Road Bike, Cycling Forums banner

Gravel bike with road tires?

2566 Views 51 Replies 13 Participants Last post by  fiziks
Unlike some of my friends, my wife is not going to put up with a garage full of bikes. My road bike is aluminum, and I'd like to upgrade to carbon and higher end groupset. I'd also like to get into gravel. Anyone get a gravel bike and have two sets of wheels, one for road and one for gravel? I'm looking at a carbon bike with GRX800 2x12.
41 - 52 of 52 Posts
Why not try the big tires on the road first, before running out and getting another set of wheels? 29″ x 2.2″ (700C x 55) Antelope Hill TC Tire – Rene Herse Cycles is claimed to ride well on the road.
I had the demo bike for three days. It had 38 or 40mm Gravelkings on it. He set the bike up with relatively low pressure in the tires, which was great for gravel, but absolutely sucked on the road. I put more air in for a second ride, being careful not to overinflate, and immediately noticed the difference on the road, and didn't notice too much of a difference on gravel (not that I have enough experience to tell the difference - but I did notice a huge difference in how planted the Waheela, with wider tires, felt on gravel vs my road bike). But the GKs were rated at 50psi, a little more than half the psi of what I normally ride on the road. I am also setting up the road wheel set with a different cassette. 11-28 will do me just fine on the road.

I put about 60 miles on the bike over two days, at least a third of which was on gravel. On one of the routes I normally do on the road, there is about a hundred yard stretch of gravel to get from the road to the bike trail. It is a very slight decline with a slight bend. On the road bike, it is like walking on ice in flat-soled shoes, and the bike does not want to turn, even going maybe 5-8mph. On the Waheela, I was going down much steeper hills at 20mph (and applying the brakes to keep from going faster) and feeling planted.
See less See more
I'm not so sure...I just changed out 23's on my Sequoia and its definitely not fast now.
I'm not so sure...I just changed out 23's on my Sequoia and its definitely not fast now.
Was it fast before?
...no
  • Haha
Reactions: 1
Ahhh. So maybe it's not the tires.....or even the bike.
  • Haha
Reactions: 1
What are you trying to say?!

Its definitely the bike. It doesn't have a power meter so I can only mentally compare. Its the same one I briefly thought about putting some wider tires on and using as a gravel bike a while back. Turns out that's not going to work. I changed out the 23's for 25's... 28's probably would've just fit but clearance is low even with the 25's....not exactly a huge change...
What are you trying to say?!
Maybe it's the engine. ;)
  • Haha
Reactions: 1
Coupla questions...

Are the 23mm and 25mm tires the same, comparable? As in Continental Grand Prix 5000 23mm compared to the same in 25mm.

How have you come to your conclusion? Same route and weather conditions? How many passes with each tire, how many more than one? How much slower?
  • Like
Reactions: 1
Without a power meter and controlled testing its just an anecdotal conclusion. I ride the same route often in all different weather conditions, but I don't ride this bike often enough to gather significant data either...
old: Bontrager aw2 700x23c, well worn and dry rotting
new: Continental Gatorskin 25mm

I don't actually expect to feel any difference between those two tires speed-wise.

The Sequoia feels slow compared to my SRFIVE, but data comparison from previous rides suggests the actual difference isn't as much as it feels.
New toy. It is a bit dusty because I was riding it!

Bicycle Tire Wheel Bicycles--Equipment and supplies Plant


Otso Waheela C
See less See more
  • Like
Reactions: 2
41 - 52 of 52 Posts
Top