Is A Gravel Bike Actually That Much Slower Than A Road Bike?

How slow really are gravel bikes in comparison to road bikes? Conor puts his gravel and road bike through the ultimate test. Across different terrains and speeds, he finds out how much riding a gravel bike on the road could affect your average ride times!

00:00 Intro
00:35 The bikes
02:03 On the flat
04:28 Climbing
06:40 Acceleration
10:00 Results

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What did you expect from the results? 🫵 Let us know in the comments below! 💬

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[gcn]

What did you expect from the results? 🫵 Let us know in the comments below! 👇

[Ted_Eddy]

What would the gravel bike have done if you put on slick road tyres? That's the question because if the differences reduce drastically then a gravel bike becomes better value for money.

[Janus]

As someone who works at a shop, I get a lot of customers who want a bike that “does it all”. They want to ride with their road bike friends, they want a commuter, they want to ride the gravel in the area etc. I usually put it like this: A good gravel bike is 90% a road bike. It’s fast, it helps you as the rider get out of the air so it blows away flat bar hybrids like any good road bike and it doesn’t shy away from paths that some road bikers would never go. 90% of a road bike sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? Well it sounds good until you think about how being 90% as effective adds up when you’re talking about 60 miles, 3-4 hours of riding. That 10% difference suddenly becomes HUGE. If you ride with people who do it for fun, are a “no drop” riding group who like to stop a time or two for cake and doughnuts.. you’re going to be fine, this bike will do it all for you. If your friends are competitive, if they are serious, if they are constantly trying to improve themselves and set personal records, and you intend to ride to their level.. then you need a dedicated road bike.

[joeymacme]

I feel that a more useful test would have been to include another run with the gravel bike running the same tyres as the road bike. I would assume that one change would reduce the gap to a very minor level, and if so, it would go to show that a decent gravel bike would be just the job for most riders (outside of races). The versatility of the gravel bike seems to be a big draw, and why I am considering buying one. As in, the one bike could be used for dry summer riding on slicks, and winter riding with wider "gravel" tyres helping with the muddy winter roads... with... god forbid... a set of mud guards mounted to the frame! Fun to see Conor struggle to get up to speed here... makes us non-pros feel a little better! 😂

[Frostbiker]

The audio was surprisingly good for how windy it was that day. Whoever is responsible for that always does a great job compared to most YouTube channels.

[johnsampson]

This was a great video. I started cycling again in 2019, at the age of 56. My first new bike was a 2019 Trek Marlin 7. After 3 seasons I realized I was doing 90% of my riding on pavement and at my age wasn’t a singletrack guy anymore. I went through all your steps myself before buying a Checkpoint SL5 in the Radioactive Red this past February. I now have the correct tool for how I ride. I rode almost 2600 miles in 2023 (with 8 weeks downtime for a broken collarbone).
I turned 60 in April and did a metric century to celebrate the day. I also did a 72-miler this year. I’m going to ride the Route of the Hiawatha next June, and am looking to do a 100-mile ride next season.

[StornofuerKasse]

as someone who only has a gravel bike, but with two wheelsets road/gravel, i can say for me personally it is all about the tyres. with the lower rolling resistance it is easy for me to keep up with the local weekly group ride which was defitnetly harder on gravel tyres, even with higher pressure for better rr.

[rongwu-sjws]

Great video. Personally, my choice of a Gravel bike over a road bike is because I often embark on long-distance rides. Yes, on 99% of paved roads, road bikes are slightly faster than Gravel bikes. However, when you unfortunately encounter that 1% of rough and bumpy terrain, you'll either have to push your bike or even carry it through. Considering long-distance travel where you might be carrying over 20 kilograms of gear, that 1% of rough terrain becomes quite awkward - 1000 kilometers of riding, and that 1% translates to 10 kilometers.

So, from my perspective, it's best to have two bikes prepared: one that's lightweight for enjoying the thrill of sprinting on well-paved roads, and a Gravel bike for long-distance rides, allowing you to savor the beauty of nature!

