Only had one ride on my gravel bike but thought I would share my experiences. After doing the Rapha day in hell ride on my Canyon road bike with rim brakes, I had an absolute ball loving trudging through some mud and carving my way over fast gravel, I made my mind up I would be buying a gravel bike.
I bought a Vitus Substance in size small, I was amazed at how tall it felt, one thing I hadn’t really taken in to account was the higher BB. It felt borderline too big, even though my reach etc was perfect, it just felt so strange being that bit higher, used to my Tarmac and Canyon I suppose.
It runs 650b wheels and as yet not converted these to tubeless but I will. I cannot believe how much comfort there was, as I say only had one ride and not true gravel but some of the roads are shocking around me and this made them all feel like glass.
Once I got used to the higher position and the resulting centre of gravity difference I really enjoyed it, yes it was slower but the gearing made climbing easy(ish) and the comfort made me want to keep riding.
I have said I have only had one ride on this and the reason is whilst on my return home I made a normal left turn on a descent and came off, simple silly thing but alas I have broken my hip and my face. I was looking forward to riding the winter on gravel the year and once I heal I will be back.
My biggest take away was the higher BB, I also felt this on a CX bike I had, made the ride feel so different from my road bike. Once you get past this gravel bikes seem great fun.
I will let you know how my second ride goes lol