How To Choose A New Gravel Bike

so you're thinking of buying a new gravel bike which one to get can be a difficult decision because there are a lot of different types so we got together with Shimano who this year launched the first gravel specific group sets grx to put together this video to help to guide you through the maze because actually once you understand just a few key points the whole thing begins to make sense and you'll be able to choose the right bike for you and it doesn't matter what your budget the principles remain the same [Music] firstly I want to introduce you to the spectrum some gravel riding is basically just road riding but browner and some gravel is not gravel at all it's actually just mountain biking so the spectrum then is the spread of all the terrains and surfaces that span Road to mountain bike and it's relevant because while the gravel bike is truly a great dual bike some perform better at one end of the spectrum than the other and happily most do fall somewhere in the middle but how do you know well I'm going to give you some pointers firstly clearance whose tire size is probably the biggest factor governing a bikes ability on different surfaces some gravel bikes have clearance restricted to about 35 millimeters whereas others will allow you to fit tires up to and in excess of 50 millimeters which is kind of like mountain bike territory really although in the words of our own j-pal jeremy powers there's nothing you can't handle on a 40 millimeter wide tire like this one which is true however you might find that on really rough and long days out in the saddle you might want an even wider tire than that just to add a little bit more comfort the ability to run lower pressures plus you also able to relax a little bit more when you're going faster on rougher terrain because there's much less chance of you puncturing and dinging your wheels some gravel bikes actually have a bit of a party trick in that you can fit a smaller diameter 650b wheels and then correspondingly much fatter tyres and that really does add to their versatility but you've obviously got to buy two pairs of wheels basically though more tire clearance means of more versatility but there is a trade-off and that is that less tie clearance can mean that a bike feels a little bit more zippy a little bit more like a road bike but on steroids which doesn't sound like a bad thing linked into that road bike feel we also need to talk about the position that the bike puts you the rider into so a road bike does tend to be quite long and quite low it's faster because it makes you more aerodynamic if you're doing longer or even multi-day rides then you tend to want to be a little bit higher up perhaps a little bit shorter to increase the comfort and the same is true for riding off-road as well except in that incidence is less about comfort and more about improved control and you'll see when you start to look at gravel bikes that actually the geometry of them can vary quite significantly depending on which end of the spectrum it's on so I they're fast and racy or slow and relaxed or like in this instance the uber terror it kind of fits in that middle ground and then it can kind of go either way how do you know which one is which well you will have to compare geometry charts yes you can always find them on the web page of any bike that you're interested in and basically once you've found your size you then need to seek out the reach and stack numbers they basically tell you how far forward and how high the front of the bike will be and they are the single best measurement on the bike because while you can more often than not find the right saddle height in relation to your pedals either by moving the seat post up and down or the saddle forwards and backwards if your handlebars are in the wrong place you are much much more limited if you're comparing the geometry and fit of lots of different bikes while create your own reach and stack spreadsheet or better still head to geometry Geeks bike which is a website I happily stumbled upon the other day where someone has basically done it all for you amazing let's talk about gears next we know to look out for tire size and also body position geometry on our frames but what we choose to put on there also has an influence on where your bike will sit on that gravel spectrum as I said of beginning we've partnered with Shimano for this video so we are of course gonna be using their gr X group sets to illustrate not long ago gravel bikes just had rode groups that's on and that's fine they already had compact gear ratios so you could get some fairly low gears for steep off-road climbing so it's fair to say then you don't need anything specific except for disc brakes which for me are an essential having the ability to have predictable consistent braking no matter what the road surface nor the weather conditions and also they places zero restrictions on tire width just us fat bikers now furthermore one point I would make here is that the difference between hydraulic disc brakes and cable actuated this rate is vast so if there was ever anything to stretch your budget for then going for hydraulic disc brakes as opposed to cable actuated disparate is it they give you more power more modulation and more ability to withstand crappy conditions so if you can afford it do it there have been several other advances in recent years not at least the choice between to buy drive trains and one buy something that's worthy of a video all on its own and it will indeed get one but in a nutshell won't buy drive trains look a lot cleaner and tend to be a little bit lighter you can also still get a really wide spread of gears but if you do choose wide ratios you will get larger jumps between them now this isn't a problem offroad but it's something that does frustrate some people on the road to buy meanwhile to buy meanwhile gives you the ability to have wider gear ratios and smaller jumps between them but sometimes bare in mind it is that on a standard road group set the front derailleur puts a restriction on the maximum tire width on grx Shimano have bumped up that maximum to 42 millimeters so comfortably exceed J powers minimum but remember that if you want to fit really wide tires on your gravel bike you are gonna need one by another point to look out for if budget allows is to get a rear derailleur with a clutch on now with the one buy set up this and a specific chain ring are