Gravel Bike as a Road Bike? YES YOU CAN!
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- Опубліковано 22 лют 2024
- Can you use a gravel bike as a road bike? Yes, yes, and yes. After riding the Specialized Crux, Enve MOG, Open UPPER, Cervelo Aspero, Allied Echo, BlackHeart Bike Co Gravel AL and Colnago C68 Gravel, I believe that any "fast" gravel bike can also be ridden as a road bike, within certain expectations.
If I were buying a new gravel bike today, it would be tough to decide 1x vs. 2x, but I'd ultimately go with 1x SRAM XPLR... maybe I was wrong about 2x all along!
Gear I’m Riding and Into (updated 2/2024) ↓↓↓
Tires- Vittoria Corsa Pros: amzn.to/44U9XDx
Tires- Continental GP5000 S TR: geni.us/AY6XacE
Sealant- Orange Sealed: amzn.to/44U9XDx
Drink Mix: geni.us/4v6bx
Recovery Drink: geni.us/PhAN
Road Bike- Tarmac SL8: geni.us/dD4d
Road Bike- Tarmac SL7: geni.us/3YZ7Ll
Gravel Bike- Crux: geni.us/eYvO
MTB Bike- Epic Evo: geni.us/2rmFy
All-Around Helmet- Prevail 3: geni.us/MY7W
Road Helmet- Evade 3: geni.us/ReXn7
Road Shoes, SW7 Lace: geni.us/rBAzM
Gravel Shoes, Recon Lace: geni.us/tzba
Road Wheels- Enve 4.5: geni.us/yy3ao
Gravel Wheels- Reserve 40|44: geni.us/1iKt6Z
Wheels- Fillmore Valves: geni.us/uQQTZ6
Computer- Wahoo ELMNT Bolt: amzn.to/45VERgm
Pro Stealth Saddle: amzn.to/3sVd9S7
*Some of these are affiliate links
Instagram: @outdoorbros_
What’s your suggestion for riding a gravel bike on road? 👇🏻
One my way my gravel bike makes me faster than my road bike if I am in a hurry is that I can take shortcuts on the former that I would never dare on the latter such cutting across a park diagonally instead of going around it on traffic light-plagued streets. A gravel bike is also safer in Montréal, London and New York City, a few cities with atrocious asphalt.
Giant Revolt Advance 2 with a 2nd pair of wheels with slicks. Too easy.
I ride my Salsa on the road all the time, I even have a 2nd pair of wheels for it.
I’ll take my Domane just about anywhere.
I largely agree with your video, riding on a fulldamped Cannondale Topstone Lefty Carbon 2 with roadsetup; gears 30-46 in front and 11-34 behind (2x11 speed GRX) on 38mm tyres. I could do fine without my fastest gear, and maybe one extra on the light side. The fast gear will probably be helpful if you ride bunch-roadrace (which i dont).This is really fast on asphalt, and also fine on forest-roads thats basically dirt. The idea of fast gravelbike is good for asphalt, but a slightly more heavy duty gravelbike also could be fine for the days you go to real gravel and wants big tyres, like 50 or 56 mm. But for asphalt I believe that skinny tyres like 38 or 42mm is faster than 50 and 56. 45 mm is a good compromise between gravel and asphalt. Nice for commuting. I was on 45 mm last year, scaled down to 38 now because of curiosity and because I wanted to feel how my gravelbike could be on a dedicated asphalt set-up. I feel its faster now (on asphalt), but which tyres I choose next time I hasnt decided.
Crux is the perfect quiver killer…I run mine set up with a mullet drivetrain - road and gravel - and the only thing that slows it down is me
Hahaha
Thanks for the video! Definitely some good points made.
One of the reasons I quit cycling for about 10 years was that got tired of hassling with gear, it was less stressful to lace up running shoes and hit the trails.
Now that I'm back riding and loving the gravel bike, I have found myself wanting to ride more road too. I run a 2x setup and did go the route of having a second set of wheels built up (with hubs to match my gravel set, so I don't have to realign my brakes every time I switch wheels) and I'm extremely happy with the choice.
I appreciate the entire message in this video. Return the simplicity of "going for a bike ride". I'm not the fastest, nor am I looking to be. Versatility in a bike is the name of the game. Also, I absolutely love how you've got your crux set up, I don't think I'd do the 2x chainring any justice but it does look like the complete machine!
