What a great and perfectly timed video. I find myself reaching for my gravel bike over my road bike all the time these days. It's way more comfortable than my road bike and allows me to go on all the roads that are in pretty bad condition but have no traffic. I'm pleasantly surprised with the results. I was debating what bike to bring to to the Alps on holidays and I think you worked it out for me. I'm not looking to break records on the way up but I do prefer the disc breaks over the rim coming down. Thanks.
Best gravel/road comparison test video I’ve seen! Everyone else swaps the tires to road tires on both bikes. This is an actual comparison of bike categories! Thank you!!
Plenty of gravel bikes are more aero than road bikes. Even my chunky Grizl is faster than my first gen Cervelo Soloist(fastest aero bike you could buy 15yrs ago) with 2 bottles on both bikes
I actually ride a Kona Rove DL with 650b wheels and am surprised at how easily and comfortably it rides on the road. I’m running 47mm Maxis Receptor tires and on my workout I’m averaging about 13 mph with a 1800 foot elevation climb.
After buying my first gravelbike I sold my road bike. I am now on my 2 nd gravelbike, use it for commuting, road and gravel riding. Fits me, as most of the times I don’t plan my routes and just go where it takes me…
A follow up test, using 32-38mm slicks on the gravel would probably narrow those numbers a lot. I will say having done climbing on my "heavy" bike and my "weight weenie" bike, my fastest time up my local mountain, is on my "heavy" bike... which annoys me to no end. Sometimes things feel faster than the data shows and maybe that is all that matters.
@@veganpotterthevegan I did but my power was all over the place, so it would be useless as a scientific test. The faster climb was on a really hot day as well. I just find it distressing that an 8100g bike was faster than a 6300g bike up a climb I do regularly.
@echtogammut that's not true. Your normalized power would be a very effective metric. So what you're saying is that you have no data. Plain and simple, you were riding harder or just had one of magic leg days.
In my experience the biggest problem is the 1x drivetrain if you want to ride in the group. The range is perfectly good but the steps between the gears are much bigger and keeping the right cadence while riding in a group of roadies is impossible. If you want to replace your road bike with a gravel bike, get a bike with 2 chain rings and maybe an extra set of wheels with some wider fast rolling road tires and it will be perfectly fine.
I just rode Vätternrundan 315 on my gravel bike, but with slick tires. Main reason was that I believed that the slightly more relaxed riding position on the gravel bike would be an advantage when doing such a long ride.
Very interesting as we were debating this on our ride yesterday. I have a Tarmac SL and a Crux Gravel bike, both S-Works models, and there is hardly a difference in weight between the two bikes. I think the biggest difference on group rides is the one by on the Gravel bike on steep long down hills as you spin out at about 55km/h. On the flats and up hills I have no problem keeping up with the group (running a Sram Red 10/44 with a 42 on front). Would say in a bike road race I would definitely take my road bike but for everyday riding I love riding my gravel bike for its comfort and versatility ...ride safe
I rode my 2021 Checkpoint SL 5 for over a year with my shop guys and I had no issues keeping and also leading the rides. I rode tubeless Pirelli 40s H's and had no issues keeping up.
I’ve had #onebike for years - a Spesh Crux w 2 sets of wheels (w 10/50 cassette on both). I ride gravel, CX and road. Road w 32mm slicks, grav w 42mm semi-slicks, CX w 33mm Tracer light nobbies. Lately I haven’t been changing wheelsets coz the 33mm CX tyres give up next to nothing on the road/hills and I can do dirt on CX tyres easily by letting pressure down from 50psi (road) to 30 (grav) or 20 (CX). My Crux (not SWorks) w 33mm CX tyres is 7.9kg, 7.8kg w road wheels - both sets tubeless.
My gravel bike with 43c tires is way nicer to ride around the city center with potholes, cobbles, manhole covers, poorly sealed cracks, etc compared to my aero road bike with 25c tires. Anywhere where speed is not the highest goal, consider comfort of wider tires.
Thanks for this very informative and helpful analysis. Most of the other comparisons I've seen just leave me confused. Based on the stats you've provided I now feel much more confident in making the switch from my older road bike to a new gravel bike. As a 55 year old recreational cyclist these differences are negligible for a rider like me, and likely many others. Thanks again!
As plenty here have noted, the tires make a lot of difference. A night and day difference when I swapped the heavy wire-beaded knobbly tires off my wife's Bianchi E-Impulso allroad for folding Panaracer Gravel King slicks in 38 mm. I've ridden my own SuperGravelMonster (ancient 26" wheel MTB with V-brakes) with drop bars and fat (53 mm) supple slick tires on plenty of paved roads, and a time or two kept up with or passed other riders on 700 c wheeled plastic-fantastic road machines. It ain't because I'm fast at 68 years old, it's the tires!!!
something to bear in mind is that the tire choice probably makes a lot of the difference.. I swapped from schwalbe g-one all-round to challenge Strada Bianca and the speed difference was considerable.
Even the switch from the stock tyres (some 36 mm knobby Schwalbe stuff) to Schwalbe X One Speed (33 mm, very subtle knobs) made a huge difference on my cyclocross bike after getting new tyres because of a very nasty puncture.
Here’s my two cents, or pence or whatever :). My gravel bike is an Aspero, with 2x. I have a set of gravel wheels and a set of ultegra C-36 with 30mm tires (currently Conti GP5000 tubeless). It is a fast gravel bike but mostly built for speed. It is a very comfortable road bike but with 30mm tires feels a little “dead”. These days I ride my gravel bike almost always and just change the wheels based on the ride. But I’m not a huge fan of disc brakes on road bikes and tubeless is great when it works but un great when it doesn’t. My other road bikes are an S Works Tarmac and an Allez Spring. 28mm tires with latex tubes or tubeless. Old school breaks and built to be super light. If I want to go fast on the road I’ll take a road bike. If I want to have a nice relaxed ride I’ll take gravel bike with road set up. If I want to his some gravel or some groomed trains, gravel bike with gravel set up. If I had to have one bike it would be a gravel bike with two sets of wheels and I’d just get used to swearing at the disc brakes all the time.
That makes perfect sense to me, as I am in the same boat with different bikes, but have yet to buy a 2nd set of wheels for my gravel bike. Do you have any problems with the shifting or have to adjust the derailleur when changing to a different set of wheels?
@@alandoss9352 No issues with shifting at all. I have had to adjust the disc brakes just by loosening the two bolts, squeezing the lever and tighten the bolts again, the changeover is very simple. I am running an 11-32 on the road wheels and 11-34 on gravel. Technically my chain length with a 32 vs a 34 MIGHT by 1 link too long but no issues at all
@@mikeburton8426 Thanks for the quick & detailed response Mike, I will probably go ahead & do this. 2021 Trek Checkpoint with an upgraded set of DT Swiss wheels GR 1600 Spline (700-800$) with 38mm Gravelkings. I love these wheels so much that I will probably get the road version (PR 1600) & use 28-30 tires, probably Continental 4 seasons. 46x30 with 11-34 & will probably do the same for the road wheels, although it is nice to know that you used a different size. Cheers.
Totally agree it makes sense to test with gravel tyres on (and the ones you tested with are the all-round ones that I also have). Especially in the UK if you’re going on any “gravel” you’ll need to travel, probably more, on roads to get to it. So you aren’t going to be swapping tyres to do that.
LOL dude if you go this way, then you should test the road bike on "gravel" with "road" tyre see how that gonna slow you down. Yes in everywhere in the world you have to travel on road to get to gravel, as you said, probably more on roads, so definitely aren't going to change tyres. The terrain matters, in this whole video there's no gravel. It's a road test done on a road. If you know you are gonna ride 100% on a road, what sense does it make to use a gravel tyre? Just like if you are going on "gravel" then would you just use road tyre??? This doesn't make sense. The sensible choice is to choose tyre to the terrain, no matter what bike you have. Road on a gravel bike? Road tyre. Gravel on a road bike? Gravel tyre. Not the other way around.
