- We've covered how to choose your gravel bike.
We've even covered some of the trickier choices,
like should you run one-by or two-by?
But what about upgrading your bike?
In the last of this series, with Shimano's GRX groupset
we're going to be looking at doing exactly that.
Oh, and if you're a traditionalist,
you better watch out.
(upbeat music)
You see, I happen to think that riding any bikes off road
is a lot of fun.
But I can't help but wonder, when I'm riding my gravel bike,
if I could be having even more fun
if the bike was just that little bit more capable.
So how do we keep the bike light, fast, and agile
as it currently is
whilst adding more speed and confidence on the rough stuff?
I've got a few ideas and it starts with the dropper post.
If you are a traditionalist, now is the time to look away.
There's a lot of crossover from the world of mountain biking
to the world of gravel.
Take the rear mech on the GRX groupset for a start,
with its clutched mechanism and capacity to run
a mountain bike cassette.
That's not what I'm talking about right now, though.
I'm talking about the dropper post,
one of the greatest inventions to come
from the world of mountain biking in recent years.
It's a simple concept.
You press a lever on the handlebar
and your seat post can be raised or lowered
at the click of a button.
And you cannot argue
that when your saddle's down and out of the way,
you have a little bit more agility
around the top of the bike,
enabling you to tackle steeper descents with greater ease.
Yes okay, many people will argue that it isn't necessary
and you can probably tackle almost the same sort of terrain
with the saddle there,
but it just makes everything
that little bit more comfortable,
giving you that little bit more confidence.
Fitting a dropper post to a bike
is actually relatively simple.
I mean, to make it even easier,
you can even have an externally routed cable,
although this one-
and on gravel bikes these days, especially with one-by-
we've managed to run it internally
all the way to the base of the dropper post.
And what's even better than that
is because of the GRX system,
I don't actually need to add an extra lever to my bars
because I can just use that shifter to actuate the dropper.
So it keeps it all looking really sleek and really smart.
You'll probably notice that you won't be able to put
any old dropper in your gravel bike.
And that's because the seat tube diameter is not the same
as in a mountain bike.
This PRO Koryak one offers 70-milli drop
and it come with a 27.2-millimeter clamp.
And I think it's actually perfect for a gravel bike
because it's not the position of the bike
that's limiting what sort of terrain you can ride.
It's actually the tires and the braking
that you get from the tires.
But, having a dropper with just 70-milli drop
will enable you to move around on the bike
that little bit easier,
so you could potentially tackle something steeper.
But I think the real advantage
comes when you're spending a long, long day on the bike
with a few technical trails.
It just offers you a little bit of movement,
meaning that you can get the saddle
out of the way of your bum
and just relieve and it becomes more comfortable that way.
Let's talk you through really quickly how I did it.
I exposed the internals on the Durex lever over here,
threaded my inner cable through.
And at that point, I then put the entire outer cable
over the inner cable,
inserted them both into the down tube.
And at this point I pulled the cranks out the bike
but it turns out I didn't need to do that
because this bike has a rubber kind of a bong,
a port underneath it
which gives me access to everything underneath there.
It then goes up the seat tube,
attaches into the dropper post here,
which is where it's actuated,
clamp the cable to the actuator on the dropper post
and then cut off the rest.
Cranks back on and it's now ready to go.
And I'm really pleased with it.
It's taken less than 30 minutes
and, as I said before, I was really expecting that
to be a tough job, but it wasn't.
It's all very well being able to move around
on your bike with more ease,
but if you are riding more aggressively,
you'll probably want to consider a wider tire
to increase your margin for error.
And if you're getting new tires,
I absolutely recommend setting them up tubelessly.
And if you're doing both of those things,
you'll need to consider your rim compatibility.
You'll need a sealed rim to run a tubeless setup
and you'll also need to consider the type of hook-
the interface between the rim and the tire-
is suitable for a tubeless setup.
The Shimano RX570 over there has both of those things
and it's also got a slightly wider internal rim width,
meaning it'll increase the volume of your tire.
Even if you can't run a really wide tire
on your gravel bike,
I still recommend going for a wider rim bed
as this will increase the volume of your tire.
For example, the tire over there is a 38-millimeter
but because it's on a wider rim bed,
it actually measures wider
than these 40-millimeter tires over here.
And quite a lot as well.
And that's only going to increase
your confidence on the descent.
Another design feature from the world of mountain biking now
and that's a set of really wide bars.
You've probably noticed
that if you look at mountain bikes now,
the bars look- some of them look ridiculous.
Over 800 millimeters wide.
I'm not recommending you put them on a gravel bike
because you'll simply be really, really slow.
You won't be aero at all
and you'll really notice that on the fast bits of road.
Instead, go for a compromise.
Something like the Discover Big Flare Bar
which has a 30-degree flare from the hood down to the drops,
meaning I'm still relatively aero up here in the hood
for the fast bits,
but when I want more control, I want to go down a descent,
I've got the big, wide grip on the drops
and I still have access to my brakes down here.
Another feature about this bar is that,
because of this flare,
I'm not going to be hitting my wrists on the top of the bars
when the going gets really rough and bumpy.
And then because the bar is just that little bit wider,
I also have space for an extra pair of brake levers
up on the flats as well.
If you are running a wider pair of bars,
you may want to consider running a shorter stem
to keep your effective reach to the hood
exactly the same as it was before.
Or, another reason to run a shorter stem
would be to increase the agility
on the steeper, more technical descents.
All of that said,
if you're doing a longer, less technical event,
you may want to keep a slightly longer stem
just to increase the stability of your front end.
Now, it may sound a little bit dull
but if you're upgrading your gravel bike
and you want to make sure it's really up to the job,
you should probably consider your gearing.
If you have an older gravel bike or a cyclocross bike,
there's a chance you've got a standard road compact setup,
with a 34 up front and a 28 or a 30 out back.
And that's pretty good for most things
but if you want to tackle some really challenging terrain,
you may want to consider lowering your first gear.
So going from something like a 34, which we have here,
up to something as big as a 40-
you know, a mountain-bike-style cassette.
That's relatively inexpensive to do
but only if you've got the right equipment
in the first place.
Otherwise, you may have to consider
replacing your rear mech as well.
Or, you could go for a super compact front chainring setup.
We've got a 31 up there on the GRX group set
although Shimano do say that is only compatible
with the GRX front derailleur.
And that's all to do with the spacing from the frame.
For me, riding a bike should all be about ease of control
and there's no better way to gain
more control over your bike for less effort
than going for some super tacky bar tape or grips.
That means you can put more effort into controlling the bike
and actually steering it,
and less effort into grabbing hold tight
and more effort into modulating your brakes
more effectively.
I've used the bar tape that's already underneath here.
I've wrapped a new layer over the top,
which immediately makes the bike look
that little bit fresher,
and it also gains a little bit of vibration damping
through the double layer of bar tape.
Now at this point, you might also notice
that my dropper cable is quite long.
And that's because I'm not the only person using this bike.
Dan and Cy also make regular use of it
and if you haven't noticed,
their legs are quite a lot longer than mine,
meaning the saddle will have to go up
which will pull that cable through
and make it look just right
when it's at their saddle height.
If you are making all of these upgrades
to make your bike that little bit faster off road
and riding it more aggressively,
there's one final upgrade which I think you should consider.
And that's a little bit of protection for your frame.
Something on the down tube
to protect against debris flying up
and maybe just some see-through tape
over the frame to protect your paintwork,
help prevent the carbon from chipping,
or the aluminum from denting.
Let us know what gravel upgrades you've ever made
in the comments down below
or let us know which one you think is the best
and the most worthwhile.
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