Opinion: Ode to an Oddball - Rediscovering Two-Wheeled Fun
This was supposed to be an angry story. A rant, even. I nailed down two or three drafts of this story late last year, but none of it really stuck at the time. So it sat there and lingered and, as time passed, so did my righteous indignation about the modern gravel bike. It was a particular bike that irked me - the Niner Magic Carpet. A full suspension gravel bike, complete with road geometry and travel from the 1990s. Now don't get me wrong, I still believe that the designer of that bike should have their thumbs lopped off to prevent future crimes against bicycling, but today that has more to do with me finding that sentence amusing than any kind of real anger. After all, if it gets people out and enjoying riding, why the f*ck should I care?
If you need any more convincing how bad an idea this is, know that Mike Levy included one on his Christmas wishlist...
As part of that story I had an idea. A theory I wanted to test. You see, I think the modern gravel bike has a fatal flaw, a weakness that nobody is talking about in public. Quite simply, they suck going downhill. Nobody mentions this in their media campaigns or carefully curated Instagram feeds, but they hurt. On the fireroad behind my house a 38mm tyre does little to dampen the sensation that your eyeballs are being methodically shaken from your skull. And, for me, that undoes any of the good things about gravel bikes (and I think there are quite a few). I have Views on bicycles. Strong ones. I believe that when we get down to nut-cutting time, there is no point in any bicycle, whether on asphalt, gravel or dirt, that isn't fun on the way downhill.
After a few awkward attempts at gravelling, I started thinking that there must be something better. Working through what these bikes need to do I came down to three things - it has to be simple (that's where the Niner fails spectacularly), it has to be good at covering distance (so it's going to need big wheels) and it has to be comfortable, and the simplest form of comfort is bigger tyres. Those three criteria pointed me straight down one of those weird cul de sacs of bike design that I usually associate with people with long beards and ironic T-shirts: 29+. Surly's UK distributor very graciously popped their 29+ steel hardtail, the Krampus in the post for me to test this theory out on in the real world. And that's when something unexpected happened. I fell in love.
In my head the plan was to ride the bike for a couple of weeks, bask in my own magnificence at Being Right, send it back and crank out a few hundred words shitting all over much of what is happening with gravel bike development. But every time I went out on the bike I caught myself coming home with a giant grin on my face, because it did something I would never have imagined - it took me back to the simple joys of when you first start riding bikes. Don't get me wrong, I love the modern mountain bike (and ebike), they are wonders of engineering and design, but they get us caught up in a constant chase for more. Each evolutionary step opens new possibilities: we want to go further, faster, bigger, and it's not until you step away from that for a moment that you realise how much joy we have lost. I think we are losing the ability to find fun in the little things.
I grew up in a small village somewhere in the middle of England. You don't get much in the way of vertical around there, but just behind the village was a small hill running down towards the river called King's Mills. It's not a lot of hill, maybe 30m high, maybe less, but it was enough for us. In a small square of woodland we found our tracks - Everest, The Beast, The Corkscrew. If you went back there and stood atop them with a modern mountain bike you'd think the names were ridiculous, nothing more than short, moderately steep chutes with zero technical features. At 13 years old, astride a bike you'd grow into with shitty tyres and even shittier brakes they were challenges to be conquered. We even tried clearing a few corners. It didn't go well. Those woods were a whole world of adventure for us, a place to prove ourselves and laugh at each other when it all went wrong. Those days are what made me fall in love with bikes - they transformed that knot of trees perching above the River Trent into a wonderland of challenges, laughs and lost afternoons. They were the final days of the pure, white joy of childhood for me, the last truly innocent fun before I was clamouring to join the teenage world of cheap cider, dirty hash and girls who weren't interested in me.
The Krampus took me right back to those days in the woods, there's something innocent about the bike and how you ride it. If you were to review it as a mountain bike it would be a disaster - the 80mm stem (that I chose to fit) makes the steering terrifyingly vague on technical terrain, the brakes have nowhere near enough power to slow wheels that big and the tyres don't grip. At all. If you point it down anything remotely steep you can only hold on and pray. But at the same time, that is entirely the point. It's no fun drifting fireroad corners on my mountain bikes as the suspension and tyres work too well, while the almost treadless Maxxis Chronicles (that, again, I chose to fit) never bite and you come into each corner trying to work out just how fast you can get away with before you slide right off the road. The little chute as you drop into the fireroad doesn't warrant a second thought on a mountain bike, but on the Surly it becomes a test of bravery that leaves a grin on my face every time. The little traversing singletrack at the top of the climb from my house feels like I'm on a flatout blast at the very limit of what it possible. Every ride is a celebration of the little things that can bring so much childish joy, but that get numbed away by the modern mountain bike.
