Gravel fit.

[warthog1]

Well it has taken me about 12 months to finalise my position on the gravelly.
I am new to gravel so it just took a while to sort out what works for my type of riding. Dirt roads basically and a rail trail.
Faster less technical stuff I guess.
No single track anyway.
Got rid of the set back seat post, that has never worked for me and it didn't here.
Ditched the wide 46cm bars.
Now 40 at the hoods and flared to 45 in the drops.
-17° stem. 110, 120 and now 130mm

Anyway reach is about the same as the roadie, maybe 5mm longer.
10-15mm less saddle to bar drop.

So comfy now I am using it on the road a bit too.
It is a touch slower but there isn't a heap in it.



Interested what others have ended up with compared to the roadie.

[trailgumby]

Very nice!

[nickobec]

My gravel fit and position is a little different to yours, but my riding is little different, no real single track, but no smooth gravel roads or rail trails either, fairly rough service tracks and a lot of sand.

My roadie and gravel frame have the same reach, the gravel has 13mm higher stack. the gravel bike came with 100mm stem and stupidly wide bars. After my first ride, the gravel bike now has 80mm stem and 400mm bars flaring to 450mm and as much as I like descending technical descents in the drops, I will replace them shortly with a regular 400mm bar as I can't ride in the wide drops for long periods of time, . The roadie by comparison has 100mm stem and 380mm bar.

So my cockpit in 13mm higher and 20mm closer (probably a bit less as the GRX hoods are bigger than my SRAM mechanical hoods), and I am riding in more upright position, hence wanting to ride more in the drops on the road.

Both bikes run setback seat posts, the only real difference is the seat position in 5mm lower on the gravel bike.

Probably weirdest thing about the gravel bike set up is the pedals, short or technical rides flat pedals. Longer and not so technical Favero Assiomas from the roadie

edit got the stack figures wrong by a couple of mm

[Mr Purple]

Looking at my impending Trek Checkpoint versus my Focus Izalco Max - the Checkpoint will have a 38mm longer reach, and 25mm higher stack.

However the Checkpoint also runs an 80mm long stem, whereas the Focus has a 110mm long stem. So they're pretty similar in the end. I've sized down a size in both, which works better for me for some reason.

Bars are 20mm different - 380mm on the road bike, 400mm on the gravel.

[warthog1]

I don't know my actual stack and reach measurements. Just that the TCR works as it was copied off the S5 that has a heap of ks on it. Measured the nose of saddle (5cm behind bb) to handle bar on both and it is very similar now. Same bb heights.
Side by side with road tyres on, bars are ~15mm higher on the Revolt.

[cancan64]

I ended up getting a bike fit after I started to do multiple 12hr+ days in agony, from the bike fit we worked out my cylocross bike which I was using was to big for big days (going back before gravel bikes were a thing) so the bike fitter gave me the ideal dimension and contact point measurements, so had a gravel bike built based on these which just so happened to be the same contact measurements as my road bike, so answer is they are the same, except gravel bike has aero bars and is a lot less aero

[warthog1]

I ended up getting a bike fit after I started to do multiple 12hr+ days in agony, from the bike fit we worked out my cylocross bike which I was using was to big for big days (going back before gravel bikes were a thing) so the bike fitter gave me the ideal dimension and contact point measurements, so had a gravel bike built based on these which just so happened to be the same contact measurements as my road bike, so answer is they are the same, except gravel bike has aero bars and is a lot less aero

Thanks. I just went off the ETT length and my mate at the bike shop suggested L rather than M/L so there was less seat post exposed. He was correct. I have just had to go the -17 stem to get the bars down a bit.

[nickobec]

I don't know my actual stack and reach measurements.

https://geometrygeeks.bike is your friend, if the manufacturer or a reviewer published it somewhere, Geometry Geeks will list the stack and reach of your frame.

I used it to research my gravel frame (Norco Search XR S1), before anything else. Norco suggests the L (58) or XL (61.5) for my height, the bike shop the L. But given the M (55.5) has the same same reach as my big roadie Canyon Ultimate AL M (my small roadie is an earlier model in S) with the same length stem.

Currently reviewing the cockpit my gravel bike 13mm higher 20mm shorter after attempting an hour a sweetspot on my commute (what you can do with 32.5km of uninterrupted bike path). As had to ride in the hoods in aero position (was not bar width, more short cockpit), + backpack caused back pain. Same interval, roadie with backpack mainly on drops not a issue.

edit - roadie and gravel now have same seat height.