I have a Sage Titanium Barlow with GRX one by. Love not having a front derailleur! Unless your racing or doing a steady diet of fast group rides, the one by is more than adequate. I run a 38 (Wolf Tooth) front with a 11x42 rear. Being able to climb anything is more important to me than top end speed. I’m spun out at about 28 mph. Fast enough for me. After all I’m 70 years old. Priorities change as you age.😂 I do have a set of road wheels with 28mm Conti 5000’s for when I’m feeling the need for speed! I generally run 35mm Pirelli Cinturado gravel H tires on my gravel wheels which I ride most of the time. The handling is fine especially on fast downhills. I don’t race criteriums or anything else for that matter so a twitchy handling bike is not needed! So yes, one bike for all surfaces is more than doable for most recreational riders. I also have a nice set of Tailfin bags that I slap on this bike for multi day trips. It’s a truly multipurpose bike.
Coming from fast/light road, adding a cx rig, adding a gravel rig, and now all three types of bikes as tools... I've done just this: since I'm not racing these days, my solution is a MOG or Crux with two wheelsets. This (might be) "the way". Thanx for another awesome video.
For my 2021 Diverge GRX 2x 11-36. Road wheels 303s with 700x34 Corsa pros control and don't get dropped. Gravel rides Roval C38 70x42 Pathfinder pros. Swap wheels depending on the route... That's my winter ride setup. Supersix Evo comes off the trainer once temps stay warm.
Got a Canyon Grizl with Apex AXS 1x to go riding with my son who is a mountainbiker. I can roll the single tracks and still cruise on-road at a good pace. Kept the road bike for ‘road only’ rides. Happy days.
Due to distance from home to the trials, I kept my gravel bike (previous gen Diverge) as a 2x with a 48/32 in the front and 11-40 in the rear. Great climbing ratio together with top end gearing. 40 Terra Trail front / 40 Terra Speed rear. Hangs fine on B group road rides
I run road tires (GP 5000) on my gravel bike the vast majority of the time, and it honestly feels exactly like an endurance road bike. (The difference between the Trek Domane and Trek Checkpoint frames are so minor that I briefly suspected that they were using the same frame design for both bikes.) If you're not totally obsessed with speed, a somewhat sporty gravel bike fitted with road tires will work for most road riding situations just fine.
Thanks for this!
I agree with your opinion re only use a race/fast gravel bike. I have an Aspero with 2 wheel sets, one with road tires and cog set and one with much larger gravel tires and gearing. It works great. With the road tires and gears, it honestly feels just like a proper road bike. I really don’t feel any compromise.
I got a Cervelo R5CX and use it for gravel and road. I like it more than the Aspero because it has more road-like geometry. It's fast as hell, and very comfortable.
BMC Kaius, 2x, 2 wheel sets. Geo is almost identical to the Teammachine SLR 01…their pro tour race bike.
Thanks for making this video. I was about to leave a comment in one of your previous videos with this exact question when I saw this pop up in my feed. 😃
Currently debating between the Aspero, Crux, and Blackheart Allroad as a n=1 with two wheelsets and a very similar 2x setup.
I've used a Giant Revolt and now have a Crux with 2 sets of wheels (obvs one set for road). It does a job but it isn't a road bike (summer bike is SL7). Relaxed rides are ok but group rides you get found out.
So it depends on what rides you do.....
I love the “one bike to rule them all” concept, but being honest you must be a hell of a beast to not be dropped on a road group ride with gravel tyres…
So I ended up with the two wheelset solution, it’s not that much of a pain to swap wheels before ride depending on route and group teammates….
Keep the nice vids!
I tried this with my Aspero. After doing a few crit races the wide bars and gearing was not great. Ended up buying a cheap aluminum road bike for crits. I'll probably still use the Aspero on long road rides because of how comfy it is.
I run a Giant Revolt AP Frameset. I built from scratch. I have road wheels AR46 Black with 32mm GP5000. Then I have 2 sets of gravel wheels. Reserve 32 with Thunder Burts 2.1 and Reserve 34/37 with 45 Slicks. 44F, 9-50 e-Thirteen rear on all of the wheel. This bike is on rails on the road and super responsive. Geo is more road with slacker seat tube. Bike is stiff in bottom bracket and wheel. I have ridden many, many bikes. And this is bar far my favorite outside of my 2014 Boone 9 Canti version. And, lastly I have used bikepacking and everywhere in between. Top notch bike. Only thing I dislike is the entire seat post mount set up.
I need a new set of wheels and plan to run 32mm GP5000... was looking at both ar46 and the reserve 34/37. if you didnt have either for the 32mm gp5000 which wheelset would you go with?
@themaritimemodel I have both wheelsets. They're both great. Reserve has a good sale currently and lifetime warranty, so I'd probably go with those.
If you want some customization then go with AR46.
Both are great though
Honestly - super fair assessment.
