Polaris OBark

I've looked at a lot of photos, viewed the movie, etc, and have seen the profiles of a bunch of the bikes and riders who did the race, but for "normal" riders, would a gravel bike be tractable?

I still day-dream of doing this ride before (or perhaps during) death, and I have a drop-bar mountain bike that is designed for this kind of riding, but my gravel bike is much lighter and more enjoyable to ride. Most of it looks pretty tame, apart from the mud-pits, which I doubt I could do on a proper mountain bike anyway.

However, this doesn't look like the kind of thing you would want to be under-biked for. I worry mostly about sand and very rough, technical bits.

unterhausen

There are tourists that do it. I'm not sure if there are alternate routes, but a lot of it is just gravel roads, so it would be fine on a gravel bike. Someone in town did the race, I'll have to ask him what he thinks about this question

niknak

I only rode the GDMBR from Banff to Whitefish in 2012. A lot may have changed since then. But I wouldn't want to do it on a gravel bike. There are lots of long climbs followed by long descents. I can't imagine being hunched over my drop bars for a rough and loose 5 mile descent. My neck and back would hate it. I'd also hate riding on skinny tires. It would be punishing. I think a minimum of 2.2s is necessary.

If your gravel bike has its bars at least level with the saddle and if it can fit wide tires then it might be fine.

If I were to ride the route again I'd use a rigid mountain bike with 29x2.6 tires, maybe put aero bars on it for the milder, flatter sections, pack light, and enjoy the beauty all around.

Polaris OBark

The bike I "should" use is a drop-bar (by design) mountain bike, currently with 2.8" 650b Nobby Nicks. The bars sit high above the saddle.