- [Simon] The new breed of gravel bikes
promise to do it all.
But can they really?
I mean can they be fast and fun on-road,
and fast and fun off-road?
It seems like a tall order,
but we're going to try and find out.
To do so, SRAM have kindly supplied
their new Force Group set,
and 3T, a frame that I'm going to race,
in both on-road and off-road events.
And I'll also talk you through,
just what you need to look out for,
from a do-it-all bike.
(dramatic music)
Oh my god!
Nerves going through the roof right now.
My first road race, in six-and-a half years.
- [Voice On Phone] Just don't attack at the start,
save your energy.
- Okay, don't attack at the start, right.
This is the Battle on the Beach.
And I've been wanting to do it for ages.
Part mountain bike race, part beach race.
You start on sand,
tearing down one of Wales' longest beaches,
before then looping back to the start,
through the forest behind,
on like a mixture of double track and single track.
No one seems to know
what the best type of bike for this race actually is.
A lot of 29er mountain bikes here,
a fair few cyclocross bikes,
and a couple of fat bikes.
So this seems like quite a good first test.
(atmospheric music)
Let me give you a quick overview of my bike,
we'll go into more detail
in the tech a little bit later on.
But my start time is rapidly approaching, but anyway.
This is my do-it-all bike.
SRAM have very kindly supplied
their new Force eTap AXS group set,
so that's wireless member.
Also got a chain management system,
built in to this rear derailleur.
Plus, I'm running it two-by as well, as you can see.
Now it's hung on a 3T Exploro frame set.
That kind of made the headlines when it was launched,
for being the first aero-gravel bike.
But it's fair to say, it's won a lot of praise since then,
for actually just being a great frame.
Now, crucially, in the GCN show,
we asked you whether one bike still counts as one bike
if it has two sets of wheels?
And you said, resoundingly, yes it does.
So, here is wheelset number one.
It's an aluminum set of Zipp 30 Courses, set up tubeless.
And you got 40-millimeter-wide tire on there.
That's the fattest I can get into this bike.
Hopefully, it's going to be enough to keep up
with the mountain bikes through the forest.
But we will see, I got to get my skates on now though,
'cause I definitely don't want to miss my gridding.
(ominous music)
I've managed to get myself gridded, which is great news,
because there's a hundred of us on this start line
and there's another 900 people about to come and join us.
A little bit of pressure on to get a decent start.
(air horn)
Oh my god!
Nerves going through the roof right now.
It's the first time I've had a number board
on the front of my bike for about 10 years.
Not used to being on a mountain bike start line again,
but anyway, so tight.
(percussive drone music)
(air horn)
(electronic percussive music)
- [Male Voice] Well done, dude.
- Thanks, Greg.
That was bloody good fun, that.
That was awesome!
So much fun!
I wished I'd done this years ago.
In terms of my bike,
I think I pretty much nailed it!
I think, maybe, a 29er mountain bike
might have been a little bit quicker in the woods,
but that's not really surprising, is it?
'Cause a mountain bike is probably faster
on mountain bike trails.
But the key thing was,
I definitely didn't feel like I was at disadvantage.
Had I had better legs I definitely would have gone faster.
It was a lot of fun riding smooth,
single-track on drop bars.
And then when we got to the beach,
I was able to absolutely wang it
in that massive top gear.
For the first lap anyway,
and after that my legs gave out.
I did finish 16th in the end,
which I'll take that these days, to be quite frank.
Not we got to head back to GCN HQ
while I get the bike cleaned up and prepped
for what's going to be my first road race in seven years.
And then we can also delve into a little bit more
about the tech behind why I think now
we have got to the point
where you can have a genuine do-it-all bike.
The 3T that I've just been racing
is one such example of a do-it-all bike.
And this is another.
It's an Orbea Terra.
And during this halftime show
I'm going to use it to talk through the tech
that give a drop-bar bike the versatility
that you might be looking out for.
You don't need the latest and greatest kit
to have a do-it-all bike but that said
there is tech on here that I think
is really important, actually,
in helping to close that performance gap
between bikes like this and those that are more specialist,
both on the road side of things and off-road.
The frame and forks is a logical starting point.
Firstly, tire clearance.
You need plenty of it.
To really venture off-road you're going to want
at least 40-millimeter-wide tires, probably more.
As you can see, I've got clearance
to fit bigger ones up front here.
