Gravel bikes make no sense coming from a MTB context. They make tons of sense coming from a road bike context. My gravel bike is faster, more comfortable, and safer than any road bike I've ever owned. They are a correction that needed to happen because road bike geometry has been wrong basically forever*, fat tires are actually faster (within reason), fender clearance is useful in the rain/winter, and veering off a road ride onto random bits of singletrack is actually shitloads of fun. It has made trails I never would have bothered with on my enduro actually interesting, and reminds me of riding my last fully rigid bike circa '92-'97. Sure I'd be faster on those singletracks on an XC bike, but it would suck to pedal to them let alone ride say a group century on it.
\* mini rant: show me a road that has tighter turns than a trail. I'll wait. So why do road bikes need faster handling geometry than MTBs? They don't. They have their geometry so they \*feel\* fast, i.e. twitchy... but that is actually just energy and attention that are better spent on other things, not to mention makes you slower on the downhills vs balanced stable handling.
Jan. 20, 2022, 10:19 p.m. - Marc Fenigstein
Gravel bikes make no sense coming from a MTB context. They make tons of sense coming from a road bike context. My gravel bike is faster, more comfortable, and safer than any road bike I've ever owned. They are a correction that needed to happen because road bike geometry has been wrong basically forever*, fat tires are actually faster (within reason), fender clearance is useful in the rain/winter, and veering off a road ride onto random bits of singletrack is actually shitloads of fun. It has made trails I never would have bothered with on my enduro actually interesting, and reminds me of riding my last fully rigid bike circa '92-'97. Sure I'd be faster on those singletracks on an XC bike, but it would suck to pedal to them let alone ride say a group century on it. \* mini rant: show me a road that has tighter turns than a trail. I'll wait. So why do road bikes need faster handling geometry than MTBs? They don't. They have their geometry so they \*feel\* fast, i.e. twitchy... but that is actually just energy and attention that are better spent on other things, not to mention makes you slower on the downhills vs balanced stable handling.