Is This The Next Step For Gravel Bikes?

Gravel bikes have been rapidly advancing with innovative suspension, wider tyres and wheels, wider handlebars, and so on.

So much so that some might say it is crossing into the realm of mountain biking! But is it really?

Si takes our very own version of what a future gravel bike may look like for a spin to see what’s what!

00:00 Is this the future of gravel bikes?
01:00 The development of gravel bikes
02:35 Behold the Orbea Oiz (drop bar edition)
04:40 How does the Orbea Oiz ride?
05:41 What is the point of this bike?
08:21 What are the downsides of such a bike?
09:59 Why do we still ride 'dirt road' bikes?
11:42 Is it a vision of the future?
13:05 What does Si think of it?

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Do you think a drop bar mountain bike is taking things too far in the world of gravel cycling?

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#gcn #cycling #roadcycling #roadbike #bike #bikes #bikelife #gravelbike #mountainbike #mtb #handlebars #tyres #widewheels #suspension

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[gcn]

Do you think a drop bar mountain bike is taking things too far in the world of gravel cycling?

[littleshopofrandom]

The joke has come full circle I guess. Roadies are now xc racers, who will become trail riders, who will become enduro riders, who will then buy a road bike to get in shape and round and round we go.

[JoeOaken]

Revolutionary! I can't wait to see whats next!? Flat bars? 😅

[jeskli]

Not even in a dream I had a thought I would ever see Dylan Johnson on GCN. Love it!

[vladislavbares]

Took a while but finally GCN caught up with Dylan Johnson! Good stuff!

[rampapandiontinling]

For those of us who really are not concerned with cycling categories, it's great we have so much choice in variation to build whatever bike we want these days. It actually erases the categories.

[birdergirlrs]

I get a kick out of seeing various "Frankenbike" iterations. Experimentation breeds innovation. And most experiments have less than desirable results. But we learn from them. For example, after watching this, I've learned that instead of spending a bunch of money "upgrading" my gravel bike to make it handle rougher terrain, I need a hardtail mtb. Thanks for doing the work for me!

[webster]

A bike is a bike is a bike, ride what you want, or have, to where you want, don’t be forced into believing you have to have specific bikes for specific disciplines, if any bike puts a smile on your face then that’s the right bike.

[jenmac]

Jonny Tomac was an early member of the drop bar club...early 90's

[ebikescrapper]

John Tomac is clapping, thinking better late than never.

[stephenbetley]

Next big thing? Old 26er hardtail frame with 650b wheels & 45mm tyres, 100mm front sus, and gravel bars. You heard it here first. 😀

[tomrodriguez]

Flat bars are so much better for breaking and stability for technical riding but can be hard on my wrists for long rides, if you are old like me. I ride a lot of rough roads and gravel and have been going back and forth with bikes. For my riding I've settled in on the Propain Terrel Gravel bike with 50mm tires. and just ordered one. I think that will be the best for my riding adventures. Other will have different needs. Having people like Dylan Johnson, and his willingness to try out things that are different, ultimately grows the sport, even if it's not for everyone. It's great to have choices.

[tinman]

I owned the Niner MCR for 3 years. I bought it after watching the GCN video on it. I loved the Bike, Absolutely Loathed the company. The bike was smooth and so comfortable to ride. It was also very heavy and slow compared to a traditional gravel bike. The lock out's for the front and rear suspension were great, but I had a lot of issues with the reliability of them. I also had to replace the rear shock and the Niner help line were horrible to deal with. They didn't even sell replacement shocks or parts and told me to get in touch with the shock manufacturer. Just horrible. In the end I traded it for a Trek Fuel EX. About the same weight with the right tires, so much more comfortable and Trek support are available everywhere in California and are almost always a delight to work with. I've honestly had so many great experiences at over a half dozen or so stores I've visited in the last 6 years. I can't honestly say I miss it. And yeah you trashed that bike, should have gove with a straight gravel for all the reasons you listed. Love the channel.

[inthebush]

Dylan Johnson really knows his stuff. His videos are interesting and also funny.

[budycelyn]

i have an mtb and gravel bike but i also have a franken bike, "parts bin and cheap frame build i had in my garage" the main ride i do is in between an mtb and gravel ride, the franken bike is a blast. i've timed all my bikes on the route, the mtb is the slowest, gravel bike and franken bike are fairly even but on different sections. Gravel bike sucks on the super rough sections and franken bike is slower on the faster forest road sections but overall even out in time. like Dylan says they are specific to the trail you ride. been following Dylan on youtube for years, shocked to see him on GCN.

[huwleonard]

Damn…a 62 year old ahead of my time. I bought a second hand Specialized Epic HT Comp, put Redshift Kitchen sink bars on it and SRAM AXS. That was nearly 2 years ago. hows a pretty boy now then.

[fretlessed]

I just put Schwalbe G-One Overland 50mm tires and grips with a built in palm rest on my Trek X-Caliber 8 XC bike and it's my new Gravel Bike with a front shock.

[nellyxx]

As someone who's been riding a front sussed hardtail as a sort of XtremGrav build for the last decade... there's a big elephant in the room here with the above sort of bike... The running costs are stupid. Most gravel riders will be putting loads more hours in than would be normal for a mtb, service intervals for forks can be short, add pivot wear and a rear shock to service and no thanks - except for an outlier event build, it doesn't make sense. A racey XC hardtail can be lighter than a gravel bike, but it'll likely cost x2. The biggest takeaway from ten years of riding the same sort of bike that these Unbound type outliers are gravitating towards is that something like a 2.1 Schwalbe Thunderburt is not a slow tyre, in fact it'll have lower rolling resistance than many treaded narrower gravel tyres. Rigid gravel with a high volume (48-50C) supple casing tyre will be the way to go for most.

[rogersimmons]

The next phase will be 'Oh yes, I remember the marketing departments ramming gravel bikes down our throats'

[richardpeet]

For 5 years I've been riding a Hard Tail on everything but never feeling centered in either GCN or GMBN. Great to see GCN is starting to come around. Now if GMBN will start to experiment with gravel tires...