Show us your Gravel Bikes / committee meeting

[bikeworkshop]

I bring you the 3 reasons:

A Gravel bike isn't a Cyclocross Bike because:
It has a lower BB

A Gravel Bike isn't a MTB because:
It has drop bars

A Gravel Bike isn't a Touring Bike because:
Touring Bikes don't exist in America

 

[grantoury]

I think the way "gravel" is confusing and muddying genres is rather liberating, it is a good thing that people see bicycles are useful for different purposes, and they can be configured in more ways than one.

 

[M_Chavez]

So a "gravel" fits somewhere between a randonneuse and a touring bike, geometry wise.

What about a monstercross? I always thought it was a front susser hardtail with drop bars. But some folks use this name for a rigid MTB with drop bars.

 

[bikeworkshop]

26 and front sus puts you out of the gravel camp.
I think you can only go rogue on one detail. Not 2.

Gravel is a tourer basically, with a modern touch - like fat tyres and discs.

My bike shown above started life in 04, current frame 06. First use of the term "gravel bike" is 2013 by salsa iirc

Oh and The FlatBar Gravel Bike is a rebadged hybrid.

 

[M_Chavez]

700c Tourer or old-school 26er tourer?
What about 650b wheels? Is it a gravel if it's got 700c? If you ask me, that's a touring bike.

 

[bikeworkshop]

"700 is fine, for riders over 5foot9"

Or you could call it a 29er

 

[bikeworkshop]

Let's define our terms:
Fiirst use of "Gravel Bike"?

Salsa Warbird 2013?
700c

 

[legrandefromage]

Touring bikes don't exist in America?

Wow...

There were/are so many tourers over there!

Anyway, I clearly started the gravel growler trend in 2008

 

[bikeworkshop]

I can see you are betting you can get your bike through the sheep gate without lifting both wheels off the ground
26 wheels though

 

[bikeworkshop]

Touring bikes don't exist in America?

Wow...

There were/are so many tourers over there!

I don't mean Tourers don't exist as bikes and riders in the americas, but as the Marketing Concept.

Early 2000s in the UK, tourers like the Raleigh Randonneur and CB Dalesman were very sporadic, and then the Dawes Galaxy got wound up
- and i don't think there was any marketing of them beyond touring specific publications - I.e. playing to a captive market.

And then US brands like Surly and Salsa brought the steel comfort distance bike back into the mainstream, with new riders encouraging fresh design ideas to get us to where we are today.