Gravel bikes

[Prince Albert Cycles]

As someone who started the wonderful life of being a cyclist some 36 years ago and obviously then on a road bike my passion for road bikes and road riding still exceeds the one for mountain bikes.

First forced to switch to mountain biking for road safety reasons when I lived in cities and now because of where I live I find the looks of a combination of the two ( gravel bikes ) very sexy .

So browsing through the adds for gravel bikes this morning just looking ..I have one .. and seeing the number of really nice gravel bikes for sale made me wonder why are these bikes for sale .

Are guys upgrading or disillusioned with what they found riding gravel riding to be ?

Looking forward to some responses.

Arno

 

[guidodg]

Hi Arno...I think people are upgrading and from what I have seen here in Greyton more and more people are getting into the discipline.

[dave303e]

12 minutes ago, Prince Albert Cycles said:

As someone who started the wonderful life of being a cyclist some 36 years ago and obviously then on a road bike my passion for road bikes and road riding still exceeds the one for mountain bikes.

First forced to switch to mountain biking for road safety reasons when I lived in cities and now because of where I live I find the looks of a combination of the two ( gravel bikes ) very sexy .

So browsing through the adds for gravel bikes this morning just looking ..I have one .. and seeing the number of really nice gravel bikes for sale made me wonder why are these bikes for sale .

Are guys upgrading or disillusioned with what they found riding gravel riding to be ?

Looking forward to some responses.

Arno

 

I know of 2 or 3 who were early on the Gravel wave, but the newer gravel bikes offer more clearance so you can go wider on the tires and they have changed just so they can go with wider tires for more rugged roads/conditions.

[tinmug]

Definitely seems to be more of them around at races (Western Cape).

I live out in the sticks, and when my wife fell in love with cycling she started with a mountain bike. Very quickly upgraded to a better mountain bike but then yearned for more efficiency. I found a beaut of a road bike for her, which she liked but not loved. Gravel bike penny dropped and that poor thing clocks up several thousand kilometres a year now, much of it on dirt. She still has and rides the full-sun, but the (much lighter ... carbon fibre) skinny-tyre bike is the bike of choice. Every time.

Good enough for dirt (and even the odd single track) and just fine for road miles; with the added benefit of a multitude of hand positions. Best of both worlds.

* Then again waaay back in the day we used to ride our road bikes like that anyway. 🙃

[BuffsVintageBikes]

I was reminded this past weekend again of the versatility of a gravel bike.

I have an extra wheelset for my bike, the one is running 28C road tires with tubes & a road cassette and the other 45C tubeliss gravels tires and a more mtb oriented cassette.

Took it out on Fri for 120km road road with mates and Sun evening just swapped out the wheelset and did a 110km gravel ride yesterday. The best of both worlds, I absolutely love my Revolt 🤙

[mecheng89]

Gravel FTW. I've owned 2 gravel bikes, none of which was a regretable purchase.

[FranE]

Upgrades.... Nothing but upgrades😁

Road cycling is convenient in city buy WOW do I love riding gravel when opportunity comes along 

[Baracuda]

There is suddenly a substantial number listed in the second hand section, but many of the expensive ones (>50k) have not moved in months.

I can only see it becoming more popular. Apparently in the States they are largely replacing road bikes. Unless you are road racing, they are far more capable and comfortable, even on tar.

Edited April 2 by Baracuda

[Skubarra]

2 hours ago, Prince Albert Cycles said:

As someone who started the wonderful life of being a cyclist some 36 years ago and obviously then on a road bike my passion for road bikes and road riding still exceeds the one for mountain bikes.

First forced to switch to mountain biking for road safety reasons when I lived in cities and now because of where I live I find the looks of a combination of the two ( gravel bikes ) very sexy .

So browsing through the adds for gravel bikes this morning just looking ..I have one .. and seeing the number of really nice gravel bikes for sale made me wonder why are these bikes for sale .

Are guys upgrading or disillusioned with what they found riding gravel riding to be ?

Looking forward to some responses.

Arno

 

Take a look at the field at the starting line up when the Swartberg Gran Fondo is hosted in your town later this month.

Was at last year's Gran Fondo when I realised for the first time how big Gravel riding (and racing) is getting in this country. Imagine a mtb or road event attracting that many people to your town...