You are right, gravel bikes aren't road bikes. They can imitate, but not duplicate. I've gotten to ride several (Diverge and Aspero) and they just aren't exactly the same. Not as Aero, not as stiff, the handling as mentioned.
I think you just have to be honest with who you are. If you wanna go as fast as possible and enjoy that thrill, you need a road bike. If you enjoy being off the beaten path and are willing accept a few limitations on the road, get the gravel bike.
I also live in Seattle, in the city. I don't like driving to my destination, so to get to any gravel, I have to ride 25 miles of road anyway. This was mentioned, but for me, that's a killer. I don't wanna ride a subpar bike for the road all that way slower and feel like my efforts aren't being rewarded.
What bike did you end up going with?
Ican X-Gravel with 2 wheelsets and 4 tyre options (GP5000 32 for road only, Maxxis Re-fuse 40 for commute or "discovery", Maxxis Rambler 50 for light gravel and 50 + Tannus Armour for the more hardcore stuff.
1x 42 or 38 set-up with manual change to a 34 ring (that's very geeky but I hate front derailleurs 😉)
11-34 road
11-36 commute/explore
11-42 gravel
I have had only one drop bar bike for about 7 years now and the main limitations for me are:
- gearing in fast descents (42x11 is too small)
- gaps between gears (even with a 11-34)
- no tubeless option for gravel wheelset as I often swap tyres
- weight?
As cycling is only one of my physical activities, this is a dream set-up from a $$, maintenance, storage and discovery perspective.
I'm gonna do it...but first i have to sell my other 3 bikes!
Thanks
MARIN Gestalt 2, stem slammed and low and long on deep dish carbons, mid compact gearing and 32s and it hardly ever touches gravel, but I run it against full carbon aero road bikes all the time and it actually smokes them on flats and decents no problem at all, it's a little heavy on climbs though.
The head tube and fork are super deep, features adopted on the Tarmac SL8 and the geometry's similar as well........maybe big S R&D's got eyes on me?
Part of it is really just being honest with the kind of riding you do...and the speeds at which you do it at. I really feel that above about 25mph, gravel bikes just dont really work... they start to feel counter productive. So if you are constantly in group rides where the pace pushes above that, I would shy away from a gravel bike.
But if you are in groups that ride in the 18--25mph range, you are perfectly fine with a gravel/road bike--with or without dedicated road tires/wheels. That said, I do like to spend a month (usually December) riding nothing but my gravel bike to increase resistance and build a bit of 'off-season' strength.
While it’s true that a gravel bike with road tires feels completely different from a real road bike, it’s really only the feel of the ride that differs. For all but the most extreme rides in terms of speed or elevation, I am literally no slower on the gravel bike on the same road routes according to Strava. And even when it’s slower, it’s only by the most marginal of time differences that would only matter in a race.
That crux with the conti gravel tires on those deep deep enve's makes no sense at all... but it looks awesome and I'm all for it. Keep up the good videos. THANK YOU!
How much clearance do you have with a front derailleur and the 40mm conti tires? I am trying to decide if I want to go 1x or 2x. Great videos! I really appreciate all of your experimentation. Thanks for all of the information!
Older I get, the more minimalist I become. Allied Echo in 2x with 32 mm Corsa Pros on 45mm carbon wheels with a 10-33 cassette for road and 40 mm Terra Speeds on Zipp 303s with a 10-36 cassette for gravel. While I’m switching the wheels I can easily flip the front and rear chips on the Echo, but most of the time I leave it in gravel mode. Plenty fast for 24+ mph group road rides and fast and comfortable on gravel. Only reason I’d want a pure roadie is if I was crit racing or Cat 1/2 road races.
It all depends on what you intend to use your road bike for. If you're racing it, especially criterium racing, you just gotta have a separate bike. Otherwise, a Crux or something similar is just fine. Many gravel bikes have an excessively low BB or excessively long chainstay to be used for legit racing.
My Giant Revolt serves me quite nicely on the tarmac when I desire. I’m not a crit racer.
The exact video I needed, thanks Chris. I'm curious, what percent of time do you use your Tarmac vs Crux vs Epic Evo?
My Crux has sram xplr, time will tell if I need the extra speed of a Tarmac (and if it makes more sense financially), or if a bigger chainring and road wheelset is the answer.
S Works Crux with three different wheel sets and road pedals too! Most versatile bike I’ve ridden!
Man I miss the descent on Newport Coast
I have a Giant TCX AP with Pathfinder Pros. While I have a much more road focused bike that is faster, I barely reach for it when I have the TCX. The ability to be 90% as quick as my road bike, while being able to add in a few miles of singletrack is such a game changer
Have you experimented with longer or shorter cranks on the crux? Vs SL7
Which ends are the Blackheart and the Colnago? You mention they're at opposite sides but didn't specify where each sits! I'm considering a Blackheart to do primarily road duty, with some gravel time on the side.
