Gravel Bikes Are Dumb? (RANT)

Are gravel bikes awesome or dumb marketing spin? Thoughts and opinions.

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[steveb]

I was a roadie mainly for 20 years, but was diagnosed with MS. I gave up many things, including cycling and deeply regretted it. After a 20 year gap I got back via trike riding and am now on a wonderful Marin Gestalt. It totally fills my needs of comfort and easy geometry and I lust after every minute I can be on it 😊

[powaytheband]

I’m a Roadie. I think gravel bikes are cool, bikes in general are cool. If every new style of bike gets more people out riding we are winning. Cars/petrol based vehicles are a slow death to the earth and us all. Supple....my bike is NOT supple but that’s my style. Wanna go ride gravel, I’m in. Want to go ride Walmart bikes up mountains let’s go! I think some whiners need a bit more attention because they don’t ride there own bikes enough. LONG LIVE SUPPLE GRAVEL

[AdamJStoryDC]

Great explanation. I agree. I have a cyclocross bike but use it more as a gravel bike and love it. I love riding as a road cyclist and then taking off when I see fit and hitting the dirt for 10 miles then riding home. I feel like a kid when I'm on it (I'm late 40's), so it keeps me happy.

[CentristRN]

People new to road bikes LOVE this category. The industry can call it what they want. Its opening up the sport to many people who would never consider a RACING bike.

[clintevans]

Maybe they should call it an “All Road Bike.”

[HeadwatersKayak]

You just took your bike nerdyness to new levels with this video. Love it!

[ChasingChinster]

I'm an all weather commuter and my gravel bike is perfect; it's got racks, fenders, wider tires, relaxed(ish) geometry, and is plenty fast enough. I've taken it for 4 miles trips to and from the park, and a 141 mile ride to the next major city. I love how versatile it is! Steel frame so I know it will last. Thanks for this video/rant.

[JamesJLaRue]

People: that's just a 90s mountainbike with drop bars
Me: perfect! (Plus disc brakes and all the new tech that has emerged since the 90s)

[waisinglee]

It's the industry going full circle. I have a 1990 Trek 790 Multitrack hybrid that has a road bikeish geometry with mountain grouppo (Shimano Deore DX). The bike can handle up to at least 700x35 with fenders along with brazeons for front and rear racks. I even thought about putting on drop bars about a decade ago.

[SzalonyKucharz]

Not dumb for me. I got me a Genesis Croix de Fer last November and that's the smartest bike I've had so far. Classic, slightly understated looks, chromoly frame, decent offroad capabilities (albeit not proper mountain track), relatively fast (though not a purebred racer by any means), with enough clearance for fenders or thicker tyres and plenty of mounting holes to turn it into a proper touring beast of burden. A perfect machine for Irish weather and a mix of wet, tarmac backroads and muddy canal paths.

[tychay]

My first (adult) bicycle was a Cannondale hybrid which was a compromise because my mother didn't think the 20-23mm tires on the road bikes (back then the norm) were "safe." One year later, I put drop bars and STI levers on it so I commute faster and do longer-distances on weekends. Later, in grad school, I'd swap out the tires and we'd load up my car and take it mountain bicycling (Urbana-Champaign being nearly 100 miles from the nearest hill). Other than the cantilever brakes and the bad geometry (threadless headsets hadn't hit so you getting the right stem was a challenge), that was a gravel bike.

At that time (mid 1990's), a guy named Jobst Brandt out in the Bay Area (where I live now) was already an old hand on the early online forums (USENET). A decade or two before, he had taken his modified road bike (gravel bike) onto off-road gravel to do adventuring in Europe and his backyard in the Santa Cruz mountains at around the same time people were bombing down the fire roads in Marin just north of him inventing the first mountain bikes, which if you think about it, other than the drop bars, were also gravel bikes. (Jobst is also known for writing THE book on wheel-building and inventing the first cyclocomputer.)

Gravel bikes have always been with us, but the category as it exists today owes itself to a coincidence of two things: 1) the specialization of mountain bikes making them increasingly less practical for long distance flat on-off-road touring, commuting, or just taking on the same fire-roads that inspired the first mountain bikers (my grad school roommate's MTB in the 1990s had 24" wheels and no shocks anywhere as well as a geometry you'd never see today outside a "urban" bike); 2) disc brakes on road wheels allow both clearance for the wide tires, and even the return of 650B/27.5" (and even bigger tires!).

