Banzai

We used to ask this question about cx bikes.

The answer was mostly yes.

Seattle Forrest

I get all my medical advice from tee shirts, don't you?

Badger6

Yep, mostly...the gravel frame (bike) is a far better transitional piece than the CX precisely because of its longer chain stays. That said, if you are really able to ride a bike to the fullest of its potential (because I know I can't), the differences between a CX, road, or gravel bike are largely not going to be noticeable except in very specific sorts of circumstances on most rides, and if you've got a decent set of handling skills, either of the three will work well on both gravel or tarmac. I'll give one caveat, based on personal experience, the CX bike is the only choice for CX racing...for some pretty obvious (to me) reasons.

Newspaper_Nick

My two cents:

Short answer: No, if we think speed, lightness and aerodynamics are the main factors of a road bike. If you want a road bike, get a road bike. If you want gravel, get a gravel. If you want both, buy two bikes.

billyymc

So back to the original post. Like most questions here that get asked in BF, the best answer is "it depends."

Whether a gravel bike will perform well as a road bike for you depends on what you want out of a road bike. From what the OP said (assuming he's still here after six pages of typical BF arguing), a gravel bike with a second wheelset seems like a very good option for him. The caveat being I don't know what his group rides are like. If he's struggling to keep up on group rides with an "actual" road bike, perhaps swapping to a gravel bike with road-oriented tires would put him off the pace. Perhaps. And perhaps not.

A gravel bike can sub in as a decent road bike in many circumstances. As can a cross bike. But a dedicated road bike that can't take tires over 25mm really won't serve both purposes.

So - OP - it depends. My opinion is that for me, I could get by with the gravel bike I just built with a second wheelset and be quite happy. But then my "road" bike is actually a cyclocross bike, so what do I know.

Do what works for you (assuming you haven't already), and not what works or doesn't work for someone else here who may have different desires out of a road bike than you do.

cs1

At 61 spinning out is the least of my worries. Falling out of bed on the other hand.

Dirt Farmer

Wait, there's gravel in Manhattan??

You learn something new every day!

RiceAWay

Don't take my rough language too seriously. I had a very serious concussion in 2009 and nearly died before I got a good neurologist and he brought be back with the proper medication to prevent mini-seizures intersperse with gran mal. So I wasn't very lucid until about 2013 and have slowly working my way back to normal. Part of the symptoms of this sort of concussion is the easy loss of temper. But here it is September 17, 2019 and I think I've pretty much recovered though missing large patches of memory.

Are you going to race CX in deep powder? Who do you think would do better - a semi-knobby 30 mm or a 36 mm knobby? Of course the answer is - the best rider. I don't remember saying or even intimating that you could RACE as well on any of these tires. I said that you can ride off road on them. I will say that Jobst in his prime with that ridiculously old school gearing and huge bike would beat you or me hands down on any CX course under any conditions. And he would run 90 psi in those 1 1/4" tires. Most of the time equipment only makes a difference in equal ability riders and that not a whole lot.

RiceAWay

I'll test that premise and let you know. I have a Redline CX bike that I've ridden pretty hard off-road. In everything but very fast downhills I was faster tan full-suspension bikes. On any climbs steeper than, say, 25% or more I had to push but full suspension bikes had heavy enough front ends so that you could carry a very tiny gear without lifting the front wheel and losing control. So as a CX bike that Redline is hard to beat. I'm changing it over to a road bike since it is the right size for a friend who will be visiting in the spring and won't ride a bike with any carbon fiber on it.

Just guessing before it is together and tested but I would say it would work well for both with only a change in wheels. But you would have to know how to ride CX and, surprisingly, few Americans can. That's probably because they started on MTB's and that is a completely different sort of ride.

tomato coupe

I'm trying to follow your logic:

1. You are faster on a CX bike than you are on a full-suspension mountain bike.
2. Therefore, a CX bike will make a good road bike with a change of wheels.
3. But, the CX bike will only work as a road bike if you know how to ride CX, which Americans don't because they learned to ride on mountain bikes.

Is that about right?

Seattle Forrest

Even with racing road bikes, you have to choose between lightness and aeroness. I mean aero bikes are getting lighter, but light bikes are too.

We're talking seconds over 40k/25 miles.

mstateglfr 

Ha, you summed it up well from what I can see. Next we will find out that all the random points tie together somehow and we just cant understand.

tomato coupe

Speed, lightness, and aerodynamics might be the main considerations for road racing bikes, but not necessarily for all road bikes.

