firebird854

Would you consider this combination a full suspension gravel bike? Just a thought, might throw this together in the future...
TOPSTONE CARBON 105 + Lauf Grit - Lauf Fork

I personally love the idea of a little extra give in a gravel bike, because, if I went gravel I'd want something more than an endurance road bike + slightly wider tires. I also like the above thought because there would be essentially no maintenance, it's all gravel/allroad specific suspension (unlike aftershock or iso speed decouples, which seem to be meant more for eliminating road buzz).

burnthesheep

Drop bar 29er has been an idea for ages.

I think that once the compliance gets to be "that" much on a gravel bike, you've just eliminated parts of the bike making it faster than going with a 29er in the first place............weight, geometry, stiffness.

Sure, I wish I could take my gravel/cross bike on "more" stuff than I do. But, in doing so I suddenly ruin any speed advantage it has on the easier stuff or on any blacktop that happens to be between the offroad stuff.

While aero of road geometry matters, the CRR of some people's gravel tires they run is just silly slow.

It's an odd art to find what is fastest for what you like to ride or race.

badger1

Sure, but why not just go all-in? Should be available soon:

Kedosto

Bombtrack Hook ADV. No need to look any further.


-Kedosto

Canker

For the kind of gravel riding the groups I ride with yes. We always end up on "roads" that are more 4 wheeler trails and/or single track but there is also a lot of beat up pavement and normal gravel so I don't want to drag around a mtn bike just for those really rough sections.

seau grateau

We're all just gonna be riding full-suspension mountain bikes in 10 years.

firebird854

Specifically because that is wildly more expensive and I would probably have to maintain those shocks somehow (correct me if I'm wrong, as I'm a total roadie).

Banzai

What sub forum am I reading?

mstateglfr 

I guess its a full suspension since the rear pivots and the front squishes.

'Gravel' varies greatly from region to region, state to state, and even county to county. What one persons rides will be different from what another person rides, and then there are those who want their gravel road bike to be a singletrack bike too so they want something even more different.
I would need to ride over a lot worse than the gravel and level-B roads in Iowa to want something with full suspension.

Tires give suspension and absorb vibration.
Get a redshift stem to provide a little suspension and absorb vibration.
Get some flared bars to provide a more comfortable and secure hand position when riding over gravel. It will allow you to be more secure while holding the bar lighter, therefore absorbing less vibration.


If I rode in a place where gravel roads looked like the streets of bombed out Mogadishu, then yeah a full suspension would be nice.

TimothyH

It isn't just compliance - suspension travel.

A mountain bike suspension is tuned for high amplitude, low frequency hits - large bumps, rocks, roots and jumps. Bottoming out the suspension is typically something designers try to avoid.

A grave bike suspension such as the Niner MCR is tuned for low amplitude, high frequency hits similar to the constant small bumps and vibrations one would find when riding over chunky gravel. The designers assume the suspension will bottom out occasionally, or even frequently.


MTB and gravel suspensions are designed to maximize grip and traction. Rider comfort is a concern but it is secondary to traction.

Redshift and other similar products such as decouplers on road bikes are not suspensions. Their design goal is comfort. They do nothing to maximize traction.

Two different design goals, two different classes of products, two different discussions.


-Tim-

HTupolev

If the suspension is low-travel and tuned for high-frequency low-amplitude stuff, it's usually designed to avoid bottom-out by being very stiff and/or progressive. Bottom-out is sometimes inevitable, but pretty much always undesirable.

They're mechanisms that use springs (sometimes explicit, sometimes integral to the system) to isolate the rider from surface irregularities. They're only "not suspension" insofar as marketing teams like to avoid calling them "suspension" because "suspension" is a dirty word in road cycling.

It's true that they're not as effective at maximizing traction as they would be if they were lower down in the system, but they're likely still able to improve rolling efficiency by minimizing transmitted deflection to the rider.