Is the gravel bike truly the one bike that can do it all? They’re amazing, no doubt! But even still, the big question everyone wants answered is: how much slower is a gravel bike compared to a road bike? And importantly, will you be able to keep up with your mates on road bikes?
What are the real differences between gravel bikes and road bikes? With more road cyclists riding gravel bikes, Si investigated the top 5 differences between gravel bikes and road bikes, including tires, bike gears, bike frame shape and much more!
From Road.cc
My summer bike is a Specialized Tarmac SL6. Even though it has disc brakes, I’m hesitant to expose it to the salted winter roads. I want to keep the more expensive parts lasting longer, yet I’m not keen on spending the whole winter locked up on the turbo. Therefore, I’ve been on the lookout for a suitable alternative bike that can handle the winter conditions.
Many people invest in a cheap bike that they don’t mind abusing over the winter months, but I’ve gone down an alternative route and picked up a 2018 Specialized Diverge Comp with SRAM Force 1 from Facebook Marketplace instead.
Specialized first introduced its Diverge in 2014, and for the 2018 model year it gave the Diverge a complete overhaul. The bike is designed for road and off-road riding, featuring Future Shock suspension which provides 20mm of basic suspension. It also has tyre clearance for tyres up to 42mm and ‘Open Road’ geometry, which was an attempt to move away from traditional cyclocross geometry to differentiate the gravel and ‘cross genres.
Photo by Ben Guernsey on Unsplash
From Road.cc
by LIAM CAHILL
Tyre clearance, geometry, gearing and more. There’s a lot that separates an endurance bike from a gravel bike
We made a video explaining the differences between a road race bike and an endurance bike and the comments section was littered with literally a few of you asking us to make a similar video comparing endurance bikes and gravel bikes. Well, ask and you shall receive.
But before we start delving into the details, it may well be helpful for some of you if we have a look at what gravel bikes and endurance bikes actually are.
An endurance bike sits in the road category. It is generally considered to be something that is designed for comfort and efficiency over longer rides and for this reason, these bikes are very popular with recreational and club road riders.
