Most gravel bikes are performance-oriented, designed to be lighter, with fewer spokes and sometimes carbon rims. Extended touring and bikepacking require strong wheels, possibly at least 36 spokes and solid rims. One more thing to consider is wheels and spoke count. Big tires improve traction on unsteady surfaces like rocks and sand, where a gravel bike will meet its limitations. It certainly is wider than a roadie but not as fat as a modern touring bike. Bikes that are not meant to carry panniers perform very poorly when loaded laterally. Gravel bikes are not meant to really carry loads for long periods of time, they can hold a light bikepacking setup but we’ll suffer under four loaded bike panniers plus maybe a trunk bag, almost to the point of becoming unrideable.Ī touring bike indeed performs at its best with loads on, that’s when its stability is maxxed, and so it’s the control. But of course, that’s not the case, gravel bike touring is somehow restricted to a certain kind of adventure, let’s see why. cycling Skye island Downsides of gravel bike touringįrom what we have said in the previous pretty technical paragraph, it seems gravel bikes are as good as touring bikes for traveling. When you buy a gravel you get a commuter, a racer, a tourer, and a cross-country all in one – of course with the due compromises. They are suitable for all but the fastest of road riding, while the wider tires and wider-range gearing make off-road trails, gravel and single tracks manageable. The choice is usually towards 2×11 or 1×10, often with the bigger sprocket going up to 36 or even 42T.Īlthough the initial purpose of gravel bikes is to compete in a cycling discipline called gravel grinding (long races on varied terrain, mostly off the sealed road), their versatility makes them indeed a great solution for multiple cycling pursuits, including extended bicycle touring trips. The gearing is also pretty unique, while cyclocross requires a narrower gear range (short circuits can’t have big long climbs), gravel riding is done on more varied terrain: steep mountains, flat and smooth tarmac, farm roads, single track… this calls for a much wider choice of gear. Most gravel bicycles mount drop-bars, but flat bars and alternative handlebars like Jones Loop H are becoming more and more common on gravels, giving more space for MTB computers, phone mounts, or GPS navigators. The bottom bracket will usually be a little lower than a cyclo-cross bike but still high enough not to get bumps on most rocky trails. It is a feature that works great for multi-day bikepacking trips.ĭisc brakes, fatter tires, eyelets and mounting points that you won’t find on a road bike make most gravel bicycles ideal machines for the increasingly trendy discipline of bikepacking.Ī sloping top tube offers more stand-over height, which is useful in a get-off, while taller head tubes than what you’d expect to see on a ‘cross’ or race bike allow for greater comfort in a more upright rider position. The aim of a long wheelbase is to make the bike more stable both on asphalt and dirt, to provide extra comfort over long distances, and to handle medium-heavy loads. One of these is the longer wheelbase, found in many gravel bikes, it’s a fundamental characteristic of a touring bike. Let’s start by listing some features of gravel bikes that make them similar to touring dedicated bicycles. Real answer: it of course depends on many factors. Creator: Stefan Haehnel – Credit: Bikepacking, gestalten 2021 Are gravel bikes good for touring? Our decade-long experience in bicycle touring enables us to find the key cons and pros of every product we mention. For what we can't test personally, we involve other people in the cycling community to give their feedback and opinion about gear they have used. How we compile our gear guides: during the almost 10 years of our team personally tested dozens of similar pieces of gear.
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