Anyone using their gravel bike as their road bike? Do you swap cassette for road rides? Swap Wheels?
I’m getting a new Orbea Terra. Was thinking of selling my road bike and investing in a nice set of road wheels (HED/Flo/Zipp). Orbea will have 1x.
Will I be really disappointed trying to make a all around bike vs 2 separate bikes? Current road bike is a Cervelo C-3. Also still have my P2C.
I used a Scott addict CX as my road bike for a couple years. Did not really have any issues with it. I did run a double and would switch the cranks between CX and Road.
I have two wheels sets(650b for gravel and 56mm aero wheels for road), a few 1x chainring sizes and two cassettes(10-42 and 9-32) for my Exploro so I can do just that. It’s equally happy in the dirt or on asphalt, it’s a great frame
Similar setup for me, Exploro rides really well on right with right wheels/tires. I’ve settled on 46 x 10-42 for road and 11-42 for gravel, and swap down to a 44 front ring if it’s really steep or pitchy on latter.
1x gearing is where biggest sacrifice will be made but if you’re not going to do really rough or sloppy off-road riding then 2x is a good option.
Yup, in the midst of “project one bike” at the moment. But that doesn’t mean i dont have 3 wheelsets 
Unless you are hitting the local crits or road races you wont miss the road bike. Gravel rigs with road wheels are plenty nice. I’ve got the multiple wheelsets so i dont have to always be reseating tires. 650b with knobbies for dirt, 700 carbon deep dish with 28 Pro Ones for road, and another 700 with 32s for commuting.
Anyone using their gravel bike as their road bike? Do you swap cassette for road rides? Swap Wheels?
I’m getting a new Orbea Terra. Was thinking of selling my road bike and investing in a nice set of road wheels (HED/Flo/Zipp). Orbea will have 1x.
Will I be really disappointed trying to make a all around bike vs 2 separate bikes? Current road bike is a Cervelo C-3. Also still have my P2C.
i took my gravel bike to italy, rode it as a gravel bike for 3 days. on gravel. traveled to a schwalbe launch, took off 38mm tires, put on road tires, rode it for 2 days as a road bike, came home, still set up as a road bike, every bit as good as my cannondale supersix as a road bike. but…
i had it built to match my road fit coordinates, with the geometry altered only for clearance and steering geometry (all the imperatives that attend a larger wheel diameter. the bike is really built around 700c tho it can take 650b. so, if you want to ride it as a road bike it should be a gravel bike with road in mind.
I’ve used my Culprit RAD as both a gravel and road bike. Does fine in both regards. I have two wheel sets (Reynolds ATR w/ 45mm WTB Riddlers and a set of Venn rims laced to Tune hubs w/ 28mm GP4000s and latex tubes) but both have the same cassette (Shimano XTR 11-40) and I run a 46t front chainring. Pretty happy overall. If the gravel around me was smoother I’d use it more. Alas the gravel near me is chunky and thus I ride my hardtail more often when I go out on gravel rides.
I was planning to do the same when I bought my Crux, but I just don’t find it as fun or snappy on the road as my roadie (Giant TCR). If I swapped out the chainrings and wheels/tires it would probably be close, but I already own the TCR and really have no reason to sell it just to spend that money on new wheels. I do love the disc brakes though.
My original plan was one dual purpose bike. I got a cx bike with a second set of road wheels.
The thing is, you really want identical chainrings, cassettes and hubs so you don’t have to do constant derailier adjustments with the swaps.
I think i put my road wheels on maybe once before i opted to just get a road bike also.
With two bikes, i now just ride more, because i prefer grab and go. No fuss. I also like having the best tool for the job (hey, i am competitive).
My one buddy also had a dual bike, and he did the swaps for a couple of years, but eventually grew tired and just bought a dedicated gravel bike, and left road wheels on his first bike. He was like me.
My next buddy is about to sell his road bike and just run a fast gravel bike. He has chosen fast gravel tires that do just fine on road, and gravel. So no wheel swaps. I think that is the way to go. He loses only a bit to his road bike, but has a larger freedom of route options.
The other end is budget. I would probably prefer one really nice dual purpose bike vs two cheap bikes. But i have the financial ability to kind of get multiple nice bikes, so i have many bikes (fatty for ice/snow, xc bike, cx bike, road bike, tri bike).
I tried it for awhile… if I was stronger rider it might have worked.
