Should You buy a carbon gravel bike or a road bicycle?

When you can only have one carbon bicycle, should you choose a road bike or a gravel bike? Nowadays, there are various forms of curved carbon fiber bicycles, including road bikes, gravel bikes, off-road bikes, endurance road bikes, all terrain bikes, and even very big gravel bikes!

Difference analysis

It mainly boils down to four key points: geometric shape, tire clearance, weight, and transmission system. Let's analyze them one by one and see how they affect your choices. Geometric shapes may not be a topic of interest to everyone, but they are crucial for the riding style, handling, and feel of bicycles.

Geometric shapes

Geometric may not be a topic of interest to everyone, but they are crucial for the riding style, handling, and feel of bicycles.

Obviously,the carbon road bikes are designed for smooth asphalt surfaces and are typically more aggressive than carbon gravel bikes. This means you can enter more aerodynamic positions and drive faster on open roads. But if you are not interested in speed or not flexible enough, then more relaxed geometric shapes may be more suitable for you and more comfortable.
Next, look at the length of the bicycle. Road bikes are more aggressive, with longer upper tubes that allow you to stretch wider and more aerodynamic. Check the angle of the seat tube again. The seat tube angle of road bikes is steeper, allowing you to get closer to the pedals for greater power output. And gravel bikes are more leisurely. The front wheels are also positioned further forward to prevent you from crossing the handlebars on rough and rocky downhill roads.
You will also notice that in order to accommodate wide tires, the seat tube and wheelbase must be larger. This may make the bicycle feel less lively and agile, which could be a bad thing for professional drivers. But in reality, this can help inexperienced riders feel more stable and easier to control their bicycles, especially on winding downhill roads.

Tire gap

As we all knows that gravel bikes can be fitted with tires much wider than road bikes, although in recent years, the tire gaps on road bikes have also increased. Generally speaking, the larger the obstacles you want your bicycle to cross, the larger the tire volume required. If you never leave the paved road, you only need about 30-32 millimeters of tire clearance. If you want to ride on unpaved roads and light gravel roads, 32-40mm is the best choice. If you want to ride on more rugged gravel roads, choose a bicycle that can accommodate at least 42mm tires. The only thing to consider is that it is feasible to ride on the road with wide tires, but it is not feasible to ride off the road with narrow tires.

Weight

Another difference between road bikes and gravel bikes is their weight. Although there are exceptions, normally, gravel bikes are at least a few hundred grams heavier than equivalent road bikes. Where are these differences? First, the frame is usually heavier as it requires slightly thicker carbon fiber to resist rock impacts and wear during off-road driving. Second, carbon bike wheels are usually heavier because they are sometimes wider and have a higher number of spokes, making them more sturdy. Last, the transmission system is often heavier. Those big gravel bicycle flywheels are not light! Moreover, the increased tire size will also result in a significant increase in weight. The result is that these two bicycles with almost the same price differ in weight by about half a kilogram. In reality, this has little impact on performance, but if you like to climb slopes as quickly as possible or want to challenge your partners in local road cycling, then gravel bikes are clearly at a disadvantage.

Transmission

The last major difference between almost all road bikes and gravel bikes is the transmission system, let's analyze this tricky problem! The transmission system is typical for road bikes, which means there are two toothed discs at the front and 12 flywheels at the back. And the carbon gravel bike has only one toothed disc in front and 12 flywheels at the back. You may think that gravel bikes have fewer gears, but in fact, the gear range of gravel bikes is often larger. The disadvantage is that there is a larger gap between gears. If you frequently change your speed, it's okay, but it may be harder to find a comfortable pedaling frequency when cycling hard in a stable state. As for me personally, I can control the speed when cycling alone, and these differences are acceptable, but when cycling with friends, I may be forced to ride at a speed where I cannot find a suitable gear. In this case, a tighter gear spacing for road bikes is clearly more advantageous.

Conclustion

Rider with off-road cycling backgrounds who can only choose one bicycle believe that gravel bicycles are the future direction of development. Gravel bicycles provide more versatility, especially those that are more inclined towards highways, and gravel bicycles are also very suitable for commuting. Gravel bikes are not just "N+1" bikes. At critical moments, they are the bicycles that can rule everything. If you purchase an additional set of smooth tires, a gravel bike can definitely replace a road bike. It will be slightly slower, and on asphalt roads, the difference between gears can sometimes be frustrating; But ultimately, although this is a compromise, it is fully capable. On the other hand, road bikes are undoubtedly more capable machines on the road, but you simply cannot replace gravel bikes with them.