Road bike vs gravel bike: what are the variations?

The variations between a street bike and a gravel bike could, at first look, look small.

Both have drop handlebars, a racy experience place and similar-looking gears and tyres. But there are delicate variations which, in sum, make street bikes and gravel bikes very completely different beasts.

In the identical approach {that a} cross-country mountain bike differs from a path or enduro bike, one of the best gravel bikes and one of the best street bikes exhibit all kinds of design parts which permit every to excel in a particular area.

We’ll run by way of why street bikes and gravel bikes are completely different and the important thing options that differentiate them, so you may select whether or not a street bike or a gravel bike is one of the best bike for you.

Road bike vs gravel bike: What are they imagined to do?

As you may most likely work out from the identify, street bikes are designed to be ridden on routes with a tarmac bias, whereas gravel bikes might be taken off-road, on gravel paths, grime roads, hearth trails, and even singletrack. 

That’s to not say that street bikes can’t be used for some gravel using — heck, yearly, the professional racers take their race bikes onto the white gravel roads round Siena, Italy for Strade Bianche. Road bikes are significantly extra succesful than we regularly give them credit score for, however they do have a well-defined restrict, one which you’ll rapidly set up when you enterprise onto free gravel roads.

Road bikes primarily fall into two camps, race bikes, and endurance bikes, though there are different kinds of street bike.

Race bikes are what you see the professionals pushing to absolutely the restrict and have aggressive angles, low weights, and tube shapes and elements designed to scale back aerodynamic drag, as seen on one of the best aero street bikes. Endurance bikes are a bit extra upright, function extra steady dealing with, put a premium on consolation, and will have built-in storage and mounts for racks and fenders. 

Gravel bikes, however, are designed to be extra succesful and sort out a greater diversity of terrain. They can fortunately progress on the tarmac or bounce onto the again of a gaggle experience, however should you plan to pin on a quantity for a Tuesday night time crit, you’ll find your self under-gunned on even one of the best gravel bikes.

There’s rising differentiation between gravel bikes, with gravel race bikes such because the Specialized Crux favouring low weight and sometimes including aero options. Other gravel bikes are constructed with extra of an journey focus, as we came upon in our Merida Silex 8000-E assessment. They will normally have mounts galore for bottles, baggage, and fenders and can normally be a bit heavier than their tarmac-faring family members. 

This weight is greater, too, as a result of the body might be strengthened to deflect airborne particles and face up to the tough and tumble terrain discovered as soon as you allow the tarmac, however the extra grams additionally assist with stability. Ultra-lightweight bikes can get bounced round when the terrain will get spicy, whereas one thing barely heavier will stay extra composed. 

Wheels and tyres

The most visually hanging distinction between a street and a gravel bike would be the wheels and tyres. Road bikes will normally have an absolute max tyre clearance of round 33-35mm relying on the class, with most erring on the aspect of barely narrower rubber. These days, most race bikes will come inventory with 28mm tyres, with room for 32mm, whereas endurance bikes can have wider rubber. 

Wider tyres permit for decrease pressures, which creates a wider contact patch for extra grip and luxury. Lab testing has established that fatter tyres may also make for much less rolling resistance. 

However, wider tyres are sometimes heavier, and relying on the rim, could mess with the aerodynamic mojo of your wheelset — at this time’s finest street bike wheels are designed to unfold a 25c or 28c casing to take a seat flush with the rim; too broad, and the tyre will balloon out over the aspect and type a lightbulb-like form. 

On the opposite hand, gravel bikes can have clearance for 35mm tyres all the way in which as much as casings which can be measured in inches, and gravel frames could even be appropriate with each 700c wheels and smaller diameter 650b (27.5in) wheels and tyres. Like with street tyres, the broader contact patch and decrease tyre pressures make for improved consolation and grip, and the extra width will even make negotiating uneven surfaces a bit much less technical.

The tread sample is a a lot larger consideration on gravel bikes than it’s on street bikes. Tread on one of the best street bike tyres would not add a lot in the way in which of grip, therefore why they’re roughly easy. 

Gravel bikes are designed to enterprise onto softer surfaces, and as such, they function tread and knobs that may dig into off-road surfaces. There is a large vary of tread patterns accessible for one of the best gravel tyres, and which is best for you will depend on the climate, the place you intend to experience and what the terrain appears like.

Many gravel bikes will even have the flexibility for use with a 650b (27.5in) wheel and tyre combo. This smaller wheel permits for a wider tyre, within the ballpark of two inches, permitting for decrease tyre stress and extra consolation and grip. This is feasible as a result of a 700×28-30mm tyre is roughly the identical diameter as a 27.5×1.6in-1.8in tyre, which signifies that it gained’t change the pinnacle angle or path determine, and mustn’t have a drastic impact on dealing with traits.

To maximise clearances for such broad tyres, and the mud and particles that may ultimately construct up on the body, gravel bikes will often function a dropped drive-side chainstay or machined yoke behind the underside bracket — these similar options are additionally used to enhance chainring clearance. 

The different factor to notice about gravel and street tyres is the proliferation of tubeless. As one of the best tubeless street tyres proceed to get higher with every iteration, the expertise is turning into increasingly more prevalent on the street. However, off-road the place punctures are way more commonplace, just about the entire finest gravel tyres are tubeless by default. 

