I am a roadie with space for only one more bike. I live in the PNW (Vancouver Island) and there are a lot of adventure gravel routes, single track, and forest service roads near me, so I would like a bike that can access them, especially for loaded multi-day excursions.
Everyone I know has a gravel bike but this setup doesn’t really appeal to me - I would rather have something a bit more capable on single track and when descending, since I don’t have much offroad experience. So I thought I would get a higher end XC hardtail like a Santa Cruz Highball, Specialized Epic, Canyon Exceed, etc.
My current situation also means I ride alone nearly all the time. I would like to go riding with my friend who just got himself a Trek Checkpoint. I am fitter than he is by about 100w of FTP, though that gap will narrow as he slurps up n00b gains from recently starting Trainerroad. This is giving me second thoughts about a gravel bike. So:
Am I going to be able to keep up to my friend on his gravel bike if I’m on an XC hardtail (or conversely, will an XC bike slow me down enough so that I can ride with him)?
Is it reasonable to assume that I will be able to ride an XC hardtail like it’s a really aggressive gravel bike?
Is anyone here going on group rides with mixed gravel/XC bikes? What is your experience like?
Should I just be looking for a gravel bike that has clearance for bigger tires (2.4+)?
How much time are you going to spend on singletrack? And what does the singletrack look like? Do you plan on doing any gravel racing at some point?
I would get a bike that is best suited for what surface you spend the majority of time riding. A nice light hardtail is going to be a good Swiss Army knife in many ways. But there are going to be two major limitations when doing fast gravel or pavement:
chainring size limitations. Double check how big of a chainring you can run on frames you are looking at. A lot of mountain bikes have a max chainring size of <40 tooth. This means you will spin out pretty quickly
Mountain bike geometry is generally pretty upright. You are going to give up a lot of watts from body position.
I think a dropper post on a gravel bike makes a huge difference on how well you can descend. Have you looked at a Lauf Segula? A little bit of suspension up front, fits at least 50mm I believe. Should be able to easily add an AXS dropper to it I think
I would guess that I won’t be spending that much time on single track at first, probably less than 10%. But if I get a taste for it, that number could go up. The single track around here is highly variable, from groomed downhill courses to really rough backcountry. It’s the west coast of Canada, so every kind of MTB riding is available within a couple hours’ drive.
No plans for gravel racing. I don’t race road either. It’s not really my thing.
Max chainring on the Highball, for example, is 38t, which falls into the spinning out category for sure.
I’ll check out the Lauf. I was loosely aware of it. I also had a look at the Santa Cruz Stigmata, which has an option for a suspension fork., but it’s quite pricey and still only takes 50mm tires.
My input, go hardtail all day long… Add drop bars if you feel you need to save 20 watts for a fast paced gravel race.
Don’t believe the “spinning out” crowd unless you’re 5.0w/kg+ and consistently doing races with others at that level… 38x10 is way more than capable of 30mph/50kph, as you have to factor in the larger diameter of a 2.2"+ tire…
I regularly ride my gravel bike in group rides (though usually a pretty social pace rather than fast) with people on hard tails. The people on HTs do absolutely fine.
Some of the FSRs in BC are ROUGH and a HT is a great choice. I’m close by to you on the BC mainland. I’d personally still rather a drop bar bike most of the time though - I can ride the rough FSRs ok with a capable bike, and I like feeling fast and efficient the rest of the time. My gravel bike has XC tyres and MTB gearing though.
Go hardtail. I run a 34x9t and that is more than enough to get you over 30mph. With fast tires ( Thunderburts) you will have no trouble keeping up with anyone on a gravel bike anywhere near your fitness level. A hardtail with two wheelsets unlocks so much riding!!!
Yes, especially if the fitness delta is significant. My hardtail serves as my commuter. I have XC tires on it (Schwalbe Racing Ralph/Racing Ray combo). My top speed in my Z2 commute in a relatively flat area is 35–40 km/h, on flat bits I’m in the upper 20s to low 30s. Most of the time I have a trailer in tow. This is all tarmac, yes, but at higher speeds aerodynamics becomes even more important.
