kosmo886

So i've now spent a few months with my Revolt Advanced 0 gravel bike and am finding that I use it primarily for faster road riding. In hindsight, if I did this again, I'd just get a proper road bike, but I valued the versatility when I made the purchase, and still like that I can have two wheelsets for this bike. Maybe in a few years I'll spring for an upgraded road setup. I've already put road tires on the wheels, upgraded the original chainring from 48 to 52 teeth and setup the handlebars to a more "road" position by lowering then and swapping out the stem. My next and probably last item is considering replacing the stock carbon gravel wheels for a set of aero road wheels. I can probably get this done for a net cost of somewhere around 1k, maybe a little more. Given a gravel bike has a wide clearance and isn't the most aero thing in the world, is it likely I get the same aero wheel benefits as if they were going on a road bike? ie. 1-2mph difference in speed? I typically ride around 20mph avg over a 30ish mile ride, so should be in the speed range where benefits are there to be had.

Any thoughts on this progression from gravel bike to road bike would be helpful...especially if others have similar experiences.

nomadmax 

If it were me I'd ride the wheels off of it as is. Changing parts is expensive and it really never amounts to a big difference. Save your money, get your use out of your current bike THEN buy something more specific to your riding style after you've worn it out.

PoorInRichfield

Looking at the Revolt Advanced 0, it is pretty much the same as an endurance road bike with a spiffy rock guard on the downtube. Short of a road wheel set and a gravel wheel set, I don't see any how you'd gain by "road-ifying" the bike any more than it already is. Heck, as you get older, you'll be thankful that your gravel bike has all the built-in comfort features that it has that hard-core road bikes don't... so you're just "ahead of your time" with the bike you've got!
Really? Dang... you're a fast rider if you're pulling that kind of average by yourself.

guadzilla

You are not going to get a 1-2mph improvement in speed with just aero wheels. Anyone who tells you that is feeding you a line of baloney. My ride speeds are fairly similar to yours - I did a 100km ride today at 20mph / 32kph on the dot today on my steel bike with box section wheels and 37mm tire. Had I taken out my Venge with 64mm wheels and Turbo Cottons, I *may* have averaged 1kph more, I reckon?

The positive way to look at this is - you arent losing that much in the way of speed because you have a gravel bike instead of a pure road bike. So you might as well give it the carbon love it deserves.

kosmo886

Interesting. I know none of this is exact, I’ve just seen lots of online test that seem to indicate fairly significant improvement in speed from aero wheels. I have carbon wheels on the bike now that are fairly light, just not aero in any way. Given I use it primarily as a road bike I guess I may as well make the leap as you suggest, but perhaps temper my expectations. I am guessing I will notice other ride quality benefits?

PoorInRichfield

Quite the contrary. Deep wheels will be harder to ride in cross-winds and more harsh because they'll be more rigid than what you have now.

colnago62

Wheels are the least aero “bang for the buck”. You will gain more in buying a good skin suit then from wheels. However, you can ride a bike without a skin suit, but you can’t ride a bike without wheels. Carbon wheels are stiffer and many are now coming with pretty good replacement warranties so that it makes sense to buy a carbon wheelset.

https://www.active.com/cycling/artic...enefits?page=1

guadzilla

Yeah, i have heard the same stories - people going 1-2mph faster, beating their PBs "without even trying" and all that jazz. Makes me wonder if they used superglue to grease the hubs on their previous wheels.

They make a difference in speed for sure - but it isnt something we can perceive on our daily rides, as it falls within the threshold of the ride to ride variation caused by external conditions. If you are doing it for speed, do so as part of an overall focus on efficency: proper fitting kit, good position, aero road helmet, fast tires, latex tubes, etc. They do look great, though and they go "whoosh whoosh". That's all the reason you need to get a pair

Tycho Brahe 

The crank is only a 32/48. I noticed the difference when I went down from a 52 to 50 (mid-compact to compact). Would need to learn how to get aero on descents and not really on the top gear.

Rides4Beer

I road bike my Revolt, and it gives up very little in speed to a "racier" road bike. Prob a handful of watts in aero. But I wouldn't expect any huge gains from a wheelset or even a new road bike. That being said, there's nothing wrong with getting new wheels, or a new bike!

kosmo886

I already swapped to a 52 chainring as i was spinning out on descents quite a bit.

Psimet2001 

I really just came here for the schadenfreude surrounding that title. I hate what our industry continually does so I enjoy when the consumers push it back to where it has always come back to for over a century.

Didn't read everything but putting deep aero wheels on a cross (uh... "gravel" or "adventure") bike is like putting lipstick on a pig: can you do it? Yes, but what's the point?

I can easily ride faster on my road bike (on roads) than any of the cross/gravel bikes I have. Is it because of one piece of equipment or another? nah. Just the cumulative effect of being a road bike

Chi_Z

cheapest way to gain massive aero is to actually work on your core and change the stem to -17D assuming it is already slammed

Seattle Forrest

Gravel bikes have things like clearance for > 33 mm tires, and frame mounts for bento boxes. Cross bikes are real spartan.

Deep rims tend to make for stronger wheels, all else being equal, and that's more important on gravel. Also, I think most people who have a gravel bike don't ride it exclusively on gravel. You know how awful it is to ride a MTB with knobbies and a bad suspension on the road, yeah? Deep wheels are like the marginal gains version of that, so you can still feel fast on the pavement.

mstateglfr 

Do you need the 4t larger chain ring? If you are legitimately spinning out on 48/11, then sure. Thats a big change though.
And did you change the small ring to 36? If not, look into it since its kinda sorta what you should do.

