TL;DR:
My Question: MTB or Gravel?
My Profile:
- Daily Commute 15 miles one way, bit hill, no long climb or descend, little traffic, 97% paved (smooth and rough), 3% gravel. Takes 1h with Singlespeed, want to reduce by 5-10 minutes, losing time on descends and flat parts.
- Weekend rides ~30 miles by myself: currently road only (Singlespeed road bike), would like more variety and options (gravel, flow trails, single trails), ~10 miles with family, easy terrain, some gravel.
- Planned Bike packing easy terrain (Netherlands) starting next year with Family, then starting more challenging stuff
- Would love to do flow trails and single tracks but only if not too much compromise with commuting pace (see above)
- To consider: Nice to have more flex with (Hardtail) MTB. Is Gravel Bike really much faster on paved road than Hardtail MTB, considering my commuting profile?
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Long Story:
I’m about to purchase a new bike and I will need an allrounder. Since gravel bikes became popular a few years ago but also MTB technology has made leaps forward in the last decade, I’m not sure what would be the better choice for my profile:
My
main use of the bike is
commuting. It’s a 15 miles commute with 590ft down and 300ft up on the way to work and obviously the other way round back home. The commute us 97% paved with different quality, some rough, some smooth parts and maybe 3% gravel road. The whole commute takes around 1h both ways (5-10mins more home), traffic is not too much of an issue since I can use mostly side streets or paved farm tracks (which we have a lot in Germany). It’s a bit hilly but no major ascends or descends, but I do spin out on descends and flats with my Singlespeed at around 20 mph.
My
goal is now to bring down the riding time by a good
5-10 Minutes. I suspect I’m mainly losing time on the descends and flat parts. Ascends are just right, don’t want to get a bigger front chain ring.
My second goal is to have more options and versatility on weekend-tours. Some I do by myself (~30-50 miles, currently mostly paved roads), some with my family. The family rides are not really fast since my kids are 9 and 7. We’re building up though to do some bike packing starting next year - starting easy in the Netherlands, which is what I want to use my bike for as well. We then want to go into tougher terrain the following years.
I live close to a mid-size mountain range with a couple of nice flow-trails and single-track sections, nothing too difficult but no piece of cake either. I’ve not done that before but I would love to be able to do those as well, though my commute requirements are more important.
So I’m currently deciding between a Hardtail MTB (Canyon Exceed CF SL 8.0 Pro Race - 21,82 lb) or a Gravel Bike (Cannondale Topstone Carbon 105 - 19.29lb). I would be able to fit road tires on both for the commute and keep the original set for the rougher terrains/winter.
What’s your experiences? Can I get the MTB with road tires for the commute to be almost as fast as the Gravel Bike with road tires? Would the disadvantage of a MTB in commuting speed be relatively small but the gain in versatility make up for the small disadvantage? Or could I make the gravel bike into a real commuter racer and be much faster than with the Hardtail MTB?
Sorry for the long first post, I hope you don’t mind too much...