Gravel bike? - tell me your 'roady' experiences

Super helpful - thanks :+1:t2::+1:t2:

Thanks for the insight :+1:t2:

As far as maintenance costs go, it’s pretty similar to any other bike
Chains - I get about 1500 miles on a chain on my gravel bike vs 4000 on road bike
Tires - you’ll probably go through a few sets of different tires figuring out what works best for your style and terrain

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I bought a cervelo aspero to ride when I didnt want to ride the aero bike. I love it. Running a 50/34 and 11/34

If I could pick one bike its the aspero over my propel.

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My trek checkpoint is a little slower than my road bike but training value is the same because watts inputted are the same. It’s a heavier bike so acceleration is slower but the ride feels luxurious and my neck and back thank me for the wider tires that forgive the potholes and road bumps it encounters. I’m sure a light gravel bike would not be too far off the speed of a road bike of the same weight with the right tires.

I ride my gravel bike 95% of the time and love that I can hop between gravel, woodland path and road without thinking twice about it.

My carbon road bike is 10yrs old now (plus some recent upgrades) but I’m more likely to get a fancy gravel bike with 2 sets of wheels than a new road bike at this point

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Another Cervelo Aspero owner here…

  1. Your ideal gravel set up depends on what kind of gravel you will ride. Light gravel and rail trail can be done on road or all-road wheels and this will make the bike faster. A lot of the gravel bikes are coming with +/- 40 mm tires and wheel sets that will handle tougher gravel and easy single track. These set ups are noticeably slower on the road and make the bike harder to accelerate. The long term solution is a second wheel set.

  2. I love the flared drop bars as it makes riding in the drops more comfortable. I end up riding in the drops more on gravel rides than road rides.

  3. I agree SPD is a must for true gravel adventures and makes the off bike parts of the day much more enjoyable.

  4. Gravel bike gearing is great for short steep gravel climbs and rolling gravel terrain but can be limited once you hit faster road pace. I like the idea of using a 50/34 and 11/34 rather than a 46 or 47/32 and 11/32, especially if you are a lighter rider (I am not).

  5. I am slowing coming to the realization that my gravel set up is much more comfortable than my road bike set up.

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Helpful information thanks :grin:

This is so true.

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Where I live I’ve maxed out my tires to 45/40 (Spec Crux) and I would still like more tire. When the trails get bumpy or sandy I get stuck on 40mm tires. Friends on 65mm tire adventure bikes leave me in the dust (literally!).

This is happening now because many of our trails have turned to moon dust. I’m in southern NM. After we get some rains our trails will dry up hard again and I’ll be fast again. Unfortunately people in ATVs go out into the wilderness, tear up the roads and create the dust.

So in the end it really does depend on your local definition of gravel.

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Similar to @iamholland I ride road, XC mtn, and more recently gravel.

Gravel is an easy transition coming from XC riding. If I only had road experience, I would expect it to be a little trickier as you learn to understand traction limits, absorbing terrain, and picking lines.

I ride a Checkpoint on gravel and an Emonda on the road. The Checkpoint feels much bigger despite both frames the same 56cm size. I set up the cockpit and saddle on the Checkpoint to be similar to the Emonda, but did out Enve’s flared gravel bar on the Checkpoint. This bar has a lot of compliance in the drops and adds a lot to the comfort. The flared drops also help with control.

The Emonda is lighter and quicker handling. For a hilly road ride on pavement, it is hard to beat. On the flats, the Checkpoint can be fast too, but tire choice will be the difference. The Checkpoint comes to life though on the gravel.

There will always be compromises, but if I could only have one bike then would pick the Checkpoint with two sets of wheels. An aero set with 28s for the road, and then a set of Enve G23s with gravel tires for everything else.

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I wholeheartedly agree. I put together my gravel set up with the plan to fit 40mm tires (with some clearance for mud) based on being able to do long distance gravel rides at a comfortable but quick pace, as well as using the same frame to be my road bike. I mainly ride in Utah or Idaho. Of course, I’ve gone on a few gravel routes nearby and it has varied between moon dust, sand pits, chunky rocks, and nice smooth dirt. I think it would be nice to have something wider, in the 45-50 range. However, I put a lot of money into this bike and I really like riding it, so I’ll just make do.

I’m jealous of these people with beautiful gravel paths with only small crumbs and minimal dust.

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First, your questions are spot on. and I’ll give it a shot:

  • Road feel, I’m coming from an alloy crit machine VNYL road to an Ibis Hakka MX. 40c Semi Slick tires and I can hardly feel a difference between 25c and these 40c semi slick WTBs. I LIKE climbing and don’t feel held back on climbs, rollers, flats. Downhill obviously way better than the 25c I was limited to. The frames are so different that it’s not a fair comparison but obviously the Hakka is buttery compared to the VNYL. I still love the VNYL and will use it for shorter rides and for road segment hunting. Tire recommendation: WTB By Ways are awesome, by far my favorite dual purpose tire I’ve tried.