My road bike is attached to my Kickr Core and my gravel bike, a Giant Revolt X, is having all the fun. I am thinking of a second set of wheels for the gravel bike with 38-ish tires for road and smooth gravel rides. So many good choices.
My gravel bike weights around 1.4 kg more than my road bike (8.9 vs 7.5). It's almost as fast. 46:11 is a bit limiting downhill. The 35 mm tyres are damn heavy, but really comfortable. I like my gravel bike to find new routes. Had to turn back quite often on my road bike when a new road ended in the woods.
I do ride my gravel bikes on the road (I just own 2 gravels an no road bike), but both of them have 2x groupsets. I just purchased a wheelset to fit road tyres, and to struggle less when just riding with road bikes, but after the video I am thinking I may just need to get fitter😅🤣 Great topic and great video!
Off course I use my gravel bike on the roads, probably 50% of most routes are on sealed roads and yes it feels a little slower but not to any amount that bothers me. Sometimes if I'm doing a very long route with no or very little gravel in poor conditions or just because I want the extra load carrying capacity I'll take my gravel bike with a set of road wheels/tires, this doesn't feel any slower at all to my road bikes.
I love all of Jamie's videos! He seems like such a nice guy. Maybe I could be his slow friend. Or maybe you could do a comparison video of the different hosts? Who jumps higher? Who's taller? Who rolls down a hill faster? Keep up the good work! Very enjoyable and love the succinct format.
Agree with a lot of the comments, matching the tires would really tell us if the geometry/positioning and aerodynamics of the bike have a large affect or not. From what I've seen with wind tunnels and other articles the positioning is the most important and if all things are the same in terms of tires and wheels and we're comparing just the frames (+ weight) there would be much less in this comparison
@@tonyg3091If you’re talking about regular commuters, I’d say neither are marginal gains in speed. I’ll gladly give up 5% speed in exchange for an upright position.
I 'gravel' everywhere! I only have a gravel bike and during this year my speed has increased so I'm now wondering do I need a road bike and how much faster is it? I'm hoping to get a demo and replicate what you've done to satisfy my need for knowledge.
That time savings represents efficiency and there are a lot of competitive riders out there looking to go fast for the least amount of effort. If you're not one of them then why are you watching such a nerdy video?
@@bluemystic7501 why cant i watch this video and have a take? if a competitive roadie is riding a gravel bike and trying to be the most "efficient" as you say, why wouldnt they just use an aero road bike?
Would be interesting to do an urban commute test as well. I find that cos i can cut corners, go off and up kerbs, take mild off road shortcuts, and generally ride bits of road i just couldnt do on a road bike, that the times are pretty much equal.
Well it seems you chose the Schwalbe G-One Allround which has a whopping RR of 26.0watts, where you could have gone for a Tufo Thundero with 17.4 watts Knob heights Schwalbe 1.1/1.3 versus Thundero 1.5/2.1 If you compare this with an (old) Pirelli Cinturato Velo TLR26 at say 16.0 watts (btw some shops still sell Schwalbe Durano with RR of 19.5watts) things get really close. Instead of 26versus16, you now get 17versus16. Next the test is done exclusively on perfect tarmac, where you could have included broken tarmac, brick roads, and a light gravel to show the difference. But your test did show that climbing, descending or flats all give roughly the same difference when comparing gravel and road tyres So my point is: you could go for more knobs and way faster for the gravel, it is a bit unfair test My gravel-bike has a two-by, btw, and these Tufos (and they are cheap - less then 50 euro for one tyre).
I think good, sporty, gravel/CX framset with 2-3 sets of wheels would do perfectly for majority of us. Riding latest Giant TCX iteration exactly with 3sets of wheels, on carbon 50s for road, two other alu, three different cassets (11-30, 11-32 and hg800 11-34). The frame is claimed to weight 850g for M size only /did not measure myself, did not strip down completely tough/ and power transfer is phenomenal - you can feel that with every pedal stroke! :) The frameset accepts 45mm tires on 22internal widths... and geometry may be described as "semi sporty", definitely lower stack as compared to majority of gravel as well as endurance bikes... you can go pretty low in front without crazy stem angles. With that bike I've managed to reduce my bike quiver and saved space in the house :) Highly recommended!
It would not matter what bile I ride, I will still get dropped at different times. I usually catch up eventually. If I don't, that's ok, will solo on and enjoy my ride.
I've replaced several road bikes for two gravel bikes that I setup as more an all-road with 32c slicks for the road and 43c knobs for gravel. I've kept one road bike just for that instance of wanting to go faster, climb, or be in a faster group ride, but I'm finding my all-road bikes are getting more of the use these days. You kind of just have to ditch the caring about the numbers and speed and it does just what you need it to at just a marginal loss.
Wow surprised how small the differences were. I was thinking of getting an extra set of wheels for my gravel bike so I could put 32/35 mm tires on them. Now I wonder if that would worth it to me.
It will be. The difference between say 38 mm Pathfinder Pro and 32 mm Conti GP 5000 is quite noticeable. But on the other wheel set go real fat-like 45mm and up
I got a road specific wheelset with a smaller cassette and went further by swapping out the smaller 2x gravel chainrings to the larger sub compact 50/34t
@@JoseGonzales-wd8vm That defeats the purpose a bit but you know best what works for you of course. Do you have to readjust the rear mech every time you swap the wheelsets? I guess so.
I shaved a pound off each wheel changing tires (30mm Cont GP 5000 S), going tubeless and new $500 wheels (Alpinist SLX Disc). Also shaved another pound off going with a CNC'd 11-52 cassette (Garbaruk). Tires were the best dollar/gram upgrade. I'm limiting my upgrade to spending to $1/gram weight savings
I would be interested in the following test: To what speed can you accelerate an extremely unstiff and flexing gravel bike under its own power without a rider and slipstream from the car in the really flat. All this on the same slicks and the same aero position on both bikes against an extremely stiff road bike. And measured with speedometer on the wheel not GPS.
Great video. The results are very similar to my own results when comparing the speed of my road bike vs gravel bike on the road. I do ride my gravel bike on the road when I know the weather is going to be wet. It is fitted with full mud guards and disc brakes, though the mud guards are far more valuable to me than the disc brakes when riding in the rain. (In my experience, rim brakes on road bikes are all I ever need and I like the feel better, but that is another subject)
I ride my gravel bike on my commutes even though I only ride through maybe 200m of gravel on the 25km journey. The knobby tyres are much more puncture-resistant against typical road debris and also more grippy in wet conditions; the ride is much more comfortable; but most importantly - it's not a race. So for me, comfort and safety is more important than speed when commuting. Moreover, my road bike is bloody expensive so I want to make sure its mileage is low (e.g. wear and tear of components, dirt and grime, etc).
I ride a gravel bike on the road and although I know the tires slow me down the roads are pretty sketchy where I ride so the non slick tires give me piece of mind avoiding flats.
I have both. Use my gravel bike for commenting. Most of the commute is on the road with an easy option to add 4 miles of gravel if I feel frisky. Comfort of gravel bike can’t be matched
such a great, realistic and objective analysis. I decided to replace my 2014 Felt Full Carbon road bike (2x10 Sram Apex, Rim Brakes) with a 2023 Rocky Mountain 50 Gravel bike (1x11 Sram Rival, Disc Brakes). So at least I got the bike, now I need the legs to meet those times... haha.
