Gravel or Mountain Bike Revisited

I have a personal spin on this well worn topic.

I love the gravel bike I bought for my son and need to stop stealing it.

The plan was to get myself a dedicated Gravel bike (I have a road bike) but the more I ride the gravel bike the more I realize that I love the gravel trails....but I want to go further offroad.

I tried taking the gravel bike into the more difficult stuff but was soon overmatched by giant holes, sharp pieces of tree stumps and even steel, lots of metal. Even if I were younger the gravel bike would get eaten alive it was so rough.

Really, this was something best suited for a full squish, but I don't like suspension.

I really like gravel bikes because they are fast, I can power along at 15 plus mph on dirt/gravel whereas I could not keep that pace on a dedicated MTB.

I was thinking that a carbon fiber hard tail 29er might be the best compromise, but I would love to hear the opinions of others.

Or drop down to 650c run a 50 and a Lauf or MRP Baxter on the front then go rock it. 

I find myself running my Ti hardtail (w/dropper post) & 120mm travel fork using 29x2,3 tires more and more over my carbon full suspension bikes. If I know I’m hitting certain trails with a particular group my full suspension comes out. Otherwise I am really enjoying doing less aggressive XC trails on my hardtail. Once my new gravel frame gets here the Ti hardtail will be relegated to backup duty. 

I do fall gravel road training rides with mountain bikes (Cross country mountain bike race training) with riders who are faster than me (well, they would be if we were on the same bike).  I’m using a 17lb Gravel bike (actually a CX bike) with 54mm tires on the front end.

My bike climbs faster, and is much faster on, a slight downhill.  This is due to gearing (I’m 2x), weight (especially tires/wheels) and Aero.  Just on the rolling stuff in a pack, its probably not much different.   Because my bike is the opposite of long/low/slack (it is very short), it doesn’t drift and doing single track at 20-25mph with hard tails really keeps me on my toes. 

So, if your not sprinting, there really isn’t a lot of difference on a gravel road (well, going into a head wind on a hard tail isn’t great either).  A good hard tail can be a fast bike for mixed use.

EBG18T wrote:

Or drop down to 650c run a 50 and a Lauf or MRP Baxter on the front then go rock it. 

I find myself running my Ti hardtail (w/dropper post) & 120mm travel fork using 29x2,3 tires more and more over my carbon full suspension bikes. If I know I’m hitting certain trails with a particular group my full suspension comes out. Otherwise I am really enjoying doing less aggressive XC trails on my hardtail. Once my new gravel frame gets here the Ti hardtail will be relegated to backup duty. 

RadDogRoadWarrior wrote:

To be clear, you are suggesting running a suspension fork on what would otherwise be a gravel bike.....interesting.

Is it possible to run a suspension fork on 700 tires?

Edit: I see the the Lauf is exactly that.

RadDogRoadWarrior wrote:

Is it possible to run a suspension fork on 700 tires?

Edit: I see the the Lauf is exactly that.

Yes but they are really sweet looking. I really do need suspension for where I want to go, I just hate giving up the speed of a gravel or CX bike.

My budget for the whole bike (if hardtail 29er) is $1200...there are some deals on pretty well sorted bikes. There is a Carbon with Deore for $999 but it has a junk crank and the 10 speed parts might be hard to replace. I am biased towards deore because I had it decades ago and it was super durable.

I have the entry SRAM Apex 1 11 on my sons gravel bike and I really like it. Decent shifting and never drops a chain. I doubt it is as durable as deore. There is a carbon 29er with the full SRAM Apex driveline for $1200. The advantage would be, if I liked the bike, I could upgrade to higher level SRAM.

If I were to go for a Gravel Bike with front suspension, since the suspension is already $1k it would be a waste to put it on a cheap bike.

That would be an expensive long term project. I would lean Titanium and near top of the line SRAM. With front suspension that would probably be a $5k project, but that would be a dream bike.

I am very familiar with the fit of the Motobecane frames, I have 2.

Sram Apex is pretty solid. I’ve serviced a ton of bikes with it, very few issues. I just hate bleeding SRAM brakes.

Deore is the hold over 10 speed stuff in an 11-12 speed world.

You can find a Lauf Grits ‘slightly used’ for $600, Or new MRP Baxter’s for $499. 

Did you ponder the idea of dropping to 650 & going 50 Add suspension later?

Great suggestions everyone. I want to stay with the larger wheel regardless. Since it is possible to put suspension on a gravel bike (as I have learned here) I am thinking maybe I will go the gravel bike to eventual suspension.

Def something to ponder. I do like the hand options that come with drop bars and even if I went with a 29er I would probably run tires no larger than 2-2.25.

I have a road bike, ideally I want a gravel and MTB. In the near future my budget limits me to only 1 choice.

I did just slap a nice pair of platform peddles on my sons gravel bike.

Thanks guys. I keep going back and forth, but the decider will probably be price and weight. If I can get a light enough hardtail, sub 25 lbs for cheap then that is the way to go.

MTB's are so much cheaper than gravel bikes right now. The Deore kitted (mostly) $1k hardtail is carbon with a heavy crank (hence the cheap price). If I swapped out for a carbo or hollowtech crank and built some wheels I could really get the weight down and do so for around $1700.