Super Bike Vs Mid Range Bike – The Gravel Edition | Will A Top End Bike Make You Faster?

Gravel bikes are becoming an increasingly popular choice for cyclists, and possibly offer more versatility than any other type of bike you can buy. But how does a mid range gravel bike match up to a super gravel bike? We’ve got both, and we’re off to the woods to find out!

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what do you get for your money when you buy a bike because some bikes can be really quite cheap whereas others can be really really expensive but how much better are they because after all you are the one providing the engine we’ve looked into this before with road bikes and found that the difference between a cheap road bike and a top of the range superbike is actually pretty big but the difference between a mid-range road bike and a top-of-the-range superbike is much smaller and that’s because bikes that cost around a thousand pounds euros of dollars are really really good but what happens when you go off-road on gravel if you spend more money can you go faster can you go further but also does it limit what you can ride and does it limit where you can ride [Music] now i have a sneaking suspicion that a gravel bike might just be the best value type of bike out there with less separating the super bikes from the mid-range bikes than any other and yes of course weight still plays a part off-road as does aerodynamics too when the speed is high enough yeah but there are other factors as well that can make a difference well in a bid to try and find out we’ve managed to get our hands on two awesome bikes the canyon grail 6 and the canyon grail cf slx 8 di2 yeah so we’re filming this with shimano as you’ll see both these bikes have shimano’s grx gravel specific group sets on there so as part of our look at what separates these two bikes we’re also going to do a deep dive in to the gears and the brakes now we’ve done this before ollie when we looked at 105 versus mechanical durates and in that instance the difference was not very much so i’m going to be really intrigued to find out today’s results how are we going to find out well previously when doing these kinds of comparison videos we’ve ridden short and exceedingly painful time trials and in this video we’re going to keep doing that however to try and answer the questions of what and where you can ride we might have a couple of other little tests up our sleeves test number one is our speed test a tough little gravel climb to start followed by a fast gravel section then onto the road does anything separate these bikes when they’re going quickly according to the wahoo side this is the start of the course that you’ve designed yeah just through there that’s a hedge it opens out a little bit afterwards there’s there’s gravel holly this is this is gravel riding yeah you ready yeah all right beep beep beep beep beep damn it good luck mate thanks a bit moist under there’s no gravel here it’s a it’s a max effort olly [Music] right whilst ollie is out getting his first time on the scoreboard i thought i’d take the opportunity to start talking through some of the differences between the bikes before we actually see what those differences might be out on the road and the trail so i’m going to start with the big one the handlebars no i’m only kidding handlebars are clearly very different but no the big one for me is the frame material so this the cf slx our superbike is made out of carbon fiber whereas the grail 6 is made out of aluminium those mid-range bikes typically are now that has a big effect on the weight so the frame here is just 830 grams whereas our grail 6 has a frame weight of 1540 grams so almost twice the weight but then whilst that’s significant so too are the material properties in terms of stiffness and compliance so carbon fiber can be engineered in a way that gives it real stiffness in one direction for power transfer and good handling but then also allows you to engineer in a degree of flex on another plane now you can see it most clearly actually up at the seat post here where it will flex significantly in that direction boosting comfort but yet it’s really stiff in that direction so that you can actually pedal on the thing now of course aluminium does deflect of course it does but much much less what’s going to be interesting though is to see whether or not we can actually time a difference between the two certainly on a normal gravel trail with average size bumps 40 millimeter tyres here with about 34 psi in you can feel the difference between the bikes but could you actually measure a difference could you go faster with more compliance built into your frame we’re going to find out shortly before we dam aluminium too much though it does have its advantages not least the fact that it’s on bikes that don’t cost as much the other thing is that it can and in this instance is according to canyon slightly more robust so it’s a little bit less susceptible to accidental knocks and dings so you don’t need to take quite such good care of your mid-range bike as you would do your superbike right run number one superbike coming up [Music] now neither of these bikes promises to offer any aero advantage although the superbike does have aero wheels which hopefully will give some slight benefit but in a road situation like this by far the biggest things are the rolling resistance of the tyres and also the position of you the rider that you can get into and on that last point the position on both of the bikes is pretty