Gravel bikes .... A lot of people long before the American word was uterded were riding CX bikes for winter commuting on the road due to tire clearance for full mud guards. I myself in 2005 had a Specialised CX bike that I road on winter club rides with road tires on 😁 it never was an issue. Even now I ride a Ali Kensis CX bike in winter and a Trek Boone CX in the summer. I have ride the Ali winter CX bike with same summer wheels with out full mud guards and over the same course the times are so similar.
If you got over your bullshit Eurotrash ego and actually did some studying of frame design you'd see that a gravel bike is quite a bit different than a CX bike. Geo are completely different. The former has a longer wheelbase and lower BB to maximize stability and ability to ride long events. The latter has shorter base and higher BB to do tight switchbacks and fuck your knees on any ride longer than 33 seconds.
Funny that TH-cam serves me this freshly uploaded video the day I went on my first long ride with my newly purchased and first ever gravel bike. I am happy with my choice, but I was being overtaken left and right by boys and girls in road bikes 😁
I'm a 24 year old female and I want an extremely versatile bike that is still very zippy. The All-City Space Horse Tiagra looks interesting at the moment. Also very interested in Bianchi bikes.
My 3T Exploro Racemax ”aero-gravel” is fast and super smooth bike with 32mm GP5000S tubeless setup! With those tires, I can basically ride fast anywhere!
I ride on the road on my gravel bike indeed I'm more often on the road than on the gravel, the reason I have one is that I find it more comfortable due to the less aggressive geometry of the frame, I'm not bothered about getting dropped from a group because I ride solo partly by choice but also because all the local clubs are roadie obsessed and obsessed with average speed and going as fast as possible which I have no interest in, I'm neither fast not slow but somewhere in between. I only have 2 bikes the gravel one and my single speeder.
I just did a Gran Fondo race on a 2022 Scott Addict Gravel 30 with the stock 45 mm gravel tires (the same Schwalbe in the video) and honestly had no issues keeping up with more "hardcore looking" cyclists with skinnier road tires. Granted I wasn't an all out bullet train but I actually don't think if be too much faster with skinnier tires. The only way I could make myself faster is more training. Definitely thinking of lighter wheels though, so that would be a good excuse to experiment with road tires. Good video though!
I'd love to challenge you in a harsh climb with that setup. Any steeper than 5-6% and you're dead meat with that setup. Gravel bikes are pretty good, but better be frankly and not exaggerate it too much.
@@cauldron101 Hah, I'm not claiming to be a speed demon or beast, but it was definitely doable. My friend who entered the race with me did it on a Giant Revolt with gravel tires too. Out steepest grade recorded was 15-16% on the race, and it sucked because it was in the last 20 km. I'm just really happy to have finished, with a time that placed just under midpack of 700+ (can't remember exact) that took part in the 120 km event. My goal was finishing, not necessarily winning and had a ton of fun. I'm sure if you are more at cycling than I am, you'll definitely take the cake. I was nonstop training for about 2.5 months to make sure I could be remotely confident to finish the event in the time I did.
@@ShafinRehman Very well said! That should also be the essence of this video. Our fella in the video maxes out himself with both setups. Even though, the road bike gives him a slight edge and that says it all. For back packing I love gravel bikes, hands down. For speedy rides though that have a certain fun, I use a road bike. I do have fun with both bikes, but I use them differently. There is a tire test by the very same channel that proves a 28mm (you could call it road tire) at 45 kph and 70 psi asks from you 327 Watts, while a 40mm one (you could call it gravel tire) at 45 kph and 70 psi demands 516 Watts. Quite a difference, the gravel asking for more of you on the pedal and quite contradictory to what gets proven here. (Smartly our fella deleted that comment of mine...)
Were you gassed because of a 1X chain set and having gaps when choosing a gear? Were you using road tires? I’m considering getting a gravel bike and am curious about group road rides. Thanks.
I'm one of those crazy guys that does everything we just saw in this video with my Stumpjumper Carbon with 140mm x 130mm with some Road/ Gravel XC Tyres and lock out the suspesion😅😁 weight is around 11.5kg
I use 30 slicks on my gravel and it's perfect, comfortable and plenty fast enough, I don't compete. If you want to gravel, get a second set of wheels and you're sorted.
I have a Cannondale touring (1990s T400) bike and I figured a Gravel bike was the closest thing I saw to it when shopping for an update. A more rugged road bike that can haul stuff with wider tires and a more upright (comfortable for me) riding position. I prefer touring and pacing myself, and I want to be able to ride over gravely parts of the city and descend hills with confidence. I realized over the years that I value comfort over speed, I just like riding, doesn't need to be fast.
It would have been great to see how much faster would the gravel bike be with a road set up (wheels and tires at least) and then compare to a road bike.
As an older, less flexible, rider in my sixties who likes to ride on road and gravel, I am thinking of getting a carbon gravel bike and a second set of road wheels and tyres. I will also get a 2x chainset. Easy to fit narrow road tyres on a gravel bike, impossible the other way round. The speeds I go mean aero not really an issue 😅
i love my gravel bikes but, i went to the gower sportive 100km ride today, and well, 2 of us came in last lol, the super light skinny tyred race machines left us in their dust
I like the EKAR cassette. For road riding it's perfect as there are no gaps in the 6 smallest sprockets. I have it on a Fairlight Secan with 40mm strada bianca tubeless tires - pure joy. I am pretty sure with some fancy wheels and 32-36mm road tires, its just as fast as a road bike. The difference would be very small anyway for recreational cyclists.
I am on a gravelbike, in my case also because that made the step from a hybrid smaller. The wider tier on the gravelbike are also better when it is cracks in the road. Oh - and I put of course more or less skinny tiers on it. Continental GP Urban or Contact Urban next time.
For me, the question is: what is the best fat road tire to use for a gravel bike? Gravel tires are like 40mm but road tires are closer to 30-32mm. I want the lower rolling resistance of a slick tire but the comfort of a wide tire. Suggestions?
Bicycle Rolling Resistance also tested gravel slicks in the form of the Challenge Strada Bianca and Rene Herse slicks in the ultra light casing to roll as fast as many of road tires they tested. Those Schwable are the slower newer compound. BRR tested that the older model had the faster compound, which wore out a bit faster. If anything the fair test would be a semi-slick gravel tire like the Specialized Pathfinder Pros or Challenge Getaways.
I have race and gravel bikes. I think it’s a bit more than changing out wheel sets. Frame, material and geometry is important. I enjoy my gravel bike on roads but also like the option to explore anything. I ride a balance between both.
Thanks for the video, I don't own a road bike but by watching this video help me decide I don't really need one since the difference is very marginal. I do have a 2X setup on my Gravel Bike I could just swap out the tires or get a second wheelset for the road, the biggest disadvantage is I won't be as agile while on the roads due to the longer wheelbase, so my turns won't be as tight.
I'm 66, over 90kg and with an arthritic right knee. I do most of my rides on my Specialized Diverge gravel bike. Granted, my Merida Scultura is 200 miles away right now so difficult to do a true comparison...
I'm having two wheelsets for my Triban RC500. one with 19mm rim + 38mm pathfinders pro, second is 17mm stock rims + 28mm stock slick tyres. First for everyday stuff, second is for racing on pavement. Optimal variant
Fast is fun but also dangerous. Writing this after falling off my cross bike at 40kph. The helmet saved my live and I got only a couple of scrapes and shoulder bruise. Now the goal of every ride will be to come back home and just have fun👌🏻
I always take out my gravel bike, almost never the road bike. Gravel bike is just more comfortable on rougher roads and bumpier bike paths. I think I will sell the road bike.
i love my gravel and only ride that bike these days. i just love everything about it. my little brother has a grail al and a aeroad cfsl and he is not even riding his aero anymore. he also just rides his much much cheaper, lower end grail. they are just so much more fun. my grail cf has a 2by tho.
