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Well this thread has piqued my interest in a gravel bike now. Living in the Midlands I don't have anywhere to ride MTB properly, driving to trails isn't really an option at the minute like it used to be. Well and truly bored of my road bike but it feels like this could be a good option for linking local bridleway rides together into a decent loop. What's a good option for a half decent used gravel bike - something On-One?
@_tom_ A secondhand CX bike might be cheaper and more serviceable. Not quite the same but pretty close. CAADX maybe.
PX gravel bikes ain’t bad (I have a Tempest) but the cheaper ones are carbon and it depends how you feel about secondhand carbon. It’s probably fine.
@ _Tom_
How about a Retro MTB conversion? Or even an old lightweight tourer + cold-set stays and 650b?
Still wish I’d bitten the bullet and converted my old M-Trax all those years ago. I’d probably also have gone single speed to make it even more it’s own thing.
Like this too (would have gone with wider drops)
Rode 38km' tonight on a mixture of road, gravel/dirt path/trail at an average speed of 21km/h. Managed to bag 2 KOM' on Strava. Also saw a nice sunset.
All done on my cross bike and it was great fun!
This is my interpretation of 'gravel' where I stay.
Got back yesterday from a few hundred miles on a drop bar MTB/monstercross/rough stuff tourer. It was all rather pleasant. This 'gravel riding' of which you speak might just catch on...
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Gravel riding rubbish... Yeah...
BTW, Danny and Chris called, to have their videos returned xD
Cheers!
I.
PS
How can I embed YT video into Forum?
Another option for a cheap go at gravel is to put some tougher tyres on your road bike and see how you get on. Depending on terrain I find narrower tyres fine and use 25c with no problems and even ride singletrack on them but admit I ride slower on single track that I would with big tyres.
@montgomery that looks like my kind of explorating. In fact it literally is 🙂
#downfromidris
*erratum @_tom_
cold-set stays and 650b?
^ Don’t know what I’m talking about - brakes are usually cantilever and boss mods are usually an expense.
Some old tourers will take 38c or even 40c depending. I remember this great thread https://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/retro-dawes-galaxy-gravel-bike-sacrilege-to-change/
Maybe if if @redstripe is still about they might re-upload pics, as was a memorably simple tour-gravel conversion
That YT video above is great
From the way many people on this thread are talking they probably wouldn’t have taken up cycling if your choices were road or pushing a road bike up trails like they are in that picture 🙂
I wonder how many of the vocal anti-gravel brigade spend their time pushing their MTBs up a hill, just to repeatedly session a short section of trail. (Probably 100m of smooth, tabletoppy, bermy dirt in the woods - rideable on a jump bike - that they will have driven to.) 😀
Most of my MTB friends have switched mostly to gravel bikes and long distance gravel rides. I feel a bit left out because I still really enjoy riding more technical trails on my MTB.
I can see some attraction of gravel rides if you want to go bike packing and cover long distances while remaining largely away from the tarmac, but with a full time job and one child still at school age, I can’t do everything so I choose the more exciting option 😁
^. +1 Makes sense. I love bikepacking most of all but unseen life changes and commitments are seeing me looking at building another SS long travel hardtail for local 1 hr push and plummet sessions. Quite exciting tbh. Can’t seem to build up confidence to sell the gravelbeast quite yet tho
Probably 100m of smooth, tabletoppy, bermy dirt in the woods – rideable on a jump bike – that they will have driven to.
Not sure you're particularly with the building-trails-in-woods demographic, as round here most of them aren't old enough to drive. Lanes and woods are filled with teenagers both pushing and riding, and I view this as a good thing. So no need for the snobbery. 🙂
First ride on my "best" road bike in probably a year yesterday evening, as have spent most of my time on gravel bikes doing road/bridleway links around Wilts. On the pretty broken roads it felt much harsher than I remembered on its 25mm tyres at 'only' 85 psi and was actively considering letting it go after the first 30 mins as it won't take bigger tyres. Then found some smoother tarmac and, man, it was so much faster and more direct than the gravel bike (NSS) - the next 45 mins were a real hoot, sprinting for village signs etc
Now considering tubeless 25's for a little more comfort, and resolved its still fun to mix it up between bikes once in a while. Weird how the "mixing it up" tended to be occasional gravel rides with more road rides, but has now gone completely the other way. Road surfaces have definitely worsened here over that time though,and am less fit so happier with a slower place these days - for me it's as much about responding to a changing environment as anything (bad roads, too many close passes). Count myself lucky to have choice of bikes ATM
Fully intend to do some bikepacking on the gravel bike this year, and have a plaid shirt, so its gravel bike for the win from me...