What would be the 2 wheelset 1 bike equivalent of this conversation for a gravel bike, rather it is a 1x or 2x crank set up(which maybe irrelevant)?
Keep two wheelset with a disc break frame and switch out between road and gravel wheels
Hello I’m little late to the show, but I had a question regarding your old bike setup. I just purchased a crux and is making a 2x setup 46x33, do I need a wide front derailleur(like you) or can I use a regular force axs front derailleur…thxs
The white with gold speckle S Works Crux frame sets are absolutely gorgeous. The rest are …. meh. As I commute over cobbles down the Manchester canal paths one of these would be great if I didn’t already have a modern gravel bike.
when you ride more endurance events like brevets it's perfectly fine to ride a gravel bike. For crit races not really.
I would love to hear your opinion on the: Time ADH, ADHX 40, ADHX 45
Same - the new 45 looks like it could be set up to do well in both gravel and road.
I am trying to do this, single bike that I can ride on road rides and then take as a gravel bike for rides with the kids. I like the look of your specialized Crux s-works but the new colors are a bit meh. Is the Mog another great alternative? I will be riding mostly hills on road rides.
Looks like I’m a day late in seeing this. Enjoy the Echo!
Dang it ….now what am I gonna do with the rest of my bikes😂
Ive tried but gearing is always my limiting factor. I live in the mountains and climb some seriously tall steep and loose climbs on the gravel bike and prefer my mullet 40/52 gearing. On the road this gearing has huge jumps and spins out too easily.
40 with the 52 is HUGE.
I have a Fezzari Shafer gravel bike with 36cm bars and a 48t/10-52t 1x mullet setup. With a wheelset swap to 65mm road wheels/tires it can come pretty close in speed to my road bike, but I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone that doesn't do their own mechanic work. It's nice to be able to drastically change your setup with wheels, derailleurs, cassettes, etc, but at the same time you have to deal with constant disc brake adjustments, needing multiple chains and chainrings to suit the riding, and technically every time you change something you need a new quick link for your chain 😂. With UDH gravel bikes becoming more common, In a perfect world I could probably get by with a single bike like a Canyon Grail and have a couple of wheelsets. I think in the future we will see the lines blurred a bit more and then it could make more sense to have a larger spectrum all around bike.
I'm very annoyed at the moment because I'd like another bike, but I feel like after already owning an E-MTB and an Endurance Roadbike I shouldn't be buying another one. I just hate that when I'm on my roadbike sometimes the paved roads just end and it turns into pretty rough gravel out of nowhere, so I usually have to turn around and find another way.
I have just brought a trek domane al 5 as my first road bike but there’s a few areas where I live that have small gravel sections. Now I’m no way going to be a pro road cyclist my question is could I put gravel tyres on it and get the best of both worlds…? Thanks
It depends on your expectations and how you want to ride gravel. I think your best bet is to use a gravel bike as a road bike, not the other way around. Sure, you can do it, but the bike isn’t designed for it and it won’t be the most enjoyable experience.
A true quiver killer is also a liability - when you break the bike and it needs service, nothing else to ride
Ride your MTB!
I say have 2 bikes, 1 gravel bike with road tires and offroad tires, and 1 really good mountain bike thats it and i mean full suspension or downhill bike
Two pure road bikes is better. MTB is useless, while gravel bike universal but still compromised.
How would you adapt a dura-ace groupset for gravel?
Maybe swap out the rear derailleur with a GRX one in order to get Shadow Plus. It's really great when riding on rougher terrain
@@1esk192 grx 12 speed is not electronic yet :(
@@juanfersan Sorry, for some reason I read it as Ultegra. :/
New Roubaix SL8?
Hey what about a fixie as a road bike with drop bars?
One thing to consider is local terrain. Do you need a gravel bike or would a hardtail with faster wheels and 50mm tyres be better? That's my quandary in the UK. In reality not much pure gravel riding and much of it is poor condition. If I lived in the outback or with a lot of open terrain on my doorstep the decision would be different. Want a gravel bike but can't justify it.
i just got a used cyclocross bike for 1/10 the money and put 38mm rear 42mm front tires on it, and saved the 32mm tires.
I’m a spoiled brat with a Diverge and Tarmac. I don’t doubt that the Diverge could pull double duty but it does not even come close in terms of handling. The Tarmac is like a frigin razor!!!
Are you related to Mark Moss?
Mtb as a road bike? Yes you can
Put 32c tires on a Rockhopper, and off you go 😂👍
You cant. To long chainstays and to long front center. Roubaix can work on road.