Test 2016: New off-road racers - cross road bikes, gravel bikes & co. in the TOUR test

Everything used to be simpler - but above all clearer. Road cyclists who couldn't get enough of their hobby even in the cold season switched to either a cross bike or a mountain bike in winter. Or, the third option, they fitted mudguards and lights to a preferably discarded racing bike and continued to train on the road. By April at the latest, the road bike was taken out of the cellar again. Of course, these options are still available to all cyclists today. However, the bicycle industry is now trying to offer models for every niche, no matter how small, that are specially tailored to often very narrow areas of application. The road bike market was comparatively late to catch up with this development. The pioneer in the division into ever smaller sub-categories was the mountain bike, which today distinguishes between a number of subspecies - from the classic hardtail to the downhill bike - with gradations that outsiders can often hardly understand. The situation is not quite as confusing for road racing bikes, where the market is still relatively clear with classic competition bikes, aero and marathon models.

These test results of these off-road racers can be found below as a PDF download:

- Bulls Daily Grinder
- Cannondale Slate Ultegra
- Giant Anyroad
- Open U.P.
- Salsa Warbird Carbon
- Stevens Super Prestige Di2 Disc

THE BOUNDARIES BECOME BLURRED

A similar development has recently been taking place in off-road racing bikes. For a long time, the cross racing bike, which occupies a comparatively small niche in itself, was the measure of all things. Recently, the cross bike has been joined by the so-called gravel bike. Gravel stands for gravel. The origins of this genre lie in the Midwest of the USA, where there are many extensive, little-used gravel roads that would be perfect for racing bikes - if it weren't for the road surface, which is unsuitable for narrow tyres. In terms of the basic idea, gravel bikes are therefore a hybrid between cross-country and marathon bikes. They offer at least the tyre clearance of a cyclocross bike and combine this with a touring and long-distance riding position.

What makes it difficult to differentiate gravel bikes from cross bikes, however, is the fact that not all manufacturers have the same idea of exactly what a gravel bike should be. The US brand Salsa, one of the gravel pioneers, has a very sporty design for its Warbird model, for example. The riding position is just a little more upright, the wheelbase only slightly longer than a typical crosser. On the other hand, there are many cross racing bikes that are not radically sporty. Models such as the Giant TCX or the Specialized Crux, which we have tested over the past two years (TOUR 11/2013 and 11/2014), have rather moderate geometries by cross standards. If you compare the geometry data of these bikes with that of the Warbird, you will only see marginal differences. This makes it difficult to understand why the Warbird should fall into a different bike category.

In any case, the gravel bike has set the market for off-road racing bikes in motion. Manufacturers are suddenly thinking more about the details and areas of use of the bikes. At the same time, the new generic term gives developers the freedom to try out things that would be unthinkable on a classic cross bike. A suspension fork on an off-road bike like the breathtakingly avant-garde Slate from Cannondale? Unthinkable on a cross bike, but a sign of innovation on a gravel bike.

NEW JOY OF EXPERIMENTATION

A similar development could also take place with wheels. For new mountain bikes, 27.5-inch wheels have now completely replaced the classic 26-inch size. 27.5 and 29 inches are currently the most common sizes in the MTB sector. The 27.5 inch wheel size can also be interesting for gravel bikes. This is because a 27.5-inch wheel with a tyre around 40 millimetres wide has almost the same outer diameter as a road bike wheel with a narrow 23-inch tyre. The wider tyres dramatically improve the off-road qualities of the wheels. On the other hand, the road bike look is retained to some extent and - more importantly - the steering behaviour remains the same as on a road bike. Pioneers in gravel bikes with 27.5-inch wheels are also Cannondale with the Slate and the small Swiss brand Open with its exciting U.P. model.

Anyone who fears that gravel bikes will soon face the same chaos in terms of wheel sizes that mountain bikers have experienced in recent years can relax. Thanks to the ongoing trend towards disc brakes and thru-axle systems, it is already possible to switch between 28-inch wheels with narrow tyres and 27.5-inch wheels with wider tyres on some gravel models. The decisive factor is the tyre clearance offered by the frame and fork. We dare to predict that these possibilities will inspire manufacturers to experiment and will result in some exciting bike concepts in the coming years. The only disadvantage that can be recognised so far is that the road bike market will certainly never be as clear-cut as it used to be.

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