I've had an ARGON 8 GreyMatter and have rode it for the last 5 mos. I do tris. I got on my 10yo Felt AR4, and it literally felt I had wooden tires. Then I hit the brakes, heard raspy sandpaper, and thought they were broke! Doing a half iron man w the argon 8!
Thanks for the video and....arighty... good timing but slightly obvious results. How about running the same wheels and tires and retest. That's what I want to see!!! I have mostly road and mountain where I am. I want a gravel bike to use on the road with a road wheel setup and swap out wheels (or tires to save $$) when I do my extended excursions. I love doing a multi day gravel race every year as well as long one day gravel events.... loooooong miles and lots of climbing. I want to train on the bike I'll ride in the race but in my case those long training days will be by necessity on the road and fast road group rides.
Awesome test. I would have liked to seen the same experiment with the same exact wheels and tires on each bike. I don’t think it is out of the question for someone to have 2 sets of wheels. Especially if the gravel bike is their all in one bike.
What a cool video. The only thing I miss is the difference between both bikes, when the gravel bike has a road setup. Just with road wheels. Not with the Schwalbe G One. It might be more close, I think, when the gravel has a fast Schwalbe ONE wheelset in 30 mm width on its rims. Maybe next time.
As a long time road racer, I love my gravel bike & tires for adventure riding, taking dirt or gravel cut thrus that i wouldn't do on my road bike. Pirelli 40's with Orange Seal is way more contact patch, not worried about flat tires, enjoy the confort and safety too .. i ride way more to the curb away from cars. Fast group rides is the only handicap, once speeds go over 32kph/20mph the gravel bike tires and rolling resistance kills you. But riding with slower friends on the road, its a nice handicap. I push harder and get the same workout without crushing my friends 😂🎉🎉
It's not a Louth bicycle but a Lauf! Video @ 5:34. Even if one don't know the brand it's easy to see on the pink bike early in the video. Reminds me of once I watched the old Star Wars on tv and someone "translated" R2-D2 to ER TO DE TO or something like that. FFS! But thank's for the comparison. I wondered about this for quite some time. Should I buy a race- or a gravel bake, when having a fully mtb already. So far I ordered a race bike. But then going on vacation with bags mounted and everything. Helloooo gravel bike :D
I went with 32mm almost-smooth GravelKings and AR46 carbon aero wheels to offset these shortcomings.There's still an aero disadvantage from the posture, but it's a more than acceptable tradeoff for me as I only ride for a good time.
Another bonus point for gravel bikes is that they just look cooler. Robust looking with beefy frame and wheels. You just know the bike is made to do business
now if you already have a gravel bike and want to as fast as road bike, should you buy a road bike or just road tire? should be the next test. use road tire on both road bike and gravel bike and see how much is the difference.
I don't understand the point of this. Surely it is better to do a video with 2 identical gravel bikes, 1 with a road tyre, and 1 with a gravel tyre. The majority of people wondering this question are probably only able to afford 1 bike, and unsure if whether a road setup gravel bike is worthwhile.
Imo biggest difference is in tires not bikes themself. So making a tire that is not compromising your efficiency on dirt and still have small rolling resistance on asphalt is crucial. For this tire should be completely flat in the middle and have increasingly deeper tread slowly towards the sides. Most gravel tires are not completely flat in the middle at all.
Currently ride my steel hardtail, on one big dog on the roads. Average speed 15mph, looking into a more suitable steed as I'm sure I'd notice a difference moving off 2.4 inch tyres haha
I have just gone to a gravel bike for a commute to work, best thing i have ever bought. my journey is 17 miles with 800 feet of climb, not tried it on the road bike but just based on feel and average speed my gravel bike is approx 1.5mph slower, but the bike is 2KG heavier than my giant propel and running 38C tyres. I feel i lose a lot of speed with the 1x system as like most struggle to find that nice cruising gear at 18-19mph
There is more that one km/hour difference. Riding solo it doesn't matter but with others on roadbikes it feels unnecessarily, there is some extra wattage needed to keep up. To be exact 1 km/hour increase at 30 km/hour equals 16 extra watts.
Is it worth getting a gravel bike if you already have a hardtail mountain bike, as the mixed terrain bike. Then just having a road bike for road riding.
I hold my own on the fast group bash.with 42 - 11 if I choose to ride my gravel bike not road bike. The fun is being in my early 50's and still giving younger riders a run for their money on very expensive crap. In the old days we rode high cadence. As someone high up in the sport once said. Why are you in the big ring, you will have nothing left for racing.
You have to consider the fact that it may be a lighter option BUT the bigger cassette adds weight to the centre of the wheel and that will rest some reactiveness and agility! Even tho, it is a great option if you are in really good shape and you won’t face 15% or more climbs… 38-36 seems quite tough for long hilly rides. Here in Spain, at least where I live and rides, you will almost always need a 2x specially if you want to stay in Z2-Z3 for some of your trainings 😅
Yes, just looking at Bicycle gear calculator, even with a 10t cassette you’re spinning out at 48km/h at a cadence of 90rpm and then the gaps in between gears are pretty big with a 1x
I have a gravel bike with 2 sets of wheels. One with 38mm tyres and the other with 25 mm road tyres. It would have been good to do that test. For short rides I ride my gravel with 25 mm. But long rides have to go on the road bike cause it's full carbon and 1.5 kg lighter.
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What a great and perfectly timed video. I find myself reaching for my gravel bike over my road bike all the time these days. It's way more comfortable than my road bike and allows me to go on all the roads that are in pretty bad condition but have no traffic. I'm pleasantly surprised with the results. I was debating what bike to bring to to the Alps on holidays and I think you worked it out for me. I'm not looking to break records on the way up but I do prefer the disc breaks over the rim coming down. Thanks.
I’m coming from the other direction, I’m a mountain biker and I’m starting to like the idea of a gravel bike 😂
Best gravel/road comparison test video I’ve seen! Everyone else swaps the tires to road tires on both bikes. This is an actual comparison of bike categories! Thank you!!
I would love to see what a gravel bike with the road wheel/tyres on would have done vs the road bike.
Plenty of gravel bikes are more aero than road bikes. Even my chunky Grizl is faster than my first gen Cervelo Soloist(fastest aero bike you could buy 15yrs ago) with 2 bottles on both bikes
Same here, that would be the true test in my mind.
That's a great idea !
I ride a Giant Revolt Adv with 42mm carbon road wheels, 32mm tires and feel pretty fast on tarmac
I actually ride a Kona Rove DL with 650b wheels and am surprised at how easily and comfortably it rides on the road. I’m running 47mm Maxis Receptor tires and on my workout I’m averaging about 13 mph with a 1800 foot elevation climb.
After buying my first gravelbike I sold my road bike. I am now on my 2 nd gravelbike, use it for commuting, road and gravel riding. Fits me, as most of the times I don’t plan my routes and just go where it takes me…
What bike did you get? I think I'm sold on the gravel bike now too - i'm switching from a mountain bike
Plus gravel bikes look cooler
@@FlyLeah Looks like a harvester machibe vs F1 racing car
A follow up test, using 32-38mm slicks on the gravel would probably narrow those numbers a lot. I will say having done climbing on my "heavy" bike and my "weight weenie" bike, my fastest time up my local mountain, is on my "heavy" bike... which annoys me to no end. Sometimes things feel faster than the data shows and maybe that is all that matters.
For real, they're just saving space for a future video. I do appreciate that they avoided shitting on campy in this video though.
Did your data involve a power meter or just the weight of your bikes?
