Ultimate Gravel vs MTB Test

[@RustyRidesGravel]

This turned out to be a bit of a monster video. I considered doing it as two releases but stuck with the single MEGA VIDEO. I have included bookmarks to help you jump through if it's too much for a single sitting.

[@alexandermajor6467]

Thanks

[@markday1714]

some of the best content on rough road cycling !! Frank is a minor god of aerial shots! thank you for the effort

[@RustyRidesGravel]

Rough Road! I like it. Time to rename the channel!

[@srlang47]

Great video and helped me choose a gravel bike, thanks.

[@br5380]

I’ve a choice of 29FS ‘enduro’, 29HT and 700c gravel - for a lot of the rides you do I’d pick the HT with fast tyres. I used it when I did the Badger last year, camping.

[@stevenmenmuir8117]

The wonderful thing about the Pentlands is the variety, so you can put together a ride that suits whatever bike you're on. Those last descents, Black Hill and the one down to Currie are great fun. If you could only have one bike then a 120mm 29er with a few different tyre options would be best but if you've got two bikes they might as well be quite different in character. I wouldn't like to take an ebike into the wilds as I'd be worried about a motor or battery fail when far from help, bad enough if it's your legs or lungs that pack up.

[@1a2b3c4.]

Great video. That ArcadeX is great for a drop bar bike.

[@chrismcdonald1518]

Love this channel. Inspirational stuff and camera work is top drawer. Cheers Rusty! 👍🏻

[@RustyRidesGravel]

Thank you I am glad you like it 👍

[@churnobley]

I found your channel because of the MTB content and I've really been enjoying the videos and watching you discover mountain biking! Great video, you clearly put a lot of time and effort into making it and its appreciated. Cheers!

[@RustyRidesGravel]

That's great to hear! Thanks for watching! I don't anticipate becoming a Mountain Bike channel but hopefully some of my videos will appeal to you as we go 👍

[@PaulFrost35]

I live in the highlands, and generally find that you would prefer an mtb for the rough downs, but on a 50km loop the rough downs may only be 10% of the distance. When I’ve ridden the same loop on both bikes the gravel always comes out fastest overall and with a lower normalised power. I have a Canyon Exceed carbon hardtail that is not much heavier than my Specialized Diverge. An example is the Burma road loop, the descent from the Coll down to the valley is way more fun and al least twice as fast on the mtb, but all the rest of the loop is perfect gravel bike terrain. I sometimes wonder if a gravel bike with proper suspension fork, dropper post and 45mm tyres would be the ideal. But then I think about all the extra weight you are karting around for the. 70-90% of the time you don’t need it. You just need to plan the route that will maximise the good bits for the bike you are riding. Also, sometimes being under bikes is more fun.

[@RustyRidesGravel]

I agree completely, I also am a fan of a bit of underbiking.

[@greigmackay8465]

For the first 2 days of the Raiders Gravel Event last year I used my 29er Giant XTC carbon hardtail with 120mm forks and fast rolling vittoria tyres. Didn't suffer one puncture and didn't have to worry about how rough it got at any point. But on the tarmac section and flatter fire road sections the gravel bikes pulled away from me as the gearing is too low. I reckon if it had an old school tripple chainset on it. It might have been a lot closer. On the 3rd day of racing I used my carbon gravel bike, with 650b 50mm gravel kings. As I knew that last stage was much faster. It was the correct bike for that stage, but I did pinch puncture that lost me some time. Thankfully a co2 inflated it enough to get to end of the stage. My conclusion would be, if a modern 29er hardtail had higher as well as low gear options with fast rolling tyres. The lines become a lot more blurred when comparing against a gravel bike. Obviously, on tarmac the gravel bike is more aero and less draggy. But offroad, it isn't quite as clear cut as you found out in this video comparing your 2 bikes. Aweosme video! Ridden most of those trials all on full sus bikes and they are superb fun 👍😎

[@RustyRidesGravel]

Great comment. I love to hear people's opinions and experiences with all this. Thank you 👍

[@MahoganysRichest]

Epic video man!