Fast group rides is where it was smidge slow… I ran it with a mid compact chainrings and 11-34 cassette. Problem this was enough gearing for the steep dirt pitches around my area… sustained 15%-20% or more to get to fun stuff. So I went subcompact 48/32 and that basically nixed the fast group ride status right out… so I said F’it… bought a aero road bike and converted the gravel bike to 1x with a 40t 9-46 in the back. Stuck a heavy arse suspension stem on it and will soon be adding a dropper and with 650b wheels now… it’s a funnier bike.
I’ll add it’s a Parlee XD… so semi-racer geo with the ability to be setup and not be much heavier then a road bike.
Bought the new Cervelo Aspero recently. It was set up as a 1x (42t and 11x42 cassette) for gravel. Even though I had a road bike, I decided that I would use the Aspero this past long weekend for my rides on the Blue Ridge Parkway. I swapped out the wheelset to a set of road wheels (11x32t). The bike felt like a road bike (Cervelo R3/R5) and I didn’t miss my road bike for the most part. Only during the long climbs of 4-5 miles at 6/7%, I wished that I had lower gears and the bike a little lighter. All in all, I really enjoy it and I think the Cervelo Aspero has the chance to be that ONE bike.
This is exactly what I want to buy this bike for, I’m glad someone has had success with this use case!
I ride my 1x Salsa Warbird on the road frequently but usually just for solo easy rides. I’ve tried it on group rides a few times and it’s just a bit under geared (and heavy) for top end stuff. I’m currently in the process though of looking into converting it to 2x and getting a second set of road wheels. I likely still won’t take it with me on group rides but it will be my travel bike when my wife and I are on road trips, camping, etc. giving me the option of a road ride or gravel ride depending on where we’re at.
My husband is going through this exact process. We bought him a Trek Checkpoint, ostensibly for gravel. He could use a new road bike (not critical, but he’s on a 2013 Felt Z and would really like hydraulic discs) and we talked about getting him a set of dedicated road wheels so that he could switch out at will. I was hopeful that the Checkpoint would be a good quiver-killer - I ride my gravel bike on the road a lot, especially in the shoulder seasons.
It’s been an interesting journey. After the first couple of rides he was saying that he couldn’t possibly imagine using it as his road bike. When I told him that he couldn’t have both new gravel wheels and a new road bike, the tune changed a little. He’s putting more miles on the Trek, and realising that he likes the wider tires and the isospeed decoupler - and being on a modern geo frame that actually fits him. It’s feeling more like something he could get used to. So, we’ll see where we end up after the winter. He doesn’t race anything, so this is purely a fun toy for him.
I have the new Trek Domane and it’s either or. I just raced it at Gravel Worlds. I ride it daily when I don’t ride the Madone. Domane clears big enough tires. At least 40 but I haven’t mocked up anything bigger.
My prelim data also shows the new more “aero” Domane to be VERY close in speed to the Madone. Incredible actually. The tube shapes certainly aren’t as bladed as the Madone, but the air doesn’t seem to care
Front / rear isospeed + adjustable rear isospeed + big tire clearance + internal storage + semi-aero frame…not sure what else anyone really needs for gravel…or road
Why not just look at something like compass tires? I’ve considered another wheel set but think might be a much cheaper option. I might try it when my current tires wear out.
I sold my road bike and got a TCX for my cross/gravel/road bike…because financially (and room in the garage) I had to. I have a set of wheels that I mount cross/gravel tires to and a set of 60mm aeros for road rides. Running 2x11 Ultegra Di2 with an 11x34 for cross/gravel and a 11x28 for road. Up front is a 52x36.
On road rides, it feels a little short when in the drops compared to my TCR road bike. And, yeah, the bike is heavier…but I don’t care much about that.
If you don’t have to sell the road bike and have room to keep it…keep it.
Gravel Bike on Road
Hmm… I’m not sure how often I use my gravel bike for anything other than road. Sometimes it’s flat paved roads,
often it’s rugged mountainous roads,
and some may have even been rail roads,
but few miles are spent on proper unpaved non-roads.
Being a derailleur-geared diamond-frame drop-bar bike oriented for use on roads, I don’t consider the gravel bike to be a not road bike. Perhaps it’s not, if “road bike” is used with a high degree of specificity, as in “pavement road racing bike” or similar.
But I’ve been impressed at how little the actual performance cost of versatility has been. It doesn’t feel anything like a road bike, but it’s good enough in the role that I sometimes use it on spirited paved rides for funsies. 2.1" tires and all.
I’m getting a new Orbea Terra. Was thinking of selling my road bike and investing in a nice set of road wheels (HED/Flo/Zipp). Orbea will have 1x.