More BB flex= faster. Rene Herse testing
@@veganpotterthevegan I did but my power was all over the place, so it would be useless as a scientific test. The faster climb was on a really hot day as well. I just find it distressing that an 8100g bike was faster than a 6300g bike up a climb I do regularly.
@echtogammut that's not true. Your normalized power would be a very effective metric. So what you're saying is that you have no data. Plain and simple, you were riding harder or just had one of magic leg days.
In my experience the biggest problem is the 1x drivetrain if you want to ride in the group. The range is perfectly good but the steps between the gears are much bigger and keeping the right cadence while riding in a group of roadies is impossible. If you want to replace your road bike with a gravel bike, get a bike with 2 chain rings and maybe an extra set of wheels with some wider fast rolling road tires and it will be perfectly fine.
absolutely. BUT... 13 speed campagnolo and forthcoming 13 speed sram are gamechangers.
I just rode Vätternrundan 315 on my gravel bike, but with slick tires. Main reason was that I believed that the slightly more relaxed riding position on the gravel bike would be an advantage when doing such a long ride.
Very interesting as we were debating this on our ride yesterday. I have a Tarmac SL and a Crux Gravel bike, both S-Works models, and there is hardly a difference in weight between the two bikes. I think the biggest difference on group rides is the one by on the Gravel bike on steep long down hills as you spin out at about 55km/h. On the flats and up hills I have no problem keeping up with the group (running a Sram Red 10/44 with a 42 on front). Would say in a bike road race I would definitely take my road bike but for everyday riding I love riding my gravel bike for its comfort and versatility ...ride safe
I rode my 2021 Checkpoint SL 5 for over a year with my shop guys and I had no issues keeping and also leading the rides. I rode tubeless Pirelli 40s H's and had no issues keeping up.
I’ve had #onebike for years - a Spesh Crux w 2 sets of wheels (w 10/50 cassette on both). I ride gravel, CX and road. Road w 32mm slicks, grav w 42mm semi-slicks, CX w 33mm Tracer light nobbies. Lately I haven’t been changing wheelsets coz the 33mm CX tyres give up next to nothing on the road/hills and I can do dirt on CX tyres easily by letting pressure down from 50psi (road) to 30 (grav) or 20 (CX). My Crux (not SWorks) w 33mm CX tyres is 7.9kg, 7.8kg w road wheels - both sets tubeless.
My gravel bike with 43c tires is way nicer to ride around the city center with potholes, cobbles, manhole covers, poorly sealed cracks, etc compared to my aero road bike with 25c tires. Anywhere where speed is not the highest goal, consider comfort of wider tires.
Thanks for this very informative and helpful analysis. Most of the other comparisons I've seen just leave me confused. Based on the stats you've provided I now feel much more confident in making the switch from my older road bike to a new gravel bike. As a 55 year old recreational cyclist these differences are negligible for a rider like me, and likely many others. Thanks again!
if you planning ride tarmac mostly - grab 2x.1x is kinda ok...but gaps are still annoying.
As plenty here have noted, the tires make a lot of difference. A night and day difference when I swapped the heavy wire-beaded knobbly tires off my wife's Bianchi E-Impulso allroad for folding Panaracer Gravel King slicks in 38 mm. I've ridden my own SuperGravelMonster (ancient 26" wheel MTB with V-brakes) with drop bars and fat (53 mm) supple slick tires on plenty of paved roads, and a time or two kept up with or passed other riders on 700 c wheeled plastic-fantastic road machines. It ain't because I'm fast at 68 years old, it's the tires!!!
something to bear in mind is that the tire choice probably makes a lot of the difference.. I swapped from schwalbe g-one all-round to challenge Strada Bianca and the speed difference was considerable.
Even the switch from the stock tyres (some 36 mm knobby Schwalbe stuff) to Schwalbe X One Speed (33 mm, very subtle knobs) made a huge difference on my cyclocross bike after getting new tyres because of a very nasty puncture.
Great video I actually got rid of my road bike as the gravel bike just gives me more option’s on my rides
Here’s my two cents, or pence or whatever :). My gravel bike is an Aspero, with 2x. I have a set of gravel wheels and a set of ultegra C-36 with 30mm tires (currently Conti GP5000 tubeless). It is a fast gravel bike but mostly built for speed. It is a very comfortable road bike but with 30mm tires feels a little “dead”. These days I ride my gravel bike almost always and just change the wheels based on the ride. But I’m not a huge fan of disc brakes on road bikes and tubeless is great when it works but un great when it doesn’t. My other road bikes are an S Works Tarmac and an Allez Spring. 28mm tires with latex tubes or tubeless. Old school breaks and built to be super light. If I want to go fast on the road I’ll take a road bike. If I want to have a nice relaxed ride I’ll take gravel bike with road set up. If I want to his some gravel or some groomed trains, gravel bike with gravel set up. If I had to have one bike it would be a gravel bike with two sets of wheels and I’d just get used to swearing at the disc brakes all the time.
That makes perfect sense to me, as I am in the same boat with different bikes, but have yet to buy a 2nd set of wheels for my gravel bike. Do you have any problems with the shifting or have to adjust the derailleur when changing to a different set of wheels?
@@alandoss9352 No issues with shifting at all. I have had to adjust the disc brakes just by loosening the two bolts, squeezing the lever and tighten the bolts again, the changeover is very simple. I am running an 11-32 on the road wheels and 11-34 on gravel. Technically my chain length with a 32 vs a 34 MIGHT by 1 link too long but no issues at all
@@mikeburton8426 Thanks for the quick & detailed response Mike, I will probably go ahead & do this. 2021 Trek Checkpoint with an upgraded set of DT Swiss wheels GR 1600 Spline (700-800$) with 38mm Gravelkings. I love these wheels so much that I will probably get the road version (PR 1600) & use 28-30 tires, probably Continental 4 seasons. 46x30 with 11-34 & will probably do the same for the road wheels, although it is nice to know that you used a different size. Cheers.
Perfect timing. I was just looking to buy a gravel bike but had no idea on how it would go against speed bikes. Thanks for this video!
Totally agree it makes sense to test with gravel tyres on (and the ones you tested with are the all-round ones that I also have). Especially in the UK if you’re going on any “gravel” you’ll need to travel, probably more, on roads to get to it. So you aren’t going to be swapping tyres to do that.
LOL dude if you go this way, then you should test the road bike on "gravel" with "road" tyre see how that gonna slow you down. Yes in everywhere in the world you have to travel on road to get to gravel, as you said, probably more on roads, so definitely aren't going to change tyres. The terrain matters, in this whole video there's no gravel. It's a road test done on a road. If you know you are gonna ride 100% on a road, what sense does it make to use a gravel tyre? Just like if you are going on "gravel" then would you just use road tyre??? This doesn't make sense. The sensible choice is to choose tyre to the terrain, no matter what bike you have. Road on a gravel bike? Road tyre. Gravel on a road bike? Gravel tyre. Not the other way around.
A better test bike would have been a 2x GRX with a tire that has a smooth center. Something like the g one rs, gravel king ss, pathfinder pro, ect.
Agreed
My road bike is attached to my Kickr Core and my gravel bike, a Giant Revolt X, is having all the fun. I am thinking of a second set of wheels for the gravel bike with 38-ish tires for road and smooth gravel rides. So many good choices.
My gravel bike weights around 1.4 kg more than my road bike (8.9 vs 7.5). It's almost as fast.
46:11 is a bit limiting downhill. The 35 mm tyres are damn heavy, but really comfortable.
I like my gravel bike to find new routes. Had to turn back quite often on my road bike when a new road ended in the woods.
I do ride my gravel bikes on the road (I just own 2 gravels an no road bike), but both of them have 2x groupsets.
