Same, I was very happy to be on a hard tail with 140 up front and a hans/HR2 combo. On browns mountain decent into Clydesdale I used up all but a bit of my travel a few times.
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I aired down from 36 to 26 psi on the windmill climb, still not enough traction and I was banging rims on the downhills. Thankfully my tubeless kit held up, but I’m sure there is no sealant left in my rear wheel.
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I plugged 3 holes onnl gravel bikes. Glad I brought my plug kit lol
Suspension? What is this you talk of?!
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Some of you might find this interesting
The best bike is the one that is the fastest? Lame.
How about the best bike is the one that you have the most fun on.
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100% agree
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Depends on what your objective is I guess. My dirt jumper is a lot of fun, but if I want to race a crit I’m on my road bike because faster.
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For sure I 100% agree there are different tools for different jobs but unless you’re in the top 1% in the world I just don’t see how a 20ish second gain in speed from one bike to another, as they demonstrate in this video is really of any importance to anyone even local racers. There is a point of diminishing returns and this video exemplifies that.
I could care less if I’m 20 seconds faster or slower as long as I’m having a good time. If you want to be fast train better, the gains will be much larger than any variance in equipment.
My gravel bike is a 90’s mountain bike with drop bars and STI levers, it does the gravel thing just dandy and I don’t feel held back at all. To me the whole “gravel riding” thing is just what we used to call mountain biking.
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Cycling in general is pretty silly with the trends, and stupid constantly changing standards.
Having said that, a lot of folks like shiny new stuff, and this is what the bike companies try and trigger constantly, and they do it well.
That web show caters typically to roadie/racers, so they slant a lot of the content to “fast”, the MTB version of the show seems to be about 50/50, fun/fast, its all relevant IMO.
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Any fans of The Office?
Reminds me of the classic bear debate.
[Jim Halpert ]
Question, what kind of bear is best?
[Dwight Schrute ]
That’s a ridiculous question.
[Jim Halpert ]
False. Black bear.
[Dwight Schrute ):
Well, that’s debatable. There are basically two schools of thought.
I think as long as you enjoy your bear, all bears are best.
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Yeah, I dunno dude. I’ve done my fair share of gravel grinding on 90s mtbs and a fair chunk on cross bikes but one ride on a gravel specific bike with tubeless tires, disc brakes, and Shimano shift/brake levers and I promptly hung six bikes up in the hayloft with no intention of ever bringing them down (my wife got the same bike as me). Sure, you can do the same rides as me but… And I agree completely, gravel grinding is the mountain biking we were doing years ago, I realized that one or two rides in.
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There is no denying that modern bikes are pretty amazing!
Maybe when (if) my 90’s mtb conversion dies I’ll buy a modern mountain bike with road bars.
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Comparing a gravel bike to a MTB with road bars betrays your ignorance.
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meh.
Lolz
I tried a new gravel bike briefly, one of the specialized headshock ones, which I always thought would be gimmicky, but shit, did it ever smooth out the chatter, with 40c tubless tires, it was a LOT more comfy and likely more capable than my super aggressive CX bike, which felt like a stiff dumptruck afterwards.
I was a bit shocked to be honest.
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Yeah I was shocked just after the first minute and then we hit some aggressive trail. I couldn’t believe how stable and capable it was. I don’t think gravel bikes are defined by their components, rather by their geometry, wheelbase, and bb height. My cross bike is twitchy as hell and I made do on it for years but I could never go back.
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I didn’t know those existed
Mine is anyway, compared to the gravel bike.