How to buy the best gravel bike under US$2,000
By: Caley FretzEven as the cost gap between affordable bikes and top-tier bikes widens, the performance gap is closing. Affordable bikes are better than they’ve ever been.
This is particularly true with gravel bikes. A good $1,500 gravel bike gets you almost all the key attributes that come with a $5,000 gravel bike, or a $10,000 gravel bike. You get hydraulic disc brakes, lots of tire clearance, and solid geometry. You get a reasonably light frame and parts that, in general, are just as functional as those that are far more expensive. Ride quality doesn’t have to greatly suffer as price drops, because ride quality on gravel bikes is overwhelmingly influenced by tires, which are relatively cheap.
The law of diminishing returns is in full effect, and, in our opinion, the performance/dollar curve really starts to bend somewhere around $2,000.
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122 Comments
Orange Bikes Work
Nevertheless, Kudos for those who ride in the woods with such equipment!
Better still... look into some of his footage. Clearly the motion may get you sick at some point. Please... held a bag close to your mouth if you feel dizzy
Thank you!
@NorCalNomad: Orange hasn't been supporting major teams recently. When they did, they did well. The Dirt Magazine team has never been one for top results (other than Vanessa Quin, obviously. They didn't do worse on Orange than they did on Propain, Norco etc.
@TDMAN: Seat tube angle on a MUni is whatever you want it to be.
But people buy bikes that win races?
Is that a lack of self estime or just wannabe?
(Now where is my moustache wax and rapha gilet)
that being said, I am not exactly Arni.. and ride a lot of road haha!
but still wtf
Or...am I getting road-virus ?
I can see why someone want to have that.
I got an SKS Airworx since maybe 2007 and a Park Tool one.. they still do the job, so I don't really know about super expensive pumps.. bought some spares from Parktool as well.
Pumps for trail side repairs are my problem. I have a working one for less then 15 USD but I need to replace the whole thing because I can't find seals. I hate pumps who don't have a clamp with a tube to prevent damage...
They also offer free global shipping, and since at the time of my order, they offered a 30% coupon discount on everything, I upgraded to their Ti stem and seatpost.
A few of my riding buddies have taken advantage of the Lynskey specials on-line.
Ti rides really nice on gravel.
Les decathlon triban 520 sont supers bien faits, y a des choses très bien chez marin bike aussi (nicasio ou gestalt en mode route ou four corners en mode offroad). Les genesis croix de fer (plus route/voyage) ou vagabond (certains ont fait la french divide dessus) sont aussi très réussis.
Il y a enfin de nombreuses montures chez planetx (bootzipper, ranger par ex) ou vitus (substance) toutes très bien pensées .
Plus cher tu vas chez specialized (sequoia / diverge) ou kona (rove /sutra).
Pour revenir sur tes idées initiales, salsa propose des produits reconnus, mais tu peux avoir un vélo complet pour le prix du cadre seul.
Un gravel ne remplacera pas un vtt en vrai tout terrain, faut pas rêver. Par contre c'est confortable, économique a l'usage et rigolo, surtout par rapport à un velo de route plus classique.
But stay with me, I think gravel bikes make way more sense for majority of population than road bikes. In the same way as Downcountry bikes make more sense than XC racers. Why would one mess with their lower back, wrists and neck?
Sometimes I'll get into a phase where I only ride road and ignore the mtb for a couple weeks, and do enjoy it a lot to be fair, but when I get back on the mountain bike I think "man road biking is freaking lame."
I have a road bike, I've done STP. They are really fast compared to mtb and truly fun to ride. But it takes for ever to get a good workout, and you have to ride on roads with cars. Too many folks get creamed by cars on a regular basis to make it worth the risk to me. If i lived somewhere in the country where I could go miles and miles without seeing a car I'd probably ride mine. As it is, it has been sitting in my basement for years now. Maybe when I move out of suburbia it will get use again. Until then, I can play as hard as I want in the dirt and the only risk is what I impart to myself.
I agree on the car thing though. It's why I try to stay away from busier roads as much as possible.
And if the F1 team doesn't manufacture the frame, what is the point of even buying the bike?
Its cheaply made & looks it but it was also cheap to buy. No idea if it has the twitchy handling described as its never seen tarmac let alone gravel. Doubt it ever will.
Is anyone coming from riding another discipline? Or is it the 2020 version of signing up for a Triathlon - getting new people into a sport that has a community and toys to buy?
They also make great commuters (anti DUI machines)
I rode a cyclocross bike around some fireroads once and was frankly terrified of being so far over the front wheel with what felt like not enough tire for even golf ball sized rocks that we have here in SoCal.
Am I just a weenie?
Bear in mind if it's a CX race bike it has max 33c tires. Most gravel bikes are 32-50(!)c tires.
If you have a CX bike, you kind of have 90% of a gravel bike. See if you can fit some bigger rubber (IMO 35-40 is a sweetspot for a comfortable ride that lasts longer than a CX race. Failing that, air down your tires a bit. I run 40c at 45psi, which is a good balance IMO for the flattish gravel riding I mostly do.
Gearing is the other side. A CX race is a brutal fast paced kind of thing. If you're going slow you jump off and run. Gravel riding is more of a whole cloth type of ride. if you're going slow, shift down a gear. But maybe you've run out of gears on your CX bike and that's making things more unpleasant. This all depends on your local terrain - 80%+ of my local gravel (without hitting the MTB trails) is flatter than a pancake. But if I hit the mellow MTB trails or that 20% of dirt, I'm needing some low gear assistance.
As an owner of a standard geometry I hear what you are saying about the feeling once you are out on the dirt with a gravel or cyclocross bike. As mentioned, a lot of your feeling could be changed with larger tires, but it is also related to bike geometry.
The geometry on most gravel bikes, seems to be just endurance road geo, with a degree slacker headtube, a few mm longer chainstays, 0-10mm longer top tube and clearance for bigger tires. There are of course a few exceptions, but very few. The bikes with this geo are probably great for flatish gravel riding and gravel racing, but want to kill you once the going gets rough.
I feel we will see a slow trend towards where some of the more extreme gravel bikes are and they will settle in with a lot longer wheel base, head angles around 68 and top tube lengths meant to be run with short stems, like 50mm. There will always still be the current geo gravel bikes, because there are flat areas and people that race gravel. For those that want to go out, explore for long distances on logging roads, link through on some easier trails, while still being able to go down the asphalt with some semblance of efficiency, there will be more options. That is what I like to do on my gravel bike, and it will be a lot more enjoyable once I get the frame that is made for that purpose.
My gravel bike unfortunately has a non-standard seatpost, but I think a post with 3" of travel would be a big improvement for quite a bit of gravel bike terrain.
With 40c ReFuse tires it eats up the 20km commute, feels comfy & confidence-inspiring on hardpack & gravel and also loads up great for weekend riding trips from my back door, on- and off-tarmac.
It's also an obesity-fighting, sanity-saver with the current restrictions, with MTB trails too far away and my 160mm f /150mm r MTB way too much for the local forest/gravel trails.
It's actually surprised me how fun it is to ride over lightly rocky and rooty trails, really making it a drop-bar quiver killer.