What is a Gravel Bike and do you need one?

What isn’t  it?

So let’s start by saying what the Gravel bike is not. No longer is it acceptable to just have a road bike or a hybrid because now there’s something in between. It’s not quite a cyclocross bike (although many who end up on a Gravel bike started off asking about Cyclocross) and it’s not just a heavy duty road bike, it is very much on its own out there.

It isn’t a touring bike either, though you probably could tour on it if you so wished. It isn’t a racing road bike although again, you could race on one if that took your fancy. Nor is it a road disc bike, I know- so confusing, sorry.

So what is it?

It is the result of the cross-genre madness that seems to make up modern day cycling. The love-child, if you will, of a pure cyclocross race bike, a hybrid and a 29”er mountain bike. It is quite honestly the answer to a lot of riders’ desires. Burly enough to handle canal towpaths and the occasional bridleway, with mud clearance and fatter more treaded tyres than a road bike or even quite a few hybrids.

It isn’t limited to tarmac and often has discs and drops (an all the more common sight these days) so it can both deliver some speed and some stopping power in the wet and perhaps mixed conditions. If looked after it’s truly the bike for all year round and all-requirements.

Perhaps it’s unfair to say the jack of all trades, as that’s often followed with the sentiment- master of none, but bikes like the Giant Revolt and its carbon brother the CoMax are impressive and all-encompassing machines.

Both the bikes mentioned in this piece come with great component sets and in truth suit such a broad span of riders and their requirements of a bike that you cannot help but think it’s in fact truly a very sensible and necessary category.

So often we find ourselves in store guiding someone towards one of these bikes as they answer so many questions people have as to what comes closest to their desired bike. Not a full on racer, not an out-and-out mountain bike and yet something that can be more than comfortable on road or off and versatile enough to deal with whatever takes the riders fancy.