QUESTION: What is the advantage of a gravel bike? I don’t get it. Don’t most people live in town? Seems overly specialized to me. – Jarad F
ANSWER: The way you are phrasing your question makes me think that maybe you’re convinced that a gravel bike is ONLY good for riding on gravel roads. But that’s not really the case.
In fact, a gravel bike is very similar to a road bike. The biggest difference is that you can fit much wider tires onto the bike. Road bikes, on the other hand, are often limited to tires not much wider than 28mm before they start rubbing against the frame of the bike.
A gravel bike is a great choice if you spend time on non-paved bicycle paths when you ride too, because it gives you better grip. If you’ve ever ridden a gravel bike path with a road bike with narrow tires pumped up above 100 psi, it can feel a little bit squirrelly and scary.
As long as you’re not racing or riding in very competitive groups, a gravel bike will typically do everything that a road bike will do, but a little bit more comfortably because of the cushion of the wider, bigger volume tires. Wider tires can also give you better road grip, although it depends on the tire because some gravel specific tires can be a little too knobby to roll very well on smooth pavement.
But there’s even a solution to that problem. You can swap out your tires (or put on a spare set of wheels) with a set that has skinny road tires, and then it’s almost like having two bikes in one.
It’s not a perfect solution though. Gravel bikes tend to have a frame geometry that aims for stability so that you can remain in control on gravelly roads. So they don’t dive through corners as easily as a traditional road bike. Also, they are sometimes geared lower, which means that if you put on your road tires and you’re riding with a fast group at high speeds, you might run out of gears and not have a high enough gear to keep up without spinning out. Finally, they are also often a little bit heavier because they are built to be sturdier bikes. Although again, some of that is related to the heavier duty wheels and bigger volume, knobby tires.
If you’re looking for a bike that rides pretty well on regular roads and also has the ability to easily tackle gravel roads and bike paths, then that’s where you’d find an advantage with a gravel bike compared to a pure road bike.
IMO the term Gravel Bike is miss-leading. If I were seriously riding on gravel I would ride a fat bike. I don’t even care to ride on gravel with my MTB which has 2.3″ tires.
Riding on dirt roads and trails is entirely different from riding on gravel. For some reason people think that road bikes need to stay on pavement. I have no problem riding my road bike on dirt roads, hey-it’s still a road, mellow single track, and even gravel on occasion.
Naming a bicycle category by riding surface is confusing as any bike can be ridden on almost any surface.
Have to agree with you there. I have ridden my road bike on gravel without any problems
I ride my road bike on dirt and gravel at times. 28 tires. I am getting a gravel bike so I can do some more off pavement and bikepacking. My road bike is over 10 years old and over 50,000 mi on it so it’s time….
they SHOULD have lower gears than a regular racing road bike
that can be a plus
i’ve got an old cross bike that i can throw up to 700×40 tires on or 700×28’s if i want to ride on the road that is perfectly serviceable and i own it so therefor it’s free! maybe if i was a pro gravel rider i might be lookin at something new designated as “gravel” but, more power tp anyone who wants to buy a new one!
I bought a Specialized CruX in 2015 as my everything bike, from road rides with 25mm slicks and road pedals to CX racer with 33mm knobies and MTB pedals, or 38mm gravel tires for trail and gravel riding. The 34/50T chain rings cover plenty of territory, depending on which cassette I use.
amen, great choice!
I have a touring bike that doubles as a gravel bike. It’s great on gravel roads (the ones that cars can go on) or even bumpy pavement, but I’d go for the mountain bike for anything bumpier or more technical or steep. I don’t really have a lot of gravel roads around here; mostly fire roads in parks that are better traveled by mountain bike. My gravel bike is about 1 mph slower in a ride overall than my road bike, is heavier, and doesn’t handle as well on technical downhills. I compare it to a sports car vs a truck.
excellent comparison, i agree!
I think Jan Heine says it best, these are really All-Road bikes. I replaced my LightSpeed Classic and Salsa Fargo with a Lynskey GR300. I am running the Rene Herse 48×650 tires with textured tread and they work great on road or dirt.. They are surprisingly light and soak up lot of road imperfections. Chip seal is hardly noticeable except for some noise.
And you only need knobbies for technical stuff. Jan rode the Oregon Outback on a set of tires with just a touch or texture. I think they were 26×54.. Seemed to work pretty well:
Distance: 585 km / 363 miles
Elevation gain: 4,382 m / 14,376 ft
Total time: 26:13 hours
Total off-bike time: approx. 26 minutes, plus opening and closing 30+ gates on the OC&E Trail
Average speed (incl. stops): 22.3 km/h / 13.8 mph
Also worth saying is that wider tires can increase speed because of energy lost to high pressure tires bouncing off the ground at lumpy road surfaces. Plus, they grip incredibly – my Rene Herse 35mm tires allow me to go faster on downhill switchbacks.