Which bike?

[ChrisF]

Sunday's ride had me thinking of this thread .... and the various thoughts on "gravel bikes" ....

 

I was doing a TAR ride out to Philadelphia.  Never knew there were THAT many gravel roads T-ing off the tar .....  on each and every one of those cyclists were riding, MOSTLY on full suspension bikes.  I did not see a single gravel bike.

 

Then again, dont recall a single road bike at Philadelphia .... equal mix between hardtails and full suspension bikes.

 

My hardtail with road tires were probably the most road oriented bike there.

 

 

 

On the way back I tried an unkown tar road ....     Ended up doing a section of gravel and loose sand to link back to the next tar section ......  A hardtail with slick road tires sure handles these conditions "strangely" ...    

 

 

On paper this area may be gravel bike heaven, strange to not see any ....

[Jewbacca]

Sunday's ride had me thinking of this thread .... and the various thoughts on "gravel bikes" ....

 

I was doing a TAR ride out to Philadelphia.  Never knew there were THAT many gravel roads T-ing off the tar .....  on each and every one of those cyclists were riding, MOSTLY on full suspension bikes.  I did not see a single gravel bike.

 

Then again, dont recall a single road bike at Philadelphia .... equal mix between hardtails and full suspension bikes.

 

My hardtail with road tires were probably the most road oriented bike there.

 

 

 

On the way back I tried an unkown tar road ....     Ended up doing a section of gravel and loose sand to link back to the next tar section ......  A hardtail with slick road tires sure handles these conditions "strangely" ...    

 

 

On paper this area may be gravel bike heaven, strange to not see any ....

Those roads are really sandy and bad aren't they? Also pretty unsafe with so many farms being serviced. A notorious area for drunk driving, drag racing and pretty bad disregard for human life.

 

Gravel bike heaven is the Kouebokkeveld and the sedgefield to Plett area. So many awesome passes, roads etc....

 

The sections encompassed by the Swartbeg GF and those surrounds are also amazing Gravel bike territory.

[The Ouzo]

 

 

A few comments here on gravel bike being slower on tar, serious question here as I'd like to know.

Granted they wont be as quick as an aero bike or the lightest bikes, but how much slower are they really ?

And what makes them slower ? Gearing ? Geometry? Tyres ? Combination of all 3 ?

[Baracuda]

I can definitely imagine that a 2x gravel bike would have the versatility that we would look for but I personally find the 1X gearing on the road leaves a bit to be desired. I have thought about changing group sets but it’ll be cheaper and easier to switch bikes.

It would be ideal to have a top road bike, an XC bike and an Enduro bike. I am attempting to keep it to 2 bikes at the moment. An Enduro bike and one other.

 

A top of line Giant Anthem with super light wheels and large tires would probably be the best for Karoo roads, but the gravel bike works just fine. One can't though just bomb and mow over everything though, one needs to keep on concentrating on finding the sweet spot (smooth bit). After the CT traffic, I am just loving these roads. Did 90km this morning out of Prince Albert and had two cars pass in 3.5 hours.

[Baracuda]

 

 

A few comments here on gravel bike being slower on tar, serious question here as I'd like to know.

Granted they wont be as quick as an aero bike or the lightest bikes, but how much slower are they really ?

And what makes them slower ? Gearing ? Geometry? Tyres ? Combination of all 3 ?

With 2X gearing and 28c tires on a gravel bike, it is basically a comfortable road bike. Similar to the endurance road bikes. Perhaps a little heavier, but not much.

[Sid the Sloth]

 

 

A few comments here on gravel bike being slower on tar, serious question here as I'd like to know.

Granted they wont be as quick as an aero bike or the lightest bikes, but how much slower are they really ?

And what makes them slower ? Gearing ? Geometry? Tyres ? Combination of all 3 ?

In my experience:

 

Aerodynamics are usually worse around the tyres and rims as a lot of serious roadies are running carbon deeper wheels. 

Geometry also contributes as you are placed more upright and less slammed low and fast, as gravel tends to be more comfort driven, so your aerodynamics will be worse.

You are also heavier on a gravel bike, as you are running disc brake which are normally heavier, and naturally the bike has heavier tyres.

You also have more rolling resistance from the tyres.

Gearing wise, you can lose out on a 1x gravel bike setup on the road in my opinion, especially spinning out on descents on tar. 

Of course this all depends on what road bike to gravel bike you are comparing, but I suspect you won't actually be losing that much between a Scott Speedster 30 and a Speedster 30 gravel for example, but I notice quite a lot when I move between my Cannondale Supersix and Cannondale Slate.

