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What is a "Gravel" bike really ?

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Moronic:

--- Quote from: Danneaux on April 08, 2022, 06:33:32 pm ---
*EDIT: I momentarily and completely forgot about the bikes championed by Jan Heine of the "new" Rene Herse. He has had considerable good luck riding bikes with low-trail geometry in all sorts of gravel and rough surfaces and in fact, has built much of his company's success on that very thing.

--- End quote ---

Yes. Heine disdains the term gravel bike, though. Just as he denies that his wide, supple tyres with and without knobs are gravel tyres.

He calls the bikes he likes all-road bikes, and he makes the point frequently that they are built to go well on tarmac and gravel, just as his tyres are.

I think all-road is a more accurate qualifier than gravel for this kind of bike. But I also think it invites confusion because a lot of people these days identify roads with tarmac. Hence they would think an all-road bike was good on all tarmac roads only. I think that's why most marketers prefer the description gravel bike. But then that leads to the confusiin that got this thread going.  :D

Andre Jute:
I've been in gravel bikes (in a place where there is hardly any gravel because even the forest lanes are tarmac) since around the turn of the century my LBS told me to learn about bikes if I wanted to be at ease about my cycling. I prefer Heine's term "all-road bike" as less dishonest than "gravel bike" and less off-putting than "comfort bike", which is what all these wider tyres, under whatever name, are aimed at.

There's a wonderful photograph in or on one of the Thorn bibles that shows Mr and Mrs Blance in what looks to me (by the color of the soil and its texture and the surrounding greenery, such as it is) like a long way south in South America, probably the Argentine. It's a killer gravel road that would be quite at home in Australia or Africa or Central Asia. If Robin Thorn wants to mention with British understatement that "Thorn has been into gravel bikes since before they were even named," that's all the evidence required.


--- Quote from: Danneaux on April 08, 2022, 06:33:32 pm --- ... it is wise to keep in mind there's different kinds of gravel. A fresh pour of 3/4-minus is different from pea gravel, washboard, sub-ballast and heavy ballast.
--- End quote ---

You need a bike for each type of gravel, Dan.

Danneaux:

--- Quote ---You need a bike for each type of gravel, Dan.
--- End quote ---
Oh, boy! ;D I was looking for a reason for n+1...  ;)

Best,

Dan.

martinf:
My Raven Sport Tour, with drop bars and lightweight 42 mm tyres, no racks but with saddlebag, lighting and mudguards is my equivalent "gravel bike" for surfaced roads and easy tracks and paths.

IMO more generally useful and less hassle to clean than the gravel bikes sold now, due to the Rohloff/Chainglider combination. A bit heavier, but I can still lift it over gates if necessary.

mickeg:

--- Quote from: Moronic on April 09, 2022, 12:03:58 am ---...
I think all-road is a more accurate qualifier than gravel for this kind of bike. But I also think it invites confusion because a lot of people these days identify roads with tarmac. Hence they would think an all-road bike was good on all tarmac roads only. I think that's why most marketers prefer the description gravel bike. But then that leads to the confusiin that got this thread going.  :D

--- End quote ---

Agree with the confusion this leads to.

I am in USA and have always lived in cities, so I think of "all roads" as meaning paved with asphalt or concrete.  But I have owned enough British wheeled equipment that I figured out what Tarmac is. 

I have driven a lot of country roads that were gravel, so I am quite familiar with such roads.  But, I do not think of them as being in the category of "all roads" for a bicycle.

When I think of a gravel bike, I think that is what my Lynskey would essentially be if I removed the fenders (mudguards) and dyno powered lights.  I bought that frame and built it up to be a light touring bike, has a titanium frame, I installed the steel fork, 3X8 drive train.  I typically have 35mm or 37mm tires on it.  That is the widest tire that will fit with fenders.  Manufacturer says that 45mm tires will fit, but that is without fenders.  Lynskey does not consider this frame to be one for a gravel bike, this is their touring model, I think their gravel frames have lighter tubing and might have a smaller diameter downtube.  My Lynskey without racks in the photo.

There are very few Rohloff hubs in use in my region, so when I think of gravel I think of a derailleur drive train, not an IGH.  I am well aware that the Rohloff was originally intended to be a mountain bike hub, but I only think of Rohloff hubs as touring hubs.

I have seen a lot of road bikes with bikepacking gear.  I also have seen plenty of full suspension and hardtail mountain bikes with bikepacking gear.  Thus, I do not think of bikepacking bikes as being a category of bikes, if you refer to a bikepacking bike to me that means it could be any kind of bike.  There however are people that feel that only a bike ridden off-pavement (off-tarmac) are bikepacking bikes.

I have a frame bag that will fit in the main triangle of my Nomad Mk II, but it leaves room for one water bottle in the frame too.  But that is all I have for the category of bikepacking gear. 

The bikepackers want their saddlebags to be oriented so that the bike bag is narrow and long, oriented along the bike axis, so they would not consider my Carradice Nelson Longflap to be bikepacking gear because it is wider than it is long to them.  Once I asked someone that considered himself to be a bikepacker why they do not consider using something like Carradice bags, he scoffed at how stupid my question was, he said that their bags have to be narrow so they do not catch on trees as they ride past.  But he could not explain how that made any sense when you consider how wide handlebars are, especially when a lot of gravel bikes are fitted with flared wider bars instead of narrower conventional drop bars.

My point on saddle bags for bikepacking I think shows that the bikepackers themselves are somewhat confused about what bikepacking is.

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