Aero Focus: Taking What Is Good Out Of Gravel Bikes

 NOTE: Large doses of "my opinion" will be handed out in gloppy dollops today. You've been forewarned.....

With professionalism and bigger monetary stakes, the competition to be winning in gravel is intensifying. Especially at the premier gravel events, such as Life Time Grand Prix, Gravel Earth Series, and the UCI World Gravel Series, amongst other single-day gravel events with big prize purses. This encourages cycling brands to push for "more cutting edge" designs aimed at giving the riders an edge over their fellow competitors. This is mostly being done via aerodynamics. 

Obviously, cycling brands feel that Pro and semi-Pro gravel riders must be the ones bringing attention to their brands because the marketing reflects this belief. I have stated in previous posts about this sort of marketing philosophy that building a bike to suit a very small percentage of gravel riders is not the best thing for the majority of gravel riders and obviously, not the best value for this larger segment of the marketplace either. 

This is why I believe aero focus is taking what was good about gravel bikes and kicking it to the curb. Marketing and brand focus on the upper echelons of competitive gravel cycling will gravitate toward this aero driven design and while doing so will forgo the stability, comfort, and utility that gravel bikes originally featured, and sometimes still does. However; sometimes when the focus is not on aerodynamics for gravel bikes, and is on those more comfort/versatile features, another thing seem to be happening.

Bikes like this 2022 Salsa Cycles Warbird were good at everything: Racing, adventure, fun, etc.

Those "do-it-all" bikes are being pigeonholed more and more as "adventure" bikes or worse - bikepacking bikes. Not that there is anything wrong with doing those types of rides, but when you name a bike, you put a perception into people's minds that "this is all that bike is good for". 

I'll use my oft referred to reference of what we called those bikes in 2011 with the big, fat tires that were being used for better flotation. We were calling these "snow bikes", and for good reason. They were good at that, but the perception was, "I don't ride in the snow" and so this made the bikes hard to sell. As you all know, the terminology changed quickly to the "fat bike" name for this category of bicycles, and that seemed to open more doors. 

 So the name matters, and while that may not seem obvious, most people in sales can tell you that this is true. I'm convinced that this is true also. But the name is "gravel" and by this point in history, we're stuck with that.

Image courtesy of Fyxation

Is a gravel bike a "race bike" or a do-it-all bike? More and more I see the brands trotting out models meant for all-out competition, ballyhooing them as "watt saving" and "lighter", as with the racing bikes for pavement. Meanwhile subtle changes to geometry, to push the aero thing more, have begun to erode what was good about "gravel bikes". This is  causing these newer competition oriented bicycles to be less versatile, less comfortable, and less adept at making average cyclists able to have fun. 

But you save watts! It's lighter! The Pro's ride these! 

I realize this is not always the case with many gravel bikes, but this trend for aero is troubling. My hope is that the "all-around" road bike will survive. The bike for any-road, be that paved or unpaved. Not so much a mountain bike, and not so much a touring bike, but a bike that could do a little of all of that if pressed to do so. A bike made from a material that is repairable, sustainable, and not super-expensive. (Probably metal) A bike that is easily maintained and not rife with proprietary parts or spec'ed with the highest priced components that only promise marginal gains but cost stupid amounts of cash. 

Aero has its place, but all-out gravel aero bikes with forward geometry that puts riders in a position only a super-fit athlete riding for a living can maintain are not what serves the majority of riders. Less of that, please! More of the versatile, fun, adventure, and easily obtainable "gravel bikes", please.

Thanks for reading Guitar Ted Productions!