Eric F 

Where did anyone say that a gravel bike must have drop bars? It’s typical that they do because riders have found multiple options for hand and body position to be beneficial in conditions where a gravel bike is often used, but there’s no requirement for drop bars. I’ve seen a variety of different handlebar types used on bikes that are otherwise very similar.

The hoods on my gravel bike are about the same seat-hands drop distance as my MTB. There is no vision disadvantage. Also, my neck works the way it’s supposed to.

EDIT: How is it a “gimmick”? The bike industry responded to how riders are using their bikes, and it has evolved into an identifiable sub-genre. It started with riders putting together bikes that fit the way they were riding. Same as MTBs.

Jeff Neese

I would guess you're a fan of Grant Petersen, as am I, along with his book "Just Ride". He sort of says the same thing in that book, and that's the spirit of Rivendell Bicycles.

Maelochs

I had a good response but it didn't load .... maybe I can recreate it and improve it.

Gravel bikes are tools for certain jobs.

Nobody says "TT bikes are just marketing devices." Nobody much questions why there are endurance and race-geometry bikes. A lot of people think recumbents are weird ... and a lot of recumbent riders simply don't care.

When there were no mountain bikes, and the Repackers were riding balloon-tire beach cruisers down mountains, they saw a value to bikes actually made to work really well off-road.

Nowadays no one sensible would say "MTB" is just a made-up product division just to attract suckers.

I know a lot of people who don't want to ride tough single-track. Some are older, some are just more road-oriented and don't see the joy in bouncing and bashing over rocks and roots and trying to explode up a stepped climb, maneuver across the lip, and plunge down a tricky rock-garden into a mud pool. They prefer the more road-oriented style of riding at a steady pace, sometimes pushing, sometimes not ... but doing it not in suburbia. surrounded by strip malls while sharing the roads with cellphone-zombies and road-rage attacks about to happen.

These guys really enjoy a mostly smooth surface, which wider, softer tires and a long seat post can pretty much make pleasant ... and they prefer to ride out in nature, surrounded by trees and ponds and streams and stuff, rather than obnoxious drivers who think bikes shouldn't allowed on roads and not really anywhere else.

They go out solo or in pairs or small groups or even on large group rides, and they post cool pictures of their rides on their Facebook pages, or on local gravel-bike club pages. The bikes look pretty cool (to me) and the terrain looks really appealing---all of my rides start in suburbia and the majority of them never escape from it.

These folks could not care less if some one thinks their pleasure is some marketing gimmick, because they are doing what they like and they have bought or built bikes which do it really, really well.

They call them "gravel bikes."

retswerb

I was wondering how to pronounce that too. "All-terr'n" and "Grav'l", perhaps?

Jughed

Same for BMX, CX…

When I was a kid the Schwinn Sing Ray was being hacked into BMX bikes… then then the BMX specific bike was built. I had the first one in the neighborhood- a 1980 Schwinn Phantom Scrambler. Then came the specific freestyle and flatland BMX bikes.

I now wish that my fully decked out Skyway TA never got stolen - they are worth some dollar bucks.

big john

I don't know a lot about Grant but I tend to disagree with some of the things I've heard he says. Haven't thought about him in a long time and I'm not sure what I said that you say he says.

wolfchild

Bike industry said so...Large majority of bikes which are marketed as gravel bikes come with drop bars from the factory. I think that's wrong because not everybody likes drop bars. Luckily there are some higher performance hybrids which have almost the same frame geometry as gravel bikes and come equipped with flat bars or riser bars and have the same tire clearance as gravel bikes, these hybrids are perfect for people who don't like drop bars.

shelbyfv

It's true that not everyone likes drop bars. However, in my experience the majority of folks who ride significant distances prefer drops for those rides. There are plenty of flat bar bikes available but the majority are drop because that's what riders want.

tomato coupe

I hate it when bike companies produce what their customers want.

Koyote

I get your point, but the numbers are nonsense. In twenty minutes, those gravel bikes would cover four miles at just 12 mph; and you're claiming to have CAUGHT them within four miles? Nope, no, nyet.

Jeff Neese

One of his mantras is along the lines of "Ride your bike like when you were a kid. It's supposed to be fun". Also Rivendell bikes are not high-tech in any way, just good old-fashioned fun and reliable bikes. He says that the sport of bicycle racing is what drives new products that are then heavily marketed, with very few actual benefits to non-professional riders. He calls us "unracers" and suggests that we can successfully reject new bicycle tech unless it has real benefits to us unracers. I'm paraphrasing all this of course.

Most people say the same thing about Grant, they don't agree with everything he says. But there's also a lot to like about his philosophy and I'd say most of what he says is true, in my experience.

Maelochs

As I noted ... there are a lot of people buying and riding gravel bikes quite happily, ignorant and completely uninterested in what other people like or what other people think they should like.

