Simply, the rougher the terrain you wish to ride, the lower your average speed will likely be, and at a point, a mountain bike will become the better pick. There is, however, a tipping point for where a hardtail may become the wiser, and an even more versatile choice, and all that depends on the terrain you wish to tackle. For example, have you ever seen a wind vane stay totally steady in any kind of breeze? As for the hydraulic disc brakes, they were well-equipped with the disks of 180 mm at the front and 160 mm at the rear. However, the wide Q isn’t necessary: Many modern gravel and all-road bikes are designed to accept standard road cranks. In a group I find it hard to move with any surges. Also, I've considered a gravel bike, such as the Kona Rove or Salsa Vaya which would be a little more upright and wide tires. Companies can’t get by with a very traditional type of set up, and premium parts are also necessary. Another way to look at it... A bike frame weighs 4-6lbs. The suspension is only a part of the control and comfort package. Anywhere. If you live in Norfolk, where hills are few and far between, your experience will bear little comparison with a rider setting off to the Lake District each week. To add to the 12 gravel bikes we tested, we brought along what’s arguably the nicest and most efficient hardtail mountain bike money can buy: an Unno Aora. Maintaining an average speed of 25 km/h (15.5 mph) on a mountain bike, over rocky and technical terrain, would put you in a very elite category. So often we joke that gravel bikes are just old mountain bikes from a time that’s now in the rearview mirror. It reduces the impact to your body, and makes a huge difference in helping to control the wheels – meaning more traction and the ability to hold the desired line. How much slower will a set of 35mm tires be than the standard 23mm on a road bike? If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. It doesn’t matter to me whether I’m on a mountain, road or gravel bike. That said, I’d be lying if I didn’t lust after that mountain bike for the trails that surrounded our accommodation. Concernant les pneumatiques, le gravel est doté, selon les modèles, de pneus typés cyclo-cross allant de 36 mm à 45 mm. Rather, the freshly painted line on the dirt road is related to the amount of suspension. All of that is a worthwhile trade-off if you’re predominately riding off-road, but it becomes an obvious nuisance when it’s an unneeded feature. Cornering feel: The rotational inertia of wider (and usually heavier) tires makes many gravel bikes feel sluggish compared to a good racing bike, especially when climbing or sprinting out of the saddle. Sure, it’s not the ideal gravel riding destination, but it was the ideal gravel bike testing destination, encompassing a wide variety of terrain and proving the impressive versatility of gravel bikes. Weight: Wider tires are heavier than narrow ones, but not by much. The rolling hills of the Cotswolds are not the same as the Scottish highlands.So hearing from someone else that their average is, say, 20 miles per hour, means very little if you don't know where they are riding.Some areas are naturally and frequently exposed to high winds. Motor and battery: the right choices for a gravel e-bike Plus la section de votre pneu sera importante et plus le pilotage sera confortable. It is great that road bikes and gravel bikes are good at different things. These days, the best gravel bikes can roll on either standard 700c wheels or smaller 650b hoops wrapped in chunkier tyres. They want a bike – one bike – that combines speed with comfort and the ability to go off the beaten path. It's easy to spec anything from a 28t to 48t chainring, but most gravel builds go with a 42 as it will handle everything from steep 4mph climbs to 35mph descents without issue. average speed depends on the gravel but its usually 5 mph less than smooth pavement and road tires. It is not simple and easy otherwise. We found tarmac, gravel roads and even plenty of scenic trails that were all exceptionally enjoyable to ride with dropbars. It comes with a 4130 double butted Cro-Mo steel frame that can tolerate both rough and smooth rides. The thinking seems to go like this: Now that many riders have bought a gravel bike, let’s convince them that they need a new road bike. So we’ve seen that gravel bikes don’t need to be slower than racing bikes, if they are built to the same specs. When we arrived in Sedona, Arizona with 12 gravel bikes, many in the know thought we were nuts. You’ll still get plenty of gears for most road riding, but you won’t have quite enough high gears for when the speeds gets very fast, like 26 mph to 30 mph or faster. And it’s this stark difference in speed that has perhaps helped define the design differences between modern gravel and mountain bikes. I need more data before I can be definitive, but, despite my