Gravel / Gravé / Gnarmac / Groad / ATB

It's got that isospeed thingy at the end on carboon model

Because it’s cooler. Why is that any worse than a 27.2 post. Cycling industry has brainwashed you

Why is that any worse than a 27.2 post. Cycling industry has brainwashed you

I have to admit, when traveling it can be nice to take your seatpost out.

Because what do you do when you're riding in the Outer Hebrides and your seatpost breaks and the only bike shop for miles has 27.2mm posts and no toppers? Your options are to cancel your holiday, sit straight on the mast, or buy a new frame. What about if you've just bought a nice new 27.2mm dropper post that you want to put on your gravel bike? You can't buy this Trek.

Gravel bikes are supposed to be practical; niche parts that no one sells or owns are not practical. The bike industry hasn't brainwashed me, they just have a real problem with constantly inventing new standards.

@Ricochet I guess, if the topper is necessary because of the suspension, it sort of makes sense. I wouldn't buy it though.

Gravel bikes are supposed to be practical

I thought that was touring bikes? Gravel & touring seem to have made a somewhat inevitable crossover that's confused things a bit.

Gravel bikes did originate in gravel racing, so features like ISP and other racy stuff are bound to feature sometimes :-)

To me that's what differentiates a gravel bike and a CX bike. A CX bike is to a gravel bike as a TT bike is to a tourer. They're just the off-road equivalents.

I mean, it's got 4 bottle cage mounts on the frame; it's obviously supposed to be taken to remote places and to carry weight, rather than to enter a race on.

I bet they've given it a press-fit BB as well

i don't think those things are mutually exclusive. lots of gravel races are really long, many also have pretty minimal support. so having a light aggressively fit bike makes sense. also a lot of people ride pretty long distances to get to nice gravel/dirt and it is annoying sometimes to only have two bottles or to have to wear a pack.

I think the mounts on the top tube are for something like this 'aero box' thingy.

and i don't think you analogy really captures it. a gravel bike is more like the "endurance" version of a cx bike. slacker hta, longer wheelbase, more clearance, lower bb.

Garvel Beiks are just hybrids for roadies and fixeh dorks that can’t cope with Theresa May’s strong and stable road surfaces.

I suppose you're right in that somewhere between TT bikes and tourers there are plain old road bikes that are just designed for one-day rides with minimal luggage, and I guess that's where this thing sits on the carbon CX bike to Surly Straggler/Soma Wolverine spectrum.

Either way, safe to say it's not for me

I might have to make the thread title a bit longer.

Friend of mine just got his Domane SLR6 in black, and it looked pretty rad. Although I was disappointed by the clearances ... that said, I ride a Wolverine with 2.1s, so my perspective might be a bit funny ...

It did isospeed on the back, and some sort of shock-absorbing headset-stem thingamajig ... I bet 2.1s at 25psi do the same thing.

You know what has a 27.2mm seatpost and a threaded BB? See title for answer.

That top tube feed box ... next thing you know you're wearing something sleeveless and go for a swim. Or is it because you're doing gravel and need all your water in a camelback, therefore can't access your jersey pockets?

Doesn't your signature say "I like ugly bikes"?

slight luddite thinking no? So we should just....stop bike development and stick to using rod brakes because they do, in all practical senses, stop you?

From experience, I've witnessed many broken 'normal' seatposts. The broken ISP's I've seen have all been user error. None have broken from some sort of fault.

Also Pressfit BB's get a really bad rep for not much reason. It's mostly bad installation.

You seem to be totally lost on what constitutes a gravel bike. It's not some sort of strict constraints. You can ride the damned thing wherever you want, likewise, there's people that toured the world on Brompton's and raced the TCR on loaded carbon bikes.

Also marketing. Lots of marketing. Since when did people ever stop buying new shit.

Actual LOL

@Chak

Also Pressfit BB's get a really bad rep for not much reason.

So true.

Doesn't your signature say "I like ugly bikes"?

