9 Of The Best Gravel Bike Upgrades

If you want to ride faster, further, or simply treat your gravel bike to some long-overdue improvements, try one of these nine brilliant upgrade ideas.

From suspension forks to puncture protection, there should be something for all gravel riders here. But have you tried any of these upgrades already? Let us know in the comments.

Chapters
00:00 Intro
Suspension 00:20
Redshift Stem 01:52
Ass Saver Mudguards 02:34
Puncture Protection 03:27
Easier Climbing 04:33
Tubeless Repair Tool 05:17
Dropper Posts 06:21
Navigation 07:10
Cargo Bib Shorts 07:44
Outro 08:30

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[michiganstate]

Redshift stem was the best upgrade I did on mine. Yeah, it added weight. But on some imperfect roads/gravel, it it worth it's weight in gold.

[imark]

I love my gravel bike but would never put suspension on it, if you ride where suspension is needed then just get a lightweight xc mountain bike

[jeffandersen]

A very well done compilation of common sense waays to make riding more fun. I've been a big fan of lower gears for over 50 years. Its a great feeling spinning along with the ability to just spin faster when needed instead of shifting or slogging along . The Redshift stem seems like a great idea for my road bike which goes everywhere, almost.

[SchoolforHackers]

Our bike paths in Albuquerque are plagued with 4-inch wide, 2-inch deep “cracks” every 40-50 feet. The will knock your fillings out, and they’re everywhere. Also everywhere are nice, shaded dirt walking paths along our many acequias (irrigation channels) and the bosque (the river forest). There’s a 50-mile bike loop around the city, which is a lot on a mountain bike. A gravel bike with suspension is just about ideal, purity aside, for our conditions.

[jasonisaac]

Dropper post was the first and one of the best upgrades for my gravel bike, since I live and ride in a mountainous area. Redshift suspension stem was also a great upgrade. Win wing rear fender is in constant use on my drop bar atb, and easily swappable to my gravel bike.

[hardmtnbiker]

I use CushCore in my front tire. I have a carbon fork and wide i28mm carbon rims with 700x45 tires. What I would like to add how to ungraded and improve your ability to smash through chucks on trails is the CushCush paired with wide tires and wide rims adds stability and dampens the compression similar to how a shock gets adjusted. This is an often overlooked aspect of having tire inserts.

[marekbabal]

Totally agree. From the mentioned I have the Redshift stem, since then I feel noticeably less shaken out after rides and can ride longer and in more comfort as it reduces fatigue – one of the best upgrades!!! Gearing, since my bike has SRAM Apex group set, I got the 1x12 Ratio technology 12sp upgrade and use SRAM 10-50 cassette. Which ever my next gravel bike will be, definitely I will go for Apex Eagle 1x12 or Shimano GRX 1x12. I carry with me the Weldtite TL repair kit. Used it once on my tyre Panaracer Gravelking SS 38mm when the hole was to big to be sealed, it worked perfectly. Suspension on a gravel bike, that is something I do not want since I also do MTB, but for those that ride only lite terrain max and want just one universal bike, why not. What I do not agree – dropper post on a gravel bike??? How often will it be needed? You can ride trails on a gravel bike, but it is not fun as you have to be super careful. That is for MTB. As you mentioned in a video some time ago, with a dropper on gravel bike you will be missing vibration reduction features of a carbon post (possibly with some damper, Ergon, Canyon CF, Specialized CG-R, etc.) which is a lot more important for gravel.

[chiplitch]

Great video. Thanks for the suggestions

[skinheadjc]

Dropper posts are by far the best upgrade to any offroad bike for providing more control and manoeuvrability. Far better than a tiny suspension fork will give. Sus gravel forks are great for long endurance rides, providing extra comfort and compliance but cirtainly wont go far when it comes to aiding skills on the 'rad' stuff.

[davec]

Gravel suspension, stem plus eesilk+ seatpost, is awesome. At least now a road ride isn't too much worse than a dual suspenion mtb ride. WTH, where do you live that you have smooth pavement? I travel all over the west and pavement sucks. I wonder if the people making the mtb comments ride more than a mile on a road, say from parking lot to trailhead?

[-Steve-]

Suspension stem for smoothing out rough gravel - or in reality, rough gravel AND roads - the surfaces are more or less identical in the UK. Well not quite true, gravel often better.

[MikemoRides]

Best gravel bike upgrade is to turn your gravel bike into a baby mountain bike. 😂Kidding aside I love my gravel bike for ripping around on single track, I'd love a Rudy or 32TC and a dropper on it. I'm in the process of selling off some bikes to fund swapping the drivetrain to a T-type 10-52 cassette and derailleur to match up with my 40T chainring to help with climbing the steep-steep stuff.

[ViktorNavotny]

I prefer the kinekt / vecnum suspension stem over redshift for their parallelogram design

[jonathanzappala]

If your riding over gnarly terrain, the best upgrade for your gravel bike is called “mountain bike”

[kidShibuya]

7:10 sorry but that was the navigation section and none of those bike GPS are much use in navigation. Like if you are out somewhere and then see a path you want to explore... Nope. Those devices need pre planned routes loaded up before you set out. Some have a limited ability to make a route on the fly but are difficult to use, and good luck if you actually don't know where you want to go and just want to be navigated to the nearest coffee shop. They are made for viewing power numbers, but something more simple like a Beeline just blows them away for navigation, it's not even close. << from someone with a Karoo 2 and a Wahoo Roam who has them both in a draw because the beeline works better.

[monty]

Bar bags are a lot better than cargo bibs.

[GHOSTSrunning]

I did 40 miles on my gravel bike today with mixed terrain and literally thought about suspension 😂 👍

[vwgtiron]

Being comfortable can be done while adding in the "adventure"

[turbo_nerd]

lol if you're going to go after all that suspension just gets an XC mtb and just put drop bars on it. Heck, put thick gravel tires on an XC mtb, that will be a cheaper option.

[mountaincruiser]

You forgot to mention that there are just a view gravelbikes that can handle a suspension fork. These forks are 4/5 cm longer and will screw up most geo's.