Originally Posted by
sewupnut
Sort of agree. Same principal as with 27.5" and even 29". To sell more bikes. Suspect I could out-gravel "gravelers" with any moderately price cross bike or vintage mountain bike. Have held my own with these guys riding my old '86 Stump Jumper. And a lot more comfortable on that 35 yo Brooks Saddle . In the olden days did many gravel/dirt roads on a touring bike and sometimes on sewups, But if you want to spend your money... Keep in mind, this is just one opinion of one eccentric biker.
Sort of true. In some ways, gravel bikes aren't too different from first generation mountain bikes. But gravel bikes will almost surely be faster on pavement and random dirt roads. A gravel bike allows you to ride to trails, link trails, and pretty much ride on any surface in between. My typical gravel rides (I've only been doing it about 6 months) are about 25-30% pavement, 40-60% dirt fire roads (ranging from hard pack to loose sand to rutted), and the rest single-track or double-track trails that would be super-easy on a modern MTB but are nice and challenging on a gravel bike. On the road segments, I'm almost as fast as on my road bike.