Enlighten me please.

[Ming the Merciless]

Think of a bike that excels at nothing, then you're probably pretty close.

Perfect for the rider who excels at nothing then !

 

[DRM]

A cyclocross bike is not built for comfortable long rides; it's for one-hour events and is quite sporty. A gravel bike is more of a rugged, stable road bike.

A gravel bike is part way between a cyclocross bike and a road bike, a bit more relaxed geometry , not as sporty, but more suitable for off tarmac than a road bike

 

[figbat]

It’s an old school rigid XC bike with drop bars.
Or it’s a road bike with fat tyres.

 

[Globalti]

I've reported elsewhere on CC but riding my Roubaix on gravel it's fine until the downhill bit when it feels sketchy and insecure. Somebody will be able to explain the geometry behind that.

 

[freiston]

According to Sigma Sports website, the Trek 520 is a gravel bike: https://www.sigmasports.com/item/Trek/520-Disc-Gravel-Bike-2020/P258

According to Trek website, both the 520 and the 920 are "Adventure & Touring" bikes and the 920 is also a gravel bike but the 520 isn't.

Personally I think that gravel bikes are the advertisers second go at selling a bike to all the people that they originally mis-sold a road racing bike to.

 

[Smudge]

Anything between a road bike and a mountain bike is a hybrid afaic,.... Gravel bikes are just hybrids with drop or flat bars.

 

[freiston]

Anything between a road bike and a mountain bike is a hybrid afaic,.... Gravel bikes are just hybrids with drop or flat bars.

That spectrum of bikes from mountain bike to road bike doesn't add up and depends on your defintion of mountain bike and road bike, making it no more valid than someone who defines a gravel bike as being explicitly different to a mountain or road bike. Otherwise it would follow that before the advent of the "mountain bike", all bikes were road bikes. Any bike manufactured after the advent of the mountain bike that could not be described as 100% road bike would therefore be a hybrid even if it were identical to a road bike manufactured before the advent of the mountain bike. 😉

 

[Smudge]

That spectrum of bikes from mountain bike to road bike doesn't add up and depends on your defintion of mountain bike and road bike, making it no more valid than someone who defines a gravel bike as being explicitly different to a mountain or road bike. Otherwise it would follow that before the advent of the "mountain bike", all bikes were road bikes. Any bike manufactured after the advent of the mountain bike that could not be described as 100% road bike would therefore be a hybrid even if it were identical to a road bike manufactured before the advent of the mountain bike. 😉

They are still hybrids to me. Gravel and adventure bikes are neither road bikes or mountain bikes, but a combination of the two.... ie a hybrid.
The bike manufacturers make up these names purely for marketing and sales, these names sound cooler than just calling them hybrids.

 

[chriswoody]

Gravel bikes as a term encompasses a wide spectrum of different bikes. The steel frame of my Kona is based on the Kona Sutra touring bike,with the same relaxed geometry of a touring bike, but the clearance for wide tyres. Along with the large frame clearances, I also have a mountain bike orientated gearing set up with a SRAM 1x11 group set and hydraulic disc brakes.

Here in Northern Germany we are blessed with hundreds of square kilometres of forests, the tracks are a mix of gravel, mud and sand. Modern mountain bikes would be overkill on these tracks, but slow on the roads connecting the off-road sections, but a road bike would find the off road sections heavy going and bog down in the mud and sand. My bike is the perfect mix of road and mountain bike, fast and capable on the road, then able to fly along the kilometres of gravel and dirt roads with ease. Because of it's touring routes it's also a lovely comfy bike to ride all day and it makes a great off road touring bike.

 

[freiston]

They are still hybrids to me. Gravel and adventure bikes are neither road bikes or mountain bikes, but a combination of the two.... ie a hybrid.
The bike manufacturers make up these names purely for marketing and sales, these names sound cooler than just calling them hybrids.

Hybrid bike was a term invented for marketing and sales just as gravel bike is - you are accepting one marketing term as definitive without question or criticism and rejecting another because it is a marketing term. There is no spectrum with mountain bikes at one end and road bikes at the other (whatever it is that "road bike" means - there's disagreement in this parish on that too) and anything which is considered not to be one or the other isn't necessarily a cross between the two. When my father's roadster was designed a few decades ago, you can bet that the designers didn't decide to create a hybrid between a mountain bike and a "road bike", nor were Dawes doing the same when they made the first Galaxy.

 

[Rusty Nails]

I've got a road bike and a gravel bike. My wife says I've got two racing bikes, because of the drop bars.

It really isn't important.

 

[I like Skol]

This vvvv is a gravel bike.

while this vvvv is a roadbike.

I hope that clears it up once and for all!

 

[screenman]

They are bikes is that not enough.

 

[DRM]

This vvvv is a gravel bike.

View attachment 524228


while this vvvv is a roadbike.

View attachment 524229

I hope that clears it up once and for all!

You’re complicating things, it’s a GT Grade.......😁. A very nice gravel/road bike!

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Lost interest @Baldy ? You haven’t come back to your own thread . Were you really interested in the answer?