[@RustyRidesGravel]

Did you make it all the way through?! Well done!

[@budycelyn]

all you need now is a hardtail and you could do three bike test, i have gravel bike full sus and a hardtail i spend most of my time on my hardtail, efficient up the climbs and fun down the trails, but can depend on what i'm doing, some steep downhill rough terrain and i go full sus

[@RustyRidesGravel]

N+1!

[@budycelyn]

@@RustyRidesGravel oh yes,, forgot to mention, video was a cracker, thoroughly enjoyed. btw welcome to the dark side (mtb)

[@HughDWallace]

Great comparisons (though I really think a hardtail MTB would give the best of both worlds - but we all need our biases and that is mine!). Gears and tyres make such a difference. My current 'gravel' steed is my old 26" hardtail fitted with fairly slick tyres (1.9") which keep surprising me off road as the only thing that fazes them is wet grass and mud and are pretty competent on road, especially compared to proper knobblies. It is old school so I'm running a triple chainset but this means I have some great low gears for climbing and high enough that I rarely run out of higher gears on the road. It is interesting to see what other people consider fun and not fun. I live for going fast downhill, whether on road or off (though I am not a technical DH MTBer) so even if it is only a relatively small percentage of a given ride it is a high percentage of my fun quota. On unsealed roads I never enjoy being on the drops or hoods going downhill and front suspension makes things so much more controllable (hence faster). I also hate pushing my bike so that takes the fun out of ride straight away. And I have never found it 'not fun' to ride a comfortable bike along a gentle trail and feel no need to sit on a completely stiff frame & get shaken to bits just to make things more interesting! One of the worst rides I ever had was on my old steel MTB with rigid forks; on anything other than tarmac you got shaken to death and the cantilever brakes made stopping a bit of a lottery. Some might consider that fun... I am so envious of you having the Pentlands on your doorstep. I am looking out my window at the hills of Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park, an even larger area of hills that would offer incredible cycling opportunities, if only there were some trails...

[@RustyRidesGravel]

I have tried to cobble something together for that area near you but it really is a struggle!

[@HughDWallace]

@@RustyRidesGravel I'm working on something but the options aren't great.

[@timothyjohntindle1242]

Great video as ever For your Trek MTB : If you fitted something like Ergo RgP5 grips you would have more positions for you hands ( and chopping 100mm off the handlebar width helps too) and re positions you can adjust the seat post as well sometimes just a wee bit changes things for you on a long run. Also if you fit Scwalbe super Sam tyres you get a faster roll on the roads (centre bead) but still plenty of off-road grip

[@RustyRidesGravel]

Great tips thank you 👍

[@vr_gamers8116]

Your best video yet Rusty, I found it funny too, as I've had the same arguments with myself, came from Road and MTB to Gravel and went full circle, I ended up building my own purpose built Hybrid MTB/GRAVEL/ROAD EBIKE, it's a monster on the trails and very fast on Gravel and Road. Great Video Rusty I enjoyed that, ATB... Have Fun

[@RustyRidesGravel]

Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it. I'm not at all skilled enough to build my own bike, that's another level I feel.

[@vr_gamers8116]

@@RustyRidesGravel All that matters is you're skilled on the bike and I'm glad you've got more options to enjoy your rides now. Building bikes and repairing them is a hobby all on it's own. Take care

[@philipbrocklehurst3745]

Brave taking the gravel bike down poets glen! Properly chunky in that last bit before you get to the road. Out of interest what tyres are you running on the gravel bike? Feel like my 40mm conti terra speeds aren't that confidence inspiring even on smoother stuff like the maidens cleugh or green cleugh descents so tend to stick to my trail bike for those routes.

[@RustyRidesGravel]

I have 40mm Bontrager tyres. They are pretty good over the mixed terrain. I would love slightly wider but the frame won't take anything greater at 700 wheel size.

