Are Gravel Bikes Just Mountain Bikes From The '90s? | GMBN Tech Make A Gravel Bike
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- Äas pĆidĂĄn 6. 11. 2021
- Drop bars off road? What's the point? With the rising popularity of gravel bikes it can be easy to forget that mountain bikers were using drop handlebars even in the 1990s. Specifically, John Tomac; who raced a Yeti C-26 to 4th place in the first Downhill World Championships, and we have a replica here! Doddy checks out all the details of this vintage MTB before creating his own modern version and taking it for a shred đ€
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The great thing about gravel bikes is the ability to ride diverse surfaces in a single ride. Maybe a ride is primarily about off-road, but it's on a patchwork of parks and reservations that offer maybe 20 minutes of riding. You wouldn't consider those places as viable mountain bike destinations, you'd spend more time getting your bike on and off your car than you'd spend riding, but you can *link* those places up with road riding on a gravel bike for a satisfying day long ride. Or sometimes it's the opposite; there's a road ride with a section that's not nice or unsafe, but you can get around it by going through the woods, or simply taking a detour literally off the beaten track.
Putting a faster tire on a mountain bike isn't going to cut it. It's just not any fun to ride a mountain bike on the road, it's a joyless slog, a sometimes-necessary evil. It's really important that a gravel bike be almost as good on the road as a road bike and almost as good on non-technical trails as a mountain bike; it doesn't have to have the capabilities of a mountain bike on technical trails. Gravel bikes are about covering distance, not cleaning features.
Now I know why my MTB wheels stop spinning when they hit asphalt.
Agree. To me drop bars stop making sense when the bike isn't 90-95 percent as good on the road as a road specific bike. I have an All City Macho King. I averaged 21mph on the flat tarmac portion (avg speed dropped to 19.5 after the last 10 miles of sandy farm roads) of a 30 mile ride the other day, but I ride the same bike with 42c tires on mild single track too. Can't do that with a road bike. But if my bike were any more dirt focused, especially if it had suspension, then a 29er with flat bars just makes more sense.
This is how I justified my gravel bike, it opens up some wider options on long rides. I can take roads, gravel, dirt trails etc that I'd never take a road bike on, and it's a lot faster than my hard tail with 'road' tyres. It has it's place but it's not designed to excel at anything or everything.
Or use a hardtail. Gbn compared the two once, the speed advantage of the gravel was barely existent, while the hardtail was able to cover non street terrain far easier.
@@alfonshasel1995 my Strava data begs to disagree. I'm 10-15% faster on my gravel bike vs my hard tail for a set loop I have. I'm faster again on a road bike. If I was going out somewhere I knew the roads were pristine I'd have kept a skinny road bike, but the added comfort of the gravel tyres beats that one. And then as I said at the start my Strava shows that I'm faster on my gravel bike than my hard tail.
Both, John Tomac (Yeti bikes) and Jacquie Phelan (Cunningham bikes) used drop handlebars for their many NORBA mtb conquests. Totally agree that Tomac was the greatest of all time; but, Phelan was the greatest woman for her time (1983-1985 NORBA women's champion) racing against the likes of Cindy Whitehead and other notables. Both were awesome racers.
Itâs off road, itâs riding bikes, and itâs fun. You nailed it at the end. Thatâs my reasoning for having a gravel bike, and a mountain bike. Dare I say fatbikes are a blast too.
I currently have on my "stabe" following bikes: Roadbike, CX bike, Fatbike, and Full-suspension bike. With that setup i think, that i can ride in any weather/terrain/time of the year.
@@villekokkonen1841 Excellent selection. I have a CX bike and fat tire for commuting and would like to add a mountain bike.
So fun mr dodd yours is way better than farmer johns was i am an old bastard that got to race against tomac back with nowa and the animals pre his turn to the drops i aggree its nutts but does make easy trails scary and feel way fast. You forgot to mention the crazy gearing i ran a 56 tooth front chain ring and used to pedal it out as did tomac it was kinda mental ha ha . I am going to build one too .
