This text is a part of a collection known as ‘A love letter to…’ the place Biking Weekly writers (often) pour reward on their favorite biking gadgets and share the non-public connection they’ve with them. On this case, nevertheless, our tech editor determined to write down a break-up letter to his gravel bike. Don’t fret, all of it labored out properly ultimately, and no Wilier Jenas have been harmed through the writing of this piece.
The beneath content material is unfiltered, genuine and has not been paid for.
Everybody loves a gravel bike, proper? Rugged, good-looking and seemingly sport for something, they’ve turn into the default, the do-it-all ‘solely bike you’ll ever want’. Very similar to an cute pet who’s all the time wanting to please, is it any surprise they’re so widespread?
Gravel bikes are comfortable, succesful and funky. Their chunky go-anywhere beauty attraction to our sense of journey, they promise pleasure, motion, a wholesome slice of nature, a fierce, echoing response to the decision of the wild.
What’s extra, it is acceptable – de rigueur, even – to accessorise them with all method of knobbly tyres, sturdy racks, macho faux canvas bags and various add-ons thought of vulgar by disapproving roadies, the killjoy arbiters of bicycling good style. To look the half, simply ensure that no matter you connect to your bike – with Voile straps, naturally – is olive inexperienced, dung brown or straw yellow and also you’re good to go.
Simon’s gravel bike that now not often sees a lot gravel.
(Picture credit score: Future/Simon Fellows)
Besides, I don’t need to go anyplace gravelly on my gravel bike. Purchased in a second of weak spot – in different phrases: an end-of-season sale – it’s an impulsive buy I turned near regretting. To be clear, there’s nothing flawed with the bike. It’s a stunning Wilier Jena, geared up with Campagnolo Ekar 13-speed, a purposeful gravel bike that, by means of no fault of its personal, now lacks a lot of its objective.
I believe I’m not the one one who has purchased a gravel bike by mistake after being swept alongside on a tidal wave of ‘one bike to rule all of them’ enthusiasm. Their reputation is astonishing.
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I believe I’m not the one one who has purchased a gravel bike by mistake…
The Bicycle Affiliation, which tracks gross sales information from each brick-and-mortar and on-line retailers within the UK, says that round 30,000 gravel bikes have been offered within the 12 months ending July 2024. This represents a 15% soar in comparison with the identical interval the earlier 12 months, and an enormous 284% improve in comparison with pre-pandemic gross sales.
I do surprise what number of patrons find yourself utilizing them to trip gravel, although. Correct gravel that’s, of the type you discover within the Midwest, USA, versus the slimy bridlepaths you discover within the Midlands, UK.
Just a few minor mods, specifically Vittoria Corsa Professional Management tyres plus Air-Liners, reworked Simon’s Jena right into a satisfactory endurance bike
(Picture credit score: Future/Simon Fellows)
It’s, in fact, my gravel bike’s versatility that’s been its saviour. With minimal modifications, my 2022 Wilier has been repurposed as a greater than satisfactory tough ’n tumble endurance street bike. Like me, many gravel bike house owners I do know finally abandon sloppy second-rate gravel for sooner nation lanes and byways, swapping out the knobbly tyres for one thing extra appropriate, corresponding to a set of speedy, slick 32mm Specialised Roubaix Professionals or Vittoria Corsa Professional Controls. Others repurpose them as winter bikes by becoming sturdy road tyres and attaching full guards/fenders.
Change is afoot although, and gravel racing is far in vogue, due to a mega-event within the Sunflower State of Kansas, in addition to one other in neighbouring Colorado. The surge in gravel racers registering for Unbound and SBT GRVL has turn into virtually unmanageable. Greater than 3,000 rivals rode SBT GRVL in 2024, whereas Unbound attracted 5,000 riders, virtually double the quantity that competed in 2021.
Unsurprisingly, this hasn’t gone unnoticed by the foremost biking manufacturers. Over the previous 12 months or so, each gravel product launch I’ve attended has been influenced by these massive US races in a quest for elevated off-road velocity and the promise of podium glory.
Gravel bikes are evolving to turn into more adept off-road, which knocks their on-road efficiency.
(Picture credit score: Future/Andy Jones)
Gravel bikes are evolving quickly. Geos are getting slacker, we’re seeing suspension entrance and rear, tyres are ballooning wider, as are inside rim widths to accommodate them. Gear ranges? Properly, they’re now huge sufficient to rival mountain bikes.
This development for gravel bikes to be extra off-road focussed doesn’t hassle me within the least, so don’t give me that stoney look. Reality is, I welcome it – they’re known as gravel bikes for crying out loud, what did I count on? However as they turn into more adept off street, they turn into much less proficient on street.
A part of a gravel bike’s attraction within the UK, and I’m certain elsewhere too, was the flexibility to affix up modest stretches of Champagne gravel with fast-flowing tarmac. Lots of my gravel rides right here within the Cotswolds are considerably extra tarmac than gravel, and I dwell in the course of the countryside. Using street with 50mm plus tyres doesn’t actually attraction.
The Cervelo Caledonia-5 is an outstanding instance of a contemporary all-road bike. Quick on tarmac however nonetheless sturdy sufficient to deal with mild gravel of the sort many people trip. It is the type of bike Simon ought to have purchased.
(Picture credit score: Future)
In brief, and really simplistically, I’d argue that trendy gravel bikes aren’t as versatile as their predecessors of only a few years in the past. So, purchaser beware. Think twice about shopping for a die-hard up to date gravel muncher in case you’re going to spend a big proportion of your time on tarmac and the remaining on, let’s be sincere, fairly tame trails.
Thankfully, the ever-inventive bike trade has an answer – the all-road bike. It’s what I ought to have purchased again in 2022, if solely that they had been out there then. Sure, the time period all-road has been knocking round for some time nevertheless it’s solely within the final 12 months or in order that these bikes have developed into one thing actually practical.
Image an endurance street bike with a barely beefed-up body and clearance for 38mm tyres. A motorbike that’s swift, snug and handles properly each on tarmac and well mannered gravel. Properly, right here at Biking Weekly, we’ve been inundated with precisely this sort of all-road bike lately – the BMC Roadmachine, Ribble Allroad, Cervelo Caledonia-5 and Pashley Roadfinder to call however just a few. Simply at the moment, I heard of two main manufacturers which might be about to launch new all-road ranges inside weeks.
So there you might have it: I ought to by no means have purchased a gravel bike, I ought to have purchased an all-road bike as an alternative. The attractive factor is, as gravel bikes turn into extra hard-core and endurance bikes turn into extra versatile, we, the patron, profit from extra selection. That’s obtained to be factor.