Buy quality road tires and not gatorskins or whatever.

After that, the bike is 97% an endurance road bike for all but the most talented on two wheels.

The differences aren't magical or revolutionary. My gravel bike has similar geometry to my road bikes and if I put road tires on the grsvel bike, it would perform pretty much the same as my road bikes.
Gravel roads are roads. It doesn't need to be complicated.

basscadet

I have a light gravel bike with fast 35mm gravel kings, 11-34 cassette Ultegra Di2. I tried to build this bike to be as road friendly as possible. Rented a Scott Addict 10 endurance bike with 28mm tires and that thing SMOKES my Open UP, and the Scott is a heavier bike.

Not sure why I was sustaining higher speeds and climbing easier, but I’m buying a Canyon Ultimate and I don’t care what anybody says, road bikes are faster on roads than gravel bikes full stop.

all that said, my Open UP will remain my primary bike as I haven’t ridden anything that makes me smile as much.

GlennR

I wanted a more "rugged" bike for winter riding and a the time the Cannondale SuperX fit my needs.... wider tires, hydro disc and 1x drivetrain.

I put on my spare road saddle, switched bars from 44cm to 42cm and since I wanted to keep the stock rims and 35mm knobby tires for trail riding, I added a set of Zipp 30 Course and Bontrager 32mm AWS tubeless.

It's 20# vs the 14# of my road bike but it rides amazingly on the rougher surfaces with sand and debris during the winter.

So you can make a gravel/CX into a road use bike.

Sy Reene

Off the bat, a pair of 35mm Gravelkings are likely losing about 15 or so watts to typical 28mm road/race tires (eg. Conti gp5ks).. If you were building your OpenUp to be as "road friendly as possible", starting with 35mm Gravelkings doesn't seem to make sense.

basscadet

Sy - you're right, the tires were a concession based on my needs. I wanted the "minimal gravel capable" tire that was also the quickest on pavement. I was not very clear what I wrote above.

GlennR

Get 2 sets of wheels, or and compromise will be poor performers at both.

guadzilla

Interestingly, my experience has been different. I have a Venge with CLX64s/Dura Ace Di2/24c Turbo Cottons and a custom steel CX bike with Velocity rims/105/Gravelking 35 slicks. The former is a little over 7kg, the latter is just under 10kg. While i am sure the latter bike is slower, it isnt noticeably so (to be fair, I live in a pancake flat area).

You know how when you ride, your speed is typically within a certain range for a given wattage, depending on typical wind variance? The difference between the 2 bikes falls within that range for me. Put another way - when i look at the avg/NP for the ride and compare it to the speed for the steel bike, it falls within the same parameters as my carbon bike.

That said, I dont think the two are the same. If I had to guess, I'd say I am giving up about -1 1.5kph with the steel bike (based on the distribution of speeds I get with the 2 bikes). But it isnt enormous either.

mattscq

I did the opposite and got a second set of wheels for my road bike for occasional gravel. I was lucky that my frame could accommodate up to 35c (manufacturer said 30 I think but people online have confirmed it and my 32 tires fit with plenty of room left). I ended up getting a set of 48mm aero wheels for my road set and frankly, I think the tires made the most difference in the ride feel. I haven't done any real trials and tests to see how much faster my aero rims are compared to my old ones (which are now gravel wheels) but I have an anecdotal sense that they are faster (that and/or I am better at keeping a lower more aero profile myself and I'm getting a little fitter). However, new wheels are obscenely expensive and I wouldn't have gotten aero wheels if they weren't a deal.

Long story short, I found the biggest difference in gravel vs road were the tires. Do keep in mind I'm just a recreational rider so there may be factors I'm not thinking about or worried about which may matter to you.

jmm77

The one thing you cannot change is the frame geometry. Look at the wheelbase, headtube angle etc and this all points to a much more stable, slacker ride than a road bike. You will never get rid of those ride characteristics. My suggestion is to sell the bike and the get the one you want.

This is what I did. I sold my 2019 revolt adv 0 this summer. Compared to other endurance bikes it was just not snappy enough on the road no matter what changes I made to wheels and tires.

mattscq

To continue my thought from earlier, how important are incremental/marginal gains for you? I found the difference between my road bike with road tires and road bike with gravel tires (all else being equal) to be immense. I still feel that my gravel tires (32mm Gravelking SK+) are much more sluggish than my road tires (formerly Grandprix 4000 IIs but now Grandprix 5000, both 25mm).

I would only consider getting a separate bike if I did much more off-roading as I would imagine I may want a slightly more upright position and I would want a wider rear cassette range (I'm still running 11-30 since that's what my RD is limited to and I've always had bad luck mixing cassettes as it seems to throw off alignments all the time).

I'm still convinced that a lot of bike geometry stuff is psychological and depending on your fitness/age etc. your body can adapt to a lot of things you can only change with a new bike. I'm not even sure if my Gravelkings are really that much slower: they just feel that way, but hey, if you've got the space, money, and passion, get all the bikes!

PeteHski

As others have said, you are not going to suddenly see a 1-2 mph difference in your average speed with a set of aero wheels (unless you get fitter). Even in the pro peloton you don't see everyone riding deep aero rims unless in a TT.