Sold my Gravel Bike
02-24-23, 02:21 PM
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Sold my Gravel Bike
For the first time in 8-10 years I’m without a gravel (all-road) bike. I know I will own one again in the future, but for now I’m going to stick with my road bike, and my new FS mountain bike.
These are the main reasons and for me, together, they made a lot of sense:
- I have a custom steel frame road bike. It has Ultegra and Dura-Ace and for the last 15 years has been a dream to ride on roads. The gravel bikes I’ve owned have never fit this good and are no match for its road prowess
- the trails I ride most often are a two minute ride from my house. The gravel bikes I’ve owned do well on 80% of the trails, but the technical sections were always challenging (more than I was comfortable with). With the mountain bike I can comfortably ride proper mountain bike trails
- the closest gravel roads are a 30 minute ride away on paved roads, and they’re pot-holed and sometimes washboarded (even my 27.5x2.1 tubeless tires were meh on them). There are not many of these gravel roads where I live
If I didn’t already own a road bike I love, I would absolutely choose an all-road bike in place of a road bike. But I would probably still buy a mountain bike.
Cool think is if/when I one day buy another gravel bike I get the whole N+1 experience all over
These are the main reasons and for me, together, they made a lot of sense:
- I have a custom steel frame road bike. It has Ultegra and Dura-Ace and for the last 15 years has been a dream to ride on roads. The gravel bikes I’ve owned have never fit this good and are no match for its road prowess
- the trails I ride most often are a two minute ride from my house. The gravel bikes I’ve owned do well on 80% of the trails, but the technical sections were always challenging (more than I was comfortable with). With the mountain bike I can comfortably ride proper mountain bike trails
- the closest gravel roads are a 30 minute ride away on paved roads, and they’re pot-holed and sometimes washboarded (even my 27.5x2.1 tubeless tires were meh on them). There are not many of these gravel roads where I live
If I didn’t already own a road bike I love, I would absolutely choose an all-road bike in place of a road bike. But I would probably still buy a mountain bike.
Cool think is if/when I one day buy another gravel bike I get the whole N+1 experience all over
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02-24-23, 02:52 PM
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Do what works for you. I have a road bike for doing long easy miles and fast group rides. I have a MTB for when I want to just be in the dirt and ride technical stuff. For me, my gravel bike is the perfect machine for linking different combinations of pavement and dirt that I wouldn't do on my other bikes. I'm keeping them all! 
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02-25-23, 09:05 AM
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If you don't have gravel roads nearby, it makes sense to not have a gravel bike.
Pretty straightforward.
Pretty straightforward.
