This bike is great and all for rough dirt and chunky gravel roads but I’ve also been riding a rail trail fairly often and exploring other towns by road. I find myself averaging around 15 mph over a flat 30 miles. I honestly love this bike, but I’d like to go further and explore more so I’m considering either a gravel or endurance road bike.
Any insight to how much more speed I stand to gain would be really helpful in deciding whether it would be worth it or not. My speed really doesn’t matter to me except for the fact that I would like to cover more ground in less time.
by bobbybits300
9 Comments
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That looks like a nice and comfortable setup. Personally I feel like your speed gains would not be that great. It’s impossible for me to tell you how much speed you would gain with a drop bar gravel bike with different tires but if you’re comfortable and love your bike I would just keep with what you have.
15mph is not slow for mixed gravel! You could probably add 1-2 mph with a lighter bike, different tires, more aero position etc, but it’s not gonna be revolutionary.
That’s a good fun speed if you’re not raicing, if you want a gravel bike and you can buy it, buy it. Maybe you’ll get some aero gains but again, if you’re not racing and you already have a comfy ride maybe it’s a good choice to stick with it
If you really want to do “road biking” on dirt roads, a gravel bike is great and would give you a speed boost. But as soon as it’s less than smooth wide open dirt roads, you’re not going to be much faster than on your current bike, which looks comfy and capable. The gravel bike would definitely be faster on a proper road ride, particularly if you put some slick road tires on it in the 28-35mm range.
But I almost think with your current bike, if you want to N+1, consider a more capable mountain bike or consider an endurance road bike with like 35mm slicks so that it can do light gravel but still really boogie on the road. Either of those would have less overlap with the bike you already have and love.
If you’re actually packing and use that front rack, the benefits of a drop bar bike would be almost completely gone. If this guy suits your needs then send it! That is of course, if you just want another bike I tell people to do that to 😉
Should hit the local bike shop see if you could take one for a spin. Take the bike to your same normal trail. Compare apples to apples.
My gravel bike is a Grail from Canyon. It is fast. And light at 19 lbs. It moves on gravel. Only thing holding it back is me. The group I ride with average 17 18 mph over the gravel/pavement mix 26 mile ride. I usually average 15 😒
But I am out of shape too so……
Lastly, road bike for roads, gravel bike for off road. If you are 50/50 gravel bike. 70/30 pavement. Road bike. Just my 2 cents.
Am I crazy or is that Nyack, NY?
Honestly, on gravel and dirt paths, my Marlin 6, with its fat nubby tires, is faster than my gravel bike(Topstone 4), even though my gravel bike has “faster” gearing. Totally different story on pavement, though.. naturally.
Without going too far off on a tangent, the beauty of a gravel bike–most of them, at least–is the ability to put different sized wheels and tires on them, which drastically changes how they function, thus, you’re able to fine tune the machine.
If you’re looking for a gravel bike that will spend half of its time on pavement, a 2x drivetrain is pretty much a must. You sacrifice a little top end that a road bike drivetrain will have, but not nearly as much as a 1x will. You won’t lose any off-road capability, though, so when you mix it up, you’re ready to rock and roll.
On a “road focused” gravel or a road bike, you will be faster off the bat, but I think a gravel bike will make you happier, given that you like diversity and enjoy trails. From there, tire choice, size and tread, and what PSI you run will determine the rest.
I could be wrong. I’m no expert. This is just my opinion from my experiences.