Mountain bike with road bike gearing

[Blue Hills]

Gravel bikes is trade-off for the American off-city terrain where paved roads are interspersed with non-paved for the long scenic rides and climbs and even commuting. Its a big country and paving road is quite expensive.

In the UK, nearly everywhere including scenic roads and climbs are paved with county exceptions. Off-road riding is intentional in the UK compared to the US. So there is a purpose for gravel bikes for the US market for those into road bike style riding on mixed surfaces.

Cyclo-cross makes sense here as a sport category. MTB too.

interesting - from what you say I have the idea that maybe they were originally meant for/marketed at folks riding what the italians call strade bianche - roads that aren't tarmacced but do have a pretty solid prepared surface - there are lots in sardinia and I have cycled them a lot - the surface is often so decent I have often ridden them on a brompton. What the surface definitely isn't of course is gravel or loose gravel - that's a major problem to cycle on on anything.
In the UK there are next to no strade bianche of course.

 

[Arrowfoot]

interesting - from what you say I have the idea that maybe they were originally meant for/marketed at folks riding what the italians call strade bianche - roads that aren't tarmacced but do have a pretty solid prepared surface - there are lots in sardinia and I have cycled them a lot - the surface is often so decent I have often ridden them on a brompton. What the surface definitely isn't of course is gravel or loose gravel - that's a major problem to cycle on on anything.
In the UK there are next to no strade bianche of course.

Yes. I did not grasp the need for gravel until I saw and met what the Americans who are serious road bike cyclist were facing. Just outside their CBD. Their country is full of highways, turnpikes, multiple carriageways from one city to another but there is gap in between. You see this in big cities such As SF, LA and NY.

The geometry is near identical to road bikes with one exception - the bottom bracket drop which is slightly raised to avoid pedal strike in an uneven terrain. Like road bike, it is meant for speed and distance unlike cyclocross which is a sport in itself.

 

[weareHKR]

The narrow flat bars on my 90's MTB's give me a lot of discomfort nowadays hence I don't ride them very often now. However, my more modern 29er MTB I've changed to 700mm wide & find a massive difference in comfort, even during the short trip to the chicken shop...

 

[Blue Hills]

Must admit i have come to appreciate wider bars, or at least find them no issue. My ridgeback expedition bike came with what seemed like barmy wide bars compared to my other bikes. The bike shop advised me to wait a while before chopping them. Good advice. I got used to them. I recently did a 700c self built flat bar tourer. The bars i bought to build that were even wider. But all feels fine.

 

[MoneyForNothing]

I’ve still got a GT Zum 2.0 from 2004 which has a 9 speed Deore LX cassette but a front crank that is pretty close to a standard road double. For road use it’s fine and fast enough even though it’s on 26 wheels.
It won’t spin like MTB triple but is just fine and relaxing enough, I put butterfly bars on mine from flat bar.