Can You Use A Gravel Bike As A Road Bike?

have you ever wondered if you could use a gravel bike as a road bike we have a similarly Speck of gravel and road bike and in today's video we're going to find out the road bike is a Scott addict RC SRAM red etap carbon mid-depth parkour Wheels with 30 millimeter Hutchinson slick tires and the gravel bike is a Scott addict gravel tuned SRAM rival e-tap and two sets of mid-depth Parkour Wheels one with slick road tires and one with Monopoly gravel tires why two sets of Wheels well one of the biggest things that sets road bikes and gravel bikes apart is Tire clearance the amount of space you have in between where the tire goes in and your frame if you go too big you start rubbing your frame and then you're in trouble we have two sets of Wheels here just for the sake of being able to switch them quickly so we can test one against the other back to back when you're riding on the road a Road tire will be faster for two main reasons firstly it has lower rolling resistance because it is slick secondly aerodynamics it's a nice flush profile not only is it narrower so it cuts through the wind but it's also flushed to the wheel itself so that's a nice smooth transition a gravel Tire like this one creates a light bulb kind of shape so it bulges over the top of the wheel it's also wider so it's a bigger object moving through the air so you have to put in more effort to go the same speed in addition to that you also have knobbles on a gravel Tire the little bumps that give you grip these will compress and regain their shape which adds to Rolling resistance which is why they are slower that's why the first big change I would suggest you do if you want to use a gravel bike on the road is changing to a set of road tires it will make a massive difference princess what if you've got a road bike I thought this was meant to be gravel rise we're making a video called can you use a gravel bike as a road bike and we're going to play a game and the game is big difference or not much really wait no we'll work on that big difference or not much difference good title I like it I'm thankful that it means that it's not can I keep up with you on a gravel bike and you want a road bike because that wouldn't go very well well that is the first test we're gonna go on a road ride now and we're going to test the key differences between a gravel bike and a road bike we're going to split them into sections first section is tires you've got big knobblies on I've got slicks let's see if you can keep up with me it's downhill from here I don't get the advantage of the traction do I well I guess I do well you definitely don't know because they're slick because you did a massive skid when you rode in is there a good skid mark yes oh look at that that's gangster foreign very fast but very clearly the road bikes faster yeah because like there was a bit I was peddling or even if I tucked in I was having to put a bit of beans in and you were literally just sitting up hand on the top filming like fully in the wind and you and you were still just gliding away from me a bit so it is definitely faster with road tires big difference or not that much difference it is a big difference but it is fine with gravel tires on the road you were surprisingly fast faster than I thought you could be doing less effort for the speed that you're going just by changing the tires fortunately for you Jimmy I hid some road wheels in a bush oh it's like is it like one of those treasure hunts where I now have to like you put a picture up on Instagram and I've got to try and find them no they're right here okay some one boy with a road cassette in the Northeast does not get the Jimmy Nichols approval we rode up this like last week or something rather I think I was on like a gap there in comparison so the road we also that France has hid in the bush has a bog standard Road cassette on it so the advantage of that is the spaces are much closer together so you can probably find a better gear for the Cadence you want to go but with a with a gravel chainring on the front it's just too hard for Road the flip side to that is if we had a pure gravel cassette on the back which for this this setup would probably be a what a 10 50. that's what you were just riding on the other Wheels yeah so the other Wheels was a 10 50. the spacing for Road in my opinion is too wide yes it's fine um but it's quite wide and you probably will struggle to find the Cadence you want however you are always going to have a nice easy gear to get you up any climb with any amount of weight any amount of luggage and you're not going to get to a climb and be in this mess that I'm in I think there's probably something in the middle something that's not a full gravel cassette but not a full Road cassette gives you that extra couple of gears for the hilly stuff but isn't spaced out so far that you're struggling to find the right gear for the Cadence you want to go if you do have a second set of wheels or even you're just changing your cassette for when you want to flip between Road and gravel a SRAM Explorer cassette is probably somewhere in the middle so you'd have a mountain bike cassette for gravel an explore cassette for Road and not a road cassette for Road other brands are available like a grx one you're ready to go had a great time big difference or not much difference uh to where what uh [Music] aerodynamics of the frame now there is there is a difference but it's not noticeable so gravel frame this has clearance for tires as we mentioned earlier at the back here and in the front fork there this should be slower cutting through the air than a purpose-built Aero road frame which this bike that we brought along with us as an example of a road bike is you can go even more Aero than that with like really flat profile tubes and on paper if you were to measure it in a wind tunnel it would be quicker can you notice any of these things no to really notice aerodynamic gains I think you have to be in skin suit error helmet Aero socks shoe covers Aero Wheels Aero everything and then you start to notice a big difference they're quite air if you were to put this into numbers generally speaking going from a non-aero road frame or a frame similar to this gravel frame to an Aero road frame that will save you about three to seven Watts at 40K an hour that's not very many watts and it will make a difference don't get me wrong if you were racing or doing a TT but just riding around the lanes like we are today you're not going to notice it so if you're massively performance focused yes you want to consider it because it is faster is it noticeable and is it going to ruin your day if you're riding this instead of that no big difference or not much difference not much difference gravel frames are typically slacker more upright position and more compact riding the two bikes you definitely notice the difference the road bike it rides faster but then you're in a much longer position does it actually make a difference if you're performance focused a bit it's arguably more enjoyable to ride it feels faster and a bit twitchier which is kind of what you want from a road bike as we've discussed in many bug fit videos before the majority of people aren't able to comfortably fit a really aggressive Road frame so in actual fact gravel frames like this which are shorter and higher suit more people as well so really if you're looking to have one bike that does everything this is the one which one gravel gravel gravel this one you we've ridden a long way away now Jimmy should we ride back there are differences between Road cycling shoes and mountain bike or gravel specific cycling shoes namely the cleats on the bottom so a road shoe has a big plastic cleat usually three bolt holes and it provides a nice stable platform for you to ride along with usually a stiff carbon sole a gravel shoe has a much smaller cleat and usually has some tread so you can run around in them more easily too is there a massive difference in terms of performance not huge but generally a road shoe will be lighter and slightly stiffer on the mountain bike shoe because the cleat is smaller you might notice if you don't have the stiffest sole in the world that the shoe will Flex around the actual cleat and that can cause problems in terms of foot pain but generally speaking the difference will be a little bit of weight I would say it doesn't make too much difference at all if you're going to have one bike that does everything there's nothing wrong with using spds or mountain bike cleats on the road big difference or not much difference not much difference but the ah confusing using can you use a gravel bike set up as a road bike for commuting yeah what about a chilled ride remakes 100 what about an a smashy rider you make definitely what about a race an amateur race yes a pro race where it's like marginal gains it's not coming into it no well it depends how fit you are doesn't it and it depends what your goals are in the race like the stage of the Tour de France and the guy who's like domestic might be coming 40th and it's a chill day you ride a gravel bike they get away with it yeah 100 obviously obviously with road tires and stuff yeah yeah yeah the difference is we're talking with really performance focused road bikes are very small that you know that's fantastic one bike two wheels fine sounds like two bikes one wheelchair all bikes have two wheels clearly the two adjustments that you do want to make are gearing and Tire Choice so having a second set of wheels like is a fantastic idea if you don't want to be messing around changing them all the time I think it's fantastic thank you for watching please put any questions or comments in the section down below and subscribe for more videos like this [Music]

Channel: Cade Media

Views: 215,887

Keywords: cycling, bike, cyclist, fixie, london, race, bicycle, road, vlog, francis, cade

Id: u_xF8nmvKvc

Length: 10min 29sec (629 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 20 2023