Is It Time To Buy a Gravel Bike? 5 Reasons to Consider One...

I've been riding gravel bikes for over 10 years and in this video I want to share the reasons that they are so appealing and why you should consider one for 2024 if you haven't already.

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[crazypyro]

I have only used 1 bike since starting cycling over a year ago, my crux. Love it. Over 5k miles between road, trails, gravel.

In the best shape of my life as an added bonus.

[larsh]

Personally, owning both MTB, road and gravel bikes, I have find myself gravitating more and more towards the gravel bike. This to the point where I am considering just keeping the gravel bike and having different wheelsets for that bike. It's the most fun and versatile bike for me and the riding I like to do.

But that's just my experience. I totally get that people have different styles and preferences. Whether this means people riding pure road, pure MTB, off-road on road bikes (with wide clearance) or MTB on road with slicks and aero-bars. Each to his own. Different types of bikes are not mutually exclusive categories, anyway.

What I don't get is the need to tell people which bike they should ride. I suspect there will be (there already is) a lot of "just ride a MTB" or "just ride a road bike" comments.

Go ride the (style of) bike you love the most on the terrain you love the most.

[sccxvelo]

Been using CX bikes for my outdoor bike over 10 years for the exact reasons wider tires, comfortable yet responsive, more durable yet light, and freedom to ride most all places. Was given 2017 mid-high tier frame with entry level build CX demo bike with mech disc 1x11 15x100mmTA front late Dec 22 sitting in team storage and slowy working on it to update it to modern standards. That was after trying some newer entry gravel bikes felt way too planted then others were needing key upgrades right away to truaxle, etc. Go mid tier gravel bike if buying new should be solid frame, and build right away just choosing the best fitting bike.

[kippen]

Drop bars are an absolute must on any bike I ride for more than 3km at a time. After 3km, flat bars start becoming the stuff of misery. I have made the embarrassing discovery that my lowest gear is 24/34. I have a triple crank set.

[rah]

The bike I need is so small that it dosen't work that good for bikepacking, can't get all the camping gear with me, tried bikepacking with my road bike.
The bags wil need to be small, still rubbing my wheels.
So I bought a touring bike, with triple crank and bar end shifters.
Very pleased with this choice, can ride exactly the same trails as a gravel bike.
Plenty of low gears for hills and gets all the stuff with me in panniers.
Use this bike for winter bike also, commuting to work with it, super comfortable to ride, weight dosen't matter to me.

[endcensorship]

I bought a Rodeo-Labs Trail Donkey two years ago, and it was the best purchase I ever made. It's my #1 ride, and is perfect for all the ways you described. Especially where I live with such crappy roads, it might as well me gravel all around me.

[ErwinPfuhler]

I favor my gravel bike over my road bike, because most rides include some off road sections, which are no fun with 25mm tires ;-).

[divil]

Long time road biker and just bought a Topstone Carbon 3 for exploring the dirty bits around Stockport/Cheshire.... currently loving it and going to take it to France with me instead of my road bike for 2 months in May! 😁👍

[brijnich]

Each to their own and obv depends on the type of terrain you live by, but for me it's Road and MTB. The MTB covers more % of off-road terrain. BUT whatever floats yer boat

[fennec]

I have a Ti gravel bike with two carbon wheelsets (one for gravel with 45 mm knobby tires and the other with 32mm gravelking ss tires) .
It has suited my gravel and endurance road riding adventures with no problems whatsoever ! I am running a 2x GRX810 setup.
Is it as fast as a purpose suited road bike or as suitable on some gnarly MTB trails ? maybe not, but it's all the bike I need !

[TimR]

I purchased a used Cutthroat two years ago. It is such a great 'all around' bike like you discuss. It doesn't replace my road bikes but kinda replaces my MTB since I don't prefer the super challenging MTB runs usually anyway. Funnily enough, I ended up building out my old rigid '90s MTB' with drop bars etc to be a second 'gravel bike' so my kids to join me.

[niklaskristensson]

Gravel with saddle and steerer suspension and fast wheels is perfect. Nice looking bike btw!

[jonathangreen]

Completely agree with you. I have a custom Burls titanium gravel bike with 2 pairs of wheels. My lightweight road bike is best for the smooth roads eg Costa Blanca/Mallorca but I love the versatility of the gravel bike for weeks/weekends away and the chance to ride different terrains.

[Davidkaisermusic]

It’s funny, I bought a used 2016 Diverge as my “do-it-all” bike but tbh, it’s more similar to a road bike than newer gravel bikes so I’m converting that to a road bike and buying ANOTHER gravel bike to ride the rougher stuff. Strictly adhering to the N+1 rule of bike ownership

[salzhaltigersalzhaufen]

Personally for a gravel bike that is a sort of do it all bike I still don´t get why you wouldn´t want at least two chainrings at the front cuz I feel it´s not that much more complicated and it gives you a lot more range. Expecially when you want to go fast on a road you got your big chainring and for slower more technical terrain you can use your small chainring.

Also what I always wondered about are there bikes out there that have a carbon fork with no mounting holes but then have custom clamps made for that fork so you can bolt bags onto your fork

Over all I agree tho Gravel Bikes are great even though I have my road bike and sperate gravel bike just because I like to go fast on the road well and gravel bikes were unaffordable when I first bought my road bike in 2020

[WayneCouyon]

I have a Tarmac SL8 with Rapide CLX wheels and 28 mm tires. It's hands down the best road bike I ever ridden, and I owned most of the high(er) end ones during the past three-four years. It's almost as comfortable on our shitty roads as a good endurance bike, it's fast and effortless at speed as an aero bike and climbs like a dedicated climbing bike.

All this doesn't change the fact that drivers on the road pass me by half a meter without reason, that I get yelled at, honked at etc. just because I'm also trying to be a part of road traffic, and so on. Sometimes when I go for a ride, I get home more anxious than I was leaving the house. It's absurd. I found myself to gravitating towards forest roads, byways wherever I can, utmost speed and efficiency be damned.

[TheCmcyclist]

I need gravel trails close to where I live without having to travel for a couple hours. At any rate, if I do decide to ride gravel I'd just add 35mm tires to my endurance bike. Maybe not as functional as true gravel bikes with 45mm+ tires but for as little as I ride gravel 35mm tires on my endurance bike will be just fine.

[ColinKlupiec]

Nice video David. I have the Canyon Grizl with SRAM Apex AXS 1x. I can vouch for all the points you make. I'm surprised at how much enjoyment you can get out of this style of bike. Excellent versatility and value for money.

[lyellharrington]

Funny enough, I've been the down the road of been road rider only as fast as I could go too going crazy on the roughest mtb tracks I could, definitely spent alot of money on the bikes for those extremes. Yet out of all those bike I've only keeped my razor sharp criterium bike as the permanently mounted trainer bike used for warm ups only, it never sees the surface of any road these days, a useful but truly sad end for such a bike.
So to fill the my need for riding without been bored out of my brains with either straight road riding (truly brain dead boring) or mtb only extreme rough stuff (mtbs have just got to good these days to be any fun, the risks needed for the fun rewards are to much and to painful when you balls up), I ended up spending high end for the cx bike first then gravel bike and have never looked back at dumping those other bikes out of my riding life.
Now it's gravel bike 95% of my riding time and the last 5% on the cx bike, got the FUN & CHALLENGING FACTORS back into my riding and the rides are never boring, actually they do more too invigorate me to ride more miles and thus keeping me fitter which is a very good thing considering the injuires the body has accumulated over the decades of riding.

[tezzanewton]

I have two gravel bikes, one road bike and one mountain bike. So basically, four bikes is the perfect sweet spot.