Originally Posted by
Rides4Beer
So you like to ride a MTB on gravel, whatever works for you.
My gravel bike is carbon, which is what I wanted, has flared drop bars, came with 40mm tires, can fit 47's, 48/32 up front, 11-34 out back, suspension seatpost and bars for comfort, extra cage mounts, and fork mounts. It's been great on everything from pea gravel to rocks the size of oranges, gravel centuries, road centuries, single track (mild), all without any issues. Not sure what else I could want from a gravel bike.
I did the Tour de Fuzz last weekend. I caught up with a guy riding a hardtail with knobbys on the Metric route. He was riding a pretty continuous 21 mph! He had to be a cop because they are always trying to be better than everyone else. I think that he was an Indian guy, I rode with him for about 5 miles. That guy HAD to be putting out 400 watts! He wouldn't allow me to pass and take a pull to at least give him some respite. Finally he blew high, wide and handsome. I passed and kept going because I didn't want to insult him in any way. But merely the fact that that guy could ride knobbys that fast for that long (this was in the final 20 miles of the Metric) was pretty astonishing. I finished pretty far up out of some 1600 riders. That guy couldn't have been more than 20 minutes behind me.