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6 Gravel Bike Trends That REALLY Annoy Us!
6 Gravel Bike Trends That REALLY Annoy Us!
#Gravel #Bike #Trends #Annoy
“Cycling Weekly”
Gravel bikes seem to be taking over the world of cycling, but quite frankly, they are deeply flawed. As the discipline as boomed, it seems as though the tech hasn’t been able to keep up with the level of popularity and it’s left the bikes feeling a bit confused. We’ve rounded up all of those…
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Many bikes are over geared. For example, I do not need a 10 tooth cog in my AXS cassette. I would gladly buy a cassette with 11 being the smallest if I could get one more gear in the lowest third of the cassette.
So, you're mad that gravel bikes don't have mtb gearing. WTF? Just buy a mtb, or put a mtb drivetrain on your gravel bike
''Not enough low gearing?''. Simple remedy : put all these left fingers back into use to activate a good old front derailleur and this will be better too for the longevity of the chains with a better chain line.Obviously only if the operator avoids extreme cross gear . It is only necessary to re-educate the newbys.
Gravel bike? Seriously? What's next? Pebble bikes? Marsh bikes? This is getting REALLY silly. Marketing, pure and simple… for the gullible.
Other than the concerns about gearing, this video is plain stupidity. Classic Cycling Weekly pushing out useless content. There are plenty of bikes to choose from with traditional mounting points everywhere. MTB has far more tire choices than gravel, and there are plenty of pretty decent all-around tires! Many frames can easily fit 27.5×2.1 XC tires with pretty aggressive treads. Sure you can find a gravel bike as expensive as you want, however there are many affordable options, like the pretty well built Tifosi Rostra XLE for around $1000. WTF are you complaining about?
They way marketing, and people are talking about bikes, cars, etc are lke they would be "revived" objects with sould etc. Its really strange fenomenon…
I dont know if you looked at bianchis gravel bikes because the one I bought around a moth ago, gr0013 comes with h.disk breaks grx 810 rear and front derailleur and the rest is grx 600 with a carbon fork and it costed 38.000 tl which is roughly 1300usd. I have rided it for around 200km and had no problems with it.
… I agree … the bike I use for gravel "Rails to Trails is a 2012 Trek 8.6 DS w/ a 3X10 Drivetrain and 700 X 38mm tires. It has a front suspension w/ lockout and a "soft-tail" seat stays and disc brakes … and w/ my current bi-lateral torn rotator cuffs it is my favorite bike to ride … as it is easy on my shoulders … Please note I will NEVER (!!!) ride a "compact double" or a "single" unless it is a "beach cruiser" … down by the ocean side …
Must have been a “come up with something about gravel bikes” assignment this week. Pretty weak
Missing suspension, lightweight!. Just copy lightweight XC full suspension, we need confort!, not all need to save a few grams and sucrifice comfort of rinding in rought terrain
The versatility of the gravel bike was its strength but became its biggest weakness. Now we are starting to get this splitting of models. We get "race" gravel bikes (backward development to a road bike with more clearance) and we get "adventure" gravel bikes (just more clearance and more fork angle, standard gravel bike). When will we get a full suspension aero TT gravel bike?
Yes they are way to pricey, like most bikes, Gravel bikes takes the price though. I hate the bike industry but i love the sport.
old git opinion 11x 36 -22-30=40 is best
All extreme ends of the spectrum. There are more middle bits that outweigh the extremes
+ saddles. Gravel bike riders would love the seatpost alone.
Gravel bikes are cool. But they can be very expensive as you mentioned. I rented one, did 40 miles and felt the vibration of each one of those miles in my arms for a week. The cost to buy of that one was $1700. The owner showed me a better option with a suspension for $5000. It was too much for me. I did love it, so the idea that came to mind was that I was basically riding a MTB with drop bars. And I did just that, fixed my old MTB into a “gravel” bike with drop bars. It does great! And I only spent $360 fixing it and replacing old parts.
Tested gravel bikes. Ended up buying a virtually unused BMC alpenchallenge 26 DT wheel/discbrake with a full x7 drivetrain. Way superior gearing, better and lighter tires, stiffer and lighter wheels and 10kg. Todays gravel bikes don’t really work here in the alps. Another gripe are the 29 wheeled bikes. Heavier than needed and awfully sluggish to ride. They are a marketing fart.