Geometry

You seemingly gained’t have the ability to spot the geometry variations between a street bike and a gravel bike until you’ve one in every of every proper subsequent to 1 one other – the nuanced variations and some millimetres right here or half a level there – however these can have a drastic impact on the way in which a motorcycle behaves.

Road bikes will sometimes have a brief wheelbase and steeper angles for nimble experience high quality and vigorous dealing with. Gravel bikes have an extended wheelbase and slacker head angle so as to add stability and decelerate the dealing with for negotiating technical obstacles and free descents. 

For instance, a Specialized Roubaix endurance street bike has a head-angle of 72.75 levels and a wheelbase of 988mm in dimension 54; in the meantime, a Specialized Diverge gravel bike has a slacker 71.75-degree head-angle and 1032mm wheelbase in the identical dimension.

Road bikes will even have an extended attain and decrease body stack and head tube to facilitate an extended, decrease, extra aero place, whereas gravel bikes are shorter and extra upright. If you need extra info learn our the best way to measure a motorcycle body article. 

Suspension

Suspension has been a mainstay of mountain biking for fairly a while. However, numerous types of suspension can be found throughout each street and gravel bikes — the breadth of which throughout each classes is shocking. 

Specialized makes use of a damped coil shock, dubbed the Future Shock, on the entrance finish of each the Roubaix SL8 endurance street bike and the Diverge, as proven in additional element in our Specialized Diverge assessment. 

Trek and Cannondale each have their very own tackle pivot-based flex suspension for the rear; the IsoSpeed decoupler discovered on the Domane endurance street bike and Checkpoint gravel bike, and the Kingpin thru-axle pivot on the Topstone Carbon gravel bike. 

Gravel bikes, nevertheless, are the one lot to see air-sprung forks, with Cannondale providing its 30mm Lefty Oliver on particular fashions of the Topstone – proven in our Cannondale Topstone Lefty 3 assessment, Fox providing its 32 AX (Adventure Cross) gravel fork, and RockShox providing the Rudy XPLR which sit amongst one of the best gravel suspension forks. 

Components

Most of the elements discovered on a gravel bike might be appropriate with a street bike and visa-versa; nevertheless, there are key variations that stop a gravel bike from falling to items when the going will get tough or assist a street bike to bounce up the slopes of Mont Ventoux.

Most street bikes and one of the best street bike groupsets now embrace disc brakes they usually’re a function of each gravel bike. Rim brakes could also be lighter and work simply high quality using on tarmac, however discs present superior energy, modulation, and management, are much less susceptible to contamination and persistently carry out throughout all climate circumstances. You will recognize this added management if you end up choosing your approach down a technical descent in your gravel bike, particularly within the moist. 

Both street and gravel bikes could sport 1x (with a single chainring) and 2x (with two chainrings) drivetrains. Road bikes have a tendency in direction of two entrance chainrings, because the jumps between gears are smaller, that means it’s simpler to discover a snug cadence at any velocity. 

Gravel bikes could have both 1x or 2x drivetrains with a slight bias in direction of 1x. With solely a single entrance chainring, 1x drivetrains are nonetheless able to attaining the identical gear vary as 2x, although to do that in 11 or 12 gears as an alternative of twenty-two or 24 means the gaps between every ratio will typically be extra important. Eliminating the necessity to shift on the entrance has allowed drivetrain producers to make use of narrow-wide chainrings, which function alternating enamel profiles that grip the interior and outer chain hyperlinks to stop the chain from bouncing off over tough terrain. There’s additionally much less to go flawed or get clogged up and higher tyre clearance.

Bikes geared up with Shimano gravel groupsets or these from SRAM and Campagnolo sometimes function a rear derailleur with a clutch. Whether it’s of the curler bearing or fluid damper selection, the first operate is to tug the chain taut to stop chain slap on the bike body or it bouncing off the entrance chainring. These are normally just a few grams heavier than their non-clutched compatriots however the distinction in chain retention is night time and day.

Cockpit and seat put up

Many of one of the best gravel handlebars might be flared, and sometimes they’re going to be paired with shorter stems than the cockpits you may discover on street bikes. Drop bars on street bikes will sometimes have a deeper drop and a barely longer attain than these normally discovered on gravel bikes. 

Flared drop bars place your fingers in a broader place, permitting clearance in your wrists and added management when navigating your approach by way of free corners or up and over obstacles. The flare additionally makes it simpler to succeed in the brake levers from the drops and permits you to match a bar bag extra simply for experience necessities or bikepacking. 

The final and most controversial element distinction you’ll discover on some gravel bikes is a dropper seatpost. These are seen as a must have for mountain bikers and have even made an look on impartial help bikes to assist riders dial of their saddle top on the fly, however that’s not their meant goal. The thought behind a dropper put up is to maneuver the saddle out of the way in which on steep descents so you will get your weight again to stop being catapulted over the handlebars. 

On a paved street, you’re unlikely to return throughout a gradient steep sufficient or a street floor that is so damaged that you will want to get behind the saddle, however it’s not unusual to search out hearth roads which can be lots steep and tough sufficient to warrant dropping your saddle out of the way in which. 

Having stated that, a dropper put up was utilized by one professional to win a prestigious race just a few years in the past.