[tomasplesek]

I am a proud owner of both: Trek Checkpoint SL and Pinarello Dogma F, so let's call it "Awesome gravel bike" and an "Insane road bike". I logically understand the comparison this video neatly presents, I'd probably do the same - speed at various watt inputs, and looking at how large the gaps are. What this shows is that modern gravel bikes are pretty snappy, and kinda awesome allrounders.

That being said, I feel there are other aspects that in the world of watts and marginal gains get somewhat less looked at. Since I am comparing the feels of these two types of a bike basically week to week, I can tell you that as an example, the Pinarello (road bike) is very noticeably much more stable in descents (I know, wheels are a factor), feels more precise and consequently much safer at speeds of 50+ kph . Plus the more aggressive geometry is something that prompts me to just a different style of riding and it's easier for me to putt the watts out (there's a limit to how much you can influence this with proper bike fit, which I have on both bikes).

I suppose the bottom line is - despite how much I nerd out on aero, watts and all that jazz - it's not just power-to-speed at all times, it's also ride feel, handling, your position on the bike and all of these are very much influenced by whether you are riding a road bike or a gravel bike. I enjoy both very much, but notice this every time I change bikes.

Happy riding.

[jasonbannan]

For those of us don't race or routinely ride in the paceline, a good all around bike like a gravel bike is the best. All we need to do is swap tires for the varying conditions we will ride in. Even the new Gravel tire tread patterns can reduce the need to swap tires. Gravel bikes were a great idea, not a marketing gimmick.

[jeffreymills]

I have ridden several gravel bikes and have set several KOM and top 10 segment finishes on the road riding tubeless knobby tires! I love the versatility of gravel.

[ffe]

One cool thing I found about my gravel bike is that my watts were pretty much exactly the same on my local A group ride as my road bike. I have fast tires on both set up tubeless so I think most of the difference is just how much more wind I'm eating on the gravel bike from being more upright.

[andrewdeanenglish]

That was a really interesting video. It would be interesting to see how a gravel bike with more road orientated tyres would fare.

[lesmerritt]

In choosing a bike for gravel (most of us aren't racing) I think handling is the most crucial characteristic. I have a 20 yr old Giant 880xc hardtail mtb that handles gravel very well on gravel. I don"t get left behind by new gravel bikes ridden by younger riders. Only cost me £200.

[Startrek]

Thanks Conner for confirming 50mm gravel tires are slower than 28mm road tired on tarmac 😂😂😂

[gordonpkeenan]

I swapped my 35 gravel tires for 28 on my bike and it made a massive difference. Would be good to see a comparison with the same tires.

[sc]

I put Bontrager R3s on my Scott Speedster Gravel 40 and it can almost hang with my SL5 Domane according to Strava. The Speedster does have Tiagra compared to 105 but it's still fast. The extra 3-4 pounds doesn't really affect me as much as I thought lol. If I switch the wheelset out, I might have very similar results. It makes me wish I just spent more time on the bike instead of more money on "better" bikes 😂

[Digi]

Its about what i found out over the last years using both gravel and road bike parallel. with around similar to slightly more lazy position on the gravel bike there is around a 1kph to 1.5kph difference between the two bikes on flat roads at 30kphish tempi. for solo rides not focused on KOMs its pretty much negligible and even with 29" tires i have some personal records with the gravel truck because on that day i either was super fit or the weather was in favor. however, it takes much more effort to accelerate the gravel bike from a stand stil, out of corners or on short inclines where you can power up on the road bike without loosing much speed, it has nothing of that light nimble nature a road bike gives you. more than the outright speed i feel much of the joy of the road bike comes from its handling and feel. i love both for their intended purpose and both acompany each other nicely.

[endcensorship]

I bought a gravel bike (Rodeo-Labs Trail Donkey) and I ride it all the time, hardly touching my Scott Addict R1. But, then again, I'm 56 and need a softer ride.

[drewsmith]

I would love to see this video revisited where you add in the comparison with the gravel bike on road tires. All gravel vs. gravel w/ road tires vs. road bike. Then we can really see if we should just buy a gravel bike and keep 2 sets of wheels instead of having 2 complete bikes 😁