eduskator

There are differences, but minor. It's just the industry looking to make $ by creating sub sub sub sub types of disciplines and bikes.

Seattle Forrest

I used to have a CX back in the day. I rode it exactly the same way as I ride my gravel bike now. The gravel bike is more comfortable and handles better.

mstateglfr 

Is all this just due to an industry looking to make money, or is it an industry responding to consumer demand? Chicken or egg in the end- because whichever was the catalyst, the result is the same- bikes that people want so both the industry and consumers are happy.
Since shortly before this explosion in popularity gravel riding was being done on bikes that were kludged together for many years, it would appear that what actually happened is the industry responded to consumer demand. But if you need the narrative to be the industry controlling what happens, thats cool since it certainly is applicable to the sport in some instances. And is it really bad if an industry creates a product and then works for demand to meet the product? Thats how a lot of advances in technology(across all industries) happen.

Bowlers own multiple balls. Knitters own tons of different needles and types of yarn. Equestrians own multiple horses. Golfers own shot specific clubs and often times multiple types of the same club. Fishermen own uncountable amounts of lures and reels.
Cyclists then own multiple bikes.
Hobbies often lead to specialization of utility items.


As for the differences between CX and gravel being minor, yes that is true that the differences can be minor. They can also me quite major. It totally depends on what specific bikes you are comparing because again, the tent that is gravel covers a lot of ground.

eduskator

Whoever spins the well is indeed a good question. Might be one, might be the other, might be the two...

My university degree is in business management & marketing. I am clearly biased.

WhyFi

Do you feel that the differentiation is warranted in the case of road race vs road endurance? I certainly do and have no qualms about it with gravel bikes, either - the shorthand that helps to indicate what I can expect in terms of geometry and features is welcomed, in fact. If I had to pour over geometry charts and bullet points for every drop bar bike, it'd be a right pain in the ass. One can choose to look at it as Evil Big Bike trying to separate fools from their money or one can look at it as making it easier for prospective buyers to find the features that they want.

MoAlpha

A believer in the magic of the Market would probably say it's both and bully for it!

eduskator

Profit being the main goal of a business, I must tend towards the dark side of the force. As I said, I am biased.

caloso

Yep. I race CX on a straightup race bike, but it's fun on gravel. Heck, I've ridden it on singletrack and done some of the local mtb races on it.

FlashBazbo

Lots of good opinion in this thread. Generally speaking, you can't lump all gravel bikes into a single category -- primarily because so many manufacturers cynically just glued a "gravel" label onto whatever bike (usually a CX bike or an endurance bike) they thought they could pass off as a gravel bike. But I'm going to lump non-pretender, purpose-built gravel bikes into a category I'll call "real" gravel bikes.

A "real" gravel bike, to me, makes the most sense of all. It has road thru axles and disc brakes so, with a change of wheels, it can do everything from road races to touring to endurance to CX to gravel to easy MTB trails. Wide range road gearing. Lots of tire clearance -- but 50mm of tire clearance doesn't keep you from mounting up a set of 23mm tires. A lower bottom bracket than a "real" CX bike -- which also means better stability in the rough stuff than a CX bike (but less crank clearance on side slopes). A gravel bike is better called an "allroad bike" because it is a very good bike for a huge variety of surfaces.

My OPEN (a "real" gravel bike) comes within about .1 to .15 mph average speed, compared to my BMC SLR01 on smooth roads with the same wheels and tires. On chipseal roads, it's as fast or faster. And when rough roads or gravel or mud or dirt roads or cattle trails come around, the BMC stays at home. The OPEN is clearly superior. It's a couple pounds heavier, but for a lot of situations, it's just the better bike. And it takes a licking and keeps on ticking.

If I had to have just one bike, it would be a "real" gravel bike. It's the only bike sufficiently versatile to cover literally everything I want to do with a bike.

WhyFi

So the differentiation isn't warranted in either case?