I have bruises and scuffs from clipping trees when out on my cross bike, all the time pushing myself to ride the trails as fast as I possibly can. Bliss!
I've a 100km Audax planned for next month, can't wait!
Kids are back at cycle training tomorrow meaning I get an hour to blast around the local woods, fun, fun, fun!
Looking forward to a few 100km+ gravel rides I have pencilled in for the summer.
Fixed my Cannondale Scalpel so might try to get to GT one evening now we're allowed.
It's all good!
@_tom_ A secondhand CX bike might be cheaper and more serviceable. Not quite the same but pretty close. CAADX maybe.
That would be nice, I'm currently on a CAAD8 so imagine it would be pretty similar. Just checked the prices though and it's probably a bit much for me. I think I'd get about £200 if I'm lucky for my CAAD8 so budget is probably not too much higher than that if I'm buying something from the same sort of year. Not averse to singlespeed either, we're in a pretty flat area so it forces me to not be lazy and spin on our short and sharp climbs.
Was going to just ditch the idea of a road-type bike altogether and just get a spin bike for "fitness" rides (keeps the wife happy too) but this does seem more fun 🙂
Keeps the wife happy too, but...
No need for ‘buts’, when you could have it all!? 😉
50 sunny, dusty miles on the Diverge yesterday - a warm-up in the woods on some steep trails then up and over the Downs and back via the Hangers. Three top tens on off-road climbs. The gravel bike is the only bike that makes me giggle out loud at the moment, usually on a descent that would be a piece of cake on a mtb.
It’s all just riding bikes though isn’t it? Nice mix of paved and unpaved roads and tracks today on an Audax and the ride there and back.
https://flic.kr/p/2kUCERp
Perhaps a gravel bike would have been better for the road ride I did today. The road surfaces were awful!
I like riding my MTB and road bikes. But living down here the roads are busy and only Swinley to have real technical fun on the MTB. Gravel seemed a bit to cool for me but was missing seeing new things. End of last year I bought an Áspero, I love to ride it. I can explore from my house and ride anything I want. It’s revitalised cycling for me, it’s fast, fun, less of the snobbery and fewer cars. Minimise roads as links. Today was 120km effort on the Last line of defence route from Farnham to Reading and back. It was never boring, riding with a mate at decent speeds and power. Seeing sights.
I don’t know what kind of rider I am but it’s fun going fast on these bridleways and trails. Saying hi to the walkers. I got the Aspero as I wanted a no compromise fast bike.
Whatever riding is. It’s worth trying it.
Perhaps a gravel bike would have been better for the road ride I did today. The road surfaces were awful!
I find rough road surfaces much harsher that most of the gravel surfaces I ride. Tarmac tends to be much harder than gravel which tends to have some give/movement.
I find that 28c (minimum) is useful for UK roads where I live. Even then am having to dance around potholes and cracks. ‘Gravel’ by default.
Perhaps a gravel bike would have been better for the road ride I did today. The road surfaces were awful!
I have to admit, my old 26" fully rigid 'i don't care if it gets stolen' bike gets more use on road at the moment than my road bikes. The 1.5" tyres with the smooth centre ridge. The wider tyres run at lower pressure are more comfortable and less work on the potholes interrupted by lumps of tarmac that pads for roads.
If I could fit 40mm + on my road bikes, I would. So a gravel bike just for the tyre clearance sounds about right.
Yep, I run supple 40mm tubeless on my general road bike now. Doesn't feel any slower than the ones I sold that could only fit 28mm. Much more comfortable, no punctures for 3 years (including off road riding) and the tyres last ages.
Just did the Tour of the Cairngorms on Friday. A superb and long day out on the Gravel bikes.
Photos here https://photos.app.goo.gl/B2TA8er9kLwhTjoZ6
Strava here https://www.strava.com/activities/5179613020
Would recommend this day out.