I'm sorry, but a gravel bike is not niche enough for me. I'm waiting for the sub-niche of full suspension gravel bikes with flat bars to become a thing.
fat bikes for the rainy/muddy season is just đđ€
This video is close to perfection. Retro stuff, the âwhat the heck?â looks of the boys passing by and the superb editing with period correct slow motion scenes and music. Only missing a neon yellow helmet and VHS video âqualityâ.
âThat doesnât matter because I built my own one!â Youâre a gift, Doddy. So good.
That was one of the best episodes ever! The editing, discussion, music, all adds up to something special.
You should see if John Tomac would do a video with you and revisit the retro age of mtb and talk about where mtb is today.
You do a great job on these videos.
Hmm this sort of thing has been around quite a while mainly used for endurance riding like tour divide. Salsa cutthroat 1x setup takes a 100mm suspension fork and dropper, geometry more focused on drop bar so you donât have to run such a short stem
@@pgfyfe25 Exactly! Doddy built a Cutthroat.
I had the pleasure of both seeing Tomac ride and actually race against him in European Grundig races. He was technically so much better than everyone else and the only racer to include stunts and tricks. That disc wheel makes the most wonderful noise off road. Tomac was also insanely quick at changing an inner tube (we all had to carry spares and carry out any repairs during all races). Happy days.
everybody had to use those before tubeless era....
Do people use tubeless on xc or road always?
Yes. I actually rebuilt an old Giant 26" frame as a Gravel bike a few weeks ago. Rides like a charm.
And the steel frame looks amazing with modern components.
@@gerald_t i fitted my 26" Cannondale with 28" wheels and 35mm tires. They fit just fine. And they roll great compared to the 26"
@@gerald_t i put in some 28" wheelset i had lying around. I also cut away the vbrake mounts and added a Discbrake via an adapter I milled, that fits the holes in the dropout for the rack.
@@gerald_t yeah, i thought about that too but i struggled getting a narrow enough tire that wouldn't hit the frame. Mind 27,5 wheel sets usually have wider rims, so the tire is going to be bulkier right away
In the process of something similar with my old Trek hardtail from 2013
@@adapta I was thinking of this, but a larger wheel wouldnât fit through the rear triangle on my old Rockhopper. I was thinking of an extreme gravel mullet - 29â front, 26â rear. Do you think it would work?!
They definitely are. Things eventually circle back around. Take a look at the old MTB video where Juan Ochoa and Manuel Montero are riding in Spain. Ochoa is wearing a hip bag 28 years ago. Suddenly it is such a hit.
Looks an absolute scream on them flowing blue trails. Brilliant again Doddy, keep up the great work. đđđ€
When I bought a new MTB in 2018; I converted my 2008 Cannondale Rush into a gravel bike. It has a 100 mm Lefty reduced to 80 mm, so I could upgrade to 29 inch wheels. I put drop bars with Gevenalle shifters and BB7 mechs. I ride it more than my new bike now, it is so fun.
"A very humble Canyon Grand Canyon hard tail". So, now I know why I own the Grand Canyon. It's not because it was the best I could afford but apparently I bought it because I am a humble man.
I have an old carbon Empella 26er, built with 27.5" wheels and 1.5" tyres with drop bars. I call it my GravelBastard, and it's perfect for the 16 mile commute to work along the canal path.
I really enjoy how Doddy loves and pays homage to the heritage and old school mtb stuff, while still loving where new bikes are going and staying up to date!
Too many people get hung up on nostalgia and thinking things used to be better.
What an incredibly well done video. the "retro" edits and music, Doddy having fun, and some giggles at the GCN colleagues. Nice work guys
Superb episode! Thrilled to see the Tomac refefences. More dropbar mountainbike stuff please!!
I used to be dubious, but now owning both a XC 29er and a gravel bike I know exactly which bike Iâd use for given situations.
I think the only people who still donât understand what a gravel bike is for and where it comes into itâs own are those people who just go into the woods or to the MTB parks doing tricks and DH runs while trying to look cool doing it.