Then, when it comes to bike handling,
I think you still want a bike relatively nimble,
so that you get that thrill when you're riding on-road.
But not at the expense of leaving you utterly terrified
when you hit dirt.
So things that I look out for are chainstay length.
Shorter makes a bike a little bit more agile.
Lower bottom bracket height
actually makes a bike more stable but also more fun,
both on tarmac and on dirt.
And then I'd also want to make sure
the head angle isn't too slack.
Some gravel bikes can be a little bit slow in the steering.
So something that's nicely balanced
with the rest of the bike.
And the other thing, I'm afraid to say it,
it's got to have disc brakes.
It does, it's got to have disc brakes.
It is of course more nuanced than that.
There is a lot to separate a good frame from a great frame.
But let's also not overlook those less obvious,
but equally significant, performance gains
that you can get from your group set.
Now I will start with that hydraulic damper,
I mentioned it earlier.
You can, of course, use a standard road group set
for riding off-road.
But it's not ideal.
The chain can be a bit noisy,
flapping around, bouncing off your paint work,
as well as potentially coming off entirely.
Whereas, when you've got a damper like this one,
then it keeps the chain under close control
when going over bumps.
Previous generation Force one-by
has a different type of clutch in there,
which is equally effective.
But SRAM only recommended it for use one-by,
because it makes shifting between chain rings
feel quite laborious.
Whereas, as you can see, this one can be run one-by
and also two-by as well.
When running that two-by option,
you can also run closer ratio gears at the back.
And I know this is really important to some of you,
because you told me.
That extra 12th sprocket at the back also doesn't hurt.
So it means that you then got a wide range of gears,
in this case 10-33 at the back, and a 33-46 up front,
but with those smaller jumps in between them.
Which is something that a lot of dyed-in-the-wool roadies
will be very thankful for when riding fast on tarmac.
Two important points there.
Then it's about opening up tire options.
Because previously tire choice has also been restricted
by the use of front derailleurs.
So not just limited by your frame set.
The solution being, therefore, to run one-by but now,
with new generations, actually the design
of the front derailleur has been tweaked
to allow you to comfortably fit
a 40-millimeter-wide tire in there.
And actually, if you are using smaller 650B wheels,
then you can use a 47 in there.
Now different wheel sizes and different tire sizes,
you can't do that without disc brakes either.
So although that is now new, new tech,
to my mind that has probably been the most instrumental
thing of all in giving drop-bar bikes
the versatility to take them off-road.
Because cantilever brakes,
they kind of just sucked a bit, didn't they?
Some of these differences might sound subtle
and, to some extent, some of them are.
But they definitely add up to help close that gap
between do-all bikes and more specialist bikes.
Right, halftime is over.
I've got a bike to clean
and a race to get ready for.
(ominous music)
Okay.
Right.
Let's optimize this for the road race.
Like I said, my first road race in six-and-a half years.
That didn't take too long, did it?
Now just one final touch
to get it race ready.
Oh yes.
(electronic drum music)
I'll be honest,
because I've been out of the game for that long,
I feel like I need some kind of pep talk.
Maybe just some tactics, some words of advice.
So I'm going to phone up the best, highest performing,
most talented cyclist that I've got in my phone book.
Just to see whether or not
they can help make the difference.
(phone dialing)
I hope they pick up.
I need it.
- [Dan] Helloo!
- Hi Dan, you all right mate?
- [Dan] Yeah, so are you?
- Yeah, I'm all right, mate.
Not too bad.
Mate, you know I'm doing this race?
- [Dan] Yeah.
- Do you mind, I just need a bit of like,
just some tactics, just some advice, mate.
I'm so nervous.
I'll be honest, I'm (beep) a bit.
- [Dan] I don't think you need to worry about tactics.
You been out of the game for a little while.
Just got to try and hang on, man.
- Hang on.
Okay.
- [Dan] Yeah, just hang on.
However, if I could give you one piece of advice:
just don't attack at the start.
But also remember the fact that you just can't sprint,
so try attack the sort of finish.
- Okay.
All right, mate.
Thanks, that makes sense.
- [Dan] Are you nervous?
- Yeah.
Really nervous.
- [Dan] Put a bog roll in your kit bag before you went.
So if you need it, then.
- Ah, thanks mate.
All right, bud.
Where are you, by the way?
- [Dan] Good luck, mate.
Down at the pub.
- You are, you're at the pub?
- [Dan] Yeah.
