Road Bike Vs Gravel Bike Reddit
I have a road bike soecialized allez and a gravel bike trek crossrip that i use for winter and for hauling.
Road bike vs gravel bike reddit. The gravel bike feels a lot slower. Similar bike weights gravel bike actually lighter 38c knobs vs 25c road both with power meters. Compared to a mountain bike a crosser is not particularly capable and your road bike will be. I outfitted my waterford road bike with centerpulls once i graduated to 35 mm tires and like the response if those brakes as much as the disc brakes.
Updated may 14 2020. My gravel bike is a higher end bike. My gunnar touring bike has disc for the same reasons that have been mentioned. On segments i had roughly the same time on the gravel bike took roughly 10 more watts.
Gravel bikes combine road bike looks and speed with loads of frame clearance for fitting fat knobbly tyres of 35mm wide or more that can get you across almost any terrain including terrible. Courses include features like mud sandpits barriers and steps or slopes too steep to ride forcing riders to run as well as easier sections. He can often found exploring singletrack or grinding down a gravel road. The gravel bike is basically a drop bar road bike with frame clearances for fatter tyres than typically found on a road bike nearly always hydraulic disc brakes a higher positioned bottom bracket than a typical road bike gearing that is typically lower than most hardcore road bikes and usually a more relaxed geometry than a typical hardcore road bike.
As usual the idea comes from the us where the countryside is crisscrossed by miles and miles of unused tracks designed to help fire trucks navigate around remote forests. Gravel bikes tend to have more mountain bike like geometry while cross bikes tend toward a racier road bike geometry. A typical gravel bike will have longer chainstays a longer wheelbase a slacker head tube angle a slacker seat tube angle and a lower bottom bracket than a typical cyclocross bike. The slightly wider tires and the weight from the rack could be part of it but i think the main difference is the geometry.
Simply said a gravel bike is a combination of a road bike happy on tarmac and a cyclo cross bike happy on mud. But the stiff fork and belted tires give a very harsh ride.