Not sure you’re particularly with the building-trails-in-woods demographic, as round here most of them aren’t old enough to drive. Lanes and woods are filled with teenagers both pushing and riding, and I view this as a good thing. So no need for the snobbery. 🙂
Does it need to be explained that I was countering the ridiculous anti-gravel arguments with an equally ridiculous statement in return? 😉
Nice one @cultsdave although I think 12 hours of riding time is stretching the definition of "a day out" for most of us 🙂 Is it just me or are there a lot more adders this year?
Haha, aye its definitely on the cusp of a day. We thought it was just short of turning into type 2 fun!
@cultsdave,that is a very tough day on a hardtail MTB bike let alone gravel, well done I did that route in 2 days and your pictures dont show the rocky/boggy singletrack bits which was challenging enough on a hardtail. I have a cross bike and for me I wouldnt use it on that route Ive also done the inner loop again tough 2 days of riding on the hardtail but as they say everyone to there own
@eddie123 cheers. It was 100% rideable on the gravel bike. The head of Glen Tilt was tricky but fun and some other bits were a bit rough but not too bad. There wasn't any boggy bits but its been very dry. Section of Glen Tromie could get boggy but again its only a short bit.
Just did the Tour of the Cairngorms on Friday. A superb and long day out on the Gravel bikes.
Epic day out! and with some leaderboard results thrown in 😉
That Cairngorm loop ride looks lovely. The last time I rode that way I was on a Cannondale Scalpel SE (full sus), top job culstsdave.
Cheers folks.
Another highly recommended day out is the Fife coastal path. We got the train from Dundee to Dalmeny then cycled back to Dundee. From Lower Largo to Eilie was on the road but think we could have stuck more closely to the path. From Kingsbarns to St Andrews was on the road as that section of path was unrideable. It really was a great day out and with constantly going through villages you don't need to bring much food!
https://www.strava.com/activities/2415231489
https://photos.app.goo.gl/a93KPLfMscn6LSED9
I surprised this isn't a more popular route.
As a convert to gravel my enjoyment is increasing ride on ride.
On Saturday last I rode from Rossendale to see the family in Davyhulme, a ride of 50 miles on 80/20 road to off road. Then on Sunday a great mix of road and dry trails.
My experience of my Camino so far has been nothing but positive, it’s fast, capable allows me to access my regular MTB trails and ride to Manchester and back.
One bike for everything, not for some, but for me very close to being.
That Cairngorm loop looks amazing. I was lucky enough to do some road riding around Pitlochry last October, I'm very keen to go back when circumstances allow and that loop looks like a great goal.
@montylikesbeer I really enjoy seeing your posts as well, they're exactly why I sold my mtb and got a gravel bike instead. I can ride a long way on it, and the necessary roads to get out into the countryside aren't a total chore. Good times.
Is it still gravel biking if you use flat bars?
a ride of 50 miles on 80/20 road to off road.
Yeah, I'm doing similar types of riding from South Manchester along the TPT on my Scandal. I don't think the type of bike makes a massive difference, just the willingness to get out.
I really enjoy seeing your posts as well
Here here, they remind me why I ride.
Is it still gravel biking if you use flat bars?
Does it matter?
I don’t think the type of bike makes a massive difference, just the willingness to get out.
Agreed. It's all riding bikes, just different bikes for different experiences and geography. Outside on bikes is good.
Cheers folks, I was dragged out in Rossendale a few years ago now by Graham and Mart. They took their time sharing the trails and the knowledge.
It’s with a little more confidence I can share these same trails with the lads from the choir.
It’s all about getting out
Todays Gravel bike is late 90s/early 2000s XC MTBs. As tyres, suspension, bars and geometry changed, XC bike gradually changed into trail and all mountain bikes with the few pure XC bikes slowly turning into race bikes.
I love oldschool XC/Gravel. Skinny hard tyres over loose ground at speed is FUN. Being able to link road to gravel without it being a slog is nice.
They're just a very usable bike.
Is it still gravel biking if you use flat bars?
IMO there is a difference between marketing and riding.
