Gravel Bike for Winter road

[chappers1983]

Apologies if this question has already been asked before.

Been cycling for 10 years, and have been a hard-core roadie all that time. Wrote off the trusty winter bike in a fall back in Feb; fortunately covered on insurance so always intended to sort a replacement as we got into winter.

I was just going to pick up a new road bike with disc brakes, but am wondering whether a gravel bike would be a better option? I mean, I’ve never been “off-road”, but might be nice to have an option right? Or, having spent so long on dedicated road bikes will I notice the difference on a standard road ride

 

[vickster]

What roadbike(s) do you have? Something more relaxed or race?

To me a gravel bike probably has a more relaxed upright geometry, often a 1x groupset, room for fatter knobbly tyres, and mudguards. Roadbikes with disc brakes take wider tyres, so if you want a double or triple groupset, perhaps a more aggressive geometry, one of those might be suitable. In aluminium, steel or Ti if you want full length fixEd mudguards (a must really for all weather riding).
What‘s the budget?

 

[kingrollo]

Well I have the Ribble cgr - which supposedly doubles as a gravel bike - if you spec big tyres.

I use it for my winter road bike. It's very heavy but fairly bombproof.

Fwiw I think these dual purpose bikes generally favour one discipline or the other. If you're primary riding is road I would buy a bike that's best for that.

You could always pick up a used gravel bike - for the odd occasion you fancy a gravel ride

 

[Cycleops]

Why not. Be a bit slower on the road but that's about the only thing I find.
Won't have the same geometry so won't be quite as response when you 'dig in'.

 

[Jameshow]

I would say it depends on the tyres and the frame.

If you run it on 28mm it will feel road bike like. Run it on 40+mm and it will feel heavier.

Also some are built with double butted tubing others are not.

 

[rivers]

I have a gravel bike that I use for a winter road bike (and a gravel/bikepacking bike in the summer). To be honest, I spent most of this summer off-road, even though I am normally primarily a roadie. Just something about the lack of traffic I found appealing.
I have 2 sets of wheels- one with 32mm road tyres and another with 40mm gravel tyres. I have a sub-compact 2x double mullet set-up (46/30 chainset with an 11-42 cassette, running shimano 105 brifters, front derailleur and hydro brakes, and a shimano deore rear derailleur- so anything but standard). It's quick enough on the road (winter is normally slower paced social rides and well summer off-road is slower anyway).
My bike can fit full mudguards, but I take them on and off regularly so the sks raceblade xls work for me.
Anyway, my Orro Terra C in summer and winter mode...

 

[StuAff]

For some reason, some people still equate things like fat tyres and relaxed geometry with being slow, or just slower, than a race or even endurance road bike with skinny tyres. Back in 2015, my first century on the Litespeed was the second fastest I did all year- and that was solo on Nov 1, the faster one, on my Viner (carbon, 23 & 25mm tyres) was in a group in summer. As for its replacement the Tripster ATR v3, I can't put it better than Dave Atkinson did for his road.cc review: "The Tripster ATR V3 is, simply, a lovely thing to ride. It has the sort of unhurried calm that translates into distance at a reasonable speed…the Tripster feels like a bike that's at home on the road, but comfortable well beyond it too…I've done some big rides on the previous two framesets and there's basically no bike I'd rather be riding when hobbling out of a petrol station shop in the middle of the night, with hundreds of kilometres done and hundreds still to do. I've yet to rack up a really big ride on the V3 bike, but the feel when you're riding it is exactly the same: it just wants to keep on going". Having only ridden a couple of 150 milers on it so far, I'll take his word for even longer stuff, but yup, I know exactly what he's talking about.

 

[Arrowfoot]

Pointless getting a gravel if you are sticking to same tires as the roadie. And if you get larger tires, you will know the difference immediately. Fortunately or unfortunately I don't have stretches of off-road and I am not keen on slower and heavier ride.

 

[Regular.Cyclist]

My primary commuter was called an adventure bike when I bought it a number of years ago. The latest models, on the same frame, are being marketed as gravel bikes.

My commute takes in at least one cobbled section and having wider tyres at lower pressures opens up more opportunities to work around busy traffic areas.

 

[mustang1]

I've had 2 gravel bikes before they were really called gravel bikes. I liked both of them but not as much as my road bike. They were nice to ride occasionally just to mix things up a bit. Even in winter instill preferred riding the road bike unless the roads were wet and the full size fenders on the gravel bikes were more suitable. But even in winter, the roads are.not always wet.

Now those two gravel bikes are gone and I have a relaxed geo road bike with full fenders but even then, I only ride that to mix things up a bit and still prefer riding a normal race-geo road bike.

YMMV.

 

[sevenfourate]

Commuters with fatter wheels and rubber, bikes with relaxed Geometry, Gravel bikes, Cyclo-Cross bikes, the current trend in general: toward wider tyres running lower pressures, 1 x chainsets being readily available on all types of machine……

The only thing that’s sure - is that the lines are now quite blurred !

 

[cougie uk]

Love my gravel bike. My road bike is getting jealous of it.
Mine let's me have proper full mudguards on even if I have 38mm knobblies on.

Tyre choice definitely makes a difference in speed though. If I'm doing a long or fast road ride I can put 25mm gp5000s on.

Normally I have some 32mm gatorskins on that can cope with going off-road unless it's got too muddy.

Forest tracks. Canal towpaths. Bridle paths. No problem with a gravel bike.

 

[Sallar55]

Have a good road bike that takes 28mm tyres and muguards /32 mm without. Road bikes with 23mm clearance are history now. A gravel bike with 2 sets of wheels,35mm narrow and up to 50mm if the frame has enough clearance will be a do everything bike. 42mm tyres on my gravel bike roll well.

 

[mustang1]

My primary commuter was called an adventure bike when I bought it a number of years ago. The latest models, on the same frame, are being marketed as gravel bikes.

My commute takes in at least one cobbled section and having wider tyres at lower pressures opens up more opportunities to work around busy traffic areas.

Adventure bike, gravel bike, same frame. Those marketing dudes are a funny bunch.

 

[StuAff]

Marketing do not handle R&D in any industry. Much better to consider what it can actually do rather than how they advertise it…