I just purchased a wheelset to fit road tyres, and to struggle less when just riding with road bikes, but after the video I am thinking I may just need to get fitter😅🤣
Great topic and great video!
Gravel bike IS a road bike. Just with relaxed geometry and bigger tyre clearance.
Off course I use my gravel bike on the roads, probably 50% of most routes are on sealed roads and yes it feels a little slower but not to any amount that bothers me. Sometimes if I'm doing a very long route with no or very little gravel in poor conditions or just because I want the extra load carrying capacity I'll take my gravel bike with a set of road wheels/tires, this doesn't feel any slower at all to my road bikes.
I love all of Jamie's videos! He seems like such a nice guy. Maybe I could be his slow friend. Or maybe you could do a comparison video of the different hosts? Who jumps higher? Who's taller? Who rolls down a hill faster?
Keep up the good work! Very enjoyable and love the succinct format.
I love Jamie more!
Agree with a lot of the comments, matching the tires would really tell us if the geometry/positioning and aerodynamics of the bike have a large affect or not. From what I've seen with wind tunnels and other articles the positioning is the most important and if all things are the same in terms of tires and wheels and we're comparing just the frames (+ weight) there would be much less in this comparison
Aerodynamics gains means absolutely nothing to about 90% of the people on the roads.
I agree with your statement.
@@tonyg3091If you’re talking about regular commuters, I’d say neither are marginal gains in speed. I’ll gladly give up 5% speed in exchange for an upright position.
@@DMurdock Yeah. Endurance bikes FTW
@@tonyg3091 you say the bike aerodynamics, don't you? :) rider aerodynamics is crucial with higher speeds...
I 'gravel' everywhere! I only have a gravel bike and during this year my speed has increased so I'm now wondering do I need a road bike and how much faster is it? I'm hoping to get a demo and replicate what you've done to satisfy my need for knowledge.
Does it matter how many seconds you shaved off your ride? It should be how much fun and what you enjoy riding
Yes
That time savings represents efficiency and there are a lot of competitive riders out there looking to go fast for the least amount of effort. If you're not one of them then why are you watching such a nerdy video?
It matters to 8 stone spandex clad bell-ends.
@@thelmaviaduct😂
@@bluemystic7501 why cant i watch this video and have a take? if a competitive roadie is riding a gravel bike and trying to be the most "efficient" as you say, why wouldnt they just use an aero road bike?
Would be interesting to do an urban commute test as well. I find that cos i can cut corners, go off and up kerbs, take mild off road shortcuts, and generally ride bits of road i just couldnt do on a road bike, that the times are pretty much equal.
... go off and up curbs*
@@einundsiebenziger5488We spell it one way, they spell it another. Why are you "correcting" them?
Well it seems you chose the Schwalbe G-One Allround which has a whopping RR of 26.0watts, where you could have gone for a Tufo Thundero with 17.4 watts
Knob heights Schwalbe 1.1/1.3 versus Thundero 1.5/2.1
If you compare this with an (old) Pirelli Cinturato Velo TLR26 at say 16.0 watts (btw some shops still sell Schwalbe Durano with RR of 19.5watts) things get really close. Instead of 26versus16, you now get 17versus16.
Next the test is done exclusively on perfect tarmac, where you could have included broken tarmac, brick roads, and a light gravel to show the difference. But your test did show that climbing, descending or flats all give roughly the same difference when comparing gravel and road tyres
So my point is: you could go for more knobs and way faster for the gravel, it is a bit unfair test
My gravel-bike has a two-by, btw, and these Tufos (and they are cheap - less then 50 euro for one tyre).
I think good, sporty, gravel/CX framset with 2-3 sets of wheels would do perfectly for majority of us. Riding latest Giant TCX iteration exactly with 3sets of wheels, on carbon 50s for road, two other alu, three different cassets (11-30, 11-32 and hg800 11-34). The frame is claimed to weight 850g for M size only /did not measure myself, did not strip down completely tough/ and power transfer is phenomenal - you can feel that with every pedal stroke! :) The frameset accepts 45mm tires on 22internal widths... and geometry may be described as "semi sporty", definitely lower stack as compared to majority of gravel as well as endurance bikes... you can go pretty low in front without crazy stem angles. With that bike I've managed to reduce my bike quiver and saved space in the house :) Highly recommended!
It would not matter what bile I ride, I will still get dropped at different times. I usually catch up eventually. If I don't, that's ok, will solo on and enjoy my ride.
Get an e bike and you can drop them
I've replaced several road bikes for two gravel bikes that I setup as more an all-road with 32c slicks for the road and 43c knobs for gravel. I've kept one road bike just for that instance of wanting to go faster, climb, or be in a faster group ride, but I'm finding my all-road bikes are getting more of the use these days. You kind of just have to ditch the caring about the numbers and speed and it does just what you need it to at just a marginal loss.
3:22 except when it comes to hubs it seems. Physics doesn't apply and loud hubs are somehow considered to be top quality...
Wow surprised how small the differences were. I was thinking of getting an extra set of wheels for my gravel bike so I could put 32/35 mm tires on them. Now I wonder if that would worth it to me.
It will be. The difference between say 38 mm Pathfinder Pro and 32 mm Conti GP 5000 is quite noticeable. But on the other wheel set go real fat-like 45mm and up
I got a road specific wheelset with a smaller cassette and went further by swapping out the smaller 2x gravel chainrings to the larger sub compact 50/34t
@@JoseGonzales-wd8vm That defeats the purpose a bit but you know best what works for you of course. Do you have to readjust the rear mech every time you swap the wheelsets? I guess so.
@@tonyg3091 no adjustment, it's only a two tooth difference on the tall gear between cassettes. Bike feels great on both road and gravel wheels
I shaved a pound off each wheel changing tires (30mm Cont GP 5000 S), going tubeless and new $500 wheels (Alpinist SLX Disc). Also shaved another pound off going with a CNC'd 11-52 cassette (Garbaruk). Tires were the best dollar/gram upgrade. I'm limiting my upgrade to spending to $1/gram weight savings
I would be interested in the following test:
To what speed can you accelerate an extremely unstiff and flexing gravel bike under its own power without a rider and slipstream from the car in the really flat.
All this on the same slicks and the same aero position on both bikes against an extremely stiff road bike.
And measured with speedometer on the wheel not GPS.
Great video. The results are very similar to my own results when comparing the speed of my road bike vs gravel bike on the road. I do ride my gravel bike on the road when I know the weather is going to be wet. It is fitted with full mud guards and disc brakes, though the mud guards are far more valuable to me than the disc brakes when riding in the rain. (In my experience, rim brakes on road bikes are all I ever need and I like the feel better, but that is another subject)
Cheers :) They certainly do make excellent winter bikes, lets not open the disc brake can of worms!!!
Gotta remember that knobbies on gravel are almost always useless. Go fat slicks.
I ride my gravel bike on my commutes even though I only ride through maybe 200m of gravel on the 25km journey. The knobby tyres are much more puncture-resistant against typical road debris and also more grippy in wet conditions; the ride is much more comfortable; but most importantly - it's not a race. So for me, comfort and safety is more important than speed when commuting.
Moreover, my road bike is bloody expensive so I want to make sure its mileage is low (e.g. wear and tear of components, dirt and grime, etc).
I ride a gravel bike on the road and although I know the tires slow me down the roads are pretty sketchy where I ride so the non slick tires give me piece of mind avoiding flats.
I have both. Use my gravel bike for commenting. Most of the commute is on the road with an easy option to add 4 miles of gravel if I feel frisky. Comfort of gravel bike can’t be matched
such a great, realistic and objective analysis. I decided to replace my 2014 Felt Full Carbon road bike (2x10 Sram Apex, Rim Brakes) with a 2023 Rocky Mountain 50 Gravel bike (1x11 Sram Rival, Disc Brakes). So at least I got the bike, now I need the legs to meet those times... haha.