Even XC is becoming âdowncountryâ. Great if you want to hurl yourself down rock gardens etc, but what if youâre just an average guy who wants to go for a pedal away from traffic? What if you just want to efficiently cover lots of miles on gravel paths and fire roads which heaven forbid may actually incorporate some tarmac national cycle network routes too? The MTB is a slow draggy experience on rides like that, especially with a headwind.
Lots of people just do average cycling on varying terrain where more pedalling is involved than berms and drop offs are. Thatâs what a gravel bike is for, they werenât trying to be cool or hip which sadly seems to be the way all cycling disciplines are now. Gravel bikes were to fill a gap which was definitely there. To cater for the masses of average cyclists who just want to get out there and cycle without limitations or labels, you know just literally riding a bike for hell of it wherever that may be.
FUN...!
Described absolutely perfectly, and definitely has a place in the garage alongside the MTB for those specific occasions where the gravel bike makes more sense than an MTB.
@@Chambers36TheEnter Niche bike with big price tags? No thanks. If my bike is going to have a comma in the price, I don't want it to be for certain occasions.
I have a fixie (SS actually), and 2 hardtails. One I'm building back up with better components (I bought it used for much cheaper than an entry level HT) and the cheaper one I turned into a single speed. The fixie is when I want to put in miles. The SS hardtail (Trek) is for daily riding as it actually climbs decently and can tackle loads of obstacles. The GT I'm fixing up rode really nice in all sorts of terrain and conditions. It's really my all-arounder.
I can't wait to get a better fork, replace the headset and get a shorter stem in it. Once it's back on(off) the road, it's going to be so much fun.
@@Chambers36TheEnter no if anything the mountain bike is niche and only does well in specific conditions. Thatâs why there are so many different types of mountain bike now so people can fit into whatever particular MTB discipline they want.
The gravel bike does better at the day to day real world cycling that most people do from their doorstep. On average the same local loops on my gravel bike vs XC 29er are 1.5 MPH faster on the gravel bike, so the gravel bike is definitely a more capable all rounder as far as Iâm concerned.
There is definitely a cross over between the two and I wonât be parting with my 29er, but from my own experiences the gravel bike is here to stay.
Cool video Doddy. It's nice to see you outside and having fun after lock down. Way to gut it out through those hard months and thanks for always keeping it professional.
This has been on my mind for so long. Exactly the video we needed. Loved it and love to see more like it.
John Tomac is THE Legend! As you said, he is the GOAT. Glad you had a great time on the drops! I did this once and called it a hybrid. No front shocks, so fully rigid mountain bike shod with 26" wheels. I only did it because I am a roadie and it made sense to me. Like Tomac, helped me keep my position.
Your D-41 Grand Canyon, is super cool!
Daddy, your gravel bike experience is why I love that type of riding. I have heard it called âunder-bikingâ; riding a type of bike that makes terrain more challenging. Most of my local trails and fire roads are blues and greens, and a gravel bike with wider tires and a bit of front suspension and a dropper seat post makes those trails different and in some ways more fun than when I ride them on my XC or trail MTBs. Also, the gravel bike is great for linking together different dirt segments with paved or fire road routes. And I do think it makes me a better road and MTB rider as I am forced to make better line choices, balance and speed control. I think itâs a genre here to stay - in fact I think the genre has split into gravel racing bikes and adventure bikes. Hope you do focus on them in the future.
i agree under-biking is a fantastic way of improving your skills and getting the heart in mouth feeling!!! also a reason i like riding raw trails instead of super-flow stuff all the time
Great video Doddy! Love these Retro bike videos!!
Thatâs was great! Excellent vid and would defo like to see more gravel bikes đ
Do we need gravel bikes? No. Do they get more people on bikes off road? I think so and that makes them awesome.
I need my gravel bike. It is considerably faster than a mtn bike the vast majority of the time and more capable on chunky stuff than my road bike.
That means you love it. Which is awesome but it doesnât mean you need it.