[warthog1]

I don't know my actual stack and reach measurements.

https://geometrygeeks.bike is your friend, if the manufacturer or a reviewer published it somewhere, Geometry Geeks will list the stack and reach of your frame.

I used it to research my gravel frame (Norco Search XR S1), before anything else. Norco suggests the L (58) or XL (61.5) for my height, the bike shop the L. But given the M (55.5) has the same same reach as my big roadie Canyon Ultimate AL M (my small roadie is an earlier model in S) with the same length stem.

Currently reviewing the cockpit my gravel bike 13mm higher 20mm shorter after attempting an hour a sweetspot on my commute (what you can do with 32.5km of uninterrupted bike path). As had to ride in the hoods in aero position (was not bar width, more short cockpit), + backpack caused back pain. Same interval, roadie with backpack mainly on drops not a issue.

edit - roadie and gravel now have same seat height.

Thanks.
I have just used ETT. 565-575 works for me.
Haven't found one within that length I can't make work.
With the gravelly I did have to go -17° stem.
I could still get a lower top cap and drop a touch more but it works with same reach but a touch higher bars.
Can sit in the drops for hours too, so pretty happy now.

[lone rider]

Currently running same saddle height as roadie, but further setback i think 15-20mm, reach from tip of saddle to hoods is about 10mm shorter, so basically position is further over rear wheel and stack is about 30mm higher, this may go lower, havent chopped the steerer yet.

[Mr Purple]

An interesting thing I ran into with the Checkpoint is that the smaller sizes come with a wider saddle.

49 and 52 come with a 155mm wide saddle and all the bigger sizes with a 145mm wide saddle. Explains why the butt was so uncomfortable on my test ride of a 52.

I'd assume it's because the smaller sizes would generally be bought by women, who have wider sitbones. Bit annoying for us smaller gentlemen though. Mind you 145mm is still a mile too wide for me - so mine will have the saddle and seatpost replaced before I even pick it up.

[warthog1]

I've only ever had one bike where the original seat has worked.
Fizik Arione on my S5.
Use them on every bike now.
Yeah post and saddle replaced on my gravelly too.

[nickobec]

I've only ever had one bike where the original seat has worked.

No, my first ever roadie came with a Selle Italia SLR. After a year of swapping it out for more "comfortable" saddles and kept returning to the SLR. Probably 6 to 8 years only riding Selle Italia SLR on all my bikes. Now I am almost saddle agnostic and will ride what ever saddle comes with the bike, ie the Norco Search XR S1 sill has the stock saddle.

[warthog1]

I've only ever had one bike where the original seat has worked.

No, my first ever roadie came with a Selle Italia SLR. After a year of swapping it out for more "comfortable" saddles and kept returning to the SLR. Probably 6 to 8 years only riding Selle Italia SLR on all my bikes. Now I am almost saddle agnostic and will ride what ever saddle comes with the bike, ie the Norco Search XR S1 sill has the stock saddle.

A bloke I ride with has 20+ bikes and can do similar.
Chafing and discomfort makes the choice for me.
You must have a leather perineum!

[Mr Purple]

I really only have issues with width. I'm pretty narrow so if the saddle is too wide I can chafing of my legs.

Pretty sure I could ride a bare carbon saddle as long as it wasn't over 130mm wide, I don't sit down particularly often.

I was actually looking at the Selle Italia SLR boost as an upgrade. Seems worth it then?

[foolhardydie]

Currently, I'm using the same saddle height as on my road bike, but with a 15-20mm farther setback, a 10-mm shorter reach from the tip of the saddle to the hoods, and a 30-mm higher stack; although, the latter may be adjusted downward after I've hacked the steerer.
happy wheels

[cyclotaur]

Interesting to see the common rejection of those wide flared 'gravel bars' - I can't tell you how much I hate scrupulously clean, wide-barred mtb and gravel bikes and their fastidiously attired riders taking up the centre-line on local cyclepaths. and looking like they never go anywhere near a trail or single track that might justify those space hogging bars.

I did have a Norco Search for about a year with minimally flared bars, but they still only measured maybe 45mm at the drops.

[warthog1]

Interesting to see the common rejection of those wide flared 'gravel bars' - I can't tell you how much I hate scrupulously clean, wide-barred mtb and gravel bikes and their fastidiously attired riders taking up the centre-line on local cyclepaths. and looking like they never go anywhere near a trail or single track that might justify those space hogging bars.

I did have a Norco Search for about a year with minimally flared bars, but they still only measured maybe 45mm at the drops.

Yep can't do em either. Mine were 46cm wide and I hated them.
New ones are 40 at the hoods and 45 at the drops. Work well.