- Okay.
- [Dan] I'll be thinking of you.
Have a good one.
- Thanks, buddy.
Cheers mate, see you in a bit.
- [Dan] Bye.
- Don't attack at the start.
Don't wait for a sprint.
Try and survive.
Got it.
Well, quite a bit of time has elapsed
since the Battle on the Beach.
You might have noticed that this is also the bike
that I took up to ride the Northcoast 500 in Scotland.
And, funnily enough, after doing 500 miles in three days,
I then had to have three weeks off the bike
due to an Achilles tendonitis.
So I've been away from road racing for six-and-a half years,
and now I also have less fitness than I was banking on.
So I'm a little bit worried.
I'm not actually worried about the bike in the slightest.
I know there is absolutely nothing about it
that is going to hamper my performance tonight.
I'm just worried that I'm not going to be able
to do it justice.
Feels like there's quite a lot banking on this.
So yeah, I'll be keeping my fingers firmly crossed.
Now the proving ground is this,
which is the Thursday Night World Championships
at Castle Combe.
It's a race series, a classic race series,
local to GCN's HQ.
I could have enter the third and fourth category race,
but I accidentally entered the elite race instead.
My pen slipped when I was signing on.
(droning music)
Now you notice that preparing for this race,
in terms of the bike, was a pretty quick process.
Swapping the wheels out.
But that does mean that I am still using
my mountain bike pedals and, therefore,
my mountain bike shoes.
Which complete with a little bit of mud left over
from the cross season.
Now, performer stubs, I don't think I'm going to lose out here.
I did it partly because I wanted to change
as little as possible
and by changing my pedals and my shoes
I then thought I might have to start having
to faff around with my seat height.
And that's not what you want to do
every time you want to swap from road to off-road.
So I'm going for mountain bike pedals
and I'm just going to have to put up with the fact
that this feels all kinds of wrong.
(driving orchestra and synth music)
- [Crowd] Good race!
Nice one, mate!
- Well, I'll tell you what.
I've forgotten how much I love racing on the road.
It's ridiculous, isn't it?
Six-and-a half years away.
(beep)-ing my pants.
No actually, that was brilliant.
Such good fun.
Even had a go in the sprint!
Lloydy'll be impressed.
Finished solidly mid-pack.
(laughs)
Oh man.
Ah, That was so cool!
Well, now that the dust has settled
and I'm getting my breath back a little bit.
Where does this leave us in answering
our original question about do-it-all bikes?
Well, I guess the answer is: Yes, they kind of can.
I've had a great time racing exactly the same bike
off-road and on.
And I think that is fantastic news.
Because not everyone can have, or wants to have,
multiple different bikes for different disciplines.
So the rise of this new breed
of super-versatile gravel bikes
I think can only be a good thing.
Where then does it leave people like myself
that like having different bikes from different disciplines?
Is that going to be a thing of the past?
Well no, if I'm completely honest, I don't think it is.
Because I don't think a gravel bike
is ever going to be able to do what a mountain bike can do.
They're just more limited.
And then, when it comes to the road side of things,
well clearly they're not limited in the same way,
because a gravel bike can go everywhere
that a road bike can.
But they just feel so different.
We've seen time and time again
that you can measure the difference
in speed at the same effort
between a gravel bike and also a road bike.
And while the difference might seem small on paper,
in my experience, the human body is pretty good
at being able to perceive these
small differences out on the road.
And so even a fraction of a second can translate
into an increased feeling of exhilaration that you get
when riding an out-and-out road bike.
And there's also a couple of other bits
that I've been thinking about.
Firstly, having a pristine road bike is a joy to have.
Whereas when you ride a bike in the dirt,
it can get thrashed pretty quick.
And so if you do have a do-all bike
and you regularly swap between disciplines,
I think you'll probably spend half your life cleaning it.
Which is definitely a bit of a negative, in my book.
And the last one is that I think,
once you've made that initial investment
in multiple different bikes,
keeping them on the road is probably actually
the same price as just having one do-it-all bike.
Because, bear with me, you can only ever ride
one bike at once.
Which means, if you got three, for example,
each one will only get a third of the use.
Now that might sound a bit random.
But let me know in the comments section
what you think about this do-it-all bike.
I am going to have a well-earned beer.
If you want a little bit more info about
that SRAM Force eTap AXS Group set,
then you can click through to that video on screen now.
Otherwise, give us a big thumbs up!