Does a Gravel Bike work as a Road Bike?

Tbf, that Scott is one hell of a racey gravel bike

This was a great video!

After touring and commuting on an MTB for a few years , I realized that my bike choice was way off. So, last year i sold it and bought a Cro-Mo gravel (Outleap Hardway S 2022). It has a relatively relaxed geometry which allowed me to transition comfortably from an XC bike, boasts all the mounts for touring that i could need, and now that ive put 32mm slicks on it, also works great as a commuter. Yes, the gearing is, well, tuned for gravel with 11-42 cassette and a 40t chainring, but again, for my purposes it works just fine, since I knew what I'd be using the bike for. For me, as someone who can only afford one bike and needs to ride on rough surfaces regularly, this gravel-as-a-road bike worked out just fine 🙂

Bike manufacturers have finally come around to producing the old multi-purpose "sport" bikes that they had dropped out of their line. A bike that was perfect for a fast spin, possibly even a race with the right tires. One that could be used for cyclo-cross. And one that could be loaded up for touring, or, as it is now styled, bikepacking. Eventually they have bowed to consumers and not to their own marketing departments. Even the component manufacturers are finally getting onboard with reasonable gear ranges, especially on the low end.
For those that think "gravel" is just more marketing hype, you're partly right and partly wrong. Manufacturers are marketing gravel, but the bikes themselves are a perfect blend of utility, comfort, and even speed to fill the needs of many riding styles.

I have a 2016 Trek Crockett 9 disc that I put Bontrager R3 tires on and ride it on the road all the time. It's not really geared for it, but for my needs it works great. Been riding it as a road bike for years.

Next. put a drop handle bar and a brake shifter to a hybrid fitness bike… 😀

I want an all in one bike, but need to know if a single front chainring gravel bike will be sufficient as a casual road bike, 20-40 mile rides with decent amount of hills

The comfort factor of gravel bikes can't be overstated if you are doing long distances the relaxed geometry and bigger tyre clearance just lends itself so well to all day riding my road bike is for 30-50 mile fast blasts anything more and the gravel bike comes out.

I ride the Cannondale SuperSix EVO SE it’s a perfect ‘ do it all’ bike with a second road set, I love it 😍

You have to put carbon rims on yor gravel bike at you can fly to Mont Ventoux as easy as you can get to McDonalds. 😂❤🎉

Regards from Germany. ❤

Great review, I think for most of us this works perfectly. Mind I converted an older Trek to a gravel but as you mentioned not all gravels can be turn roadies.

I've got a 3T Exploro with 2xforce axs, 2 sets of wheels; one running 32mm road tires, the other 38mm gravel.
It's my winter endurance/rain/training bike, social ride road bike, gravel bike, go-to ride for local chipseal roads.
I have raced it on the road in the Masters 123s and brought it to the fast group rides and I've even notched road PRs on it, but because of its role in my quiver I'm not using the same supple/low-resistance race tires as I run on my race bike and I think that's probably why it feels harder to hang with the fast guys on it.
For technical racing (like crits) I feel like I'd have to fight the gravel geometry a bit (and I've got a perfectly good road bike for that) and although my gearing (2×12, 33/46-10/33) is fantastic for gravel and adventure, a sprint gear taller than 46/10 might be nice for those fast field sprints

In my case it is hard to say what bike I need – every my trip I do includes different roads so I must find a compromise solution. For this season for increasing speed a little I switched DT Swiss alu wheels with 38C tyres (original on my Kellys Soot90 bike) to FFWD Tyro rims and 32C Slick tyres (Shwalbee pro One) to check if it works. First trips shows I can ride a little further distances with the same effort and bike is faster when going down on tarmac roads. I do not care for the fastest bike because I am too poor road cyclist (I rather rode on MTB bikes before) and I am the limit not my bike so 1x drive works for me at this moment. I will change it for 2x drive when I will be able to go over 45 kph on 40/11 ratio. I have many uphills so I changed original 11-42t cassette to 11-51t – it is better for long uphills particularly when going with language. Maybe I can use thinner tyres but I am afraid of damages of carbon rims on stony roads and I do not like high pressure so I have chosen 32C – having pressure 4-5 bar range the ride is comfortable and rolling resistance is decent.
For 100% road riding I rather prefer road bike but as I said my roads are different and road bike is too weak for some of them and I want to go back home.
Also when the weather is rainy I can fix full mudguards and some bags what is not possible on road frame.
Another reason I prefer gravel frame is toe overlap problem I can observe on road bikes – maybe not on tarmac but on bad quality roads during uphill it can cause the crash.

Thanks for the Video…. but ya I'm still stumped… I'd like a bike that I primarily ride on the road for training but can handle gravel grinder races that have some steep loose close to mountain bike sections (climbs and descents). Last multi-day gravel grinder race I did was on my hardtail but my back paid the price since I wasn't used to spending 5 hours a day on the hardtail and had done all my training on my Specialized Tarmac Pro… That sweet bike is now 12 years old and I'd love a fast aero gravel bike that I could put some road tires on and still be fast and light enough to hammer the large group road rides and occasional road race. I guess I can keep the Tarmac for the occasional technical road races or criterium. Truth be told I'm guessing a modern light aero gravel bike with slicks might still be faster… I really have no idea though.

Now coming a gravel bike with a 80-100 mm suspension setup and then gravel make sense😅 ah that existed before!😊

How much weight did you save putting road wheels and tires?

Kinesis titanium with two sets of wheels is for me, the perfect bike. With Di2 and a single ring at the front, I run out of gears at around 42 km an hour. Which is plenty for me. The problem with having a different bike for each discipline is that each bike has its own idiosyncrasies. This one’s geometry is slightly off, this one’s battery is flat, this one’s tires are worn out, this one creaks etc… with just the one bike, that’s not so much an issue. The gravel wheels come on in winter (with our rubbish Roads) and in summer, the 32s. It’s also 10 times more comfortable and stable than my old bikes. Yes, it is a couple of kilos heavier, but so am I and it’s a lot cheaper to work on that.

I'm coming from the world of mountain biking so I'm still ignorant of what 32mm slick tires feel like on pavement. Riding 45mm gravel tires on pavement feels fast to me, lol.

my first bike was gravel and I ride it everywhere still saving for a proper road bike because I will it will be more fun on the road but still keeping my gravel

Thank you very much for a thorough and very enjoyable review of this comparison. Gave me more confidence for buying a gravel bike and set of wheels to go from gravel to road. Brilliant!

I tried it with a gravel bike, but found it actually does climb trees better