Haha, yeah, I suppose it does. I guess what I mean is that I like frankenbikes and old things found in people's sheds and so on. Not brand new $3000 bikes.

slight luddite thinking no? So we should just....stop bike development and stick to using rod brakes because they do, in all practical senses, stop you?

Absolutely not, I'm no retro-grouch. I'm 100% for innovation. I love disc brakes, fat tyres, 650b on road, aluminium frames, 29ers, (ultra-)compact cranksets and 1x drivetrains. The people in Facebook and Youtube comments who think 53/39 11-25 and road calipers are all you ever need are complete morons if you ask me.

But that seatpost does not seem to be an innovation at all. You have less adjustability than a seatpost, it's much more difficult to find spare parts, you can't just buy a frameset and reuse your old parts, you can't have a dropper post, you can't change from a comfy post to a lightweight one or vice versa, you can't remove the mast to pack the bike into a box, you're potentially risking a broken frame instead of a broken seatpost in a crash or transportation accident, you might be limiting your ability to fit bikepacking bags to it, your frame will have to go in the bin if Trek go bust and no one starts manufacturing a replacement, etc. In return you save a few grams on a bike that's designed to carry 3kg of water, you get "increased stiffness" (probably?) and you get rear microsuspension on a bike that supposedly clears >40mm tyres already.

I mean, sure, try it out I suppose. If it turns out they're better then I'll change my tune in 10 years when we're all riding them and they're available in every shop. Maybe you don't need spares; maybe in an emergency you can spend two hours and £100 in a bike shop cutting down an MTB seatpost and using an upside down seatclamp to replace your topper. But to me the miniscule advantages are not worth the hassle.

From experience, I've witnessed many broken 'normal' seatposts. The broken ISP's I've seen have all been user error. None have broken from some sort of fault.

But they do still break!

You seem to be totally lost on what constitutes a gravel bike. It's not some sort of strict constraints. You can ride the damned thing wherever you want, likewise, there's people that toured the world on Brompton's and raced the TCR on loaded carbon bikes.

Yeah, absolutely; ride whatever you want wherever you want. Don't let me stop you. I have a severely impractical bike of my own that I love.

Edit; oh boy, I wrote an essay

Seatpost is the last part I’d expect to fail, I wouldn’t buy a bike based on how easy it’s going to be finding a replacement seatpost in the middle of nowhere. The situations where I’d expect to break a seatpost, I imagine something else would be bust anyway like in a crash.

You’ve just got the wrong idea of what it’s supposed to be. It’s not a long distance tourer or expedition bike. It’s a lightweight, off road race bike.

If your concern is fixability in remote areas, you’d be confined to 700c, rim brakes, steel, square taper etc etc

The thread you’re after is FBNPNA, not gravel

Seatpost is the last part I’d expect to fail, I wouldn’t buy a bike based on how easy it’s going to be finding a replacement seatpost in the middle of nowhere. The situations where I’d expect to break a seatpost, I imagine something else would be bust anyway like in a crash.

Fair point. There are plenty of good bikes out there though and if it's a choice between two otherwise identical bikes I think you'd be mad to pick the one with the mast.

If your concern is fixability in remote areas, you’d be confined to 700c, rim brakes, steel, square taper etc etc

Sort of. Fixability is secondary to function though; (I think) it's an indisputable fact that disc brakes are better than rim brakes on a bike like this, so even though they're more difficult to replace when you're in Mongolia they're worth the hassle. The point is that this offers little functional advantage.

Anyway, I think we've pretty much done this topic now - I think it's stupid, others don't - so let's move on. Otherwise we're going to end up with pages and pages of seatpost discussion.

A small shout for the Echappée Escapades rides happening in a few weeks time. Round 1 and Round 2 are perfect for gravel bikes. Round 2 especially has extending off-road climbing and descending, and lots of time on tarmac as well. I've created an LFGSS team if you fancy joining in with me.

Will there be spare seatposts tho?

You made me spill my beer

I have a check, clearance is pretty tight, unfortunately the fork doesn’t tapered outward enough to provide more clearance, do t think a 38mm will fit.

I will have two spare seatposts with me, 27.2 and 30.9