In my country (Philippines), I think they're the best option. Lots of roads with the occasional potholes, cracks, manhole covers, some rocks/gravels scattered here and there, some sand, unpaved roads, constantly being re-paved(?) roads, and all that. Will be faster than using a mountain bike, but will be more resilient than a road bike.
Well, not exactly what people "need," but in a country that's filled with bikers using mountain bikes only on roads...
I like your perspective. That said, a fast bike that can take a hit is just what I need. I cut corners, bump over gutters and carry crap with me far more than I race.
For a one-bike quiver, for many people a gravel bike is a solid choiceâŠ
Doddy your videos are just amazing.... so much knowledge and entertainment. Thanks for giving us such great content. Cheers
Call them what you want!!! I love all bicycles and love to ride them all. Bring it on!! Change it up and keep it fun!!
Massive respect for that bar turn off the jump early on in the video-a real solute to that iconic pic of tomac in action đđ
Wonderful video and a great tribute to John
Really love this awesome channel! Appreciate all u guys efforts.
Makes me wanna do the same to my mountain bike - change the bars to what we call here a "corner bar". Same drop style, but it uses the same levers and shifters as on my MTB.
Great vid, Doddy! That's a beautiful bike you've built. I have a Marin Gestalt X10 gravel bike, and it's great fun riding mtb trails with it. I have an Ibis Ripmo and Ripley, but there are days I just feel like pedaling the distance through roads and fire roads to get to the top of a mountain to enjoy the ride and escape from civilization.
I stuck drop bars on my old 26er and its a ton of fun. I also have a gravel bike, which I don't take on trails all that often, but ride it on the countless miles of dirt roads where I live. Think of it as a "dirt road" bike.
26ers are my thing as far as "mountain bikes" go. Love 80s/90s rigid steel bikes. Just so much fun. Also love my own creation. A specialised hybrid with wide tyres, drop bars, sti levers and mini vbrakes that is the funnest bike Ive ever ridden!
The music, the letterbox video format. WOW love this video!!! Excellent work lads!
Awesome video đđŒ best video yet.
Great video. Most gravel bikes sold today are sold with 700c tyres these days. Lael Wilcox did win Unbound Gravel XL on a Specialized Epic with drop handlebars, so I reckon your bike would actually do really well in a gravel race. Can't get more aero than a disc wheel either.
That was such a fun to watch. Thank you! Great music!
Thanks for the support! đ
Insert "don't knock it till you've tried it" here, perfect video guys đđ
Very fun experiment, Doddy! Not how most of us approach a gravel bike. There is definitely a part of MTBxRoad where gravel bikes can shine.
Gravel bikes make a lot of sense in parts of the USA where even the tarmac is rough. Gravel roads, fire roads, light trails, and an occasional trip through the woods. Love my gravel bike for a 25+ mile ride with lots of different terrain that I donât want to spend 2.5 hours on an MTB for. If the route is mostly forest and trail, though, I am on my MTB, thank you very much.
I like how much riding footage is mixed in and that it is good footage, not bouncy pov stuff.
Great video, thanks !!!
Awesome, great work Doddy.
This concept is a head banger to me? How could Tomac run and send it hard? I'll answer my own question by saying the dude had what they call, "true grit" where I'm from. Hats off to Doddy for sending it as well. Thanks for taking the time and effort to just customize a bike as well Doddy. âđđČ
That was a great video !
Well done, Doddy; brilliant!! Only thing missing is the sound of a genuine tension wheel!
Awesome synthwave intro!
Doddys build it SICK!
This looks like a lot of fun. I'm surprised we don't see drop bars more often on mountain bikes.
Love to see Blake send it!
This put a big đ on my face. Well done đ Thanks!
