I think the split between racing and adventure gravel bikes comes from the aspirational angle of bike manufacturers’ marketing.
It’s a lot like aero - now lots of manufacturers are making extreme aero claims based on super-limited (sometimes non-existent) wind-tunnel testing, and using those claims to promote product. See this Escape Collective piece by Ronan McLaughlin:
In other words, “gravel race bikes” look fast, because they look like road bikes, and sponsored riders sometimes race them. So manufacturers promote them based on that.
But to add a bit of a plot twist, I agree that there’s a difference between gravel race bikes and adventure gravel bikes:
Adventure gravel bikes are designed to be comfortable
Gravel race bikes are designed to go fast on gravel that’s very similar to road (smooth and relatively shallow climbs).
This is the biggest area I would consider a difference between the two that would have most of the overall impact in terms of speed/performance.
Sure, ‘adventure’ gravel bikes will typically have a lot more mounts, but that has far less of an impact than the more comfortable/upright riding positions that I consider an adventure gravel bike vs a race gravel bike.
Look at the geometry of the drop bar bikes used in the tour divide race, compared to the geometry of the lifetime Grand Prix riders.
I agree with this. And my work brain kicked in based on @grwoolf 's great observation about smooth vs chunky. But I realized there’s another dimension on choosing the best gravel bike - how steep the climbs on the course are.
If the climbs aren’t too steep to make you worried about getting off the bike, then you can run any gearing you want.
If the climbs are steep enough to make you worried, and you don’t want to get off the bike if you don’t have to, then you can choose a different gearing setup to ride.
So here’s my proposed 2x2 for choosing a gravel event bike - comments and feedback welcome
Note that this doesn’t consider total elevation - there’s a big difference between a steep climb and a lot of relentless up-and-down. The latter can easily be handled with any type of gearing, while the former specifically needs a wide range and a low easy gear for the steep section.
The Seigla would be my top choice if it wasn’t 1x only. I haven’t ruled it out entirely yet, but I have been riding my 1x dropbar supercaliber for a few weeks and the gearing jump is much more noticeable on gravel/road than trail. It makes me want to really get 2x or minimum have the frame 2x compatible.
I like it. The only thing I might debate is the gearing topic. I’d argue that many folks can get away with road 2x on steep stuff (with smaller chainrings and big cassette) and most people are fine on 1x regardless of terrain.
Is there a way to run a 2x with a 52 out back? I can’t seem to find a way to get smaller than a 30-tooth chainring in 2x, but (At least with SRAM), the biggest cassette I can run with that is a 10-36. So the low end is 30-36 in a 2x, but I could run a 32 with a 10-52 1x setup, which is a significantly easier low end.
That was the comparison I was making - 30-36 vs 32-52.
For what it’s worth - I used to feel the same way. My first gravel bike was AXS 2x and I’d sometimes swap to MTB eagle setup with 1x chainring for certain courses. And I found the gear jumps annoying with the 1x mullet setup and would swap back to 2x after the race. At some point, I stopped swapping back to 2x for flatter terrain and the 2x RD and chainrings have been gathering dust for the past few years. And it was the racing on 1x that made me give up the 2x. I found that the gear jumps only bothered me on training rides, but I never noticed it when racing. Now, I use my gravel bike running 1x for everything (including fast group rides). Honestly, I think riding 1x all the time has made me a stronger rider, much better across a wider range of cadence. N=1 and all that, just sharing my experience as someone who used to be pretty set on 2x for gravel.
Not that I’m aware of. I think some people have had luck running the Xplr (maybe with 44) in the back with 2x, but I don’t think SRAM blesses that. I believe there was a post about it on TR a while back. I actually tried running Eagle in the back and 2x up front and some gears worked, but it wasn’t usable. The range of any setup is really limited by how much chain wrap your RD can take. Whether it’s 2x or 1x, there is only so much chain a RD can deal with before the jockey wheel is going to be dragging the ground.
Gotcha. Yeah, that’s why I separated 2x/road and MTB drivetrains. You can get a MUCH lower gear ratio with a MTB drivetrain than you can with 2x/road, for the same tires.
I agree, the GEAR JUMPS SUCK, until your in the race and you never notice it. When I ran 1x i never noticed the issue in the races, it was the training rides being spun out or choosing to run a 50 over my 44 for super flat rides that i was using my gravel bike for
I had a Seigla demo ride this morning and my new frame is on it’s way. Can’t say enough good things about the folks at Lauf that set me up with the demo ride and quickly shipped my new frame out same day. The stars kind of aligned on doing the demo close by, but they do have demo days at some events that are more accessible. And if getting a full bike, they have a pretty flexible policy to basically demo a bike for 30 days and return it if you don’t like it. Anyways, this was my first transaction with Lauf and so far I’m really impressed (especially for a direct to consumer business model).