much identical both have a nice long top tube and a short stem which means that you can have both nice stable handling when you need it but also short nimble agile handling when you’re off-roading navigating the rough stuff and you’re still able to get into a nice aero position with your elbows bent and you can tuck your head in and go faster when you need to and well i appreciate many gravel riders probably aren’t bothered about aero i mean you can still go faster for the same effort when you want it and be more efficient and will potentially go further for the same effort as well right ollie yeah run number two yeah i’m excited about this one good stuff mate look after it they’re falling off okay right ready [Music] into the hedge again i don’t know why but every time i get on a bike that ollie’s been riding i have to put it in the big ring again weird right ready low blow i’m sorry i’m just gonna go now [Music] that was loads of fun let’s see where is see how he gets on hear me first impressions ollie i didn’t think i didn’t think i was gonna notice much of a difference but i thought it was actually like pretty big pretty big difference between these two yeah i felt like i felt like that one was so much smoother yeah like like i know for a fact that the tires are the same pressure because i pumped them up myself same tyres as well same tyres but it feels like it’s kind of got it’s like a magic carpet in comparison yeah i mean it’s not like it’s got full like suspension going on or anything but it is noticeably when you’re on that really rough stuff more compliant and then on the road as well even on like the sort of slightly imperfect tarmac it noticeably just more plush yeah um ride that’s weird surprisingly yeah it’s been that significant also the weight on that i think was noticeable or lack of yeah so the weight difference seen these two bikes right 1.2 kilograms which is quite a lot i mean that’s you know more than a bag of sugar um yeah and if you so we did some maths i said did some math stuck it on an internet online calculator but apparently that 1.2 kilos is worth about 40 seconds up out dues which is always my kind of like standard time now we’ve not ridden that up anywhere near outdoors but i think off-road a difference in weight because you’re not riding at a constant speed you’re constantly changing your pace especially on like slower technical stuff i think a lighter bike feels more responsive yes on that initial section on this test loop you’ve created there was at the very least a perception that i felt i could feel the the lower weight immediately how much difference it made might not it might have been like a second or two but it it’s definitely perceptible well let’s find out the results for our four kilometer mixed surface loop are as follows on the aluminium grail i completed the course in 13 minutes five seconds and sided it in 12 45 switching to the lighter carbon bike with greater compliance we were both quicker i managed the course in 1241 and psi 12 37. test number two now is going to be a little bit more technical so we’ve got a kind of bumpy-ish climb up through the woods here and then we’ve got a really nice single track descent relatively simple but with a fair few rocks and roots thrown in and it’s slippy out today isn’t it it’s been a little bit damp um and it’s gonna get more damp because there’s a small stream crossing as well so uh yeah it’s gonna be good all right you can go first yeah okay right shall i do my own bleeps oh i thought that was a long one then [Applause] so that doesn’t count because he jumped jump the start [Applause] time for my run now pray for ollie [Applause] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] more technical riding requires greater control of the bike and this is going to put a bigger demand on the braking and the shifting so let’s talk about the components that are fitted to the two bikes starting with the similarities now despite the difference in price both bikes are fitted with hydraulic disc brakes and i think this is just incredibly important hydraulic disc brakes they offer great modulation more power and more consistency over cable actuated disc brakes also cable actuated display you can be more prone to cable stretching things like that both the bikes have 11 speed cassettes with a nice wide ratio on there and they both have two chain rings up front although you can swap this out on both bikes for a single one by chainring setup if required or if that’s what you want and that’s because the rear mechs the grx rear mechs that are on both are compatible with one by setups and they feature this clutch mechanism which you can turn on and off and the clutch helps keep the chain nice and tight on the rough stuff and stops it slapping into the chainstay both pairs of levers on the bikes have been adapted from shimano’s road group sets to better suit the demands of mixed surface riding you’ve got a wider lever blade here and also the pivot point on the lever is different too so it can give you greater leverage when you’re braking from a hud’s position like that and just the overall shifting on the bike should be very similar because the ramps on both the chain set and the cassette are engineered to be the same shape so we should have nice smooth shifting on both the uh well less expensive bike and the superbike so ollie has just taken you through a long list of similarities but there are differences of course so this one grx 810 is lighter than grx 400 so that’s going to contribute to the