[@1-less-car]

My respectful contribution would be to suggest you look at the cassette/derailleur of your gravel bike for a lower option. Also that perhaps your mtb is too small. Your knees and wrists align - which suggests you need a 70/80 stem... Good riding!

[@ΑΣΔΦΓΗΞΚΛ]

Gravel bike, you say? I have used a Dawes hybrid with 700x38c marathon plus tyres for years...

[@michaelsinclair8279]

Funnily enough I'd watched a couple of your earlier videos up on the Pentlands and was going to ask how much more fun you were having or going to have up there on the new bike.... Hello Frank, glad you are all better now!!

[@RustyRidesGravel]

I have one more ride i want to do on the mtb in the pentlands that I was never going to do on the gravel bike and then I think I have done everything up there. Overall, it's still the gravel bike for me in these hills I think. But there are some excellent mtb trails dotted about.

[@stevenparker4378]

Another great video. You need to get out and do some proper Mountain bike trails to showcase the trek. I was wondering why you went for a Trail bike and not an XC bike considering that the XC would be more efficient in the climbs, gravel and the smooth stuff, but still capable of handling everything you've thrown at the trek so far? Are you planning on hitting anything a bit more gnarly like a bike park or trail centre visit, or maybe even Innerleithen or the golfie 👀

[@RustyRidesGravel]

I will definitely be doing trail centres but probably not for the channel. That will confuse the algorithm if I start become a real mountain biker! 😆

[@struanmills5710]

Great and engaging content once again Rusty. 100% agree about having two bikes for Scottish gravel. Would love to add an mtb into my stable. Must admit find it a bit of a minefield in terms of choosing the right type of mtb. XC or trail bike ? Hard tail or full sus? How did you make your choice?

[@RustyRidesGravel]

I totally get the difficulty in deciding. I went full sus so I could go out with my brother as he likes the downhill. Plus it was red! Not much went in other than that really ...

[@andymelville7807]

I think if you had better gearing on the gravel bike with tubeless tyres allowing 20 psi you’d get up that climb, think I need to come through and try it. I tend to enjoy the challenge of coming down the rough section on the gravel bike as opposed to just flying down same section of my full suspension bike but that just me 😊 great video Rusty keep up the good work, although I now need to come through and do those trails again now that I have seen them on screen 😂

[@SwampyDuckRidesAgain3636]

Well done on that epic and all that editing lol. So I do have a hard tail but now never ride it probably due to the memories of being out with the roadies and slogging up a ten mile hill and them taking bets on how much slower I’d be lol. Fairly showed them on the decent lol. That the thing with an MTB it’s crap climbing but you can thrash it going down anything and that extra weight helps too. I do prefer my gravel bike and yes I do have to sometimes get off and push on the rootie and rocky bits and it’s not the first time I’ve had a rock strike trying and the bike has stopped and I haven’t and ended up top of the top tube ouch. I have been riding on pretty slick tyres though and have kept the same 47’s but put something far chunkier that will hopefully cope a bit better with mud rock and roots. I do think tyre selection and inflation can also make a big difference and you can change your gears. What are you using on the Bianchi? I also think it depends on how determined you are to cycle everything and I do think that’s part of the fun with a gravel bike that sometimes you can’t. I do think if I were to go MTB again it would e-mtb for the slogging up the hills because even with all those gears it is a tad boring. Now I need you to test out a fat bike and and let me know what you think lol. I can see you sliding into being a Mountain Biker now 😉

[@RustyRidesGravel]

I'm waay too chicken to be a real mountain biker!

[@SwampyDuckRidesAgain3636]

@@RustyRidesGravel 🤣🤣🤣

[@br5380]

The MTB looks a bit short (reach) for you, what year is the Trek?

[@RustyRidesGravel]

It's from 2022/23 medium frame. Was debating the medium-large frame but went smaller as it felt better 🤷

[@hughharvey7027]

Very cool

[@dubmensia8339]

You've got it all wrong here, MTBs go up hill on the back of a trailer, then go down hill at silly fast speeds 😜😂👍

[@RustyRidesGravel]

Ah so that's how it's done!!