I had ridden a Lauf (true grit) briefly on the road before, but I got ~25 miles of proper gravel in this morning on the Seigla. Ran it with race king 2.2’s at ~20psi and it obviously rolls the chunk really well. And proper clearance for 2.25’s, there was plenty of room to fit a finger between the tire and frame/fork when running the race kings. Geometry is pretty similar to my Checkpoint, with the one significant difference being a higher BB on the Lauf. But the bike felt really stable and I got a chance to hit a couple fast descents, so I think it’s going to be good. I’ve got one last race on my checkpoint this weekend and I hope to have the Seigla built up next week and ready for Rule of 3 and Unbound. I’ll be running a Transmission groupset and zipp 303fc wheels. I hate making any changes so close to races, but I think/hope the Seigla is going to shine at both of these events.
Suspension fork. Since I use my gravel bike for most of my road training (and group rides) year around, I had considered getting both forks. After doing the demo on the suspension fork, I didn’t feel any downside in handling or feel on smooth/road surfaces. I probably wouldn’t want if for racing smooth crits or something like that, but this isn’t a great bike for that job anyway. Unless someone is a serious weight weenie or won’t be using the bike on rough roads or gravel, I don’t see any advantage to the rigid fork. But that’s one person’s opinion after one test ride. Lauf offers the rigid forks, so clearly it appeals to some. And it’s quite a little cheaper, so probably a good option for someone focused on hitting a price point and comparing to other bikes with rigid forks. The Lauf fork w/rigid frame and carbon handle bar is only $1900 and a full bike build with wireless transmission is only $2750.
Yeah. I was even thinking about this as I was writing it, because I agree with you.
A better way to have said it might be:
Adventure gravel bikes are designed to be comfortable according conventional wisdom, which is an upright riding posterior and lots of mounts
Gravel race bikes are designed to go fast on gravel that’s very similar to road (smooth and relatively shallow climbs) according to conventional wisdom, which is that they should be road books with slightly more tire clearance
Some manufacturers vary the differences; but overall, design has advanced well past road bike with more tire clearance. Smooth unpaved roads are probably less a design influence than they were a generation ago (<2019?). It’s a spectrum I suppose but the indicators point to accommodation of rougher roads and more front tire impacts which influences design to moderate.
It’s getting obvious now as they get further and further away from each other (and gravel gets closer to XC MTB territory), but it wasn’t so obvious only ~5 years ago. My first “gravel” race bike was a Trek Domane that could fit ~40’s. Clearly an endurance road bike by today’s standards. And Trek actually marketed that bike as their gravel bike for a year or 2 before releasing the first Checkpoint. And that gen1 Checkpoint was available when I choose the Domane. Coming from a road background (and racing gravel on my FS XC MTB at the time), I naturally gravitated to road bike attributes over the Checkpoint. I thought I just wanted a version of my Trek Madone aero race bike that would fit bigger tires (seems dumb now, but that’s where my head was). So, some of the confusion over road vs. gravel was based on bike companies being evolutionary (rather than revolutionary), but some was probably been based on buying habits of people coming to gravel (ie - me wanting a road bike with bigger tires). It didn’t take me long to realize that the domane was great on smooth gravel, I was longing for my FS XC bike in many situations (and often the selective spots). One test ride around the Unbound course on that Domane had me buying a Gen2 Checkpoint and realizing that being fast in a gravel race was much more than being low and aero. And now, the Seigla will have me another step closer to where I started with that FS XC bike. Seriously considered just doing the drop bar MTB thing, but didn’t think I could live with the 38 chainring limitation on some courses.
Just wrapped up a bike fit yesterday with the folks at Cyclologic and narrowed my choices down to the Crux and Breed. After doing some more research on my goals (endurance events and n=1 setup) I landed on the Felt Breed 820. Comes setup with 2x already which was a big driver, but also has extra mounts for a bento box and 4 full bottles which will be great for long days. It has clearance for 2.1 thunderburts, aero design influence, some compliance in the seatpost, suspension fork compatible, and carbon wheels out of the box. All for a hair over $3000 is tough to beat. Super excited to get this out for a ride!