overall lighter weight of our bike which is a bonus but for me perhaps the biggest one is that grx 810 is di2 so it has electronic shifting which means it’s even faster to shift takes even less effort and is even more consistent and it stays that way as well there’s no chance of getting sticky gritty cables from dust and from mud and things like that now will it make us faster that’s hard to prove i suspect it will very subtly but let’s face it fabian cancellara used mechanical shifting and he went pretty fast although it’s got to be said that all pro cyclists using shimano now are on di2 why because it feels nicer and it is faster and it does take less effort but even more important than that for me is the fact that when you remove all the mechanical shifting gubbins from inside the lever body here you can make it smaller and that for me is really important i love a small lever body i find it more comfortable and i also find it gives me more confidence particularly when i’m handling technical terrain again will it make me faster possibly fractionally but then a comfy saddle doesn’t make you faster compared to an uncomfy saddle but i would definitely choose one for me lever ergonomics is right up there alongside saddle choice yes it’s that noticeable for me i find a small lever body satisfying every time i ride and yes that does sound more dodgy than i thought it would streams on our technical loop the results were as follows on the aluminium grail with mechanical shifting psy completed it in four minutes 42 seconds and i was a bit slower than that with 5 minutes and 51 seconds and switching onto the carbon grail with electronic shifting psy went quicker 4 minutes 35 seconds whereas i i was only marginally faster five minutes 49 seconds we’ve had a cracking day bombing around in the woods it’s been great fun on these gravel bikes and there are differences between them but what does it all mean it’s conclusion time it is well as you say there are differences between them we measured it although we’ve got to put big caveat in it’s kind of subjective isn’t it we’re not using parameters i don’t think it’d be appropriate to use power meters in this instance but the fact is the differences that we did measure against the stopwatch also tallied up with the way we felt about the bias than they yeah i mean we were both quicker uh in both instances on that bike and i think it but not by a large amount and i think it’s a bit like a kind of luxury car versus a normal car in that when you get in an audi or a bmw you’re not going to get that much faster to your destination but it just feels nicer you know what i mean yeah no i think i know what you mean i don’t have the luxury of driving either of those cars but i can imagine what it feels like to drive a beamer or an audi but no certainly when it comes to bikes i understand what you mean because yeah this bike would technically get you to your destination slightly faster perhaps slightly fresher a result perhaps of of the compliance of the faster shifting of of the lighter weight but yet actually the most rewarding part of it wasn’t the result against the stopwatch it was every time you kind of stamp on the pedals or you dive for a corner those little micro rewards that you constantly get you do notice the difference and it’s particularly contrasting every time you swap between the bikes yes i think being able to swap immediately between them really does highlight it and it’s good that we’ve got that luxury but when we did the technical thing the biggest difference i found was was not the bikes on the super technical stuff what held me back was my own ability or lack of um yeah the ability to get off your bike quickly to walk for a bit all right i think yeah but there’s also actually we’ve got to say the superbike is brilliant for gravel riding of course but that bike potentially is better for all-round versatility yes i think this one is a more versatile option because i’d be much more comfortable locking this bike up in town because it cost much less money and also when i when we were on the rough stuff i’d be much more confident about abusing this bike on rough terrain if i owned that one because it is that bit more expensive i’d be worried about damaging it i’d be worried about you damaging this one as well no i just i don’t i don’t think you would but i know what you mean you have to be able to ride what you can afford to replace and off-road that’s particularly true because stuff does happen now i guess when it comes to answering our initial questions can you go faster on the superbike yes you can can you go further theoretically you could because of the extra compliance but i can’t imagine a situation where our mid-range bike would cause you to to finish your ride early like i just i just don’t think that would ever happen but you might be fractionally beaten up when you get there i guess whether or not it’s worth that extra money is entirely down to you your personal situation and your perception of value but it’s undoubtedly fantastic news that the difference between them isn’t a huge chasm is it both bikes seriously fast seriously good and seriously good fun i like the colour of this one better as well see i don’t i think this one’s great i like the way it shows off the mud at the end of our day now it just looks cool anyway that’s beside the point super interested to hear your thoughts on all of this you’ve seen all of our comparisons on the road let us know what you think now about this mid-range versus superbike on gravel