I posted here a few weeks ago and there seems to be (at least for newbies like me) a lot of discussion around whether to get a MTB HT or a true “gravel bike” (which in my mind is drop bars, skinnier tires and no suspension).
My terrain is rugged forest roads with steep climbs / decents and a lot of washouts, divots/holes, sizeable rocks, etc. So, not flat long gravel roads like in the Midwest, which looks really cool and seems prevalent here.
First off I borrowed a Jamis Expat with 36mm tires and literally almost ate it a few times, and my fillings were nearly shaken out of my head.
In that this is a secondary thing for me, I wasn’t willing to spend a lot of Wonga on this bike. So, I found this for what I thought was a good deal. A fairly light frame, 110mm of travel and GravelKing tires. Certainly not top of the line - but sufficient for this Hack.
Took it out for its maiden voyage Saturday. 53miles with 5,579’ of elevation gain. I was happy overall with my decision. Compared to the gravel bike the climbs seemed a tad slower as well as the flats. But I was getting killed on the downhill, so this set up just makes sense to me.
Hope this helps a newbie with the eternal question of MTB or Gravel Bike.
Here, the dirt roads are often in better shape than the paved ones...
It’s a very individual choice. Most of my rides link pavement and this kind of dirt, and a drop-bar bike with fairly smooth tires(38mm G-Ones) works well for me.
smoothmoose wrote:Congrats on the new bike. HT with gravel tires I think is the right choice given what you were doing. What size are the GK?
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Thanks - They are 50s. I think I could go a little skinnier maybe. But will run these a while. Taking it out this afternoon on a flowy, not so technical Mt bike trail to play and see how it does.
Here, the dirt roads are often in better shape than the paved ones...
It’s a very individual choice. Most of my rides link pavement and this kind of dirt, and a drop-bar bike with fairly smooth tires(38mm G-Ones) works well for me.
Those roads look smooth as silk and I bet they are a blast to ride. Very Cool.
I found the same thing you did with my territory and took an older Niner EMD and turned it into a all-road bike with drop bars and a 46/30x11-42 set up. After a year of that bike, I tried full-suspension and like it even better. To me, if you are getting jarred around, you need suspension and you need something halfway from gravel to mtb. I hate flat bars so that would be the first thing to go, but that is personal.
Slim wrote:And part of it also comes down to what other bikes you have, at least if you have an interest in a variety of riding.
If you already have a (more rugged) mtb, it makes sense to get a slightly more "road oriented" gravel bike.
But if you already have an endurance road bike with 32mm tires, and no mtb, then a (hardtail) mtb might offer the most usefulness.
I sold my full suspension bike and lemme tell ya. It is a seller’s market. I left money on the table and sold it in 15 minutes.
So, this is my only bike and remember: I’m a trail runner 90% of the time. This is for cross training and fun, I’m not a fanatic like you guys are. I don’t see myself having 5 bikes and wearing flashy spandex 😆.
Right now, I’m going to just use this bike 1-3 times a week and enjoy it. I’ll tweak tires as I move along. Who knows, maybe I’ll get the bug and need more.
I could see moving to drop bars and slightly skinnier tires. The fork is non-negotiable for this terrain.
Where are you riding? Whats it like? BTW - I don’t know what “46/30x11-42” means. I literally a know nothing about bikes.
ccand51997 wrote:I found the same thing you did with my territory and took an older Niner EMD and turned it into a all-road bike with drop bars and a 46/30x11-42 set up. After a year of that bike, I tried full-suspension and like it even better. To me, if you are getting jarred around, you need suspension and you need something halfway from gravel to mtb. I hate flat bars so that would be the first thing to go, but that is personal.
Good on ya! I've basically done the same thing for my wife. My son outgrew his old HT but it fits my wife perfectly. It's a HT with front suspension. Right now it's running 35mm tires and a 1x10 drive-train. It suits her needs well for now. I've been contemplating whether to get her an actual gravel bike or sticking with this one. She prefers flat bars and the limited number of flat bar gravel bikes in steel is pushing me to get a suspension corrected 29er rigid carbon fork. She doesn't bomb down stuff so she doesn't really need the suspension.