perceptions, it seems that a steel bike with fat tyres, heavier than my carbon and titanium bikes, and with a big box under the handlebars, has made no difference to my overall speed, and may have increased it. I guess that problem would be solved if everyone rode on 42mm tyres, and then the groups would go faster too…. She instantly could tell the ride difference. https://www.renehersecycles.com/are-gravel-bikes-slower-than-road-bikes Best of all, gravel bikes are the most versatile drop bar bikes going and the antidote to the N+1 theory of bike ownership. Of course, most already have a road bike, but that one has outdated rim brakes. Taking the increasing speed of gravel riding and racing alone, the evidence for the importance of aerodynamics was clear. In a typical scenario, riding off-road is a little difficult for some people to handle. Is it true? Le gravel bike est équipé de freins à disques pour un freinage plus sûr et précis même en temps de pluie. I may keep the wheels; they will cut through a muddy CX course if nothing else, but when I return to the twisty, undulating terrain of the UK/Ireland with unpredictable weather I will be going back to bigger tyres and mudguards! A gravel bike will of course still allow you to conquer terrain that sits at either extreme of our scale, but arguably it’ll need a change of tyres or wheelset in order to excel at one or the other. Shopping for a gravel bike in 2019? And I know I’m faster on a lot of rough descents, passing people on 40mm tires pumped up to 85 psi because they want low rolling resistance…. For many cyclists, a wide Q factor makes the cranks harder to spin. But my overall average speeds on these bikes on commutes, brevets, tours, &c on asphalt & gravel, were more or less the same. Since you can’t try them all, we saved you some time and tracked down the 15 absolute best single-speed bikes. Le gravel bike (littéralement traduit par "vélo de gravier") vient des Etats-Unis où ce type de vélos correspond parfaitement à la traversée des grands espaces sur pistes en gravier. I love riding my bike (I have completed 200 miles in one day) – likely primarily due to design / construction, but also partly due to benefits of the wider tires. Im running cyclocross legal 32c tires tubeless and works well. At Bike-Discount you'll find a wide selection of high quality Gravel bikes - also known as Adventure or Allroad bikes - leading manufacturers such as Cube, FOCUS, Breezer or Fuji. Perhaps that will work for some riders. Are you using different wheels on the same bike? If you are running a more standard racing tire, like the Continental GP 5000 (221 g), the difference to the 48 mm-wide tires shrinks to just 384 g. And you get some of that weight back, because the smaller 650B rims and shorter spokes weigh a bit less. Colin Strickland’s 2019 Dirty Kanza success came with an average speed of 20.19mph, and at that speed aerodynamics is very important. The higher rolling resistance is due to the tire’s casing, not its width. Meanwhile, that extended reach adds further efficiencies by reducing your body profile to the wind. It’s not. Since 2012, I’ve had a Lynskey ProCross CX bike on 32 or 35 mm tyres, and a 2016 Trek Domane on 32 mm (before that I had steel touring bikes). Or different bikes? Why does the industry insist that racing bikes are faster? Critical Cycles Classic Track Bike. On the bright side, it feels a bit light for a gravel bike made of steel. 2020 CyclingTips Gravel Bike Field Test: Is MTB geometry good for gravel? However, if you’re in the market for one of these bikes, this can be just as much a curse as it is a blessing! A heartfelt thank you for your efforts to communicate the benefits of wider tires! The faster average speeds and tamer terrain of gravel riding also allow for slimmer knobbed tyres that offer reduced rolling resistance, improved aerodynamics and lower weight. Your take on the bike biz is refreshing. Hi What is a gravel bike and why do I need one? I won’t pretend that a gravel bike is the better option for going fast on flowing singletrack, bombing a rough firetrail, or tackling a mountain bike marathon race. A Specialized Crux would probably have felt massively better also, but allowed wider tyres (still no useful mounts). There’s also complexity in preventing the suspension from soaking up rider energy over smooth terrain, something that’s often handled with a manual lockout switch. In turn, a mountain bike suitable to many tailored trail networks can make riding simpler terrain, such as gravel roads, rather dull and slow-feeling. For example, James Huang, the technical expert from CyclingTips.com, posted: “I’ve been spending too much time on gravel and mountain bikes lately. Really smooth out the poor road surfaces up in Ontario, and I have not noticed any diminution in speed on my rides. I enjoyed riding so much that I'm now using that bike for longer tours (60-100km at 20km/h average speed, 1500m elevation) and also shorter rides (35km at 25km/h average speed, 350m elevation ). Physics are physics, but the question is ‘how much slower.’ And on the other hand, a bike that vibrates less is faster. Good to be reminded what real speed actually feels like.”. Pronounced /wAH-chUH/ The Inside Look Whether it’s speed for race day or versatility for the weekend escape into the unknown, Watia is the newest, most wildly capable titanium gravel bike Litespeed has ever created. We also seek unbiased evaluations from experienced riders who... read more, We've experienced a profound revolution in road bikes in recent years: It used to be that to go fast,... read more, When we presented the new René Herse cranks last week, a number of people wondered whether they would be... read more, When the Australian Matt Hayman won the European Paris-Roubaix race yesterday, it came as a huge surprise to everybody, including... read more, [youtube https://youtu.be/MBUSuXHhsBQ?rel=0&w=640&h=360] The cornering is quick, precise, and great in the wet. Rather than trying to fill the garages of those who already ride, we should bring potential cyclists into the sport. (As speeds increase, wind resistance matters more, so it’s possible that at time trial speeds, narrow tires are a little faster. Gravel bikes have grown in popularity for their ability to mimic the efficiency of a road bike while adding versatility for where they can be ridden. We thoroughly test every Compass product before we release it. Bike= 25lbs Riders average speed at 200lbs= X (call it 15mph) Riders average speed at 201lbs= X (still 15mph) You have much more to gain from gaining fitness, or even tire choice. Some of my observations (cruising speed based on a flat, paved road in good condition): 20km/h (12.4 mph) - many "occasional" cyclists ride around this speed 25km/h (15.5 mph) - most commuters Surprisingly good loaded with bike packing gear. All 700c. A couple of years ago I treated myself to a 70th birthday present –> a Ti ‘7’ built to a design by Steve Hogg based on measurements by his Canadian fitter (Mark Dwyer) – my input being it had to allow for wider tires even when mudguards are installed. Equally, if all I wanted to do was explore long lost roads, then I really wouldn’t want to be stuck on a hardtail that would make the terrain feel dull. Suddenly, it no longer seems to be enough to want to ride a bike that will simply handle everything you throw at it on an adventure. Lynskey: rigid, rugged, manœuvrable. I really like the tires very much. Gravel is faster than trail. Can the bike industry please make the randonneur their next big thing? At first glance not that different from a cyclocross bike, gravel bikes are actually distinct – and often closer to an endurance road bike. Aerodynamics of the rider: The rider is responsible for most of the wind resistance. They could market it to everyone. Plus, we all know that the fastest bikes out there are neither gravel nor road bikes, but velomobiles. Handling felt cumbersome. Any conditions. Unfortunately, full custom or a small number of low-production frames is the only way to get a bike like this. I notice the extra weight of wheels and frame. The particular gravel bike I had was too long and slack. Maintaining an average speed of 25 km/h (15.5 mph) on a mountain bike, over rocky and technical terrain, would put you in a very elite category. That is why aero bars and the aero tuck work so well, and why even just lowering your stem by 20 mm does more than a set of aero wheels. But taking that a bit off-road, are there actually any real aero gravel gains to be had in the fatter-tire, lower average speed world of gravel bike riding & racing? Oh Dear where do we start… Never have I seen or read where aero is measured with a rider on the bike in a wind tunnel. Or do gravel bikes truly fill a gap in the market that the progression of mountain bikes has left empty? However, the bike feels slow, slow, slow. (Due to carbon’s lower density, you need wider chainstays on a carbon bike. It was uninspiring to ride and didn’t even have useful mounts, but it was only when the speed went over about 35 km/h that I went backwards compared to my ride buddies on top road machines. So you trade some aero and weight for improvements in rolling resistance/suspension losses. With a 500% or 520% range a 1x12 AXS gravel bike has wider gearing than a GRX double. All our testing indicates it comes out to the same in the end. Sedona is known as a pretty rough and raw mountain bike destination, and the roads are clearly made for cars. And that is good for everybody – even for the bike industry! Not unlike a road bike, a gravel bike prioritises pedalling efficiency with the assumption that the wheels will roll over the terrain they’re pointing at. 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