So in 2013 the bike industry got hit with another bike
category (as if 27.5” mtn bike wheels weren’t enough). This category became
know as the gravel bike. What the hell is that?
Well, the industry wants you to believe that you need
another bike. You have your road bike; but you don’t ride that too much, or
only ride it on those group rides to look the part. You have a cross bike, but that is only for
cross season.
And now the ‘next big thing’ in-group ride/organized/unsanctioned
rides are what’s called gravel rides. Where people go out and find the shittist
roads that they can (brick, gravel, stone, pea gravel) make a course and go
ride them. And this is able to range in length, to an afternoon to an all day
epic ride.
For this kind of riding, a very few people started to want
to put fatter and fatter tires on their bikes.
On some bikes the BB has been lowered for a more stable ride. Fender
mounts, rack mounts. At least this is what the industry is telling us.
I took some time and did some number crunching with some
brands that do cross bikes and gravel bikes (Kona, Giant, & Salsa to
start). The biggest thing I found was what they were allowing for tire
clearance. One bike allowed a 50 tire,
and the rest were pretty much the same 40ish and on down. The geometry was
pretty close as well between angles and length of wheelbase, chain stay, &
top tube. Also, I’ve noticed that a lot of cross bikes nowadays, except for the
high-end carbon ones, have mounts for racks anyway.
Bike Snob posted about gravel bikes back in July, found
here:
And speaks to the ‘smoke and mirrors’ that the industry is
trying to attempt.
Sure…in some way a cross bike is the one bike that you
really do need. Throw some skinny tires on it, and it’s your road bike. Some aggressive
knobs and go ride a trail. Some wide tires, and it’s your gravel bike.
There comes times in the industry (and this kind of speaks
to my last post) that they don’t know what to do, and they notice that sales
really haven’t been moving much. So what they do is create something ‘new’. Paint
it up. Pretty marketing. & there you go n+1 creeps into your mind once
again. And there you go….the lust and wanting of something new and ‘better’
than before.
Enjoy….
Amitabha…
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