I also found a crazy deal on a Box 1x11 full drive-train set up. That allowed me to build up an old frame for my son pretty cheap. So if I go the carbon fork route for my wife, I can throw the suspension fork on that bike and he can ride MTB or gravel. So it'll kind of be the best of both worlds for us.
The three of us are planning a good size ride at our cabin over the July 4th weekend so I'm pretty psyched about that.
Here is my take. Ideally, I have a road bike, a gravel bike, and a MTB.
If I only had one bike it would be a gravel bike. Right now I have a road bike for myself and a hybrid I got for my son. I ride the hybrid on gravel but it is less than ideal.
My next bike will probably be an MTB hardtail with smaller tires. Eventually I will add a gravel bike.
"My terrain is rugged forest roads with steep climbs / decents and a lot of washouts, divots/holes, sizable rocks, etc. So, not flat long gravel roads like in the Midwest
So, this is my only bike and remember: I’m a trail runner 90% of the time. This is for cross training and fun, I’m not a fanatic like you guys are. I don’t see myself having 5 bikes and wearing flashy spandex "
Short Answer = Hi, I hear ya; my .2 cents is stick with your XC 29'er HT ( nice bike btw).
Details = MTB's were originally made for Fire Roads, Forest Service Roads etc. They even called some "fire road geometry". In the early 90's myself and others rode a great deal of fire roads on ridged 26'ers I am very familiar with those gnarly fire roads, wash outs etc and it is still amongst my favorite distance riding.
Modern 29'ers do that (fireroads) well..............better than early 26'ers which we ran on less than 2" tires back then btw.
IMO- many Mountainbikes have become overbuilt (for me anyways) very extreme, fatter plus tires, huge travel suspension, big air they certainly are not what they were.
I would add some bar ends. I always liked the Scott ALT II bars ( wrapped ski bar ends do the same) maybe cut your likely super wide modern MTB bars down to 23" for fireroads / distance. 45C - 2" hard pack tires
FWIW - I am older now (59) and I am very happy with a customized rigid 29'er light with a riser bar and small bar ends , running currently 45C Riddler tires (also luv'ed the former Spesh 1.8" renegades etc ) and a 1x11 as an all around my riding purpose these days is very simular to yours and I also ride it on pavement to urban/townie for fitness
If you want to start doing longer distance gravel races get a gravel bike but, much like videos showing CX bikes with top shelf riders that are over looked at who is ACTUALLY RIDING THAT BIKE (top level cyclist) for the purpose of manufactures selling the bike making cool "rad" (eyes rolling back) videos for marketing riding their CX and "gravel"(eyes rolling again) bikes crazy fast on everything from single track to urban jungle and jumps ................it doesn't mean its the right tool for the task at hand.
~ For your description and non race I think you have the ideal tool for the job ~ Enjoy the outdoors...........
Sounds like you've found a great rig for your gravel adventures!
IMO (and worth exactly what I charge for it)... The primary advantage to drop bars is when one is spending long times in the saddle. For me this is around 15 to 20 miles. Yeah, lots of people go far longer on flat bars but around that distance/time is when I start wishing for the different hand positions offered by drop bars.
For riding really long distances in flat regions where the wind is unrelenting then I'd suggest considering some clip-on aero bars. Yeah they really do make a difference. I once saw a fat bike setup with flat bars and a set of clip-on's.
I second Tinman's recommendation to add bar-ends for flat bars. Yeah it's that hand position thing again... BTW if there's a local bike co-op, conservancy, or place dealing with used and/or donated bikes you can probably get a set of narrower bars for cheap. The co-op where I volunteer has bins full of narrow flat bars. Note that the bars on modern bikes have moved away from the handlebar clamp standard of 1" (25.4mm) so if you buy a used bar don't be surprised if you also need to get a stem with the 1" bar clamp.