While I don't want to give up my space-age wonder bikes for this misfit, taking a break from them makes you that much more appreciative of just how good they are when you get back on them. And, when it came time to send the Krampus back, I did something I never did while I was reviewing bikes for Pinkbike - I cracked out my credit card and bought that bike there and then. As a friend asked me when I started over-enthusing about the Krampus, "Am I becoming one of them people?" Well if loving a steel 29+ hardtail with more piercings than an aging goth means that, then yes, yes I am, and I'm having more fun than I have had in a while. And I should probably apologies to Niner too (and if the engineer is reading this your thumbs are safe, sorry buddy), after all, I'd rather be out enjoying my bike than getting worked up over how someone else wants to have fun.
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Shame isn't the answer, but telling someone a shit bike is a good bike is just as unkind.
So the "whatever you ride" doesn't apply to the folks with expensive bike? They don't get to have fun, regardless of their skills?
example- i was on a basic coaching course, in Whistler BC (on the blue trails just around the village) and we were in a semi circle debriefing a skill. a pair of statuesque riders in matching skin suits rolled up on their Yetis and stopped RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE, of our group. they checked their phones to compare routes, or data, or whatever, and didn't once look at us or realize they were right in the middle of a group of about 10 riders.
they were like Vancouver doctors, or stockbrokers, or who knows, but this is what many think of when they think Yeti. rich, self important twats on the most expensive bikes money can buy. you know, like Ferrari owners.
The most expensive yeti: SB165 8799
S works enduro 9750
Pivot firebird 10399
Ripmo 9299
Megatower 9999, 10499
Prices in USD. But people (not saying you) have to keep up the schtick I suppose, so cognitive dissonance must reign supreme.
BTW maybe you saw there's plenty of yeti bikes in rentals in Whistler
A main argument for 29 (and 29+ especially) is that it "smoothes out" the trail, letting you "just roll over" stuff. That pushes the edge of control further, so you can ride faster over rougher stuff. Literally the same argument for suspension... but springs and small wheels just aren't "cool" to these adventure folks.
Gravel bikes without suspension are still fast enough on the road, gravel, and hardpack, to pull away from a rigid mtb or XC hardtail any day of the week...so as long as it just survives on the mtb downhills, that’s more than enough for me. Not to mention that - who would have thought - gravel bikes are plenty of fun on...gravel, hardpack and road descents. Ya know, what they’re designed to do. Grading a gravel bike on how fun it is descending a trail makes about as much sense on grading a park bike on pedaling it up a paved hill. Sure, you can do it, but that’s not the point.
When I'm riding with my crew, we explore, we say silly things, we hit the crap jumps that middle school kids made, we try stupid lines or things (no-brake it, high-post it, no-pedal approach, etc) off the mellow rock roll or even just random sections of trail. Been doing this with all bikes since my rigid Bridgestone MB-6 in 1995 all they way up to my modern plastic full suspension with 6 inches front and back (Stumpy 27 2019), and I _do not_ want to go back (had to ride my hardtail when my last trail bike was stolen, and it sucks for climbing rough trails).
It worries me that it seems like so many people forget what it's all about without making some drastic change like going full rigid or gravel.
Then Evil comes out with a bike that makes, on paper, about as much sense as that Niner. Insane geometry for the task at hand and then, no suspension fork fitment? I'm lost on that one, but the geometry is so extreme, I WANT TO RIDE ONE.
Someone needs to split the difference here and make a bike with a sub 70 degree HA with support of a small travel fork. Dropper fitment is a must, and why not make a little bit more room for rear tire clearance? (I get it, dorks like me who need a FD because I ride a shit ton of road to get to the offroad stuff, have limited that choice, but gearing is nice). Anyway, I think gravel is DUMB too, but I might part ways a bit here - there are certain roads and terrain on gravel bikes that are really fun. Like when the gravel isn't too deep, there's some hard packed in lines and corners for days, man I love the feeling of ripping corners in the drops. There's just not enough sections like that.