I've got a lot of experience in front-line sales, though not with bikes. I think that having sub-categories is great and see it as an extension of language - it's a shorthand that can convey generalizations and get people on the same page pretty quickly. At the same time, I know that buyers are generally not that dumb and they're going to buy the number of bikes that they're going to buy - some people are just two bike kind of people, whereas others are hoarders regardless. I don't think that bestowing a name upon a set of characteristics is going to move the needle much in that regard, though it just might provide a way of scratching an existing, and otherwise elusive, itch.

billyymc

The main goal of businesses putting out gravel bikes was to provide more stupid **** for BF members to argue about.

topflightpro

I too was at first skeptical of the need for a gravel bike. I am not in to gravel, and on the few times I've gone on gravel rides, I've used my 10-year-old cross bike.

That said, I have several friends who have gotten very into it. And from what I hear from them, the gravel bikes are pretty different from what is out there. The tire clearance alone is huge. And the variety of tire options depending on type of gravel or terrain is quite impressive. And some of the innovations, like Canyon's flex bar, are pretty neat too.

Still, one could probably put drop bars on a hardtail mountain bike and have a hell of a gravel bike. (The new Evil gravel bike looks a lot like that.)

(And I say all this as someone who spends all his time doing track racing on 21 tubulars.)

Cypress

But soooooo ugly

WhyFi

Hideous.

AdkMtnMonster

Never thought I’d see a post on this forum eschewing the need or desire to have N+1 bikes.

Ok, so why does anyone need any style of bike that is different (or does different things) than their current bike? Well, does an artist have one brush, a chef only one pot, a mechanic only one tool? A real bike rider has need of many steeds. Many steeds, indeed. (But never recumbents or trikes.)

Seattle Forrest

​​​​​​No, you're wrong about that.

Paul Barnard

Gravel bikes are becoming rigid drop bar MTBs. Is anyone making a full suspension gravel bike?

WhyFi

Niner, though I'm not sure if it's on the market yet. Not sure what kind of travel, either.

tyrion

Yes. "Like butter" Clint says.

Paul Barnard

Oh dang! I'd ride that.

tomato coupe

Some are, but others are becoming road bikes that just take wider tires.

Paul Barnard

Either way, I like them. Lynskey is having a 35% off sale right now, and it is taking every bit of restraint I have to abstain from ordering a gravel frame.

Trsnrtr

Same. I had a Colnago exactly like the OP’s, nice machine, but my cheapo gravel bike is a more pleasant bike to ride. My gravel bike approaches the feel of my road bike but isn’t a prima donna when it sees something other than smooth asphalt.

bikemig 

Before gravel bikes became a "thing" with specialized bikes, gravel bikes were just old bikes that people repurposed (gravel mutts). I liked that. It reminded me of the very early days of mountain bikes when old Schwinns were repurposed to ride off road. The point is that gravel riding is nowhere near as technical as single track and a lot of bikes can do the job well. In fact old road bikes were designed for crummy roads.

Mountain bikes blew up the bike industry in really interesting ways not the least of which is that fatter tires and more forgiving gearing open up crummy roads with fewer cars. As drivers become more distracted with their toys, those gravel roads become more appealing. I've thought about buying a gravel bike because they pack a lot of cool technology but then I have an older bike--a '93 Bridgestone XO 2 (road geometry, 26 inch wheels) that does the job well enough for me. I wouldn't mind a lighter bike and I'd love to have disc brakes but the XO 2 with cantilevers does the job.

TMonk

I tend to think of gravel bikes as more capable cyclocross bikes... wider tires, more relaxed geo, lower BB, more "beefy". Don't some real cross bikes not even have water bottle cage mounts? Don't need those in a cross race where you'll be shouldering the bike a bit. Cross bikes are best suited for cross races, where gravel bikes are better suited to support an all-day mixed surface ride.

Having said that I have 0 experience owning or riding either so take that FWIW (not much)