A combination of road, gravel and MTB components were used by the top riders at the recent UCI Gravel World Championships in Italy. This made us wonder, is there actually any point in manufacturers making gravel-specific bike parts if road and MTB stuff will do? Alex and Manon discuss this, plus the new Canyon Grail, Zwift Hub One and BMC Teammachine R.
00:00 Intro
00:34 Are Gravel Components Pointless?
09:28 Hot Tech
10:07 New Canyon Grail (paid promo @CanyonBicycles)
12:44 New Zwift Hub One (paid promo @Zwift)
13:37 New BMC Teammachine R (paid promo @ride_bmc)
15:51 Comments of the Week
20:58 Bike Vault
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35 Comments
Do you use gravel-specific components for riding gravel? 👇
That most Supernice bike was mind-melting 🤤😍
There's not enough gravel talk on GCN. We need more gravel.
I'm disappointed with the poor TV cover of Gravel Champs as such. Yeah, the men's event was technically transmitted, but access to this material was highly limited. 🙁
It depends on the brand. SRAM don’t specifically state any of there stuff is really gravel specific. But some parts are designed to run with wider tiers and cassettes. Hence there “wide”range in there cat, but really only effects the front and rear derailure the rest is the same across the board. Which I think is clever and I love the fact that you could if you wanted use mtb components with road. It something sram have a really nailed and Shimano and the rest don’t really have an answer for at this moment. Most road wheel are also rated for off road use as well for example roval alpinist clx 2 wheel can be used off road though they have arguably better options within the catalog.
The only thing people care about from gravel are big cassettes. It's made everyone realize that a 12-40 should be the default on any bike sold to normal people. Even the pros are figuring out that huge cassettes are better (Roglic using gravel cassette to win his Giro ITT). This is why Campagnolo's new wireless groupsets are dead-in-the-water. The Vegan Cyclist has his Canyon AEROAD with 1x and an 11-52t. I have a Felt AR with a 54-39 and 12-40t at the back (easy to create by buying a spare 12t final cog). This is the future.
Putting the pro's aside, I think a GRX 2×11 is one of the best 'real world' road / gravel groupsets you can have. When you've only got one bike and it has to take you racing, touring and bikepacking, just with a change of tyres, a gravel groupset is the way to go 😊
Still riding a 9 speed double chainring setup, canti brakes and inner tubes, old parts are far more economical as are regular tires £100 services your bike completely
got music to wrench by?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hS_eqaxX9X8
BIKE VAULT needs theme music. Obviously it must be Anita Wards
Ring My Bell 🔔
If you can race on slick tires is it really a gravel race?
That lower bottle cage mount is perfect for your tools in a tool can.
The question should really be " is road bike kit pointless?" To which the answer is 'Yes' – unless you are into racing…
Gravel bike gearing should be the norm for bikes and road bike the outlier – the gearing is simply too high for most users requirements whereas gravel gearing provides a better range for daily and hilly use and unless you really want to pedal above 30mph, plenty high enough geared.
So 'is road bike gearing pointless, on most bikes?'
My Diverge came with the Mullett setup. I hated it on the road. The spacing is too far apart. I changed it to an XPLR rear end. It's better but still not as smooth as road shifting.
Racing isn't the same as just riding so pretty pointless discussion. Frames are frames, wheels are wheels, cassettes are cassettes but road shoes offroad are stupid unless you are racing the world champs for obvious reasons.
#askgcntech The RD-6870 (1st gen Ultegra short cage) is spec'd for 28T max cassette. If I put on a longer cage AND switch to 1x up front, approximately what range cassette could that RD go up to?
Yay Manon!
I’m just back from 10 days bike packing in France/ Belgium and is used a Hiplock (locking zip tie type lock) to secure my handle bar to the tent pole. It’s supper light weight and would surly slow someone down enough for me to try and save my bike
Also I put a bottle mount under the down tube and used a topeak escape pod to store spares and tools. It has a neoprene liner and foam in the cap so it didn’t rattle.