Also, since you titled this post “adventure bike”, I assume you won’t be going as fast, and speed is not necessarily your first priority.
If you spend a lot of time on road, you might want to consider replacing the default chainring (likely with 32 teeth) with a bigger one, e. g. one with 38 teeth. The other modification I’d consider is tires. I’d likely get something like Schwalbe’s Thunderburts. Before you change a lot, I’d just see how I get along with the default setup, though.
That depends on the bike. Modern mountain bikes are very capable on terrain. The frame of my mountain bike is 10 years old, and the geometry is close to that of modern gravel bikes.
On tarmac, you might need to get a larger chainring and the large gap between the 10- and the 12-tooth cogs will become apparent. But if the group ride is relatively mellow, yes. Off-road I think you can, too. You will pay a price, but if you ride with weaker riders, that may actually be a benefit.
I think I would go hardtail/good FS in your case.
The gearing could be an issue but a 34 tooth with the modern 2.4 inch tyres is still quite a big gear. Especially if you have a 10 cog on the back.
I’ve taken out my old 2014 alloy full suspension mtb with slower trail tyres on a winter road bike group ride of around 45 miles and been absolutely fine (winter bike was awaiting a new frame and my friends don’t ride off road). At the time I was probably around 3.5 to 3.7 watts per kg or 260 watts.
If I was on a modern XC bike with suspension that can lock out and xc tyres it would have been even easier.
This means you will be able to keep up with your friend easily. The only place they will be faster will be on the road and then you can just stay behind them and draft but their ftp will still need to be near yours which isn’t going to happen anytime soon.
If you’re doing multi-day adventures that aren’t credit card camping, you’re going to want frame mounted storage, and XC hard tails are often focused on racing, with a max of 2 bottle cage mounts. I think you’ll be happiest on a big tire capable gravel steed, with mounts for a multitude of bag options.
The bigger tires will give you more confidence while you’re learning to ride on dirt, then more comfort when running fully loaded.
In the winter I often don’t want to be fast, especially with skinny tires. It is so easy to slip and if you do so at slower speeds, it hurts less. Plus, MTB tires have a lot more grip and traction.
One bike to complement a road bike and you aren’t gravel racing? XC bike every time in my opinion. If you want to bikepack, don’t worry about the lack of mounts, straps work fine and the flat bar allows for a much bigger roll up front. If you really need space, Tailfin or Old Man Mountain allow you to carry way more than you need on any frame anyway.
An XC hardtail however opens up basically any riding opportunity. It might not be perfect, but it’ll get it done. Gravel roads, single-track, rocks, hike-a-bike, can do it all. 38-10 is a pretty big gear. I’d only go for a gravel bike if you need to ride a lot of pavement and off road in the same ride.
100% agree. I won’t be riding in 0 degree Celsius weather again. 6 of us came off on black ice (on a route that was gritted) and I got really hurt but the guy next to me broke his hip (complete displacement of the femoral neck ) and I had to watch him waiting for an ambulance in the cold. Really put me off crashing again.
Trails are nice frozen though as the mud and gravel still has some grip and less mud to clean.
Yikes. Happened to a mate of mine. In the countryside he saw a car that had kissed a tree. He couldn’t even finish the thought “What kind of idiot would run into a tree on a straight piece of …” Answer: Black ice.
I like riding in fresh snow, but that’s slow and more of a mountain biking thing.
Ortlieb makes a fantastic 16 l seat pack (as well as a smaller 11 l variant). You can combine this with other frame bags to get serious total volume without having to put stuff on your back.
Pannier bags are also an option, but require a rack.
While I’m lucky to have both and agree there is a frustrating amount of options out there, they do increasingly exist.
And if your bike doesn’t have mounts, like my Holt below, there is always OMM, I’ve got 1 eye on the axle packs for the front fork… https://oldmanmountain.com/
Coming from a road background and with 10% single track, I think you’d enjoy a gravel bike way more.