important to keep the chain on but actually I think is still desirable on a to buy set up as well because it keeps your bike so much quieter not adding to your speed perhaps but definitely to enjoyment one other point they often get asked questions on relates to gear ratios yes such a sexy term that I would imagine if you're watching this video and anyone is within earshot they've immediately stopped what they're doing and they're gonna come over and watch as well if however they missed it first time around I'll say it once more for their benefit so they don't miss out yeah there we go now it's terribly boring as it sounds it is worth paying a little bit of attention to for example if you are gonna be buying a gravel bike for the smoother end of the gravel spectrum it's worth choosing gears that are optimized for faster riding however do not get too concerned about maximum gear sizes yes if you're racing you really don't want to get dropped on a descent because you can't pedal fast enough but in the real world I don't tend to get too concerned about pedaling beyond about 60 K an hour and the 48 to chainring that's on this particular TRX setup or the 46 that you often get on the other two by version is plenty big enough to be able to pedal beyond 60 K now and actually the one buy set up as well it's quite happy doing that if you're comfortable spinning away and the other end of the spectrum for rougher off-road riding you definitely want to optimize your gears for slower slower clients particularly if you're gonna be going up steep stuff so again on this instance 31:34 will be perfect for that and also if you're get a bike pack as well some in the gravel box often get pressed into service for be carrying heavy luggage bear in mind that you want lower gears as well we've covered the basics there and hopefully you know now what to look out for in a frame in order to make sure it's tailored for the right kind of gravel riding that you want to do and you also know now what to look out for in a group set but there are of course other things to consider not least the material of the frame do you go for carbon or aluminium or steel or titanium or even magnesium on a budget aluminium is great I love it it's pretty light it's pretty stiff and it's also robust what's not to like steel is significantly heavier but it has a lot of fans partly for its image and also partly for the way it feels to actually ride although bear in mind that that steel feel really kicks in when you start to spend a little bit more money carbon is of course SuperDuper light or it can be anyway plus you could also do more to the material to really tailor it either for more comfort through more compliance or indeed for more stiffness then you have to taylean which is amazing but a little bit heavier and also expensive and then lastly magnesium which is new on the market or at least new again and it's a little bit unproven but it does have some pretty punchy environmental credentials which is cool for me though honestly fro material is not half such an important decision as the ones we've already covered in this video hence the reason I guess it wasn't the first thing we started with one of the great gravel bike traits is the increased comfort that comes from the wider tires fitted to them but irrespective of that a lot of manufacturers boast comfort boosting measures either built into the frames already the components that are fitted to them and this Grail is a prime example we've got this split seat post which effectively acts like a leaf spring and it's super effective and then also got this hover bar up front as well which gives you increased compliance and while increased compliance definitely takes the edge off bumps and it smooths out the ride you shouldn't confuse it with suspension which is also a thing either a suspension fork that you can plug in the front or indeed full suspension gravel bikes but interestingly or perhaps not the suspension that I've ridden on gravel hasn't actually affected where the bike sits on the gravel spectrum that probably should have come and the nerd alert as well in there sorry should have given you some warning [Music] one last thing to look out for is bosses so little bolts all over the bike that allowing you to attach extra stuff to it now it could be carrying extra water which be essential for epics in arid wilderness or it could be for attaching luggage to your bike now maybe not spike packing luggage but certainly old-school panniers and pannier racks or in this case it could be for attaching mud guards to your bike as well personally this isn't something that I'm all that fussed about on my gravel bikes but it's someone's bear in mind if you want a Swiss Army knife of grab a bite or indeed it's just something you want to have the option for whilst in this video I haven't tried to tell you what the best gravel bike in the world is hopefully by watching it you've realized that you can't answer that question because it depends on you and the type of riding that you want to do on it but now you're more empowered to make that choice because you know about the spectrum and you know how to work out where a gravel bike sits on that spectrum so you need to look to recap a tire volume and position the geometry of the bike principally but then also the groupset as well and little extras like if you want to go on multi-day wilderness epics you will probably need every bolt imaginable to attach stuff to your bike now if you would like to tackle another couple of questions right now that are commonly asked such as why a gravel bike and not a cross-country mountain bike or indeed why gravel bike and not a cyclocross bike we have actually made videos about those already you can click through to them on screen now otherwise please give this one a big thumbs up and I'm gonna go for a ride

Channel: Global Cycling Network

Views: 703,811

Rating: 4.9447522 out of 5

Keywords: Gravel, gravel bike, tyres, groupset, handling, grip, decision, choose, groad, off-road, adventure, bike packing, bike-packing, touring, trip, shifting, cost, expensive, wheels, comfort, GCN, Global Cycling Network, Sports, Cycling, Bike, Bikes, Bicycle (Product Category), Road Bike, Cyclist, GCN Cycling, velo, Simon, Si, sec-feature, sca15, gc21s, gc11shs, ඃ, c3, c1, h3, gc11sas, n1, ួ, ዩ, ළ, Բ, Ժ, Ի, Ծ, Ձ, ፕ15, 3799

Id: grmh4TZVWe8

Length: 13min 13sec (793 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 29 2019