I was riding drop bars towards the end of my MTB racing days (1998/99) on a 26". A couple of things to make it work better: 1: You need the bar up higher. You should have left another 40mm on your steer tube. 2: You should go down one frame size, if possible. (not such an easy fix) A slightly shorter top tube length makes it work a lot better. I was running drops on a Habanero ti MTB frame on the smallest size I could possibly fit. I had a super tall, short reach Salsa threadless stem, (can't seem to find those anymore) 48 cm Modolo bars with RSX 3 x 8 brifters and some RST fork. (don't remember the model) I'm prone to carpal tunnel syndrome due to many years of manual labour. I find riding flat bars makes my hands go numb after an hour or so. The drop bar setup completely relieves this. I was race starter on a 24-hour MTB relay team with this setup. No problems at all. (other than getting it approved at pre-race inspection) Unfortunately, I don't think the UCI is allowing drop bars in MTB races anymore. (anal-retentive nitwits) I might give gravel a try.
I love riding my gravel bike on techy trails. I am at heart a roadie and love that position. Back when I started riding MTB, late 80's, the bikes were rigid. So riding an unsuspended drop bar bike on roots and rocks seems right! Besides I like doing what is fun for me and not what everyone else is doing!!
totally agree. I bought a full tricked out full suspension trail bike and I just never road it hard like it should be ridden and it kind of took the fun out of the local trails. I got a gravel bike and the fun came back and I love being under biked.
thats the coolest bike ever!!!! what a build Doddy! awesome!
Great to see you on a monster-cross Doddy! The cross bike gives familiar trails a whole new (super-fun) personality. Descending is sketchier, but my cross bike climbs like a billy goat. One of my favorite things to do on my cross bike is to ride several different single-track areas and connect them to each other by riding the road from one area to the next (especially fun if the roads are dirt roads).
GREAT SUMMARY - LOVE YOUR BIKE
Very cool, I want oneâŠâŠ nice one Doddy, another excellent vid
great article Doddy! I've never like riding hard tails off road, but have had a fairly basic gravel bike for 3 years now, and I love the thrill of being in the drops on our local green and blue trails. We dont have many rocks or roots, just dry loose stuff, so having all that weight on the front makes cornering faster!
Also great to see you built it up with the manitou r7 instead of Fox or RS. I've got the same R7 on my "downcountry"/ XC race bike. I'm keen to see you actually review the MANITOU once you put flat bars back on it.
Fustle GR-1 Causeway has modern mountain bike geometry. They did that well over a year ago. I love my gravel bike. Awesome video đ
I still have those XT 90's cantilevers on my retro mountain bike build, they are great
I did this 27 years ago with the bianchi project 7 the first production 29 wheel mtb .I put a drop bar on after the first month and it is still my go to S.F. bike and my winter fender machine.
I think a lot of people have been waiting a long time for gmbn to embrace gravel as much a gcn has. I feel like I know what it looks like to ride fast and hard on fairly simple gravel roads/races. What we haven't explored is that gravel/MTB space. THIS video (along with a couple from Blake) scratched that itch. Thank you! Here's to all the gravel monsters out there
I really appreciated the music and that 4:3 aspect ration good stuff lol
Lovely video champ! I reckon you guys should cover more of the gravels bikes on the gmbn đ
It's great to see any video that how Doddy build that bike.
This sucks, but if people are going to fall for the marketing/ advertising, oh well.
XC bikes continue to get more slack and now have so much travel, theyâre essentially yesterdays trail bikes. Enduro bikes are essentially yesterdayâs DH.
Road bikes have transitioned to gravel and cross country, and now those bikes are starting to get suspension - and theyâre marketed as being innovative by GCN and GMBN, but the manufacturers are essentially recycling the innovations/ changes that took place at the infancy of mtb - but at todayâs prices.
And so many people on both channels just eat up the marketing.
Soon, those gravel bikes are going to get straight bars, and bigger forks and will become the hardtail XC bikes we had just 5-years ago.
I keep saying these exact same arguments too and it's not the first time i see someone else saying them too.
I saw a gravel bike with straight bars outside my local supermarket the other day and i thought to myself exactly what you just said! That's an basically an expensive carbon version of what i was riding in 1993!
Sure there is room for fullsusp gravel bike
Agree kinda but I don't care, I still love gravel bikes. There should be a place for everything.
