Road Bike vs. Gravel - For Beginner Riders

[Dogtrousers]

If I was buying a new bike now, which I'm not, "gravel" as a category would be on my list to investigate. My bike will only take up to 28mm tyres and many of my rides have short (a few miles here and there) on decent surfaced off road tracks - which often turn out not to be as decent as they should be - so it might be nice to be able to go up a size or two in tyres - although bikes labelled as gravel aren't necessarily the only way to do that.

 

[a.twiddler]

You could say that the gravel bike is the purest form of cycling😁. Today's road bicycle would not exist if it were not for the motor car and its need for a smooth tarmac surface.🤔. A gravel bike is my multipurpose bike able to tackle most surfaces.

Surely it is the other way round. It was the CTC which campaigned for surfaced roads which conversely encouraged the rise of the motor car. Once enough cars existed, there was a momentum for surfacing and new road building which continues today which often sidelines new cyclists due to perceived danger from motor traffic, hence the marketing of more versatile bikes that can cope with a wide range of surfaces, whatever today's fashion label might call them.
It's not all that long ago since any old clunker with drop bars was sold as a "racer".

 

[MichaelW2]

If you live in lowland areas without any "challenging" terrain, riding off road on narrower tyres will escalate the difficulty and skill required. I used to have lots of fun taking my 28mm road bike onto trails used by MTBers as well as shingle beach. Shingle beach is one of the most difficult surfaces requiring careful application of power at all times. The bikes designed fir this have ultra fat rubber.

 

[Dogtrousers]

It's not all that long ago since any old clunker with drop bars was sold as a "racer".

Still is in my head.

 

[matticus]

Rode my touring bike over all sorts of terrain that I didn't know I was supposed to buy a different sort of bike for. Am I a bad person?

How naive. You should at the very least own a touring bike and a bike-packing bike.

 

[a.twiddler]

If you live in lowland areas without any "challenging" terrain, riding off road on narrower tyres will escalate the difficulty and skill required. I used to have lots of fun taking my 28mm road bike onto trails used by MTBers as well as shingle beach. Shingle beach is one of the most difficult surfaces requiring careful application of power at all times. The bikes designed fir this have ultra fat rubber.

Time was, you rode wot you got. What I rode was "a bike" and for the most part they all looked similar, perhaps touring types had mudguards, racks and saddlbags with tubed tyres. Sporty types had a more stripped down look, with glued on tubular tyres. Perhaps they swopped the wheels to go to work on it during the week.

I must sound incredibly ancient, but I remember a time before mountain bikes (as must many posters) and saw my first ones on a ride to Pembroke Castle when we met some American tourists. Steamroller tyres , helmets, long aerials with a flag on top. To us, they looked like aliens. That'll never catch on, we thought. As it happened, the mountain bike boom rejuvenated the bike industry so really, whatever they call them these days, we have reasons to be grateful for the variety of bikes available. Maybe the problem now is too much choice, with so many degrees of specialism between out and out tarmac rockets and gnarly full suspension cliff climbers. The solution for many lies somewhere in between.

My perspective these days is a bit different too, having caught recumbentitis a couple of years ago. Regardless of that, I can still appreciate the versatility of my diamond framed tourer.

 

[Wooger]

Now how would a 90ies XC bike compare with a modern bike geometry and its components, not very well. 😁 Have a lefty carbon that's almost as good but its 7 years old and not as versatile as the gravel bike.

My orange p7 from early 2000s (26 inch wheels) has the exact same geometry as my gravel bike other than the stem/bars. I've put them next to each other, frame and angles line up almost exactly. It's a marketing thing.

Gravel is a poorly defined category at the best of times, and hardly exists in the UK for most people. What we do have is singletrack, bridleways, towpaths, disused railway lines (the closest to USA gravel) and a hell of a lot of road connecting it.

And for half of the year most of that turns to mud and requires different tyres at least.
An xc hardtail mtb is a far better fit for most offroad riding in the UK than most gravel bikes imo, provided you're not going to ride 10+ miles on road to get to it first.

MTBs can take gravel style fast rolling 38-40c tyres that work OK on-road too and make a lot of difference in summer at least if you're doing road segments.

What really kills versatility in all aspects imo is the mania for 1x drivetrains which make a lot of gravel bikes sold unsuitable for dual duty as road bikes for group rides. Same for mtbs all going 1x really, I never had a problem with 2x or even a triple.

 

[T4tomo]

What really kills versatility in all aspects imo is the mania for 1x drivetrains which make a lot of gravel bikes sold unsuitable for dual duty as road bikes for group rides.

Really, someone ought to have told me that as I don't have a problem with it, even with a slightly lower top gear than my double road bike I can still spin it up to the speeds I need on the flat.

Whatever you call it (touring, gravel adventure, bikepacking, winter etc) a drop bar bike with clearance for wider tyres, so sort of luggage carrying capability and mudguard attachability is the most versatile bike you can have.

 

[matticus]

Gravel is a poorly defined category at the best of times, and hardly exists in the UK for most people. What we do have is singletrack, bridleways, towpaths, disused railway lines (the closest to USA gravel) and a hell of a lot of road connecting it.

The point is that "grravel!" sounds a lot more appealing than:
"some railway lines for families and dogs on extendy-leands, linked by some muddy bridleways that aren't toooo hilly."

(of course there are many countries which DO have many miles of actual rideable gravel tracks. They should all shut up.)

 

[Baldy]

([/I]of course there are many countries which DO have many miles of actual rideable gravel tracks. They should all shut up.)

That'll be Scotland, we're not that far from most of you.

 

[MichaelW2]

My advice to new riders is always to get a "bike", something that has adequate tyre clearance for their realistic worst case, comes with eyelets for mudgards and rack, whatever the style
Most newbie road bikes eventually end up on commuting or winter training duties, so you may as well optimise for that.
After a general purpose bike, you can get more specialist machines for niche applications.

 

[Sallar55]

Gravel bikes /bikepacking bikes come in many flavours. This one is 17 years old, Van Nic Zion with a TI rigid fork , Rohloff and the fat Schwalbe extreme tyres .

 

[matticus]

That'll be Scotland, we're not that far from most of you.

Oh shut up!!!

 

[Dogtrousers]

That'll be Scotland, we're not that far from most of you.

Can I just say that, as I've been finding out while planning a visit to a friend who lives in Scotland, that you are a very long way away. Some bits are anyway.

 

[FishFright]

My orange p7 from early 2000s (26 inch wheels) has the exact same geometry as my gravel bike other than the stem/bars. I've put them next to each other, frame and angles line up almost exactly. It's a marketing thing.

Gravel is a poorly defined category at the best of times, and hardly exists in the UK for most people. What we do have is singletrack, bridleways, towpaths, disused railway lines (the closest to USA gravel) and a hell of a lot of road connecting it.

And for half of the year most of that turns to mud and requires different tyres at least.
An xc hardtail mtb is a far better fit for most offroad riding in the UK than most gravel bikes imo, provided you're not going to ride 10+ miles on road to get to it first.

MTBs can take gravel style fast rolling 38-40c tyres that work OK on-road too and make a lot of difference in summer at least if you're doing road segments.

What really kills versatility in all aspects imo is the mania for 1x drivetrains which make a lot of gravel bikes sold unsuitable for dual duty as road bikes for group rides. Same for mtbs all going 1x really, I never had a problem with 2x or even a triple.

It's not a marketing thing , it grew from the US and Canada where there are millions of miles of gravel roads in all sorts of terrain.

But as this been posted over and over again I've come to the conclusion that many people prefer made up stuff to facts because it gives them some kind of comfort.