The 197mm rear spacing is future-proofed by being Super Duper Ultra Boost Double Plus, too.
I am all grins with the Pivot Vault on the road with 32s and on singletrack with 48s. It sucks going downhill compared to my ripley LS, but I don’t think it sucks more than a 90s MTB, which is really what these gravel bikes are.
I always wonder what kind of climbs everyone who says "Go ride a hardtail/rigid, it's so fun!" has at their local areas... Because around here (New England, North Shore, MA) I'd rather have to climb with rear suspension only and descend with front suspension only, because the climbs are _rough_. To get up them with any pace and have any energy for the descent, having some give in the back is critical. Yes, a rider on rigid could make any of them, but it would take much much more energy to handle keeping the rear wheel gripping while also handling everything in the way. But descending at pace on a hardtail is just great. Yeah you can't take the same chances with lines without the risk of getting bucked, and shorting that new double you found is more likely to give you a flat of destroy your wheel.
But the fun is still there when descending on a hardtail. Where-as climbing rough stuff on a hardtail is just miserable
I really don’t buy the ‘Gravel Bikes are bad at everything’ argument... Sure you’re not going to win the Tour de France, but for your average rider they’re as good as any other road bike. Throw some slicks on there, and you’ve basically got a road bike with an extra 10mm of space around it’s tires. Better even, because the slightly relaxed geometry fits most non-competitive cyclists better than true race bikes anyways, allowing them to ride further and longer.
So thank you for all the words explaining that a rigid MTB -but a MTB non the less- is actually better at riding MTB trails than a road bike. Who knew?
In regards to the full suspension MCR- I'm no Niner spokesman, so I can only speculate, but here's my take: Just because the bike has suspension, doesn't mean it's trying to go offload. A lot of people seem to think of this in a very black and white way, when there's a lot more subtlety to it.
Take the automotive world as an analogy: Trophy/Dakar rally trucks, and your average family sedan/saloon both have suspension. That doesn't mean the family sedan is intended to be used to drive over rocks and jumps in the desert. It's intended mainly for pavement, but the suspension is there to absorb the occasional pothole, cracked asphalt and gravel drive. The car engineers could have solved this issue with big tires instead, (and that would have been cheaper and simpler) but then the car would achieve poor fuel economy, and suffer from excess vibrations and noise on the highway. A road bike with suspension is the same idea as the sedan... Mounting bigger tires is always an option, but at some point they do begin to add rotational weight and resistance, and for a vehicle intended primarily to travel quickly on the road, this doesn't make sense. The Niner MCR is approaching the problem of bumps and potholes the same way we have been with cars for a century. It's really only in the last 15 years that we have had the technology to build a lightweight road bike with suspension that doesn't ride like a bendy noddle... I think it's high time we explore the idea, even if it does't make sense in every scenario.
I do agree that we will see slightly bigger tires on gravel bikes though. We currently have a situation where the market is flooded with 45-50cc 'Gravel' tires that are very similar to 2-2.25" 29er XC racing tires. This is a huge redundancy, and I can't see tire manufacturers wanting to keep it up forever.
Full on plus tires will always have their place, but they will remain a somewhat niche product. I think you're forgetting the huge marketing push by mainstream manufacturers to sell plus size tires on mountain bikes a few years ago? Trek, Specialized et al jumped on the bandwagon, but it turns out a 2.3-2.6" tire, combined with dialled suspension is still the best performing option. Plus tires make a ton of sense in more utilitarian scenarios, where outright efficiency is less important than cost, ease of use, and durability, and I do agree they roll surprisingly well.
Drop bars vs flat bars is certainly a matter of taste, but for fast quickly out on the road, wind resistance is the single biggest factor slowing you down. Drop bars put you in a more aerodynamic position. There is also the option to put your hands in 3+ different spots, which is a huge win to reduce fatigue over long distances. This is the real reason road bikes are faster than XC mountain bikes, and will continue to have some form of curvy bar, for the foreseeable future.
A friend of mine rides, beside his 160 enduro, a full rigid Genesis Fortitude Race for so many years, and I can tell you that he sends it badly!!! The simplest is often the best...... and yes: gravel bikes are crap when its about going almost everywhere, especially downhill.
I love Stanton; Dan is such nice dude. I love their spirit, and their sense of humor
Starling is a lovely brand as well.
You Brits know how to make unique bikes, and steel is not a big word on that side of the Channel.