Some gravel bikes (Cervelo Aspero, Open U.P., Allied Alfa Allroad, etc.) are essentially road bikes that accommodate larger tires. They are just as light and fast as a lot of road bikes when fitted with narrow wheels and tires. It would be quite easy for one of these to take the place of two bikes.

Newspaper_Nick

The so called "gravel bikes" that most of you are considering as a good canvas for such double use are not really gravel bikes imo. They are like road bikes with larger tire clearance. They are closer to being a CX than a gravel bike. In my experience, riding on rough terrain requires much more comfort and control than these bikes can offer. Yes, you can try, and some of you maybe even be happy with it. But i wouldn't.

Newspaper_Nick

A gravel bike turned into a road bike / A road bike turned into a gravel bike:

tomato coupe

Wider tires are what give you most of the increased comfort on rough terrain, not the "type" of frame.

mstateglfr 

My gravel bike has a 72.5 head tube angle, 73.5 seat tube angle, 56mm of trail, 430mm chainstay, and 77mm of BB drop.
Those measurements are certainly closer to an endurance road bike than a mountain bike, if you need to place it somewhere along the spectrum.
It can also handle 700x47mm tires and has heavier tubing than the company's paved road bike.

Regardless of what you need to call it- it really is a gravel bike, even if you claim it isnt really a gravel bike. I ride it...on gravel, therefore its a gravel bike. And yes- its also a road bike because gravel roads are roads. Its simply one of many styles of road bike.



Here is an incomplete list of styles of road bike-
- aero
- endurance
- touring
- gravel
- race
- tri

There are more too, and some could argue that something on the list isnt a road bike. Thats fair, but ultimately really not important.

Seattle Forrest

Remember these are general classifications, they're not like a litmus test.

I tried riding my C3 up a mountain, on a gravel road so nasty a lot of people are afraid to drive cars on it, and you know what? It worked. Worked great. Rode back down too. I also do fast pavement and mixed surface rides on it. I mean, I try anyway, and it works out really well.

I don't see what the problem is, but that's based on many thousands of miles on one, not theoretical physics or anything.

HTupolev

What sort of bike are you visualizing under the phrase "gravel bike", and what gives it better comfort and control on mixed-surface road rides than a "road bike with larger tire clearance"?

MaxKatt

Regarding the subject line...and the OP's year old post..."Yes" a gravel bike can serve as a road bike if you are space challenged in NYC.

As it happens, I got a Felt Breed and just did back-to-back Centuries on it. 100 in Maine Lighthouse ride a couple Saturday's ago...followed by 100 the next morning down in Dartmouth, Mass in "Flattest Century in the East."

I wouldn't normally have done this, but I planned to do the back-to-back and Hurricane Dorian was threatening heavy rain / sloppy weather. My primary road bike is rim brake, so I went gravel for the hydro disc and stable flat tires. That Felt Breed is extremely comfortable, and I was fine.

Newspaper_Nick

Steel frame, large knobby tires (think MTB large), preferably with flat bars (or if you gonna go with drops, a "flared" dropbar), higher stack and shorter reach for easier control and comfort, depending on how large your tires are, maybe a suspension seatpost to ease road noise on your ass, wide range gearing to tackle hills/mountains (at least a 34 tooth in the cassette, even larger if possible), depending on the size of the chainring, either a 1x (small), or a 2x (a small and a larger one). If you are nostalgic, you can go with 3x. If you really mean business, you can even throw a suspension fork in that. Why not? I am all about personalization. Why go with something the market is pushing down our throats under false pretences. Some of the bikes that are sold under the gravel moniker are agressive road bike frames with plain old road groupsets attached over 700x32 (too thin) tires on carbon/aluminum rigid frames. This abomination of a bike is on market because people want to "look cool" to their friends. These bikes do exist because people realized that when you have dropbars on your bike, you look "professional". Manufacturers are all about sales and profit. They do not really care what they sell as long as it is what people want to buy. And most people just want to buy trash.

WhyFi

So you're not operating anywhere close to the somewhat loose but widely accepted industry norms of what constitutes a gravel bike and you're arguing about the suitability of a gravel-as-road-bike based upon your notion rather than what's generally accepted. Cool cool cool.

Kapusta

Good lord, you need a mountain bike to ride gravel and dirt roads? Seriously? What do you need to ride actual singletrack?

But I'll go through your list here:

So... CF and Al work for mountain bikes but not for gravel and dirt roads?

What on earth so you need 2.something" knobbies on a dirt or gravel road for? Unless you are riding in mud, anything beyond semi-knobs is just making you work harder for no benefit.

Most "gravel" bikes come with flared drops.

