Originally Posted by
XxHaimBondxX
I am basically trying to gauge the difference between these 3 types, other than tire width. Also, I'm not asking about current bikes, since mine are at least decade old. Back then, Terras were sold as cyclocross bikes.
Gravel didn’t really exist as a bike segment 10 years ago.
Generally speaking (and talking about new bikes):
Endurance Road: more relaxed geometry than traditional road race with higher stack and shorter reach. Usually clears wider tires for a more comfortable ride, but still has steeper head tube angles for sharp handling, and traditional 2x road gearing. Some aero shaping on tubes. Most endurance road bikes would work well for tame gravel.
Cyclocross: Race specific bikes designed to go fast on mild off-road terrain and mud tracks with tight/twisty corners for short duration. Bikes have high bottom brackets for clearance in tight corners and bunny hopping barriers. Steep head tube angles and short chainstays for fast turns and acceleration on climbs. Bikes are designed around 33mm tire widths with additional room for mud. Some hardcore CX race bikes have no mounts for bottles, fenders, bags, etc. CX bikes typically have narrow range 1x gearing. CX bikes can sometimes make good road and gravel bikes with some modifications to gearing, but might lack things that bikes specifically designed for those purposes would have.
Gravel: it’s a huge spectrum ranging from road style bikes used for smooth dirt paths/roads, to gnarly single track and bike backing. Gravel bikes generally are long and low for stability, have lower range gearing and many mounts for bags, bottles, fenders, etc. plus 45mm+ tire clearances. Gravel race bikes have more road-like geometry with aggressively low stack and longer reach, and adventure oriented gravel bikes have more MTB like geometry with more upright position and slacker head tube angles.