Have you ever been to that Steel is Real Demo Day? www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYEsl9NBCao
I recently did a 24 hour race with it and I was really surprised with how well it handled the event. It help to only have brakes and a single shifter to focus on in the depths of the night.
Actually wouldn't mind a second generation Krampus or perhaps just a thru-axle fork.
And on real gravel bikes...the real joy for me is 'groad.' The roads I ride are absolute shit, so having a tougher, heavier duty gravel bike to manage them is fantastic, even if I'm not usually on 'real gravel.' Is a paved road under 2 inches of sand and composed entirely of pot holes really a road?
And, even with the fork on it, my gravel bike has a slacker head angle than my Krampus. I love them both and ride the shit out of them anyway.
This! If I can't do manuals or bomb hills then I may as well just walk.
Anyhow, painfully valid point on gravel bikes sucking at descending. I have fun on my Norco Search (with a dropper) but I can still admit it sucks to go down on. (phrasing boom)
People who rant about gravel bikes being shit have their head in the kashima coloured sand. Yes DH bikes are great and we ARE on Pinkbike but we all love riding bikes , you have to look beyond your own bottom-holes to see bikes are pretty broad.
For the gravel riders that enjoy being able to explore and tick off a lot more miles than on a full suspension mountain bike, try a XC hardtail. You'll probably be surprised to find that you can cover the same distance because you won't feel like you just went 12 rounds with Mike Tyson, and you'll spend a lot less time fixing flats.
Yes, @Andypanda82 , I guess this is a form of bike shaming, but someone that is on the wrong bike simply because it's trendy and/or expensive deserves a little ribbing. Also, a lot of people are on gravel bikes because it is the right bike for their intended use of it, so this is not directed at them. But just as this article sings the praises of an often overlooked type of bike, I submit to you the humble XC hardtail, which, aside from pounding out miles on pavement (but who wants to do that anyway), is better than a gravel or 29+ bike in all situations.
Gravel depends on your perspective and expectations.. I tell people that if you are buying a gravel bike as a replacement for a MTB, you are going to be disappointed. But, if you at it as a road bike that let's you ride more than just the road, it's a new experience. I got a CX bike about 5 years ago (Gravel before gravel became the big buzzword) after trying one and being surprised by just how capable they are.. I often say my CX bike takes me back to my first days of MTB... Full rigid, skinny tires, and crap brakes... A couple of days ago, I checked the sealant and did something I haven't done in a while... Put in a long ride on that bike...Almost 48 miles of pavement, dirt roads, and mixed in a bit of single track to keep it interesting... Had a blast! I would never had done that ride on either of my MTBs..Plus, I even got a couple of PRs on climbs that I do almost weekly on the MTB.. Now, my bigger dilemma is do I get a nicer bike to replace that current CX bike or do I get a Stache because that bike has really caught my eye and seems like it would be so much fun as a bike to mix things up a bit after getting spoiled buy my 2 full squish rigs...
The best bike for you or me is the one we like the most . Simplistic ? yes, but that the point , the truth is always simple and uncomplicated . Riders can cite all kinds of clever objective reasons why they like this bike or that bike but it always come back to “ i don’t know , it just feels good to ride . “
ok flame away you techy intellectuals . ????
I'm in love.
I guess that's where all this shit loses me. I don't want a bike for any "specific scenario", besides trails vs roads*.
*Roads to me includes gravel and dirt roads: every "road" bike I've ever owned has gotten the biggest tires I could find and fit and with some tread. And some non-paved "roads" I'd still rather have an MTB, because I hate my rear-wheel bouncing around when I'm trying to put some power down on loose bumpy surface. Even with only 35-40 psi in 42c tires, a rigid rear just can't put the power down as well. Since many of these arguments for a rigid or hardtail is about long adventures, it makes no sense to me to sacrifice actual efficiency due to lack of traction in order to increase perceived efficiency of not having suspension. On a rail trail or maintained carriage road, sure, rigid it up. But on a logging road or beat up fireroad, some suspension is going to let you explore further for the same energy.
They are touching.
youtu.be/Up0hWogVm3w
Okay, here’s another one:
youtu.be/ZOamYyAYsBE
If we're talking road bikes in bike parks, we gotta bring up the original:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvL1agpqwvE
www.instagram.com/p/BQ12i11BWD87ImvtVZp8aclLF5v06lPMHVCkqM0