Originally Posted by
chas58
Gravel tends to be lower slacker longer, more mountain bike like. Cross tends to be more road bike like (normal BB drop, steeper head angle, more responsive acceleration and steering).
If you are going 15mph on a straight gravel road and/or going down hill on loose stuff at a good clip, gravel geometry is good. That is what mountain bike geometry is designed for.
If you want a bike that has snappy acceleration, and doesn't have to be forced into turns, CX works.
Its all a matter of degree, and subtlety for many people. Your body will adapt to either.
Everything i could find in the past seemed to basically say a cross bike will have you hurting beyond 1-1.5hrs and as if its a very specific purpose bike.
Right now i'm on a heavy mtb with big tires and i'm a 1x10 drive so i use my 9th and 10th gear most of the time im chugging along on pavement. Still not far from that on unpaved surface. Its really tough to pick with all the choices, i wanted a cross but then as i read more it seemed gravel was the obvious choice but this is a bike i want to be faster than my current setup, the ability to do decent on road with the right tire and the ability to do light-moderate unpaved. a 10 mile ride would be the shortest i'd go, i would like to see 20-30 on average to start as im doing that on the mtb already. My biggest annoyance with the mtb geometry right now if i leads to a sore neck unless i really make sure to tuck my head i find myself in an odd position and trying to hold my bars in a way that would be way better with drop bars.