So my takeaway is that I need to buy a surfboard.

funny point, this. i FINALLY got monty on a gravel bike this morning. 4 of us went out and i lent him one of the bikes from the fleet we loan out to our bike fit workshop attendees. he'd been riding his dual-suspension MTB all year. throughout the first hour monty said, "I'm 1:20 up on my seasons-best on my MTB." then a little later, "i'm 2:30 up." then, about an hour and a quarter into the ride, "i'm 4 minutes up." this was not a ride you could've done on a road bike, and it wasn't a route that was contrived to favor the bike he was on. it's the half-dirt, half-paved loops we do because those loops are available if you have the right bike.

for sure, it took owning 3 bikes before i finally got the bike that works here where we are, and it's a gravel bike that has tires that are pretty close to what you'd put on an xc bike. but this gravel motif is faster. if i was to ride ONLY the off-road segments then, yeah, much of the time the MTB is a faster bike. if i only rode the road segments my road bike is the faster bike.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

I had the same experience. I have an "expert"-grade single track trail that starts from by backyard. My MTB had a flat tire I didn't want to deal with, so said, shoot, roll out the gravel bike. I shredded my MTB times going up.

And I learned that very tight switchbacks are much easier on a gravel bike, without having to deal with the huge wheelbase and huge rake angle of MTB.

Going down was an entirely different story. I could go maybe 1/4 the speed possible on MTB set to full squish. Any faster I'd start to get bucked off the bike.

?

that was KILLER. as he always is. but did you mean to put that particular video on this particular thread?

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

There was a little of "I don't like this without trying it" in the original post, no? I went looking for the video right after reading the op.

Just to clarify, I wasn't implying OP is a virgin (or that there's anything wrong with being one)

What is the point of this?

Do you also not like 4 wheel drive cars because you don't have a need for it?

Just because you don't find something useful doesn't mean it shouldn't exist.

I bet mountain bikers could say the same thing about tt bikes, but why would they... that would be dumb, just like this post

I'm too cheap to buy a new bike so my old Cannondale CAAD8 will have to do.....and it does just fine,

I guess i don't understand your post. Ride what you wanna ride. Who gives a shit what others ride or why. You do you!!

I always wonder if the people who ride gravel bikes on single track and other rough terrain have just never really ridden a mountain bike so they have no idea what is really fun. I don’t get the whole underbike thing. I was riding a rigid Klein mountain bike in 1990 and I am past repeating the experience on a mondo tire gravel bike today.

we have a local race called the “dilemma”. it is a mix of road, gravel, and single track. the idea of the route is to make one choice not obvious.

It’s all different shades of the same color. When you’re choosing a weapon it’s necessary to take the whole day into consideration. Maybe I’m underbiked for some rough single track, I’m also probably a little slower on my knobbies on the asphalt, but I’m reasonably efficient on those surfaces as well as hard packed fire roads where my gravel bike really shines. Most of my favorite rides over the past several years were on my gravel bike. Epic days with a stop to swim in the middle, maching like a pro peloton on dirt track and a half with other really good riders, hours of soaking in nature on big group rides where we never see another soul…. the list goes on.

OP, the answer is easy. You just need to move.