Also I think you're reaching a bit. GMBN aren't fully sold on them as off roaders and rightly so. They're in no way a replacement but there's a case for them, to say otherwise is kinda retrograde.
Exactly my point too.
Good to see you try something new Doddy! That was fun! My two video ideas from this (on GMBN or on GCN) is, 1) Get Connor Dunne from GCN on this bike, and maybe try his El Alto 36" bike out! 2) try out or experience gravel bike packing or adventure riding, to get a feel for what the gravel community is all about. You may have started a hotrod style custom bike trend where anything and everything goes. That sounds awesome.
Great content. I'm staying with MTB myself, Gravel is a specific bike designed by a marketing department somewhere to make road bikes ride faster on gravel but not really the other way around. Thanks for such a cool video, enjoyed the thought process bringing the old school with the new. Thanks
Great build Doddy!
You have just done some thing that no other channel or cyclist has been able to do and that is get me to consider adding a drop bar gravel bike to the stable. LOL! I donât know if I should be happy or mad at you.
Great video!
Loved it!
D-41, Cross Fabricated Nonsense. LOL! I love it! Being a noobe at all this, I find these specialized builds fun to watch. I congratulate you on arriving at the end with no apparent bloody scrapes on your person. I am sure I would have been gurneyed off in the first 20 yards, or hopelessly entangled in the flora and fauna.
But being a 71 year old on a $200 Walmart mountain bike, I can assure You I hardly have any business even watching this. But this is how I learn, seeing what others are doing.
OK, back to my Wallmartian mobile. But I'm having fun.
Bloody good show, Duffy!
Did such conversion to my 26er and I love it. My favourite bike ever. Been racing bike marathons with it.
Opowiesz coĆ wiÄcej o swoim rowerku? Przymierzam siÄ do stworzenia czegoĆ takiego a jestem caĆkiem zielony jeĆli chodzi o kolarstwo.
I got a Gravelbike as a 2in1 - I use it as a Roadbike for grouprides with the local cycling club but I mostly use it offroad in the local woods. I could only afford one bike at that time. When I ride with a friend on his Specialized 26" Fully XC it's usually give and take. On gnarlier trails he's faster than me, but on Gravelroads and flowtrails I got the upper hand. And there's some downhill sections I just completely bail on cause as you say - it's absolutely terrifying. But in general it's still a nice do it all bike which is actually somewhat capable when you take it offroad. Now I ordered a proper Hardtail (a Trek Roscoe 7 2022) to dive deeper into the rough stuff.
The original idea for a gravel bike is essentially what the likes of Grant Petersen and Jan Heine were either calling hilly bikes or all-road bikes. I bought a gravel bike because I wanted to ride mostly road but with fatter tires and long distance on gravel farm roads in the midwest of the USA. I have a 120mm travel 27.5+ HT and rarely use it because we don't have a lot of proper MTB trails around here. Now these all-road bikes are being marketed for use on gnarlier terrain, and putting suspension on further confusing the genre I personally don't want to ride drop bars in that stuff.
That being said, I'm still glad this movement led to me finding my perfect bike.
Cheers!
Nice build Doddy!
''drop handelebars on a mountainbike just don't make alot of sense to me'' GCN punching the air rn
Great video, but did you make one mistake in the build? Smaller frame and longer stem ala the 90s bike and line the drops up where you'd have them on a gravel/road bike?
Ha. I remember riding my double cro mo hard tail with an elastometer fork in the 90s/ early 2000s. It was so much fun. Mostly fire trails. Never did the super rough stuff.
Banging tunes. Also theres just something particularly cool looking about smashing it on drops off road.
Love riding my gravel bike as a xc mountain bike. No suspension, but just installed Tannus Armour inserts which allow me to run really low pressures and the bike works great in the bush with 700x50c tires.
7:57 that lycra is unforgiving
Lycra always is... :)
I remember elastomer forks back in the early '90's......When it was cold it was like a rigid bike....Nostalgia is cool as **** !!!
