Originally Posted by
ClydeClydeson
This is why:
A bike should create riding opportunities, not specifically limit them. With few exceptions, road bikes up to the early/mid 2000s were completely impractical toys - a max tire width of 25mm, as was common, is completely useless for gravel, and as you pointed out, not great on imperfect pavement. A gravel bike is just a road bike with better brakes and room for reasonably wide tires, which means you can ride pretty much anywhere. A full suspension MTB is capable more because of the 2.2" wide tires than because of suspension - 99% of the routes I rode on my rigid MTB in the 80s and 90s I can ride on my gravel bike (although a bit faster), and 100% of the trails I can ride on my FS mountain bike I can ride on my old rigid mountain bike (although a bit slower)
The other thing about gravel bikes is that they are just a tire change away from being as fast as a dedicated road bike. A spare set of wheels means you essentially have two bikes if you are willing to flip some QR levers open.
I don't really know how much of a gravel bike the Specialized "GRAVEL" Creo EVO is but it is the same frame geometry as their other Creo's other than varying the materials and components. So Road=Gravel with the right wheels, etc.
Years ago I guess I did a few gravel rides on my 10 speed Peugeot road bike. It certainly took a beating but we did about 40 or so miles of which probably half was a forest service road over Jack's Pass north of Hwy 2 looping around using Hwy 2. I can remember another one like that although I don't recall its name but it was out of Duvall. The tire was probably a 23 back then. And I am talking 30 or so years back (when I did stupid things like that)
So now they design bikes for that abuse and give them a name/type.
