Originally Posted by
kosmo886
mid imagine changing gearing and tires on the gravel would eliminate 95% of the difference? Is that likely accurate? Not sure if you have a 1x or something on the gavel, but that would certainly be a fairly big difference.
Yes, this is an option. My road wheels for my gravel bike have a 12-25 cassette, vs. the 11-34 on the gravel wheel. The tighter cog spacing is useful on road rides (terrain dependent). With the 46/30 crank I know I can maintain mid to hi 20’s with the 12-25, but that’s about all I can do anyway and it’s usually downhill, so it’s not like I miss the 50 ring and an 11 tooth cog, of my road bike. But as I mentioned earlier, it’s also the added bike weight which slows down acceleration as well as larger tires at lower pressure that seemingly do not roll as quick. Thus in IME experience you can make a gravel bike into an OK road bike, but if you hop on a 17 lbs carbon road bike, it’s going to feel quicker. How important that is, is really up to the user as to they’re needs.