‘Gravel biking’ for me is done on either an old 700c 531 super-tourist shod with 28c or 35c (depending) and also what I call the Gravelbeast a rigid 29er on 2.2” XC tyres. (see pics below)
I swap and change bars on both bikes between tourist, flat, loop, drops etc depending on what kind of rides I have planned.
All of the small amount of riding I do these days on both of these bikes would be classed as ‘gravel riding’. I variously call it ‘ATB’, ‘touring’, ‘bike-packing’ or ‘general use’ depending on what I’m doing. I think over time the category ‘gravel’ is re-defining general use/ATB as some kind of ‘lifestyle/sport’ in much the same way as early ATB/MTB bikes became increasingly redefined into lifestyle products and competitive sports vehicles.
Neither of the bikes I use would really be classed as ‘gravel bikes’ should one be looking online to buy. Yet they are always (by me) ridden in woods, on roads, on tracks, gravel, etc.
Is it still
gravelbiking if you use flat bars?
👍🙃
Todays Gravel bike is late 90s/early 2000s XC MTBs.
Nice trolling
Is it still gravel biking if you use flat bars?
If that's what you want to call it, it is. I think when you find a bike that's really comfy and you can do the riding you want to do, then it's gravy from that point on. If that's on drops with packs covering the frame and a cup dangling from your saddle, or some 170mm enduro truck with 800mm bars and a wheelbase in two postcodes, then crack on.
Is it still gravel biking if you use flat bars?
Only asking 'cos i always seem to get my niches wrong. Lycra on the mountain bike at a trail centre, no helmet out in the hills, flat bars on my gravel bike etc etc
Only asking ‘cos i always seem to get my niches wrong. Lycra on the mountain bike at a trail centre, no helmet out in the hills, flat bars on my gravel bike etc etc
Welcome to the non-club 👍🏼 Someone will try and niche even that if you’re not careful...
wonderingaboutthehillsriding
wonderingaboutthehillsriding
or wanderingaboutthehillsriding
?? 🙂
Gravel is a social construct 🙂
Is it still gravel biking if you use flat bars?
Gravel biking can be done any any bike, a gravel bike is a certain sort of bike.
You can ride track on an MTB (in theory, in practice you would probably be told to get out!) but it doesn't make the MTB a track bike
I have been gravel biking for 20 years but never actually owned a gravel bike.
wonderingaboutthehillsriding
or wanderingaboutthehillsriding
?? 🙂
Guilty of both, on differing days 😎
I originally bought my gravel bike as I wanted something for commuting to work on the shitty roads of Aberdeen, but now I find myself using it much more than my NukeProof Mega which has always been a bit too much bike for most of my local routes and trails.
With the gravel bike I'm doing a lot more riding and going to lots of places that a bouncy bike would just suck all the fun out, and then when I do get the chance to take the Mega where it excels I now enjoy it more than when it was my only bike. I feel fitter on it too, so wins all round.
Obligatory photo dump...
Gravel bikes have already split into those which are basically fat-tyred road bikes and those which are drop-bar rigid (or hardtail) MTB's. It's all good.
I bought a £600 genesis CDA last summer (on cyclescheme so I only pay ~ £400), and it saved lockdown for me, love riding it from my front door and exploring off-road + lanes. I've already had my money's worth of entertainment out of it, while getting to really know my local area.
I already have a nice 29er hardtail (as my only MTB), but it rides like a tractor compared to the gravel bike, I just don't want to ride it far on tarmac. I could have monstercrossed it, instead of n+1 but I still want a proper capable MTB when the world opens up properly again.
Thanks @mat_outandabout 🙂
Great photos citizenlee.
Did my first Audax of 2021 yesterday, I contemplated taking my cross bike as I'm now so smitten with it. I took my road bike in the end.
I've got a 100km gravel ride pencilled in for next weekend, fingers crossed the weather will be kind 🤞
Someone has written a book
Holy thread resurection.
I want to know what meme that was I linked to....
"Gravel is a construct" needs to be in with "Brings the trail alive"
Ahh, The Border Telegraph, or as it’s more colloquially known “The Minutes Silence”. It’s given us such great headlines as “Donkey Goes Missing From Field” and “Boulders Appear In River”. How I miss that paper!