I can tolerate it when bike companies produce what their customers want, but it bothers me that people want different things. We should all want the same thing .... right?

As far as Grant Petersen and all the people who said, "I rode [insert discipline] just fine on my 1960s Schwinn (or whatever)---yeah, a basic bike can be used to do a lot of things. Specialized bikes can do those things better.

Go try to enter your 40-pound 1960s Schwinn in a serious time trial, or a local road race, or a local MTB race, or run a pro-level downhill run, or take it out in soft sand where the fat bikes play ... and tell me again that all those other bikes are just pointless fluff and folly. Sorry, but some tools are designed and built to do some jobs very well.

If you want to go to a hospital and tell the doctors to toss all their instruments and just use vice-grips and a Swiss Army Knife ... cool, because you will get evicted, arrested, or institutionalized, depending on your fervor.

Go to a professional mechanic and suggest s/he give up all his/her tools except a pair of channel locks. Tell them Grant Petersen said to. See how it goes.

Yeah, we all rode our bikes on trails and such when we were kids. Now we own bikes that can do those things better. Sounds like progress is you say it just right.

tcs

Sailboats.

https://usonedesign.com/open-bic-1/

ThermionicScott 

Indeed, it is strange. Usually OP starts troll threads to imply that bents are better.

rydabent

But it still seems when you come right down to it, a "gravel" bike is not that much different than most bikes. That gets us back to just hype and salesmanship by the bike companies latching onto a word that lets them sell more bikes. Not that it isnt a good thing.

big john

That part I agree with. A few people in my club have had the bikes. One of my friends had 2 of them at the same time, an Atlantis and a Rambouilet.
He put some big tires on the Atlantis and did a little mixed surface riding.

big john

Do you really want to know the differences between a gravel bike and a road bike? If you look at Cannondale, for example, and compare their endurance road bike with their gravel offering you will see the differences in geometry. The gravel frame has a longer wheelbase and much slacker head angle. It also has a higher bottom bracket and slacker seat tube angle. Also shorter reach and stack numbers.

The gravel bike is sold with 40mm tires while the roadie has 30s. Gravel bikes tend to have stronger forks and the Cannondale has a joint in the rear triangle to allow a little give. It's also equipped with lower gearing, different bars, and other parts chosen for the dirt.

So you can call it "hype" or whatever you want. "Gimmick" was another word you chose, though you left the k out, The fact is, bikes are built to ride on dirt roads and trails. They are called gravel bikes. In the motorcycling world they would be called dual sport. Maybe not for everyone.

shelbyfv

The differences aren't insignificant. You won't find or fit 40ish mm tires on most road bikes or the easier (46/30 or 1X) gearing. Both are appreciated, perhaps even necessary for unpaved riding in many locales. Certainly gravel has been the trendy thing for the past 10 years or so but it's different usage, not "just hype." Think MTBs in the 1980s. Or... you may be correct and all of us who have bought and enjoyed gravel bikes are just ignorant sheep, duped again by BigBike. BTW, good to see you extending your troll to new subjects. Seems lots of folks who normally have you on ignore are participating, just to show appreciation.

tyrion

I love fat tires (2") and drop bars. I think that's a wonderful combination for versatility, just all purpose riding on a variety of surfaces.

tomato coupe

The Vegas oddsmakers say there's a 94% likelihood he's going to be spouting the same old stuff within 6 posts.

Eric F 

You’re right. A gravel bike isn’t that much different. However, what you seem to be missing is that the small differences are important to the riders who enjoy riding gravel bikes.

Maelochs

Dude, a 'bent is not different than most bikes. a pennyfarthing is not different from most bikes. No bike is very different from any other bike.

All edged tools have cutting edges. Do you want your surgeon to use a halberd, a Zweihander, or a scalpel when he operates on you? How about a garden hoe?

You are totally in the grip of Big Scalpel. Sell-out.

Maelochs

By thew way, Mr. Rydabent ... the point I keep making is that "gravel" is not a fake distinction made up by marketers, but a distinct variety of bike riding in which large numbers of people happily engage. Just as you prefer to ride 'bents on MUPs, some folks prefer to ride wide-tired road bikes on gravel roads.

If you really cared about the truth, you could look up gravel-riding clubs ... I know there are several because two in this region needed to work out their names--both had picked the same name at around the same time which was causing confusion online. If you cared to actually learn the truth you could find that hordes of people prefer that specific style of cycling---riding wide-tired road bikes on dirt. most of them that I know came form a road background and either wanted a new experience or got tied of sharing the road with dangerous drivers.

You keep ignoring information which doesn't match your prejudices ... it makes me think maybe you have gotten Too old.

Seriously, old dogs can learn new tricks, and you can learn about gravel riding. Bonus---if you find gravel roads on flat terrain, your trike ought to be well-suited. You might need to put a knobby on the back.

big john

I know a couple guys who ride e-trikes on dirt.

Eric F 

When has that ever happened?