Purpose of an MTB is to handle steep descents, drops and some jumps on a technical course. So it’s geo and suspension and tire size support all that.
Gravel is to go fast, off road, with lots of pedalling, without drops, jumps or very technical terrain.
Downside of XC is an armchair position with spread arms like you’re reading a newspaper. Plus massive bob on 100mil fork when you’re accelerating especially out of the saddle. Both energy sapping if you plan to pedal for a long time.
XC is for 60 min or less with ups and downs and smaller drops and jumps.
To pedal over an hour without drops, an endurance bike like gravel works much better. If terrain is rough you can add bigger tires.
I had a Canyon Lux top spec under 10kilo and never enjoyed it nearly as much as a gravel bike on my local off-road trails for just going A to B endurance style.
I do have an enduro and a DJ and am about to get an XC (so not bent on any particular discipline - right tool for the job) But for adventure pedaling - Stig on 2.1’s is awesome.
I also go on mixed rides, you’ll never see an XC upfront unless going downhill on rough single track.
Disagree with this. An XC bike is a great all day adventure bike, better than a gravel rig in many ways (in my opinion). Sure, there are places an XC bike might hold you back a bit if speed is the priority, but is speed really a high priority for an adventure bike? When I want to race at the pointy end of a grave race, I’ll race my gravel bike. But I’ll be racing Big Sugar in a couple weeks on my full suspension XC bike. If it was a target race and I was shooting for a podium/result, I’d be on my gravel bike. But I’m just looking to ride hard and enjoy a long-ish day, so the XC bike is my choice. Any time I’m riding off road and not racing, an XC bike is usually my preference.
The big downsides to the XC bike compared to more traditional gravel/adventure is that it can be tough to add bags/racks. Could be a deal killer if looking to do multi-day stuff, or at least needs to be a consideration when picking a frame. The other downsides to XC are gearing and body position, but again I’d only be concerned about that if speed is the priority. And both of those issues are overblown in my opinion. I’ll do 100 mile fast group rides (on the road) on my XC bike. Yeah, it’s more work and not optimal, but there aren’t that many situations where you’ll get dropped due to gearing running a 38/10 combo. And if you are off road, it’s even less likely gearing will be an issue. And if aero is the concern, you can put some mini aero bars on a MTB and the position will be faster than someone in the drops or hoods on a gravel bike.
Another consideration is whether you like to ride “underbiked”. I know folks who enjoy riding all day on brutal single track on fully rigid single speed bikes because it’s their thing. It’s not that it’s the fastest or most comfortable, they just like the challenge. Same reason I do fast group rides on my XC bike, it can be fun because it’s not the best bike for the situation. Depending on how you are wired, the “wrong” bike can actually be the right bike if that’s what you are into.
Not true with today’s suspensions, and lockouts make the bike truly rigid when you want it even if a 120/120 full suspension.
And, XC is by no means “60 min or less” - plenty of races like Leadville that can be 12 hours +, and arguably more comfortable with suspension. I very rarely do XC rides / races less than an hour. And, Unbound Gravel XL 2023 was won on a mountain bike, not a gravel bike.
Not saying I disagree that a Gravel Bike has a place (I’m building one up now) but those characterizations of an XC MTB are not correct and they’re surprisingly fast when set up correctly.
This is all very useful. I suppose there is also one other thing to consider, which is variety. A gravel bike is not much different from a road bike, on which I already spend many hours per week. An XC bike is substantially different, which appeals to me.
My gravel bike is easily my most used, it is very practical and can be used for commuting, touring or winter road riding and if I only had room in my scenario for 1, that would be it but I live on the edge of London and if you don’t need all that side stuff and can go straight to adventure… well… the truth is, when it comes to producing the biggest grin, the XC wins hands down and part of that is the variety, coming from a skinny road bike you feel like a hooligan, big tyres, big brake, big stopping power.
