and I'd say that's part of the fun/challenge for gravel biking. Most gravel bike events I've been at there are a fair number of people on mountain or fat bikes. Sometimes it ends up being at an advantage for large sections of the course. Then there have been other course where the gravel has been more hard packed and people show up on a road bike with size 28 tires and just kill it.

If I was racing gravel I might care about aero but I just use gravel to train and explore. Accordingly my primary concern is comfort and I've gone away from a "gravel" bike to an XC hardtail.

Correct me if I am wrong ;-) but wasn't there a big dust up between pro riders at various gravel races last year over whether it was OK to use aero bars in a gravel race.... some think no other say OK so obviously someone is considering aero, also Cervelo's gravel bike is claimed to be "the aero gravel bike"? so I think it is there just not well established. In this forum where TT and Tri are basically the same breed then aero is almost everything. There is a spectrum of aero consideration ie TT and Tri at one end and MTB at the likely extreme other end of the spectrum, the rest fall somewhere in between. For instance DH racing once didn't care a wit about aero, but when it came to fractions of a second between first and 4th suddenly it started to matter. Maybe thee thing with gravel is that people are at it from a different psychology and once that starts to change then so will the aero considerations.

DK is basically mountain biking due to the generally "not gravel" conditions. I tell people all the time I'd almost rather ride my Top Fuel on that course.....and I'm dead serious and that bike is still not slow setup properly. And also wouldn't have likely flatted so darn much!

Contrast that to DAMn and Gravel Worlds. My teammate successfully raced a Madone SLR both events at the front of the race. It was awesome and very very fast.

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24 Hour World TT Champs-American record holder
Fat Bike Worlds - Race Director
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I have no doubt at all. Most people ride on the tops or hoods, so I can see a 29'er being as fast. I'm considering the SLR in a couple of dirt events this year as well.

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Heath Dotson
HD Coaching:Website |Twitter: 140 Characters or Less|Facebook:Follow us on Facebook

I hear this argument too, but find that the gravel rig is far more of a "swiss army knife" bike in that while it's not ideal to ride it on the super gnar section the point is that it can handle the super gnar section while also being entirely relevant for the other 90% of what the course will throw at you while the MTB would not.

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36 kona qualifiers 2006-'23 - 3 Kona Podiums - 4 OA IM AG wins - 5 IM AG wins - 18 70.3 AG wins
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There's a large segment of gravel racers that frown on aero bars in gravel races. Ride whatever makes you happy, but yes, aero bars make a big difference.

If it gets technical, sure. But some steep roads are just steep roads. One road from a recent gravel ride...



The road up this ridge averages about 11% for a mile, with a half-mile stretch averaging about 15%. It's twisty enough to require a lot of speed control on the way down, and there are lots of blind turns, so it's lots of braking and not a lot of pedaling, but... it's a fairly smooth road, and which hasn't yet developed washboard and potholes, and isn't really technical at all. A mountain bike does just fine on it, but is hardly required.

I've taken mountain bikes on local gravel rides, sometimes it's not a bad option. If the ride is really just constant straight up and down on roads in very poor condition, it might even be the optimal option. On the other hand, it doesn't take a whole lot of low-gradient smooth stuff for it to get problematic, and good allroad routes can include lots of pavement as well. Some of the most enjoyable "gravel" rides I've done have been days where most of my mileage was paved... obviously aero matters as much on that pavement as on a road bike, although my point still stands in that it's a smaller fraction of usage than for a bike that gets used only in high-speed paved riding.