I prefer gravel, but I still haven't been able to pull the trigger on buying one.
Because until now, gravel bikes have looked pretty ugly.
But honestly, the latest gravel bikes look like a road bike with slightly chunkier tires slapped on
and have a really sleek shape.
Argon 18
Ridley
Canyon
and so on....
Gravel bikes these days really do look great.
That said....just how much slower is gravel compared to road, and how much
faster is road compared to gravel?
On that question, about 13 years ago via PAMI, someone ran an experiment comparing the power-to-speed difference between MTB and road,
a pioneer (basically the godfather of power meters in Korea), so I'm posting it here for reference.
A lot has changed between 13 years ago and now, but back then, based on
an average power of 200 watts, the speed difference between road and MTB was roughly 2km/h average speed
with both riders in a normal position (neither in an aero position)
So, what I've been thinking is that gravel bikes these days pack in a lot of aero elements even in the frame itself,
the wheels are high-profile with slightly chunkier tires, and the position itself can be a bit more comfortable than a regular road bike....
and unless you're chasing second-and-minute-level race times, I've been feeling lately like switching over to gravel could actually be fun.....