  • Maintenance cost are similar. Factor in servicing your hydraulic brakes. Group recommendation: GRX, I’m blown away by how good the braking is. Coming from older cross bike with mechanical disc brakes, it’s night and day. Every bit if not better than the braking on my XC bike.

  • I like using Shimanos “gravel” SPD pedals, but there is no reason not to run a road cleat/pedal combo unless you’re sure you need to walk. As far as riding style, learning how to counter steer on gravel, learning how to read traction conditions on the fly, braking modulation. Biggest thing for me is how you pedal on road versus off-road, I tend to push a larger gear off-road to help with traction. When I get back on pavement I try to increase my cadence.

For me having a drop bar bike that I can ride from my house to explore all the quiet country and gravel forest service roads has been a game changer, one that I missed. I’m a mountain biker at heart but being able to get away with no car is awesome. Get a gravel bike, I’m surprised by how often I reach for it even over the mountain bike.

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A lot of my friends have bought Salsa Cutthroats which take a 55-60mm tire and they do so much better in these kinds of conditions. A Cutthroat is basically a drop bar mountain bike.

We are moving out of state so I’m leaving the desert moon dust behind me but if I were staying I’d get a Cutty or some other bike that will take a 2.4" tire or maybe even a 650B/27.5" wide tire option.

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Yeah, that’s my plan in the future. I have aspirations of doing some long distance bikepacking (and eventually the Tour Divide) so I have been looking at Cutthroats and the Fargo. However I bought a TT bike from the classifieds yesterday so my spouse might kill me if I turned around and picked up another one, haha. In the meantime I have a gravel/road bike, a fat bike, a FS MTB, and now this TT bike so plenty of things to entertain me and keep me riding.

If dirt was my only domain, I would definitely have a drop bar MTB setup with 27.5+ or 29+ capabilities. Big tires are fun!

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I have a Topstone alloy with Sora, which acts as my gravel, CX, second road and occasional turbo bike. I mainly bought it to save my main bike miles and the grief of being put in a car often (I often take bikes with me on the road). In this respect it’s been perfect, I don’t worry about scratching it up and Sora is perfectly adequate. It can handle almost any surface short of MTB territory.

However, that word ‘adequate’ sums up a lot about the bike, which I knew when I bought it, but is important to remember if you think it’ll feel as good on the road as a proper road bike. It’s nearly as fast, can definitely take it on the club run if I had to, but it doesn’t come close in terms of putting a smile on my face vs my Supersix. But that’s ok if you’re heading for gravel trails and road is only a small part of the route, and like I said, it’s not like it’s that bad!

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Whoa guys - thanks for all the really helpful responses. It looks like once I’m back riding after my recovery I will be pressing the Go on a gravel bike. :+1:

Now which one to choose from?? :thinking: :thinking: :thinking: :grin: :grin:

Liking at the moment (early days of internet searching):

  • Cannondale Topstone (I have a synapse so keeping it in the Cannondale family)
  • Canyon Grail (seems to be a hell of a lot of bike for the £££)

Diverge seems a bit more pricey
Unsure about a Ribble
Cervello is out of my wallet range

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FWIW as a point of reference, my Ribble R872 has been great. Quality is good, build was good etc. I wouldn’t hesitate to buy another and the price difference with “name brands” allowed me to buy carbon wheels. The CGR Ti looks amazing

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That’s great feedback - thanks :+1:t2:

I’ll second this, I dont have a Ribble but know a ton of people that do and they’ve only had good things to say about them.

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Two years ago I jumped on Niner RLT9 Ultegra build that I found on clearance. There’s nothing radically different from the drivetrain of my road bike, actually less range at the extremes. 11-32 cassette and CX style 46-36 crankset versus an 11-32 and 50-34 compact on my road bike. It also came with 35C Schwalbe G-ONE tires. They roll very well on the road and are plenty good for the gravel roads around me.

I took it out for a maiden voyage on very familiar route, 30 miles round trip, all paved. I honestly felt slow that whole ride, somewhat demoralizing. Once I started reviewing the data however it turned out to be my best time ever on that route. I think it was just the fatter tires running at lower pressure blunts a lot of the road vibration and I perceived that as feeling slower, when in truth I was moving along an average 1/2mph faster over the entire ride.

Since then I’ve come to appreciate it more and more and it’s pretty much become my go to bike now. It’s certainly more stable, comfortable, and my fitness level it’s been consistently faster than my road bike.

That being said, this is all experience from a rider that has never done any structured training until very recently, figure I was in the 2.2W/kg range. I suspect my perceptions will change as my fitness improves and I’ll begin to find my dedicated road bike has an advantage as I get fitter and faster. I don’t know if it will sway me one way or the other, but I look forward to figuring it out.

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