I for one was very slow on the uptake, resisted the switch to gravel bike for very long. The one benefit for me now is my mtb can now be properly set up to just do trails, it doesn't have to be a jack of all trades anymore. I am actually now also enjoying my mtb even more!

[Skubarra]

26 minutes ago, FranE said:

Upgrades.... Nothing but upgrades😁

Road cycling is convenient in city buy WOW do I love riding gravel when opportunity comes along 

This ^ Seems that gravel bikes improved substantially over the past few years, a big portion of gravel bikes you would see in the ads are older bikes from people upgrading.

[W@nted]

Even in Europe the gravel bikes are becoming more popular. Definitely my next bike.

Much more versatile than road bikes, especially on cobbles and steep climbs. As mentioned, the line between aero/road/gravel is getting blurred even more, so with different tires/wheelsets you can cover almost all terrain with one bike.

Edited April 2 by W@nted

[eala]

I think the riding position on a gravel bike is more natural and more comfortable than a road or mountain bike . Combine that with proper go anywhere tyres and wide range groupset '2 x ' with disc brakes and like me , you will push the boundaries soon and realize that it is only the worst of technical descends that are non gravel bike rideable , plus you can race with the roadies 

[Shebeen]

4 hours ago, Prince Albert Cycles said:

As someone who started the wonderful life of being a cyclist some 36 years ago and obviously then on a road bike my passion for road bikes and road riding still exceeds the one for mountain bikes.

First forced to switch to mountain biking for road safety reasons when I lived in cities and now because of where I live I find the looks of a combination of the two ( gravel bikes ) very sexy .

So browsing through the adds for gravel bikes this morning just looking ..I have one .. and seeing the number of really nice gravel bikes for sale made me wonder why are these bikes for sale .

Are guys upgrading or disillusioned with what they found riding gravel riding to be ?

Looking forward to some responses.

Arno

 

The VW polo is the most hijacked car in the country, the reason is mainly because it is the most popular car in the country.

 

@Nick might have stats on the gravelbike classifieds but I think it's mainly because there are more around. Tell you what I don't see much of in the listings - fatbikes...

 

 

[eala]

1 minute ago, Shebeen said:

The VW polo is the most hijacked car in the country, the reason is mainly because it is the most popular car in the country.

 

@Nick might have stats on the gravelbike classifieds but I think it's mainly because there are more around. Tell you what I don't see much of in the listings - fatbikes...

 

 

Fatbikes are for snow and sand and nothing else . Most people in RSA don,t ride long distances on sand 

 

[NC_lurker]

Throwing something slightly different into the mix....for some reason more relaxed geometry "endurance" road bike models were never popular in SA, if even available. This resulted in loads of people riding race geometry bikes who would've been far more comfortable, and possibly actually faster over longer distance, on a more relaxed setup.

Then the gravel bike emerges...which in a large number of cases is just a more relaxed geometry road bike. People buy a gravel bike to be part of the new scene, start riding it and realise that they prefer it to riding their racy road setup. Very quickly the road bike gathers dust until it's eventually sold, along with the first gravel bike. This opens up the opportunity to buy a higher spec gravel bike and possibly an extra set of road wheels....

[Ant in the NL]

29 minutes ago, NC_lurker said:

Throwing something slightly different into the mix....for some reason more relaxed geometry "endurance" road bike models were never popular in SA, if even available. This resulted in loads of people riding race geometry bikes who would've been far more comfortable, and possibly actually faster over longer distance, on a more relaxed setup.

Then the gravel bike emerges...which in a large number of cases is just a more relaxed geometry road bike. People buy a gravel bike to be part of the new scene, start riding it and realise that they prefer it to riding their racy road setup. Very quickly the road bike gathers dust until it's eventually sold, along with the first gravel bike. This opens up the opportunity to buy a higher spec gravel bike and possibly an extra set of road wheels....

The second wheelset option defs seems like the way to go from what I've read here.

Also, as a side note I have a die hard MTB riding mate that 'crossed over to the darkside' and bought a decent road bike a while back, very quickly got a gravel bike and sold the road bike...now you can get him off the gravel bike unless he's doing MTB stage racing