Originally Posted by
Moisture
On average, most of the gravel bikes I see, have a top tube, Reach and chainstay length maybe 10mm longer than a standard road bike. There are bikes such as the specialized diverge or Whyte Glencoe, which tend to split the difference between a road/MTB more intimately, by offering a longer reach, top tube, and shorter length to compensate. The longer overall wheelbase paired with relatively shorter stem seems to offer an interesting compromise between the spectrum of high speed stability and low speed manevourabilty, agility.
What would you consider to be the sweet spot in terms of a truly capable multisurface bike; one that knows no compromise in the search of speed, stability and comfort?
After looking around, it seems as though light suspension, sort of like the Cannondale Topstone Carbon Lefty, or the hydraulic headset shock in Specialized bikes, and 650b wheels with thick cushioning tired seems to provide this balance. The idea of cushioning, dampening, bump absorption is what allows engineers to achieve more than ever before when it comes to a bike that truly does it all.
The reason some gravel bikes have more MTB-like quasi-progressive geometry while others have more road-like geometry is because bike designers and cyclists in general have differing preferences. There’s no consensus on what a gravel bike is for. Some people like racing and want a road bike with bigger tires. Some people want to go bike packing. Other people want to shred downhills. That last one got taken to ridiculous extremes when Evil put out the Sammy Hagar last year or the year before, with enduro bike geometry and an accompanying marketing campaign that more-or-less openly claimed that road bikes don’t have progressive geometry because road bike designers are hidebound morons. Personally I think progressive geo really sucks when you aren’t on a steep descent, but is pretty dang good when you are on one. It all goes to show there’s really no such things as “no compromise,” and you should just try to make the compromise you like best.