Gravel bikes .... A lot of people long before the American word was uterded were riding CX bikes for winter commuting on the road due to tire clearance for full mud guards. I myself in 2005 had a Specialised CX bike that I road on winter club rides with road tires on 😁 it never was an issue. Even now I ride a Ali Kensis CX bike in winter and a Trek Boone CX in the summer. I have ride the Ali winter CX bike with same summer wheels with out full mud guards and over the same course the times are so similar.
If you got over your bullshit Eurotrash ego and actually did some studying of frame design you'd see that a gravel bike is quite a bit different than a CX bike. Geo are completely different. The former has a longer wheelbase and lower BB to maximize stability and ability to ride long events. The latter has shorter base and higher BB to do tight switchbacks and fuck your knees on any ride longer than 33 seconds.
Funny that TH-cam serves me this freshly uploaded video the day I went on my first long ride with my newly purchased and first ever gravel bike.
I am happy with my choice, but I was being overtaken left and right by boys and girls in road bikes 😁
I'm a 24 year old female and I want an extremely versatile bike that is still very zippy. The All-City Space Horse Tiagra looks interesting at the moment. Also very interested in Bianchi bikes.
My 3T Exploro Racemax ”aero-gravel” is fast and super smooth bike with 32mm GP5000S tubeless setup! With those tires, I can basically ride fast anywhere!
I ride on the road on my gravel bike indeed I'm more often on the road than on the gravel, the reason I have one is that I find it more comfortable due to the less aggressive geometry of the frame, I'm not bothered about getting dropped from a group because I ride solo partly by choice but also because all the local clubs are roadie obsessed and obsessed with average speed and going as fast as possible which I have no interest in, I'm neither fast not slow but somewhere in between. I only have 2 bikes the gravel one and my single speeder.
I just did a Gran Fondo race on a 2022 Scott Addict Gravel 30 with the stock 45 mm gravel tires (the same Schwalbe in the video) and honestly had no issues keeping up with more "hardcore looking" cyclists with skinnier road tires. Granted I wasn't an all out bullet train but I actually don't think if be too much faster with skinnier tires. The only way I could make myself faster is more training. Definitely thinking of lighter wheels though, so that would be a good excuse to experiment with road tires. Good video though!
I'd love to challenge you in a harsh climb with that setup. Any steeper than 5-6% and you're dead meat with that setup. Gravel bikes are pretty good, but better be frankly and not exaggerate it too much.
@@cauldron101 Hah, I'm not claiming to be a speed demon or beast, but it was definitely doable. My friend who entered the race with me did it on a Giant Revolt with gravel tires too. Out steepest grade recorded was 15-16% on the race, and it sucked because it was in the last 20 km. I'm just really happy to have finished, with a time that placed just under midpack of 700+ (can't remember exact) that took part in the 120 km event. My goal was finishing, not necessarily winning and had a ton of fun. I'm sure if you are more at cycling than I am, you'll definitely take the cake. I was nonstop training for about 2.5 months to make sure I could be remotely confident to finish the event in the time I did.
@@ShafinRehman Very well said! That should also be the essence of this video. Our fella in the video maxes out himself with both setups. Even though, the road bike gives him a slight edge and that says it all. For back packing I love gravel bikes, hands down. For speedy rides though that have a certain fun, I use a road bike. I do have fun with both bikes, but I use them differently.
There is a tire test by the very same channel that proves a 28mm (you could call it road tire) at 45 kph and 70 psi asks from you 327 Watts, while a 40mm one (you could call it gravel tire) at 45 kph and 70 psi demands 516 Watts. Quite a difference, the gravel asking for more of you on the pedal and quite contradictory to what gets proven here.
(Smartly our fella deleted that comment of mine...)
Thank you for this. I would be curious how a 2x GRX system would change the results if any.
Did a 120k group ride on my gravel bike by accident. Didn't get dropped but was so completely gassed by the end.
Were you gassed because of a 1X chain set and having gaps when choosing a gear?
Were you using road tires?
I’m considering getting a gravel bike and am curious about group road rides. Thanks.
I'm one of those crazy guys that does everything we just saw in this video with my Stumpjumper Carbon with 140mm x 130mm with some Road/ Gravel XC Tyres and lock out the suspesion😅😁 weight is around 11.5kg
Nice!
I use 30 slicks on my gravel and it's perfect, comfortable and plenty fast enough, I don't compete. If you want to gravel, get a second set of wheels and you're sorted.
I have a Cannondale touring (1990s T400) bike and I figured a Gravel bike was the closest thing I saw to it when shopping for an update. A more rugged road bike that can haul stuff with wider tires and a more upright (comfortable for me) riding position. I prefer touring and pacing myself, and I want to be able to ride over gravely parts of the city and descend hills with confidence. I realized over the years that I value comfort over speed, I just like riding, doesn't need to be fast.
It would have been great to see how much faster would the gravel bike be with a road set up (wheels and tires at least) and then compare to a road bike.
As an older, less flexible, rider in my sixties who likes to ride on road and gravel, I am thinking of getting a carbon gravel bike and a second set of road wheels and tyres. I will also get a 2x chainset. Easy to fit narrow road tyres on a gravel bike, impossible the other way round. The speeds I go mean aero not really an issue 😅
i love my gravel bikes but, i went to the gower sportive 100km ride today, and well, 2 of us came in last lol, the super light skinny tyred race machines left us in their dust
I like the EKAR cassette. For road riding it's perfect as there are no gaps in the 6 smallest sprockets. I have it on a Fairlight Secan with 40mm strada bianca tubeless tires - pure joy. I am pretty sure with some fancy wheels and 32-36mm road tires, its just as fast as a road bike. The difference would be very small anyway for recreational cyclists.
I took the mid road, I ride an endurance road bike. I ride long distance on light gravel and pavement. This is the bike style for me.
if I was newbie my investment would be a double chain set gravel bike with 2 pairs of wheels .
I am on a gravelbike, in my case also because that made the step from a hybrid smaller. The wider tier on the gravelbike are also better when it is cracks in the road.
Oh - and I put of course more or less skinny tiers on it. Continental GP Urban or Contact Urban next time.
Nice comparisson regarding speed… but what about emergency breaking and general safety while ridin’ due to more grip? Give as break test too
Good idea! Next time!
For me, the question is: what is the best fat road tire to use for a gravel bike? Gravel tires are like 40mm but road tires are closer to 30-32mm. I want the lower rolling resistance of a slick tire but the comfort of a wide tire. Suggestions?
The Panaracer Gravel King slick TLC always features near the top of our buyers guides and sounds like it might be the kind of thing you’re after 😊
Bicycle Rolling Resistance also tested gravel slicks in the form of the Challenge Strada Bianca and Rene Herse slicks in the ultra light casing to roll as fast as many of road tires they tested. Those Schwable are the slower newer compound. BRR tested that the older model had the faster compound, which wore out a bit faster. If anything the fair test would be a semi-slick gravel tire like the Specialized Pathfinder Pros or Challenge Getaways.
Schwalbe* tyres. And slick tyres on gravel bikes are completely pointless.
I have race and gravel bikes. I think it’s a bit more than changing out wheel sets. Frame, material and geometry is important.
I enjoy my gravel bike on roads but also like the option to explore anything. I ride a balance between both.
The small trade off for speed is fine as unexpectedly harsher terrain isn't a problem on a gravel
Thanks for the video, I don't own a road bike but by watching this video help me decide I don't really need one since the difference is very marginal. I do have a 2X setup on my Gravel Bike I could just swap out the tires or get a second wheelset for the road, the biggest disadvantage is I won't be as agile while on the roads due to the longer wheelbase, so my turns won't be as tight.