I went for a gravel ride near Stirling on Saturday. Kept seeing tempting singletrack but it was so wet it was good to know I wasn't wearing out trails or bike. And at the end all I had to do was take off damp waterproofs. Friend I was out with has sent me a load of gpx files and hoping to do some bike packing too. Given the bike was a gumtree bargain which was supposed to save money by using the MTB less over winter, I've spent loads on bags, tyres, pedals and a stupidly small tent. But I'm loving the change.
These days I am more interested in training and in the last three years I've gone from being a MTBer who occasionally rides gravel to a gravel rider who rides less MTB than road. I like the fact with gravel you can keep a constant cadence up and down while not being pancaked on the road by someone idiot in a 4x4 who was looking at his phone going round a blind bend (he looked very surprised when he finally saw me).
Hmmm, gravel round here is sometimes as dangerous. Took my eldest out for a gravel ride the other week and because there had been an accident that shut the motorway a surprisingly large amount of holiday traffic was google-mapping through the forestry gravel. Some of the drivers really had no ducking idea. One of the cars now has a large dent in its side from a big stone that must have flicked up just after it passed us.
So many bikes, so many categories, so many adjectives + bike.
full suss, hartdtail, plus, downcountry, downhill, XC, tt, tri, road, track, gravel, fat, cross and probably a few more I can't remember.
I just get the Butler to put one of each in the trailer attached to the Bentley and swap when I feel the trail conditions need another type of bike.. or, if I'm feeling really naughty I'll flaunt my inappropriate bike on whichever trail I like. It's heaps more fun. Unless its a long gravel ride on the Downhill bike. No-one likes that.
You must have missed the latest trend then - downgravel
Sack the butler immediately!
Who cares, just helpful to some terms to describe the sort of riding the bike is aimed at. If you don't like it then just call all bikes a bike and ignore what others are calling them.
Go to the bike shop and say I want a 'bike'
What sort of bike sir?
Just a 'bike'
What will you be using it for?
Just riding, just want a bike
Get out of my shop you timewaster
downgravel
Be very careful making jokes. Predatory marketing people have been know to lurk on forums. You could be inadvertently conceiving entirely new categories of riding bikes in which case you are responsible for them until they reach maturity.
Unless it's not a joke, I can't really tell anymore
Get out of my shop you timewaster
I doubt that would ever happen if there is a sale to be had.
Going through this thread there seems a whole heap of fun taking the right bike or perhaps even more fun taking a slightly out of niche bike on any terrain...
If you has the skillz, innit...
I've probably said it on other threads (maybe even this one) but my gravel bike is the best road bike I've ever had, and my old hardtail 29er (now with rigid forks) makes a very good gravel bike.
This shifting means my old road bike can get sold off, maybe replaced with a modern MTB
Get out of my shop you timewaster
I doubt that would ever happen if there is a sale to be had.
You've never been in local bike shop, have you? Working there is simply a reason to browse Pinkbike, drink coffee and complain about idiot customers who don't know the difference between MaxTerra Evo and MaxGripppp Evo2, or who bring used bikes in for a service. Sales are the last thing they want because that means they'll have to work out how to open a till and print a receipt. ;D
Going through this thread there seems a whole heap of fun taking the right bike or perhaps even more fun taking a slightly out of niche bike on any terrain…
I have ridden locally in same area for 20 years and ridden the same bits of road, gravel, singletrack on whatever bike I have at the time which ranges from geared hardtail, single speed rigid to brakeless fixed gear. They are all fun to ride.
Red bike and the willingness to learn a potentially unsettling or life-changing truth or the all trail smashing full on Enduro sled down the trails you always ride, blue bike...
Red bike or blue bike. Do you gravel, bro?
Red bike or blue bike. Do you gravel, bro?
😁
Since I started this thread, my boy has now turned 10 and prefers his curly barred bike over his mountain bike. He mostly uses it for CX training and racing though.
Gravel riding might be your truth, but its not my truth.
I’ve tried it, it’s not for me, but loads of my friends love it. But then I have very limited time and what to get as much fun in as I can rather than nice long days out pootling around the country with the odd bivvy or camp out.
Maybe in a few years I’ll take it up when the kids are older and I have more time. It’s taken me 25 years of riding to finally embrace XC (although it’s mainly riding up to enjoy the downs)