Difference between modern Rigid MTB and Gravel

It's because you can't strap a load of frame and top tube bags on if there is gear cable running along too

And also to allow easier "porterage" when you realise you should be riding a bike with suspension :cool:
Yeah I get that on the top tube, but not on the downtube?
 
One nice bike i found was the Jamis Renegade, good tyre clearance, big headtube, 631 steel and reasonably priced........sadly no uk importers for the steel or carbon versions....just go outdoors....if you can believe it for some low end alluminium stuff.
 
I hadn’t even heard of these guys. Will give it some thought over Christmas. If I get the heavy tourer, would it look silly on say, 28 width tyres? Also my original Kili Flier Comp would no longer have a role.

https://fairlightcycles.com/
They do tick some boxes though.
 
I don´t like gravels with tradicional road angles or close, I still apreciate the geometry of a MTB in dirt roads, and a flat handlebar or bull horn for tricky sections. So I made something different, not gravel, but with 650b and 42 tires ... I like it and I don´t care the trend.

Now full rigid, but in summer ... SID will be back because it will be more fun, there is no necesity to pass rocky sections with this fork. For handlebar I´m looking for a Bullhonr, I don´t like road handlebars. But they are too narrow, I need near 620mm to be confortable.

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And we are all the way back round! Yay.

Except you cant buy 26" narrow nobblies due to the man wanting 26" wheels gone and all those pesky frames with it......if you could, nobody would bother with their new bikes!

Schwalbe Marathon are pretty much the best solution I have found - I happily ride the Marathon Greenguard HS420 1.5" on Dartmoor with care, although the 1.7 is probably a better bet.

Still riding my 1990 Marin Palisades tourer I converted to drops in 1995...fashionable again now!
 
Pretty close to my solution. Schwalbe marathon 40x622 rigid fork, flat bar, 3x10 xt was the ultimate allrounder.
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Now i took a big step backwards as i use mostly a retro hybrid with 47x622 tires, and a retro mtb with suspension fork.
 
I'd heard a while back that modern flat bar gravel bikes where a thing & a quick google shows a list of them
https://www.cyclingabout.com/best-flat-bar-gravel-bikes-2021/
I tried a 650b gravel bike with woodchipper drops & nimble as it was it knacked my wrist. I put conventional drops on which helped but in the end went back to my old alt bar 26er MTB. Didn't really notice any speed difference on Strava. Most of what I ride is 'gravel' & I prefer the old MTB. Use it for bikepacking too & even with cabling on top of the top tube frame bags aren't a problem.

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Recently did a flat bar conversion for wifey's Salsa Vaya. It sure looks like a mountain bike frame just to look at it , but once you get flat bars on it you realize the reach is *really* short and the stack is pretty tall. She was fine with that but ymmv.

We are able to cram 50mm tires in there (barely) and that rig is good for any off-road riding she's willing to tackle. Which isn't much.

I watched this little gem the other day, about a dude who rode the Divide Trail on a frame of his own design. About time he gets to Idaho, he's joined by a Lycra-clad gent on a gravel grinder of some kind. Cuts a sporty figure just standing there, but he doesn't look all that comfortable; and his suffering seems to grow to unbearable proportions before they are finished crossing Wyoming, while the dude on the mountain-bike-looking-thing with the Tumbleweed Persuader Bars and big giant fat tires just keeps on truckin along, with a big giant grin on his face. Maybe it's a tortoise-hare thing
 

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