Will I be really disappointed trying to make a all around bike vs 2 separate bikes? Current road bike is a Cervelo C-3. Also still have my P2C.
If you want to play that game, make sure to cover the low-hanging-fruit configuration stuff.
Posture is a big one. Changing fit between rides is obnoxious! If you like using your traditional road posture on gravel, then this is no problem. Otherwise, consider what you can and can’t get away with.
In my case, the klunker beach cruiser geometry of the underlying frame was almost a problem, but with a zero-offset seatpost, I managed to produce a fit very similar to my skinny-tired bikes.
Gearing is another issue. And it depends entirely on you, and your regional terrain.
In my area, the paved riding consists mostly of clumps of medium hills separated by flattish valleys. I like having everything that a typical current road bike drivetrain offers, including the tightly-spaced gears at cruising speeds.
But our gravel is forest roads in the foothills, and it’s mountainous. There are stretches that average over 12% for a mile at a time, on rough double-track The steep bits are very steep. Having a gear significantly lower than 1:1 is not a bad idea for me.
So naturally, I put together a drivetrain that satisfies all of those needs at once. A 3x8 setup, 48-38-24 chainrings paired with an 11-13-15-18-21-24-28-32 cassette.
Okay, so that’s really cheesy, but this bike is a concept testbed on a budget. And it works.
Obviously your situation is going to look very different. By choosing 1x, you’re going to have far fewer ratios to work with than I do. But, you’re also planning to swap wheelsets between rides, whereas my bike is set up to always be ready for its full spectrum of use cases. Including rides that include everything.
If I was only riding off pavement, I wouldn’t care about the wide spacing; if I was always riding on pavement, I wouldn’t care about having a 19" low gear. If you’re okay with 1x on your road-only rides, and you’re okay with 1x on your gravel-only rides, you’ll potentially be able to find a good solution involving different cassettes on different wheelsets. This may get obnoxious if you also require a chainring swap to bring things into certain ranges, and/or if your rear derailleur just doesn’t shift perfectly across both setups without adjustment.
The other really big thing with low-hanging fruit is tires. Riding with tires that aren’t reasonably reasonable for a use case can be less fun. Rocky gravel can be alright on slicks, but mud roads really need knobs. And if your situation demands big knobs, this can make for worse behavior on the road.
I lucked out in that PNW gravel is mostly pretty rocky, not a ton of slop. I’m running wide performance-oriented slicks, the width handles the chunky stuff pretty well and the tires give up surprisingly little on pavement.
In your case, since you’re swapping wheels, this is unlikely to be a large predicament.
Why not just look at something like compass tires?
I use them and like them a lot.
The sidewalls are paper-thin, so I wouldn’t err narrow when choosing them.
Their puncture protection consists only of prayers and hope. This isn’t an issue for the wilderness roads out here, since most aggressive stabby things in the region are human-made. I ride over blackberry thorns all the time, and they never go through. But in goathead country, I would guess that tubeless is mandatory to seal pinholes.
Their greatest asset is acoustics. When pavement drums my Rat Traps, they let out a soaring roar, IMO the finest road slick hum I’ve ever heard.
I don’t have any direct experience with the Rene Herse knobbies. I’ve met a couple people riding them, seemed to like them.
Steilacoom is probably a strong contender for most oft-mispronounced tire name.
Anyone using their gravel bike as their road bike? Do you swap cassette for road rides? Swap Wheels?
I’m getting a new Orbea Terra. Was thinking of selling my road bike and investing in a nice set of road wheels (HED/Flo/Zipp). Orbea will have 1x.
Will I be really disappointed trying to make a all around bike vs 2 separate bikes? Current road bike is a Cervelo C-3. Also still have my P2C.
Great thread. I’ve been trying to find the perfect do it all road bike for a long time and haven’t found the right combination of everything I want yet. This thread has provided some great info.
I’m up to 7 wheelsets for my cx bikes, so I may not be a good resource on figuring out the one ‘perfect’ setup.
When choosing cassettes for a 1x, one thing to consider is that a ~40 mm tire has a bigger circumference than a 25 mm tire. It’s only 5% which is basically a single shift on the cassette or a 2 tooth chainring difference. A 10-42 cassette on a road tire is going to feel a bit more similar to an 11-46 cassette on a 44 mm tire when using the same chainring. I haven’t seen a derailleur (made for a 42 tooth) that needs to be adjusted between those two sizes.