And now the bike so many of us want which required having to buy a different bike (road bike, cross bike, rigid MTB, "hybrid") and then modifying it to turn into the bike we need, can be had off-the-rack at a fraction of the price in dollars and is called a "gravel bike" (1992 Cannondale 21-speed "hybrid" + modifications for drop bar + extra set of tires for off-road use = $1800 in today's dollars vs. my 2016 taiwan-direct 24-speed "gravel bike" commuter + wider tires for commuting = $600 new).

If anything, the gravel bike of today is the bike that Jobst Brandt, Gary Fisher, Joe Murray, and others were trying to make fully realized.

And that's pretty awesome.

[RonRivet]

We have discovered and are onboard with the gravel bike trend because it`s a no brainer since we can go from smooth road to rough terrain. We just ordered 2 Giant Revolt 2`s for my wife and me and are really looking forward to getting out there for fitness and adventure. Thanks for posting.

[monzadh]

Russ, this content is so relevant right now as Gravel continues to be massively popular. I send this link to my biddies who are trying to figure out which bike to get. It saves me from explaining everything. One suggestion is to partner up with one of the geometry comparison websites since plugging in different measurements tells you a lot even how they will ride when comparing frames.
Keep up the good work!

[tylerkurbat]

You've done a great job anticipating rider questions and needs with this channel. My first touchpoint was the Journeyman review and I found myself weighing out the benefits/hiccups of 650b v 700, so I naturally watched that video too. The blog, gear suggestions via amazon and optimized video titles position you for a ton of growth! Keep at it and holler if you're ever pedaling in AZ. I'm right near Black Canyon Trail.

[pablopower]

Hey fellow bike-geek! Gravel bikes aren't dumb, they're misunderstood. The problem is that gravel bikes require a change of mentality. Most folks who get a gravel bike are coming from a road bike background. In the road bike world it's all about minimal weight and aerodynamics which aren't the primary focus of gravel bikes. It's harder for people to appreciate the challenges of gravel when they see a bike more as a tool to complete hill repeats and interval training on. Gravel bikes are about adventure and access to areas you'd never otherwise see. The challenge is sometimes just staying upright over varying terrain or covering large distances with only the gear and supplies you have on you. Once someone experiences gravel riding it's easier to understand why gravel bikes have a place in the cycling world. They're aren't a redundant addition, they're a revisiting of what cycling was before people took it wayyyy to seriously.

[REMAX_CCA]

I ride a Cannondale Quick 5. How would you categorize this bike?

[johnmoore]

Did I invent the "Gravel Bike" 3 decades ago? In 1986 I purchased a Schwinn Sierra ATB, all terrain bike. It looked like most MTBs of the time, but with looong chain stays and mounts for racks, fenders, bottles. I saw the touring possibilities immediately. Within 2 years I had replaced the bull-moose bars with randonneur drop bars. The knobby 2.125 tires went and 1.5 multi-purpose tires came. 26 X 1.5 inches equals ISO 559 X 38mm. 38mm!! Fenders and front/rear racks were mounted. It had become my do anything bike: commuting, camping, off-pavement exploring, brevets even! Was I 30 years ahead of my time?

[williamwyoming]

I'm a big fan of under biking, gravel riding, been doing it for the past 25 years. I really welcome the bike industry addressing this type of riding. I like nothing more than loading up my fargo, cross bike or monster cross bike and ride up into the mountains for adventure (pave, gravel dirt and single track mix). Do I see hints of a upcoming Salsa Journeyman review?

[PHANPHOTO]

I'm just getting back into cycling after a 20 year break. I used to be a road cyclist. I ended up getting a gravel bike because I plan on doing 80% road, 20% gravel so a gravel pike seems like the perfect bike for me. I'm excited!

[BrianRatcliffe]

i was an exclusive roadie for the past 10 years but recently switched over to a 2011 aluminum trek 26" hardtail i got for $120. i did eventually get a surly troll fork to replace my beat up front suspension fork and replaced the gears to a more road ready 11-32 cassette. it's a super comfortable ride for beaten up streets, gravel, and road and didn't cost me nearly as much as a new gravel bike would have. i don't see the point in getting a gravel bike unless you have the money to waste on a slightly more versatile road bike.