I'm 66, over 90kg and with an arthritic right knee. I do most of my rides on my Specialized Diverge gravel bike. Granted, my Merida Scultura is 200 miles away right now so difficult to do a true comparison...
I'm having two wheelsets for my Triban RC500. one with 19mm rim + 38mm pathfinders pro, second is 17mm stock rims + 28mm stock slick tyres. First for everyday stuff, second is for racing on pavement. Optimal variant
Fast is fun but also dangerous. Writing this after falling off my cross bike at 40kph. The helmet saved my live and I got only a couple of scrapes and shoulder bruise. Now the goal of every ride will be to come back home and just have fun👌🏻
A follow up test but with a set of 'road' tyres on your gravel bike would show interesting numbers..
I rode my gravel (Kona Rove DL) on a relatively flat century in Denver and found it very comfortable and enjoyable.
I always take out my gravel bike, almost never the road bike. Gravel bike is just more comfortable on rougher roads and bumpier bike paths. I think I will sell the road bike.
If you are into cycling enough to watch this video, you are probably into it enough to have a small stable of bikes for different types of riding.
Why not also swap wheels one way or the other to see how much is just down to rubber versus trying to say this is about a kind of bike...
i love my gravel and only ride that bike these days. i just love everything about it. my little brother has a grail al and a aeroad cfsl and he is not even riding his aero anymore. he also just rides his much much cheaper, lower end grail. they are just so much more fun.
my grail cf has a 2by tho.
I've had an ARGON 8 GreyMatter and have rode it for the last 5 mos. I do tris. I got on my 10yo Felt AR4, and it literally felt I had wooden tires. Then I hit the brakes, heard raspy sandpaper, and thought they were broke! Doing a half iron man w the argon 8!
My gravel bike is used mostly to commute ro work on the road. But I do occasionally take it to play in the dirt
Thanks for the video and....arighty... good timing but slightly obvious results. How about running the same wheels and tires and retest. That's what I want to see!!! I have mostly road and mountain where I am. I want a gravel bike to use on the road with a road wheel setup and swap out wheels (or tires to save $$) when I do my extended excursions. I love doing a multi day gravel race every year as well as long one day gravel events.... loooooong miles and lots of climbing. I want to train on the bike I'll ride in the race but in my case those long training days will be by necessity on the road and fast road group rides.
Would those numbers be different using a slick tire on the gravel bike?
Awesome test. I would have liked to seen the same experiment with the same exact wheels and tires on each bike. I don’t think it is out of the question for someone to have 2 sets of wheels. Especially if the gravel bike is their all in one bike.
What a cool video. The only thing I miss is the difference between both bikes, when the gravel bike has a road setup. Just with road wheels. Not with the Schwalbe G One. It might be more close, I think, when the gravel has a fast Schwalbe ONE wheelset in 30 mm width on its rims.
Maybe next time.
As a long time road racer, I love my gravel bike & tires for adventure riding, taking dirt or gravel cut thrus that i wouldn't do on my road bike. Pirelli 40's with Orange Seal is way more contact patch, not worried about flat tires, enjoy the confort and safety too .. i ride way more to the curb away from cars. Fast group rides is the only handicap, once speeds go over 32kph/20mph the gravel bike tires and rolling resistance kills you. But riding with slower friends on the road, its a nice handicap. I push harder and get the same workout without crushing my friends 😂🎉🎉
It's not a Louth bicycle but a Lauf! Video @ 5:34. Even if one don't know the brand it's easy to see on the pink bike early in the video. Reminds me of once I watched the old Star Wars on tv and someone "translated" R2-D2 to ER TO DE TO or something like that. FFS!
But thank's for the comparison. I wondered about this for quite some time. Should I buy a race- or a gravel bake, when having a fully mtb already. So far I ordered a race bike. But then going on vacation with bags mounted and everything. Helloooo gravel bike :D
I went with 32mm almost-smooth GravelKings and AR46 carbon aero wheels to offset these shortcomings.There's still an aero disadvantage from the posture, but it's a more than acceptable tradeoff for me as I only ride for a good time.
Another bonus point for gravel bikes is that they just look cooler. Robust looking with beefy frame and wheels. You just know the bike is made to do business
If you are not into time lapse or racing . A gravel bike is the way to go cuz if you get tired of the road. You can always go on dirt roads.
now if you already have a gravel bike and want to as fast as road bike, should you buy a road bike or just road tire? should be the next test. use road tire on both road bike and gravel bike and see how much is the difference.
I don't understand the point of this. Surely it is better to do a video with 2 identical gravel bikes, 1 with a road tyre, and 1 with a gravel tyre.
The majority of people wondering this question are probably only able to afford 1 bike, and unsure if whether a road setup gravel bike is worthwhile.
Imo biggest difference is in tires not bikes themself. So making a tire that is not compromising your efficiency on dirt and still have small rolling resistance on asphalt is crucial. For this tire should be completely flat in the middle and have increasingly deeper tread slowly towards the sides. Most gravel tires are not completely flat in the middle at all.
Sorry for a question not att all related too your video, but i really love your pink bike, where did you found it??
Hi, it’s a lauf Seigla, they sell direct
Currently ride my steel hardtail, on one big dog on the roads. Average speed 15mph, looking into a more suitable steed as I'm sure I'd notice a difference moving off 2.4 inch tyres haha
I have just gone to a gravel bike for a commute to work, best thing i have ever bought. my journey is 17 miles with 800 feet of climb, not tried it on the road bike but just based on feel and average speed my gravel bike is approx 1.5mph slower, but the bike is 2KG heavier than my giant propel and running 38C tyres. I feel i lose a lot of speed with the 1x system as like most struggle to find that nice cruising gear at 18-19mph
There is more that one km/hour difference. Riding solo it doesn't matter but with others on roadbikes it feels unnecessarily, there is some extra wattage needed to keep up. To be exact 1 km/hour increase at 30 km/hour equals 16 extra watts.
I love riding on the road with my gravel bike! Purely because its my only bike haha!
Is it worth getting a gravel bike if you already have a hardtail mountain bike, as the mixed terrain bike. Then just having a road bike for road riding.
this is all about 1x vs 2x. Waiting for sram13, hoping it will be similar to Campagnolo's idea with a 1 tooth step on the 'cruising' set of cogs
I hold my own on the fast group bash.with 42 - 11 if I choose to ride my gravel bike not road bike. The fun is being in my early 50's and still giving younger riders a run for their money on very expensive crap. In the old days we rode high cadence. As someone high up in the sport once said. Why are you in the big ring, you will have nothing left for racing.
Can you please make a part two of sort in city? Maybe a city where allot of people live where a bike commute is more practical?
I ride 42 mm road tyres. By Rene Herse. I also read Bicycle Quarterly.
You have to consider the fact that it may be a lighter option BUT the bigger cassette adds weight to the centre of the wheel and that will rest some reactiveness and agility!
Even tho, it is a great option if you are in really good shape and you won’t face 15% or more climbs… 38-36 seems quite tough for long hilly rides. Here in Spain, at least where I live and rides, you will almost always need a 2x specially if you want to stay in Z2-Z3 for some of your trainings 😅
1x with a small 40t chainring is not suitable to go fast on tarmac
Yes, just looking at Bicycle gear calculator, even with a 10t cassette you’re spinning out at 48km/h at a cadence of 90rpm and then the gaps in between gears are pretty big with a 1x
I have a gravel bike with 2 sets of wheels. One with 38mm tyres and the other with 25 mm road tyres. It would have been good to do that test. For short rides I ride my gravel with 25 mm. But long rides have to go on the road bike cause it's full carbon and 1.5 kg lighter.