this bike, unlike with a road or MTB. Both of which aren't much fun at offroad and on road riding respectively. Oh and for winter get some Crud, Roadracer MkIII mudguards. So nice to got for a ride and not come back wet and mucky from filthy trails/roads.

So doable. YES!

Saw that video , thanks for the instructional, that cannondale looks awesome im planning to do that too on my mtb but i dont know if my hydraulic brakes would work on those dropbar levers, might need to go mechanical disc brakes?

@@busoptr You can't use mechanical brake levers with hydraulic brakes. You will either need special hydraulic levers, or switch to mechanical disc brakes.

@@RJTheBikeGuy thanks

@@busoptr isn't there a giant stem that adapts cable pull brakes to be used with hydraulic brakes. Or get one of those hybrid disc brakes from sphyre

mwinner101 which one? 105? I don't like the mechanical brakes but that looks interesting

Hi, I have a Mavic Crossride wheels from evans and Swchalbe Marathon tyres, wheels were cheap. When i get home i will look at my email reciept and give you details. Roll surprisingly well and superb with offroad. I had to by new discs for the wheels.

Did you also buy new cassettes for each set of wheels also? Would be pretty annoying having to change the cassette over each time also

I bought a Shimano 105 11/30 for just under £40 with delivery for the additional wheels. I only have a cassette on my Hunt and 650b's not the DT Swiss You can get some decent deals and if you look on ebay even cheaper. www.evanscycles.com/shimano-105-5800-11-speed-road-cassette-EV219234

Have you done Dirty Kanza?

@@garrys1973 So you're saying that 650x40mm fits on the Specialized Roubaix 2017? Front AND rear? How is the tire clearance then? I'm very interested in doing this as well...

Not what I've found. The 'ah ha' moment came on a 12 mile fairly gradual gravel decent, I was spun out on my hardtail 29er (with the 46 ring), and people on cross and gravel bikes were gently walking away from me. Not to mention how hard it is to hang on the flat asphalt sections. It's why I got a gravel bike. Although, I'm still messing with 'perfection'. Thinking about putting a flat bar on it - as many of the courses we ride have 10-25 mile descents down mountain fire roads, of which some are not in very good shape. The narrow bars and trying to break with 'road hood brake's is not conducive to higher speeds.

you have to be on the drops whem breaking at high speeds..

U guys must have legs the size of tree trunks

I ride single speed only.

you can just change the chainring and add a gear

Early bikes for gravel were just old CX and XC mountain bikes, even some old rando touring bikes. Old Crux's were an example of the divide that gravel bikes emerged from. Those bikes had 70mm BBs and 3 water bottle mounts on a CX bike, completely un CX like and more gravel like. Raleigh or Salsa probably made the actual purpose built gravel bike. Gearing is kinda shit. Any bike that uses PF86/90/92(24mm spindle based frame), straight up cant use good gearing. Praxis cranks 48/32 offhand I think is on only the Diverge. I think at least one other bike out there is uses the FSA 48/32. Praxis, FSA, Rotor, they are all on 30mm spindles, so its just not always works with every frame. Also the issue is that its not just from either shimano or sram, so its not like just an easy pre-packaged kinda group set option.

Drop bar mountain bikes designed from the ground up exist. Check out the Salsa Fargo and Salsa Cuthroat...

Did the same with my old cannondale rush except I use bar end shifters and 29er wheels. Works a treat but heavier than a new made for gravel bike.

CrazyCyclingVlogger you took the words right out of my mouth! 👍

CrazyCyclingVlogger are they really mtbs? As in can you ride a rocky trail at 30-40kph on them without replacing spokes and frames every few rides?

Phil G it’s because you are use to your bike, it happens I hopped onto a MTB and it felt disgusting 😂

Use tubeless tyres, wider rims and reduce tyre pressure and your CX bike will be just fine. I use my Crux for all days rides, going on and off road. Most folk ride with too high a pressure set.

I use 28's at about 95-100 psi (they're rated up to 110). I've often thought about going tubeless for the reason you mention... lower pressure.

Tubeless is the the best thing to happen to bikes this century. It makes such an incredible difference to one's riding. No more pinch flats, loads of grip, way more comfortable and still darn fast on and off road. I now use a mere 40 psi with Sector 28s on [wide] SL25 rims and 50PSI with my stock Rovals which are a bit narrower. that's for 75kg of rider. Any harder and bike gets bouncy and markedly less comfy. No need for fancy flexy road frames, just ride a sensible pressure instead. :D

I`m going to buy my first bike. Should I go for gravel or cyclocross ? It is going to be my only bike. HELP =]

Depends on what you are going to use it for. A gravel bike is usually a bit more versatile for tyre choice, particularly wider tyres which may be a squeeze in a CX frame.

Hahahahaha

Best comment!

Its the opposite for me because i have to do gravel before i get to pavement. So i guess there is a gravel bike market for people who live in the flat prairies.

gingermattb me too, exactly!

This is exactly why I'm getting my first drop bar and its a gravel frame.

Exactly why I'm looking into gravel bikes more and more. I already have and FS mtb and looking for a second bike to expand my arsenal. Where I live, road quality isn't that great so road bike is probably not optimal. I also love to stray off the beaten path (gravel roads, dirt roads and anything in between). Gravel bikes are also appealing to me because of bike packs mounting options. Really nice when you are going on those few days epics. One question though. Do you think I would be able to keep up with roadies on all day (60-100 miles) rides on a gravel bike?

@@jaujud +1

SmevMev thats what i did with my xc 29 hardtail, bar ends or even ergo grips make a big difference on long distance off road rides

Gravel bikes are big in America because we have more money than sense. Like sheep to the slaughter.