Agree some of the 1x gravel gearing sucks, if you ride in hilly conditions. Supposedly the gravel 1x is marketed as an all road bike…. 😮. If flat conditions and mild gradients is fine.
I also have an old 2012 khs 3x 10 mountain bike with sram x9 RD (44/33/22 chainring with a 11-36T cassette). This gives far superior gearing with 650%. This is a low of 16 gear inches on a 26” tyres, and great for grade above 15%, and great on the knees.
My gravel bike with single 1x (40T chainring with 11-42T cassette) on 650B really struggles on these steeper sections, as does the knees and heart rate. With the SRAM rival 1 RD I have put a 11-46T which helps a bit (11-51T cassette had some chain length issues with that rear derailleur for high to low gears) but maybe have to look at front chainring to do any better here. The high gear is currently 100 gear inches which is fine on the flat, but would have some negative impact compromise, if I reduce the front chainring size to a 36 or 38T.
This was GIBBERISH !! If you'd just given ratios it would (maybe) have made better sense !
2x on a gravel bike all the way if you plan on using it on the road too. Especially if you come from a road bike background and like to keep a given cadence. 1x fine for gravel and/or your background is mainly mountain biking.
My gravel bike is a hybrid Giant Seek 0 upgraded to Alfine 11 speed IGH, Giant SLR cockpit/saddle/post, Shimano XTR trail pedals, Magura MT4s, DT Swiss rims, Shimano dynamo and supernova lights f/r. For some bling and to stop corrosion all bolts are titanium. 20t rear 39t chainring.
That's why I'll always choose a 2x over a 1x on a gravel bike. 😎
he's talking about kickstands.. if you want to buy higher end bikes, DON'T GET A KICKSTAND. your bike can lean on the back wheel just fine, it's how i store mine and it never falls over.
gearing "not low enough"? call it gravel but most of the cycling happens on the roads or hard pack paths.
… full bionic hamster at anything > 20mph – no thanks. 30/52 or similar on the front please. (48 OK till get budget to slam on a 52 – sounds not much but on a rear 11 that's almost 10%)
… as to climbing, if you're doing the baby 28 front to 32+ rear it's slower than walking & pushing (and uses >20% more energy lost into the frame & pneuma), and looks stupid … grow some legs!
No bike does everything. Same as cars and women.
Pfffff!!! Buy an endurance road bike with adequate tyre clearance. Buy a bike with semi compact crankset 50-34 and 11-34 cassettes. Job done.
I’m enjoying the bike so far https://www.youtube.com/post/UgkxMesz3KOGEmwmvyKQfLfrRSUXLFzfVHZA My only real complaints are the brakes and the pedals. I feel like a bike designed for bigger people should have much larger pedals and more heavy duty brakes. I’ve only gotten two really good rides out of it, minimal downhill action, and the brakes feel like they’re already going out. A larger person has more momentum, so I think this wasn’t thought through very well. Also, I wear size 13-14 wide shoes. My feet cramp up on these pedals that are clearly made for smaller feet. Since I’m not a pro rider (and I don’t think many are who purchase this bike) I don’t think that the straps on the pedal are necessary at all. None of this takes away from the enjoyment I get from riding, however. I’ll just head to a bike shop to improve on a few things.
I feel like you complained about the range of tires and then asked for yet more tire choices in the same minute
Very keen to see what the real difference is between a hybrid bike and a gravel bike. Is it really just the drop handlebars?
If I could give this video 2 likes I would, spot on with all your points
Though I have a 7th reason about gravel bikes trends that really annoy us and that is the super annoying gravel bike owner who is a total gravel bike zealot… you know the ones on TikTok or Instagram or at your local BBQ who chime in with (quotations to be spoken in a Goofy from Disney voice) "Road bikes / mountain bikes suck, just get a gravel bike, the only bike you need is a gravel bike, with a gravel bike you can go anywhere…"
ROFLOL… anywhere? Hmmmmm you may need a very big * next to that "anywhere"… and when I say a big * I mean one that is the size of Australia. I have been on some dirt roads that will make people on hard tails sweat bricks, gravel bike riders would need their last rights read to them
Sure gravel bikes are great and if I commuted to work by bike I would probably get one but they are insanely overhyped and the reality is they are a "jack of all trades, master of none" sort of bike and I think this video very nicely pointed that out