....which most gravel bikes in fact have

some gravel bike in fact do have suspension, either in the frame, fork, or seatpost. But the reality is that even with 38mm tires, many people see zero need. But suspension seatposts are widely available for any bike if you want one.

Most gravel bikes do have wide range gearing and as low as you are suggesting.

Again, if you want an MTB for riding gravel that is up to you.

Because we like them? What exactly is the false pretense? They work exactly as described.

The road group-sets you are talking about give exactly the gearing you described above. Go look at them.

Any bike now marketed as "gravel" will take at least 38mm tires, most up to at least 42mm.

CF is often more compliant and comfortable than steel. And are you suggesting that even though CF an Al works for Downhill, Freeride, and Enduro mountain biking, but can't stand up to a gravel road?

No, these bikes exist because the bike industry finally woke up to the fact that the standard "road" bike is not what a lot of people want. In fact these "abominations" are really just a modern update (components) on what "road" bikes used to be 30 years ago before everyone wanted to pretend they were racing in the TdF. People (like me) got tired of having to choose between a mountain bike and skinny-tired road bike to ride dirt and gravel.... both of which are a cludge. Dirt and gravel roads are just roads with a rougher surface. A road bike with fatter tires is the perfect solution for that.

The bike you seem to be describing has been around for years: Drop bar mtbs like the Fargo, and also bikes marketed as "Monstercross". They have been around longer than the recent "gravel" bike craze which started in the early 2010s. But they just never caught on that well, for gravel or singletrack.The problem is that they are way overbuilt for gravel and dirt roads, and the knobby MTB tires are just a drag (literally) on these roads .

From your comment above, you are obviously not familiar with what is currently being offered and what these bikes actually are. You also have very little knowledge of how the market played out, here. The big companies are not the ones that lead the charge. Salsa put out bikes like the Casseroll, Vaya, Fargo, and Warbird, and people loved them, and bought them right up. It actually took a while for the big guys to come around and realize there was a difference between competition-oriented CX bikes and what people really wanted to ride the gravel roads in their areas.

You just see something different and strange to you and are freaking out about it............

Andrey

I think it will depend on where and how you ride on "gravel". For my type of riding suspension with large tires will be overkill for my "gravel bike". For my type of riding I d rather have a light bike with drop bars with 32--40mm tires and wide range gearing . I have lots of trails where I live, but I would like to combine fast road riding and trail riding on the same ride. Usually a cyclocross bike with modified wide range gearing works fine for my riding.

I do not ride very technical single tracks on that bike, so the need for steel frame, wire tires, flat bar, suspension are not needed for my type of riding. On the other hand, I need more than a road bike to handle steep hills and trails. If I start riding MTB technical trails I would opt for a mountain bike then or the bike you describe in your post.

mstateglfr 

What you describe is, to me, part of the range of gravel bikes- but it isnt at all the only type nor should it be. Your description brings an adventure bikepacking style bike to mind- something you could attach bags to, then ride singletrack, forest roads, and gravel to get to a remote campsite. It wouldnt be built for speed or agility, but rather for stability and reliability. That absolutely is an appealing bike for many and obviously yes it can be ridden on gravel.
But its also massive overkill for many who ride gravel.

For me- gravel riding means day rides on hillier than usual routes with about 4 types of surface- pavement, loose recently dropped gravel, packed gravel, and washboards near intersections. Thats the 4 types of terrain that I encounter and I dont need a suspension seatpost. I dont need a suspension fork.
What I need are 40-43mm tires and a wide range 2x drivetrain to handle all of it exceptionally well. Those two things allow me to get out to country/farm roads and have fun for hours.

I agree that personalization is fantastic- its why I build all my bikes up from frames, actually. Fully agree there. I simply disagree that 'the market' is pushing anything down my throat.
As for gravel bikes having road gearing- typical road gearing would work for 80% of my gravel riding. I agree that a standard 50/34 mated to 11/28 isnt an ideal drivetrain for a lot of gravel. And brands have clearly taken notice since many bikes now come with a subcompact 46/30 crank and wider range cassettes. You dont seem to see this, but its very much there.
As for marketing a 32mm tire road bike as being for gravel- I often see those bikes being marketed as endurance road bikes with the ability to handle gravel/hardpack dirt as it comes. The brands then still have dedicated gravel oriented offerings.



What you view as a gravel bike is a gravel bike. What I view as a gravel bike is a gravel bike. Then there are even more road looking bikes that some like to use for gravel- they are really strong riders and they value speed.


None of it is right or wrong- its just a spectrum of offerings and we can all now choose what suits us best along that spectrum. Its really neat if you view the current offerings in that way.