 

Edit: Spelling

Edited April 26, 2021 by Sid the Sloth

[The Ouzo]

With 2X gearing and 28c tires on a gravel bike, it is basically a comfortable road bike. Similar to the endurance road bikes. Perhaps a little heavier, but not much.

so basically the same as my road bike then. (although I suspect my gearing is more road orientated)

[Jewbacca]

In my experience:

 

Aerodynamics are usually worse around the tyres and rims as a lot of serious roadies are running carbon deeper wheels. 

Geometry also contributes as you are placed more upright and less slammed low and fast, as gravel tends to be more comfort driven, so your aerodynamics will be worse.

You are also heavier on a gravel bike, as you are running disc brake which are normally heavier, and naturally the bike has heavier tyres.

You also have more rolling resistance from the tyres.

Gearing wise, you can lose out on a 1x gravel bike setup on the road in my opinion, especially spinning out on descents on tar. 

Of course this all depends on what road bike to gravel bike you are comparing, but I suspect you won't actually be losing that much between a Scott Speedster 30 and a Speedster 30 gravel for example, but I notice quite a lot when I move between my Cannondale Supersix and Cannondale Slate.

 

Edit: Spelling

To be fair, very few cyclists I see riding round the peninsula ride fast enough to gain much 'aero' advantage.

 

Also, Matt Beers built his diverge up to weigh less than his Tarmac. Oli Munnik got 6th at CTCT on a Santa Cruz Stigmata.

 

SA roadies like to have all the kit and talk about weight and performance metrics, but very very few of them have the bottle neck of speed/performance at the bike end.

 

A 2x Gravel bike will ride beautifully on the road and be really difficult to tell apart if you have road slicks on it

Edited April 26, 2021 by Jewbacca

[Mark James]

Really interested thread, and I have been reading the comments as I have been considering getting a road bike OR a gravel bike, but not sure which is the better option... ???

I loathe having to load my bike in/on the car, and "drive somewhere" to "ride somewhere", so tend to ride from home in search of MTB trails nearby home, which tend to be around Lions Head or Table Mountain. 

 

I am spending half my time riding on tar, and figured it might be time to buy a cheap bike to ride on tar, and figured a gravel bike would be the better choice, as it would still allow me to veer off tar roads when I see dirt, or when planning that weekend away to small towns (that never happens)

 

After reading the comments, I think it would make more sense to have a road bike for road riding (fitness/training), and use the MTB for everything else.

 

thoughts? 

[Grease_Monkey]

 

 

A few comments here on gravel bike being slower on tar, serious question here as I'd like to know.

Granted they wont be as quick as an aero bike or the lightest bikes, but how much slower are they really ?

And what makes them slower ? Gearing ? Geometry? Tyres ? Combination of all 3 ?

Gearing and weight... well that was it in my case. I had a 2x road groupset to start with but I have been on mtbs only for such a long time that I just couldn’t get along with it again and went to 1x. With 1x the gearing did not have enough top end on the road and jumps between gears too big - but it was perfect offroad. A personal choice but just another reason I could not fall in love with the gravel bike. But me, like many others that don’t like gravel bikes expected too much (or the wrong thing) from them I guess.

 

When I looks at Waynemol’s posts and where he rides I can see the right gravel bike being absolute heaven.

[Wayne pudding Mol]

 

 

A few comments here on gravel bike being slower on tar, serious question here as I'd like to know.

Granted they wont be as quick as an aero bike or the lightest bikes, but how much slower are they really ?

And what makes them slower ? Gearing ? Geometry? Tyres ? Combination of all 3 ?

The answer to this is depends on the tyres and gears

For perspective a good CTCT for me is 330

 

2 weeks before this I always do the Herald which is in PE

On a 2 x cannondale slate with 42 650b wheels I was 10 minutes slower

On my current gravel bike which rolls on beefy 50s (1.9 in mtb money) and 1 x gearing i would be a lot slower

That said if I put 32s on and a 44 chainring I believe I could almost keep up with myself on a roadbike

On a long stretch of gravel my Curve drills my hardtail

 

Long answer

[Yyyy]

The more i think about replacing my road bike with a gravel bike the more I believe in n+1 

[TNT1]

So, after my recent episode of being knocked off whilst training, I was thinking of getting a something off-road to spend less time in traffic. 

 

 

 

 

I await your expert opinions.

I found a Merida Big 9 which suited my needs and budget, so I went with that.