Deleted User
Guest
- Location
- Wolverhampton
Pretty much describes my Spesh gravel bike, GRX group set.
Bought some Hunt 650b wheels with 42mm tan walls WTB's for when it's a bit muckier.
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Bought some Hunt 650b wheels with 42mm tan walls WTB's for when it's a bit muckier.
chriswoody
Legendary Member
- Location
- Northern Germany
Yes and no. It's one of the frustrations that with some bikes, the only way you can get wider tires in there is by making an additional purchase of a 650b wheel wheelset, some bikes do come with 650 wheels as standard though. Others, like my Kona provide large clearances without resorting to 650b.
Again, tyre choice is very personalised and specific to the region you live and ride in. After a year of riding here with 38mm tyres, I worked out that for me, the sweet spot was around 44mm. Not too fat to be sluggish on the road, but fat enough to ride through the sandy loamy soil here. My Kona has space for 50mm tyres on 700c rims, later versions of my bike has space for up to 65mm on normal 700c wheels.
Often manufacturers will spec 1x 11 or 1x12 because the lack of front derailiuer gives room for fatter tyres, though this isn't true for all framesets. The more popular SRAM Rival 1x11 groupset that I have is in the main, a great groupset. The problem with all of this though, is that drop bar levers have a different cable pull to MTB derailiuers. The road bike derived mechs that then get fitted have a smaller capacity than their MTB cousins. So I have a 10 - 42 cassette, mated originally to a 34 tooth chainring. the resultant 25 inch granny gear was far to high to haul a loaded bike up off-road hills. I've reduced the front ring to 32 teeth, but it's still not ideal. There are work arounds and hacks to get a decent wide range cassette of up to 50 teeth and beyond, but it requires deep pockets and good bike mechanic skills. Generally a 1x groupset needs deep pockets to pay for the replacement cassettes. Having ridden one for the year, off-road though, I've found them to be brilliant and wouldn't want to go back to 2x despite the more limited granny gear.
Yep on all three counts, nice wide flared drops. I currently have 460mm wide bars and I'm pondering wider. The wide flared drops, mated to a short 70mm stem gives good responsive low speed handling off-road, but are super comfy on road.
Modern gravel/adventure bikes are quite specialised and whilst you can ride anything on mixed terrain, a bike like this is so much more capable and comfy.
Plenty of scope in Scotland, the Badgers Divide Trail is 338km of mostly off road. Crosses some very remote country.I've no problem with them being marketing inspired renames (or otherwise) of what we already had (if that is the case) Goes around and comes around or whatever.
It's the adventure camping thing that's sort of surprised me. I genuinely didn't know you could travel for any length of time/distance off road in the UK (without a farmer hollering 'oi! ged'orffa my land!') So thanks to the post earlier that clarified that one for me
In Europe, yes, I can see there's more scope to get well off the beaten track. That said, here in my part of France, despite the rurality I can't go that far off-road without coming out onto a road again.
Some of my rides are like that, especially when Roger decides the route, he is more of a 'plan from 30,000 feet' kind of guy so we end up in some interesting places at times making anyone with new wheels or a new bike cry.
D
Deleted member 1258
Guest
I remember when Mike Vaughan Senior, owner of Mike Vaughan Cycles in Kenlworth was a regular on the club rides, he used to borrow bikes from the showroom quite regularly, he turned up one Sunday on an expensive top of the range road bike, and wasn't impressed on the way back when we took a short cut through a wood on a rough dirt track, we were all most amused.
DRM
Guru
- Location
- West Yorks
Basically, but not necessarily all of those, there are such a wide range of Gravel Bikes, from something like my Marin Gestalt 2, which is more like a road bike, to so something like a GT Grade, with it’ s bendy rear seat stays, that flex, to the Evil Chamois Hagar, which is a very slack angled MTB with drops, there are so many variations on bikes and kit, that when the UCI decided to get themselves into Gravel, those who race told them to do one, and take their rules with them in no uncertain terms, as it was this lack of rules and allowing any bike of any spec into races, that attracts people to race, a bit like the very early days of MTB racing
Milzy
Guru
You did it on a CX then as a gravel bike has a more upright geometry & a longer wheelbase than a CX bike. One is for racing laps of a short multi terrain circuit the other is for a more relaxed adventure style riding.
steveindenmark
Legendary Member
Gravel bikes seemed to have developed after the Transcontinental Race started. Riders wanted lighter bikes, a higher gear range, bigger tyres that could handle off road but still be fast on the road, lighter equipment and seat post and frame bags. It is all just a variation on a theme. In Denmark, which is a cycling nation. Some people are beginning to get a bit annoyed at the antics of some gravel riders. The Danes are very good at sharing their spaces. but I have been in the woods where a group of gravel riders have come racing round the corner and narrowly missing me. They had no chance of seeing what was ahead. They are started to being banned from some woods and that causes problems. How do you ban just gravel bikes and not all bikes. No doubt the UK will get similar problems now they can get into territory where only the walkers could go before.
figbat
Slippery scientist
- Location
- South Oxfordshire, UK
I’d say that some but not all of these are usually present (and I’d throw in disc or canti/v-brakes).
You can get flat-barred gravel bikes. My homemade gravel bike started out with parallel drops (just replaced with flares this week) and has a 11-36 cassette (until I can find a cheap wider one), plus I’m on 700c wheels with 43mm tyres and a mix of Tiagra and XT drivetrain. Of course mine was built as my interpretation of a gravel bike so it has whatever I could lay my hands on, but it is pretty universally accepted as being a gravel bike - perhaps even the very definition of one since I have seen it written that gravel bikes are essentially what we used to call XC bikes with drops on... which is precisely what this is!
