Originally Posted by
Metieval
15 on a road bike all day is uhhh slow. start riding faster and you'll start seeing a difference between your gravel bike and your road bike. unless your road bike happens to be a retro grouch road bike.
Slow and fast are relative but I agree with this in principal.
I can cruise at 15 MPH on both my road and gravel bikes all day long but I would never take my gravel bike on a 20+ MPH group ride.
More sluggish wider tires and extra weight make it difficult to respond to all the surging and attacks. The way some of the faster riders accelerate hard out of turns can be impressive and constantly accelerating the extra mass to keep up is tiring.
There is a big difference between cruising and race pace with your heart jumping out of your chest. The latter is where all the advantages roadies talk about such as weight and aero really matter.
Maybe a stronger rider could push a gravel bike to road race/crit pace speeds but I can't.
-Tim-