I remember Tomac on drop bars with the disc rear wheel.....Just looks cool for us old gits !!!
I ride a gravel bike, a CX, a 29er hardtail, a full susser and an old 26er hardtail all off-road.....I tend to ride a lot of local off-road trails on drop bars as it does remind me of the '90's but with slightly thinner tyres and way better groupsets...It's just another way of getting on a bike and trying summat new.....I have no problem with riding a 460mm flared drop bar one day and an 800mm riser bar the next......
I must admit Doddy, that your gravel monster is one I'd certainly give a go....
Nowadays, a lot of gravel bikes run MTB tyres and suspension.....Even Niner to a full suss drop bar gravel bike.......it fits that "gap".
Can someone just give Doddy a tone of cash to do crazy retro stuff all the time please?
being on drops on a gravel bike looks very similar to the bar end position on older MTBs - they give lots of control and power as you can apply force with your biceps/triceps.
Shorter frame and a longer stem would definitely make this kind of thing much more enjoyable and controllable.
Nice vid Doddy, and great to see the C-26!
One point you got wrong though - the carbon is NOT unidirectional, it is carbon weave. In the case of the C-26 in the vid, it looks like plain weave, that is the weft strand going over and then under each alternating warp strand.
Itâs about time doddy got on gravel bike. Always like the MTBikers POV of gravel bike better than the roadies. WE WANT MOREE!!
doddy on drop bars..wohoo! as they say the best bike is the one that you have..and what i have is a 27.5 2x9 dropbar mtb with budget components
Love your Gravelbike Doddy đ
Fucking love Doddy and his reverence for mountain biking's heritage đđ»
'Now I'm going to go and pretend I'm John Tomac' đđđ»
Now that you've said it out loud, do a video where you put road slicks on an MTB. I'd love to see a head to head with an actual road bike to see how much efficiency you give up. For a lot of mtbers I think that small loss is an easy trade-off for being able to bomb staircases in the middle of your road ride.
GCN did this with a commuter bike. Same bike one with drops and one with flat bars
Decades ago, I put Specialized Fatboy slicks on my stiffie MTB for commuting. The thing cornered and braked harder, and the wheels spun up faster than anything else. It was an urban traffic monster.
@@MikeDS49
NICE.
Thatâs a great looking tribute bike your guys made up. I want to make a fakey rear disc wheel now!
Looks cool and fun.
Yes, there is something about riding drop bars on dirt that brings a new smile to riding bikes. I can't quite put my finger on it either, but that is why I rotate between road biking, gravel biking and mountain biking. Everyone needs at least three bikes! Yes, please make more videos with gravel bikes on mountain bike trails!!
I just drop barâd a couple of my fatbikes with the Surly Corner bar, so fun!
Fantastic video! If you took any making of the bike video that would be cool to see.
I have a fully rigid monster gravel made off of an old carbon hardtail. Rides like a dream. Actually it was on the dirt sheds hacks and bodges showing off my shower cleaning solution
Great epp, thanks
I ride a drop bar 29er on the trails all of the time. Riding a much modified 2017 Salsa Cutthroat running 2.5's front and rear with a 2X GX drivetrain (39/26 with a 10-42) and Hope brakes. I don't do jumps and sends (being over two decades older than you - I break easier) and sure, downhills are slower than a squish bike BUT it flies on flatish trails and uphill. Passed many a squish bike being pushed uphill or just spinning *slowly*. Dropbars have a place and they are a lot of fun.
That D41 is awesome!
Hi Doddy. Hope you, Blake and Neil can do reviews about adventure gravel bikes which are essentially Drop bar mountain bikes. This platform has been growing fast here in North America for Bikepacking trips. Cheers from Canada!
I once put drops and a GRX groupset on a Raleigh Dyna-Tech Ti frame as a gravel build which was kinda fun
âLet us know what you thinkâ⊠I think this is one of the best GMBN Tech videos. I love it but also hate it, I would hate to ride that thing but could watch other people ride it all day. Also, manitou need more exposure the forks are great (I have the Mezzer Pros)