I really didn't like seeing Alex cringe at the thought that he had upset people on the "Influencer bike vault section". Like all of the team, Alex and Ollie bring a lot of humour to the channel while also providing top-quality information. If some "Influencers" are so fragile that they can't take a little bit of gentle teasing then they should maybe get off the internet or present a more authentic version of themselves.
If you could ask Maurice Garin a 35 lb fixie is PERFECT
On one end, we see all road and gravel with increasingly wide tire clearances. On the other, we see ultra fast road/track bikes with super wide forks. Why not…both…how about a universal road/gravel/rigid MTB bike fork that could fit 4” fat bike tires for those winter road rides in Minnesota, eh? Then slap some Zipp 404s on when it warms up… bet there is a dropout adapter that could make this work…
#ASKGCNTECH Greetings Tech Gurus: simple question – changing my tyres for winter (I run tubeless in spring/summer) but, do I go for stronger protection tyres (Schwalbe Marathon-type) with a lighter inner tube or a lighter tyre with a heavier inner tube? Choices, choices but which is better? Speed-over-protection: that’s the question. Love the show. Be well.
Only here for the bike vault
I utilize GRX 2x with 11-40 xt cassettes. In alignment with Alex's closing comments on the topic, I appreciate the robustness of the GRX front small chain ring. In trying a road chain ring (FSA K-force light) on light gravel with steep California climbs, I taco'd the small ring – had to use a rock to bang it straight so it would rotate past the chainstay and solely utilized big ring for 30 miles to home. This has not happened with the gravel group.
My Gravel bike have a mix MTB and Gravel stuff 27,5" wheels set an 50-584mm tires Conti Race king , 1×11 Sram NX Crankset whit 38oval kassett 11/46 for me my highes montain is 500mete r tall and i can clim it up
Mannon's hottest and spiciest moment of the show is on 18:52.
If this would be not a bike channel…
these shows should be titled "are the specialty bikes and components we hype on GCN for the sake of our bike marketing sponsors pointless?" where I live, "gravel bikes" are owned by weekend tools riding the unpaved mixed use paths where moms with baby carriages and and dog walkers are trying to walk.
Speaking of woman's race, men "trans" do not belong in woman's sports of any kind. They have a huge unfair advantage and woman in all sports should refuse to compete if "trans" people want to compete, put them in there own division as in mens, woman's and trans.
I am running a GRX 400 46/30 11 36 cassette. Nobody reviews this. However it's affordable, big range means it's more relevant for many. 40 mm Challenge Getaway gives low rolling resistance. MKS urban and Zefal nylon quarter clips give me lightweight versatility. GT carbon grade elite.
In the Bike Vault you talked about a bottle mounted under the down tube. I believe that was a tool container, not a bottle. Manon’s comment was right on. She was right on about the lack of coverage of the women’s gravel championship. It was just wrong! I have a Diverge with full GRX and a Topstone with Shimano 105. Both are great, but I seem to be riding the diverge a lot more, commuting and trail riding etc. I do need to get the Wolf Tooth chain keeper. I loose my chain jumping curbs etc. and the clutch just doesn’t seem up to the job. Your show is great!
Alex agreeing with “It’s your bike, set it up as you like” one week after destroying purpose oriented professional bikes is as a harder twist than Ollie going from worst to fittest GCN presenter
Gravel specific components exist for two reasons: Because of stupid Shimano MTB / Road lack of interoperability, and because they give a lot of drop bar riders more reasonable gear ranges. The world just wants MTB / Road interoperability and better gear ranges, we're not all Tadej Pogacar or living in Florida.
I have a cyclocross bike with road groupsets and components. I bought that years ago before the gravel fever started, and I swap some components with my road bike regularly, quite happy about the same. For really rough road/snow I use the mountain bike (mechanical sram) and also quite comfortable. ❤️✌🏾
Awesome video, lots of fun, always enjoyed Manon sitting in, it also was hilarious the Manon / Manon colab…..lol
GCN Gravel cycling network 😢